Dracula

Chapter 13

She walked toward him, looking as pure and beautiful as she had in life.

She said, “Come, Arthur. Leave those people and come to me. I long to embrace you. Come, let us rest together. My husband, come to me, too—”

Even in his dazed and bewildered state, Jack could still detect a sinister glint in Lucy's sweet voice, a sound somewhat like the shattering of a glass...

In a daze, Arthur began to walk towards her, opening his arms in response to her request.

He choked out, "Lucy..."

Just like last time, Howin immediately jumped between the two, this time waving a cross.

Lucy hissed, made faces, and backed away from the cross extended towards her. Jack had never seen such a grotesque face; it was as if seeing it would kill him instantly.

Holding the cross aloft, his gaze never leaving the vampire, Haoxin asked Arthur, "My friend, answer me now! Should I continue with my work?"

Arthur groaned, kneeling down and burying his face in his hands. "Hausin, do it." His voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

The cross seemed to emanate some invisible power, and the old professor used it to force the snarling woman to retreat. Suddenly, she leaped into the air with a terrifying, inhuman motion, returning to the coffin. In the moment before disappearing, she spat blood at Howsing.

Several minutes have passed since Jonathan Hack left his newlywed wife on the streets of London.

At first, Mina was very worried about her husband's safety. Now, although she was still worried, she was no longer so desperate. In the first few minutes after he left, she went through his notebook—his notes from his trip to Thursovnia—focusing especially on the later entries, including Jonathan's last days at Dracula's Castle. She couldn't tell whether the terrifying events recorded in the notebook were real or just her husband's hallucinations in his daze.

As Mina calmly pondered the question, she suddenly remembered what her husband had said to her before jumping off the carriage. Those words kept replaying in Mina's memory, each time more vivid, more terrifying, and more suggestive—something she had refused to confront until now. Jonathan said, "It's him. The Earl. I saw him. He's younger."

Time ticked by, and Jonathan still hadn't returned, growing Mina's anxiety ever-increasing. She frequently looked up from her dreadful notebook, gazing at the crowds moving through the London fog outside the window. Each time she looked out, searching for her husband, she wondered if she should go with him; but what if she left the carriage and Jonathan returned unable to find her…

Hearing someone at the other side of the carriage door, she immediately turned around with a sigh of relief. "Jonathan?"

But the door opened to the outside, and facing her was not her husband, but her mysterious lover, the prince.

Mina instinctively backed away, pleading, "No—I beg you. I must see you. I'm going crazy without you—"

Mina was speechless.

He half-climbed into the car and reached out his hands to her.

She weakly tried to break free. "Please—you have no right—my husband—"

“Mina”—she seemed to hear him whisper another name—“I crossed mountains and seas, and it took me a long time to find you. Can you imagine how I felt about you? It was a long, desperate, and endless search. Until a miracle happened.”

At that very moment, in the tomb of the Wertner family, Monsing was carefully placing a set of scalpels and various instruments on a marble slab. His tools included a two-foot-long, sharpened wooden stake, the tip of which had been charred over a fire; and a heavy iron hammer, usually used to break large chunks of coal.

The woman in the coffin now had her eyes closed, was unconscious, or in a coma. Her sharp teeth and bloodstained mouth made the four men present think she was nothing more than a figment of Lucy's nightmares.

Even Arthur's expression was no longer as gentle as before when he looked at her. He asked Howin in a voice imbued with a newfound power, "Is this truly Lucy's body? Or is it the devil in disguise?"

The old professor muttered, "It is her body—but not entirely. You'll see her true appearance in a moment."

After all the equipment was arranged, the old professor spoke again: "Before we begin, let me make this clear. These changes in the dead are accompanied by a curse of immortality. Ordinary methods cannot kill them, but if they want to live, they must continue to harm people. And those who are harmed will themselves become these immortal monsters. Thus, this evil circle continues to expand, like ripples spreading when a pebble is thrown into water."

"This sad, lovely woman's career as a vampire has only just begun. The children she has sucked blood from are not in too bad a state yet"—at this point, everyone couldn't help but look at the unconscious child that Jack was holding in her arms—"but if she continues to live on immortality, then her control over them will only grow stronger and stronger."

"However, if she really dies, then the small holes in the children's throats will disappear, and they will forget everything that happened and return to their old lives."

The old professor's voice grew increasingly agitated. "But the most fortunate thing is that only after this immortal demon is truly killed can the soul of our beloved, unfortunate girl be freed, and only then can she be with the other angels. So, we can have one hand ready to strike."

Hausin stopped speaking and looked at his companions. "Tell me, is there such a hand between us?"

Every eye turned toward Arthur.

Arthur realized he was facing the terror of being plundered—though he still didn't fully understand it—but he was persuaded.

He said to Hausin, "I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Tell me what to do."

Hausin's instructions were concise and professional. "Hold this stake in your left hand, point the tip toward your heart, and hold the hammer in your right hand. When we begin to pray for the dead, strike it down hard—in the name of God!"

Although Arthur was dazed and confused, he took the tools the professor handed him—a wooden stake in his left hand and a hammer in his right.

"Just keep going!" the old professor assured him, "and everything will be fine in no time!"

Dracula still had one foot on the steps, with half his body still inside the carriage. At that moment, Mina had given up on the futile struggle against her emotions.

Her prince said to her, "I have lost you once, and I will not lose you again."

Mina tried to think of Jonathan, but it was no use. She whispered, "I can't fight my feelings anymore..."

...Arthur aimed the tip of the long wooden stake at Lucy's bare, white breasts and raised the clock.

Hammer down hard.

—In London, at that very moment, Mina saw with horror that her lover's eyes widened. Her prince stumbled back out of the carriage, clutching his chest as if he had just suffered a fatal blow. He let out a hoarse scream: "They've rejected us!"

—In the tomb, Lucy's eyes snapped open from the shock of real death, and she screamed.

—In London, Mina could only stare in disbelief as the unsteady, insane man retreated from her and disappeared into the crowd, calling out her name helplessly—

—Hossing lived up to his reputation as a surgeon, using a large scalpel with razor-sharp blades to sever Lucy's head before she could utter a sound. The hand that set her free would be blessed by her—a hand she herself would choose, if she had a choice, to let Dracula disappear into the crowds of London.

In unprecedented despair and horror, Mina leaned out of the carriage window. "Jonathan!" she screamed, "Jonathan!"

Suddenly, the other side door of the carriage was pulled open again. This time, it was Huck who appeared, his hair disheveled, his body covered in bruises, and his hat gone. He rushed into the carriage and embraced his wife.

The four people in the tomb were all exhausted, and they silently huddled together beside the still-open coffin.

Inside the coffin, Lucy lay peacefully. Howin had sewn her head back into its natural position; and he had taken a saw from his tool bag and sawed off the wooden stake protruding from her heart, the tip of which was deliberately left inside Lucy's heart.

The four men stared at Lucy's incredibly sweet and innocent face with a mixture of shame and astonishment. In their most idealized memories, this was how they remembered Lucy in life.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, an exhausted Howin said a few words to Arthur: "You can kiss her now."

Chapter Fourteen

Two days have passed since Arthur Honw, with his strong right hand gripping a coal hammer, drove a sharp wooden stake into Lucy Wetner's heart, and then Howsing used a scalpel to cut off Lucy's head.

Today, the old professor was using a different knife, though roughly the same size. He was skillfully cutting a piece of roast beef in the private dining room of his Berkeley Hotel in London to entertain his two new friends.

The dinner that Howsing was hosting was for the newlyweds, Jonathan and Mina. Prior to this, Howsing had taken the opportunity to read Jonathan Hack's accounts of his trip to Eastern Europe, as well as Mina's diary entries from the same period. In fact, both notebooks were now on the table, which was covered with a tablecloth; the old professor had already asked the two authors many questions about their contents, and he still had many questions to ask.

At this moment, Howsin was enjoying the feast while discussing what he had learned from the two notebooks.

“Mr. Huck, that’s an incredible story.” He paused while chewing and swallowing. “But though it’s horrible, I have no doubt about its truth—I swear on my life. Come on, eat! Eat. How about another potato? To celebrate your discovery.”

The old professor chewed his food, turned to look at Mina, his eyes sparkling with delight at the delicious food and his discovery.

"And you, dear Mina, insist that I read your diary too! Ah, she gives me hope; there are still good women in this world who can bring joy to life. Dear Mina, you have the mind of a clever man and the heart of a woman."

Mina fiddled with the food on her plate, a fierce internal struggle preventing her from speaking. She forced a smile at the professor's praise.

Hao Xin chuckled, then stopped and intentionally or unintentionally licked the red beef juice off his fingers, before suddenly remembering that he should take a napkin.

His bright eyes looked at Jonathan. "As a doctor, I have to ask you a question."

"Then ask."

"During your intimacy with those three witches, did you taste their blood?"

Huck lowered his eyes in surprise, but shook his head vigorously without hesitation. "No."

Howin was clearly relieved. "So your blood wasn't infected by the disease that destroyed Lucy."

His words seemed to have relieved Huck of a great weight. In an instant, he seemed like a different person. He picked up his cane, preparing to get up, but then sat down again, leaning forward to engage in a sincere discussion.

"Doctor, are you sure?"

Haoxin nodded emphatically. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have said that."

Huck slammed his hand on the table, rattling the cutlery. "Thank God! I've been doubting everything, including myself—especially myself, I was almost scared out of my wits. You've healed me."

The old professor murmured a few words of comfort and nodded with satisfaction. Then, his eyes, beneath his thick eyebrows, turned to Mina once more.

"And you, my dear Mina, are you better now?"

She tried to hide the fact that the question made her extremely uncomfortable. "What illness, doctor?"

Howsin's voice was low and steady, without any hint of accusation. "Regardless of what happened in those carefully torn pages of your diary."

Mina stared at the old professor, oblivious to everyone else; her husband, still delighted with his condition, seemed not to have heard her question or grasped the doctor's hint.

Mina remained silent. For a moment, Howsin seemed to have put the question aside. Then, like a magician, he produced an ancient gold coin from somewhere and tossed it onto the white tablecloth in front of Mina.

When Mina looked up from the gold coin and stared at him, the old professor calmly told her, "This is what your husband gave me. He found it, and there are many more—over there."

The gold coin lay face up on the white tablecloth, amidst oil stains and breadcrumbs. Mina seemed unable to tear her gaze from the fierce profile of the young ruler on the obverse. In fact, she was horrified and incredulous to discover that she recognized the man.

After carefully observing her reaction, Haoxin said, "This is the ancient Prince Dracula himself. He died four hundred years ago—but no one has ever found his body."

As Mina stared at the copper coin again, Haoxin surprised her by placing a piece of meat on her plate; the meat was still raw, with blood still dripping from the center.

The old professor's gaze met hers, clearly trying to discover something. He urged her, "You eat like a bird. Eat up. Have a good meal! You'll need strength for the dark days ahead."

Mina gazed at her husband. Jonathan was already chewing his meat with relish; he hadn't been seen so energetic since they arrived in Budapest, clearly roused by the professor's good news. He met his wife's gaze, smiled slightly, and extended his hand to her. After an almost imperceptible moment of hesitation, Mina took his hand.

She still held Jonathan's hand, then turned to Howing and asked, "Doctor, tell me, how did Lucy die? I mean—I want to know what happened in the grave several days after her death certificate was signed. I know the terrible truth now—Dr. Seaworth told me some things—but not the details. She was my closest friend, yet no one has told me anything in detail. Did she die painfully?"

Howin replied ruthlessly, “Yes, it was certainly painful at first. But she found peace after we cut off her head and drove a stake into her heart.”

Mina gasped in surprise.

This was the first time Jonathan Hack had heard the horrific details of Lucy's release. He sat up again, interrupting in a trembling voice, "Enough, Doctor."

The old professor looked at him with pity, his expression softening considerably. "Perhaps, that's enough for now. You both need to understand why we must find this Dark Prince and treat him the same way. Perhaps you also understand why time is so pressing."

Jonathan slumped back down, his face and voice hardening. “Luckily, I know where that beast sleeps. In one of the London properties I helped him buy—most likely Caffi Manor.”

“Yes, I found that in your notes too. If this were at Kafi Manor, this Dark Lord would be Jack Shiver’s neighbor!”

Impulsively, Hao Xin pushed aside all the cups, plates, and bottles, reached across the table, and took the hands of the other two, forming a trio.

He said, "We must find that immortal count, cut off his head, and drive a stake into his heart so that we can save the world."

Mina's face turned pale, but she remained silent. Haussin noticed her reaction; her husband, however, did not.

After the handshake, Hack, full of energy, produced some documents.

He said, “We all know that exactly fifty crates were unloaded from the Demeter, and I have traced these mud-filled wooden crates to nine other properties owned by the Earl of Dracula in other parts of London. We—or someone—must go to those houses and destroy all the crates that were there.”

The old professor patted his pockets for his cigar box and nodded, saying, "Dear Quincy Jack and Arthur are still on our side. That's fine."

"But most of these wooden crates—more than thirty—were sent to the Caffy Estate. I guess they're still there."

Howsin nodded again. "So we have to get there. The sooner the better... Oh, by the way, there's an interesting story in tonight's evening paper."

BMW Vanguard, October 3rd: The Escaped Wolf – A Reporter's Perilous Encounter with the Zoo Keeper. After numerous inquiries and almost equally numerous refusals, I managed to find the keeper of the wolf enclosure. Thomas Bidde lives in a wooden house behind the Great East section of the zoo. When I found him, he was sitting down drinking tea.

After the tea set was cleared away, he lit his pipe and said, “Sir, now you can ask me the questions you want to ask. I know why you came here; it’s because of the escaped wolf.”