Chapter 6
Letter
From Count Vlad Dracula
To Sir Stephen Sheridan
30th of June, 1819
My dearest friend,
It is my task to explain to you the unfortunate series of events that has befallen us. Your friend, Earl Wright, is dead. As is his family, save for his beloved daughter, Lady Glynis. Though his death has complicated matters, it was just. He was a most ungrateful guest and caused me great distress.
It is good that we decided to keep their visit secret from the world. Should anyone have known their destination, we may have become embroiled in a distressing investigation.
I have much to consider now that my plans have been altered. I still intend to move to England with my Bride, Glynis, but now, instead of joining my in-laws, I must plan another route to enter the English high society.
We shall meet soon.
Your Friend,
Dracula
The Journal of Lady Glynis Wright
15th of August, 1819
It is becoming more difficult to write in my journal without detection. The others seek me out and interrupt me at the most inopportune times. I must admit writing down all that has happened to me is difficult. I may not be the same English girl who arrived at the castle, but I am at times overwhelmed with emotion. Upon writing of my rape and their first feast upon me, I found myself filled with rage and hid from them for three days. When I was finally found, I was beaten soundly, but it was a strange release. It is all the more reason to hate him.
I shall now recount the events that occurred after that terrible night in June.
Bright, harsh glaring sunlight pressed against my eyelids and forced me from my slumber. With my head throbbing painfully and my bruised body protesting every movement, I struggled to sit up in the giant bed.
“Oh, God,” I exclaimed in horror.
My nightgown and the bed were covered in dark brown stains of my blood. My body was sticky with dried blood and I whimpered as my hand felt the jagged wound cutting across the side of my neck. I started to crawl across the bed, and as my hands sank into the mattress, small pools of blood welled up beneath them.
“Oh, God, oh, God.”
Slowly, I lowered my legs over the edge of the bed. My thighs felt as if they were rubbed raw and my sex was a throbbing wound. Clutching my hands tightly in my lap, I tried to fight the pain that tore through my abdomen and neck. How could I lose so much blood and still be alive? My hair was caked with dried blood and plastered to my breasts. As I pulled my curls free from my body, I saw how pale my body was and cried out in fear.
I looked dead!
I began to scream long shrill screams, my whole body trembling. Within minutes, two young gypsy women rushed in, their dark eyes staring at me with fear. They took hold of my arms and pulled me from the bed. My legs had no strength in them, and I fell to the floor in an anguished heap of flesh.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” I begged.
The two women spoke in a strange tongue, then one of them disappeared out the door. The second woman crouched down beside me. A strange smile came over her face as she began to speak to me in her exotic tongue.
“I don’t understand.”
She pointed to one of my hands.
I looked down to see a ring on my finger that I had never seen before. It was gold with a dark, blood red ruby. The sight of it filled me with such disgust that I ripped it from my finger and flung it away. The gypsy rushed over to the sparkling ring and picked it up. Smiling, she tucked it into her blouse.
A towering swarthy giant of a man entered the room and moved toward me.
“No, no! Please, let me be! Go away! Go away!”
He plucked me up off the floor and I screamed in agony. Carrying me in his large hairy arms, the man took me to the room where I had been bathed the night before. Again, I was set down in the water of the large bath and the gypsy women gathered around me. The water was warmer this morning and soothing to my skin. My clothes had to be peeled form my body and the fabric made a sickening sound as it was torn free from my flesh. I did not want strange hands to touch me after my violation, but I was too weak to fight.
Soon the water was brownish red and my far too pale skin was scrubbed clean. The giant pulled my naked body out of the water and I was frightfully embarrassed. He set me down in a chair and the gypsy women dressed me in a soft white gown. They were unusually timid and gentle with me. I noticed how they exchanged looks and I sensed fear in them. Once I was properly dressed, they sat me in front of a window.
It was painful to move. Every movement made sharp pains explode through my abdomen and legs. Once I was seated for a few minutes, the pain subsided enough that I felt I could unclench my hands and raise my chin.
A gypsy woman began to brush out my long damp hair as the sunlight poured through the window and warmed my flesh. I stared out over the lush valley below the castle. It was so beautiful it made tears come to my eyes. Somewhere, nestled in the great lovely forest was the village where my family would have found shelter.
My family!
I could not think of them without the pain in my heart being so great I could barely stand it. Where was Father now? I knew in my heart he was dead, but I wished desperately that he had somehow escaped with Mother and May. Oh, and my mother… To see her overcome with fear last night had been too horrible to endure. And sweet dear May, where was she? Had she suffered as I had last night at the hands of the Prince and his Brides? I could not bear the thought. May had never secretly kissed a boy in the closet of her parent’s home or had the dreams of an illicit affair with Lord Byron. My friend, Mona, had told me that sex was painful after she had married, but surely this was the extreme. I felt as through I had been ripped apart. I could not even begin to comprehend how May could survive a similar attack.
Ilona, the old gypsy woman, entered the room, her craggy face staring at me disapprovingly.
“Time to eat, little girl,” she said in thick English.
“Please, tell me, where is my family? Are they safe? Can I see them?”
Ilona ignored my queries and motioned to the gypsy girls. “Help her.”
I was forced up out of the chair and made to walk between them. I shuddered with each step. They led me down long narrow corridors and down the steep staircase to the main hall below. Tears fell down my cheeks throughout the journey. I strained to see into every room we passed, but I never caught a glimpse of my family.
They led me through the doors into the dining room.
On the table a full meal was laid out. The food looked and smelled so delicious; I actually felt hunger until my gaze was drawn across the table.
“No! No! No!” I fell to the floor. “Father! Father! Oh, God, Father! No!”
At the foot of the table, impaled on a huge golden ten-foot stake, was my beloved father. His face was frozen in a scream of terror and pain, his eyes bulging out, his mouth stretched wide in his death cry. His skin was a ghastly shade of blue and his body seemed shrunken, a mere husk of the man he had been.
“Take him down from there! Oh, please, take him down! It is hurting him!”
I was incoherent, overcome with grief and horror. I ripped at my hair with my hands as I rocked on the floor.
“It cannot hurt him. He is dead,” Ilona said.
“No! No! Please! Please!”
Ilona walked slowly down to the end of the table and gestured to a gold goblet on the table. “The Prince has offered you a choice. Would you like this or the meal we prepared for you?
I could not take my eyes from the form of my father hanging on that stake. I could not even begin to understand Ilona’s words.
Ilona picked up the goblet from the table. Approaching me, she offered it me. “Drink this. Restore the life that was taken from you.”
I stared into the goblet and the dark, thick liquid within.
Blood!
I gagged and slapped it out of her hand. It spilled all over her gown, but the gypsy did not flinch.
“I see you are strong. Your rebirth will not be tonight, but it will be soon. You will fight it. I see it. You will not go peacefully into the grave to rise once more.” Ilona took a deep breath, then gestured to several men. “Take her to her sister as the Master ordered.”
“May! Where is she?”
This time I tried to walk as they led me up a series of staircases and down a long corridor before a door was opened for me. I was gruffly pushed into the room and the door slammed shut behind me.
“May! Where are you?”
“Glynis!” May crawled out from behind one of the huge, long trunks that were stored in the small room. “Oh, Glynis!”
I embraced her and tried hard not to cry out in pain as my slender little sister clung to me. I rocked her gently in my arms and kissed her forehead. Her pale face was smudged with dirt, and her fair hair was a tangled mess. She had been weeping, her eyes swollen.
“Oh, Glynis, I was so scared! After they brought us into the horrible place, I fainted. I don’t know where father and mother are! I woke up here alone! I am so frightened.”
“I’m here now, May,” I said. I was so relieved that May had not endured the horror I had. “I am here now and I am going to try and protect you.” I could not bear to tell her what I had seen in the dining room. I simply could not.
“I hate that horrible Prince! He’s evil, Glynis! Truly evil!”
Slowly, the two of us sank to the floor and held each other tightly. We were both crying, trying in vain to comfort each other.
After a long while, we sank into silence as we huddled together. Sleep came to us, and we both fell into light, fitful slumber.
I wakened abruptly, and my movement drew May from her dreams.
A soft scraping noise came from one of the trunks.
“What is that?” I whispered.
“I think there are rats in those chests. I hear that noise every once in awhile.” May clung to me, her frail body shivering.
I stared at the trunks, my fear resurfacing, then growing steadily. Determinedly, I stood. I moved to the closest one.
“There are three trunks,” I murmured.
“Please, Glynis, the rat might bite you! It’s so dark in here I cannot even see you!”
I looked sharply at May. I could see her clearly. The room was dark, but not so that I could not see everything around me. Then I realized that no light radiated from a candle or lamp. Barely a sliver of light seeped under the door.
“Please, Glynis. Come back. Don’t stir up the rat. It may come after us.”
“Please, May, be quiet,” I said a little too sharply. My hands were shaking. “You might wake them.”
“Who, Glynis? The rats?”
I grabbed hold of the edge of the lid of the trunk I was standing next to and took a deep breath. With all my strength, I slowly lifted it upwards. A cool breeze brushed against my face, and a faint, very sweet fragrance drifted up to me. Peering into the darkness within, I saw what secrets the trunks held.
“Is it a rat?”
I could see quite clearly that it was not. Instead, I was gazing upon the blond vampire. Her sapphire eyes were closed in slumber, her face smooth and serene. The dark red lips were slightly parted, the sharp teeth barely showing. Long slender hands were folded over her breasts, a ruby ring, identical to the one I had thrown away, sparkled in the darkness. The thick, rich golden curls filled the coffin, flowing over the voluptuous body and swirling around waist. I let go of the lid, and it slammed shut.
“Glynis? Glynis, what is it?”
Turning sharply, my body screaming in pain, I said, “We must be free of this place now.”
“Glynis, what is in the trunk?” May's voice rose in pitch.
Stumbling across the floor, I looked about me desperate for anything I could use to pry open the door.
“Glynis, please answer me! I am so afraid,” May insisted, her voice trembling. “Please.”
“Get close to the door, May,” I ordered.
“You are scaring me!”
“May, please, get close to the door!”