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Elena rose on her knees, facing Alice, her hair tangled and blood smeared around her
mouth. Seeing the cross, she uttered a horrible shriek; a mix of frustration and pure terror.
The transformation of her face was ghastly. The sweet softness of her expression
contorted to demonic white fury, reminding me starkly, horrifically of what I had done,
the nature of the thing I had allowed into my bed - into my wife's place! I groaned, but
could not move.
Elena confronted Alice, her face writhing. But the power of the cross was too much
and she began slowly to retreat from it, sliding off the far edge of the bed and backing up
to the wall - the gap in between being no more than four feet wide. Now I saw that Alice
had in her left hand the wooden stake that earlier she'd prevented me from using!
Elena was uttering terrible snarls that would have given the bravest man pause, yet
Alice seemed aflame with wrath and courage. Although the bed stood between them, she
would not be hindered. Indeed, I would not have believed a woman of her size and years
could move with such agility -for Alice simply went leaping and running straight across
the bed, near crushing my legs as she passed.
As she alighted on the other side, Alice dropped the cross, took the stake in both
hands, and ran it through Elena's breast. Blood surged out, staining both their
nightdresses. I was too late to look away; would dial I had, for now that horrible sight is
with me for ever! The vampire uttered a hideous scream, not loud, more a sort of
anguished expiry of breath; then she simply froze where she stood, hands gripping the
shaft that protruded from her body. All malevolence passed from her face, which became
smooth and peaceful. Her eyes fell shut. She was dead; upright, pinned, but dead.
Alice stepped back and sat heavily on the bed, as if shaken by what she had done. I
began to tremble violently in shock and a tumult of feelings I could not comprehend.
Elena, poor Elena!
I don't recall what Alice and I said to each other; I think we were both too shocked to
speak. In the silence I heard, from the part of the house that forms the asylum, Dr
Seward's patients shouting and howling as eerily as wolves - as if they understood more
than the sane ever could.
Then Alice roused herself and turned at once to practical matters, as is her sensible
nature. Now there could be no summoning of doctor or undertaker. We couldn't leave the
body of Elena in the house, especially since Dr Seward was not present to write a
certificate of death. So Alice and I had no choice but to carry the body back to Carfax.
Indeed, Alice did the greater part of this grisly work, for I was faint, ennervated, and
barely in my right mind. Her courage, I must note not least for her husband's
appreciation, was astonishing! She seemed a veritable Amazon, quailing not once as she
hefted the corpse and bore it across the asylum grounds and into those of Carfax. The
Count left the gates unfastened when he fled. How gloomy and ill-favoured the night
seemed, the abbey so deathly quiet among the gnarled trees and deep dark ponds. But the
dogs, at least, did not trouble us. They have deserted, now their master is not there to feed
them.
We brought poor Elena to the crypt, laid her in a coffin, and pushed garlic into her
mouth. I could not bear to do more; I mean, to behead her, nor to suggest that Alice did
so. We said a prayer. Looking down upon Elena's form now rent by the stake, the hideous
blood stain beneath the sweet repose of her face, mad grief overcame me at last. I
collapsed, weeping; I remember little more, but I know that Alice -good, brave soul! -
somehow got me home and helped me to bed. There she gave me a draught which
restored me somewhat.
She said, 'Forgive me, Jonathan, for keeping you from an action that might have
prevented this! I was too much a sceptic. I believed all my husband and Van Helsing's
stories as gospel, yet when it came to the reality, I could not accept it. It seemed wrong to
violate a corpse. I don't know why I woke tonight; the inmates were restless and there
were strange sounds, strange cold breezes sighing round me, and such an odd glow, as if
there were spirits in the room. And you know I am not a fanciful woman! So I got up and
looked in Elena's room. I had to unlock it - but the body was gone! Then I heard you give
such an anguished cry. I acted by instinct on what Van Helsing told me, that the Undead
abhor the sign of the cross, and I armed myself with the stake. When I saw that creature
upon you, I did what I knew must be done to save you and put that poor creature from its
evil misery. Oh, forgive me for ever doubting you!'
26 November
So, Elena is at rest. Alice Seward, like a fiery angel at the gates of Eden, has delivered
us. I should be grateful for it, yet I cannot stop thinking of Elena's dark hair brushing me
and her sweet voice whispering . . .
Each day, Quincey asks, 'Papa, where is Elena?' Not, 'Where is Mama?' Once he said
another strange thing. The tall man was not cruel to me. But he used to give me a bitter
medicine to drink. I did not like it.'
Dear God, was Dracula trying to poison Quincey? I can't see how, for the boy is the
healthiest I have ever seen him. He appears to have suffered no ill-effects from his
imprisonment, and there are no signs of the vampire upon him. Yet whenever he is not
engaged in some boyish activity, he will always sit looking fixedly out of a window, as if
willing Elena to come back.
Now when I think of Mina, I know that I have forgiven her at last. How arrogant I was
to consider my dear wife in any way stained or unacceptable to me! More than forgiven,
for I am in no position to withhold or dispense absolution. If she has fallen then so have I,
and in just the same way, and although convention teaches that it is worse for her than for
me, I cannot in my soul believe that. In God's eyes our sins are identical. I understand
her. So as we are both sinners, we can surely live together in tenderness, where before
there was only condemnation and distrust?
I have given up trying to write with my leaden right hand and am learning to use my
left - the feminine, intuitive side, as Van Helsing would have it. Dear Mina, shall I ever
see you again - or has understanding come too late? I shall tell her all of this, if God will
only grant me the chance! So far from deigning to bestow my compassion upon her, I
shall only offer myself up contritely to receive hers.
So here I sit alone in the drawing room, thinking constantly of Mina and praying for
her safe deliverance. Yet when my thoughts stray, as often they do, Elena's image haunts
me, the demure companion, the wild, blood-dappled temptress; and her image becomes
mixed up with Mina's, so that I cannot tell them apart; and often I start up from writing or
reflection, feeling as vividly as life Elena's soft voice in my ear and her cool gentle hand
upon my arm.
LETTER, ABRAHAM VAN HELSING TO JONATHAN HARKER
28 November; Vienna
My dear Jonathan,
News at last. We discovered, through much painstaking investigation, that
Dracula has this time chanced the train across Europe - so much more swiftly to
reach his destination! Loaded on to the Vienna-Buda-Pesth train has been one [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]