Дракула / Dracula

What is he? I feel the dread of this horrible place; I am in fear – in awful fear – and there is no escape for me.

15 May. – The Count went out in his lizard fashion[49] again. He moved downwards and vanished into some hole or window. When his head had disappeared, I decided to use the opportunity to explore the castle. I knew he had left the castle now. I went back to the room and took a lamp. Then I tried all the doors. They were all locked, as I had expected, and the locks were comparatively new. I went down the stone stairs to the hall where I had entered originally.

I went on to make a thorough examination of the various stairs and passages, and to try the doors that opened from them. One or two small rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in them except old furniture, dusty and moth-eaten.[50] At last, however, I found one door at the top of the stairway. I tried it and found that it was not really locked. So I entered.

The castle was built on the corner of a great rock, and great windows were placed here. This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in the past.

16 May, morning. – When I had written in my diary and had put the book and the pen in my pocket I felt sleepy. The Count’s warning came into my mind, but it was a pleasure to disobey it.

I determined not to return tonight to my rooms, but to sleep here. I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner. I suppose I fell asleep; I hope so, but I fear I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep.

I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged since I came into it. In the moonlight opposite me were three young ladies. Though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes. The other was fair, with wavy golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls. They whispered together, and then they all three laughed – such a silvery, musical laugh. The fair girl shook her head, and the other two urged her on.[51] One said, “Go on! You are first, and we shall follow. Just begin!”

The other added, “He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.[52]” I lay quiet, looking out under my eyelashes. The fair girl bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me, simply gloating. Scarlet lips, the red tongue, white sharp teeth. Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below my mouth and chin and was ready to fasten on my throat. Her tongue licked her teeth and lips, and I could feel the hot breath on my neck. I felt the soft touch of the lips on the skin of my throat, and two sharp teeth touched and paused there. I closed my eyes and waited.

But at that moment, another sensation came to me. The Count arrived, in a storm of fury. My eyes opened; he grasped the slender neck of the fair woman and with giant’s power drew it back.[53] The blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champed with rage. But the Count! The red light in his eyes was lurid, his face was deathly pale. He said, “How dare you touch him?![54] How dare you cast eyes on him?! Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me!”

The fair girl tried to answer, “You never loved; you never love!”

The Count turned, and said in a soft whisper, “Yes, I too can love; you can tell it from the past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I finish with him you will kiss him. Now go! Go! I must awaken him.”

“We have nothing tonight?” said one of them, with a low laugh. She pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor. For answer he nodded his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a child. The women disappeared with the dreadful bag. There was no door near them, they simply faded into the rays of the moonlight and passed out through the window.

Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious.[55]

I awoke in my own bed. I think the Count carried me here. This room is now a sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were – who are – waiting to suck my blood.

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