Dracula / Дракула

But if you are not careful, then…” He finished his speech with the movement of his hands as if he were washing them. I quite understood. I only doubted that any dream could be more terrible than the unnatural, horrible net of gloom and mystery which was closing around me.

Later. I think that I will not fear to sleep in any place where he is not. I have put the crucifix over the head of my bed – I think that my rest is thus freer from dreams.

When he left me I went to my room. But in a little while I came out and went up the stone stair to where I could look out towards the South. I wanted some fresh air. I looked out over the beautiful view in soft yellow moonlight. This beauty cheered me; there was peace and comfort in the nihgt air. I leaned from the window and suddenly saw that something was moving on a storey below me. I drew a little back from the window and looked carefully out.

As I watched, the Count emerged from the window and began to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful precipice, face down, and his cloak was spreading out around him like great wings. His fingers and toes grasped at the corners of the stones, and he moved quickly just as a lizard moves along a wall.

I am in awful fear of this horrible place; there is no escape for me; there are horrors around me that I dare not think of…

15 May. The Count went out in his lizard manner again. I knew that he had left the castle now, and decided to use the opportunity to explore more than I had dared to do as yet. I went back to my room and took a lamp. I tried all the doors on my way. They were all locked, as I had expected. Then I went down the stone stairs to the hall where I had entered on arrival. I pulled back the bolts easily enough and unhooked the great chains, but the door was locked, and the key was gone! That key must be in the Count's room. I must watch for the chance when his door is unlocked, so that I may get it and escape. I continued to examine the various stairs and passages and to try the doors that opened from them. At last I found one door at the top of the stairway that was not really locked. The hinges had fallen somewhat, and the heavy door rested on the floor. Here was an opportunity which I might not have again, so, with many efforts, I forced it back and entered. From the windows I could see that the suite of rooms lay along to the south of the castle; the windows of the end room looked out both west and south. On both sides there was a great precipice. The castle was built on the corner of a great rock, so that on three sides it was quite impregnable. This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in old times, for the furniture was more comfortable here. I had come to hate those rooms where I met with the Count. So here I am sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat and wrote her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is nineteenth century now. But I feel that the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere “modernity” cannot kill.

Later: the Morning of 16 May. When I had written in my diary and had fortunately put the book and pen in my pocket, I felt sleepy. The Count's warning came into my mind, but the soft moonlight soothed, and the view of the wide expanse from the windows gave a sense of freedom which refreshed me. I decided not to return to-night to the gloomy rooms, but to sleep here, where, of old, ladies had sat and sung and lived sweet lives while their gentle hearts were sad for their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars. I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look at the lovely view to east and south. I suppose I fell asleep; I hope so. But all that followed was so frighteningly real that now, in the broad, full sunlight of the morning, I cannot believe that it was all sleep.

I was not alone. The room was the same. But in the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner. I thought that I was dreaming, for, 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 that seemed almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon. The other was fair with great wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. It seemed somehow that I knew her face, and knew it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I did not remember when or where. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their full lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy. I felt some craving and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to write this down. If it meets Mina's eyes some day, it will cause her pain, but it is the truth. They whispered together, and then they all three laughed, a silvery, musical laugh, but it did not sound human. The fair girl shook her head coquettishly, and the other two urged her on. One said: “Go on! You are first, and we will follow; yours is the right to begin.” The other added: “He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.” I lay quietly and looked out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation.

The fair girl went on her knees and leaned over me. She licked her lips like an animal; her red tongue licked the white sharp teeth. Her lips were at my throat. I could feel the soft touch of the lips on the skin of my throat, and the hard press of two sharp teeth. Then she paused. I closed my eyes in a sleepy ecstasy and waited.

But at that instant I felt the presence of the Count. He was furious. My eyes opened. The Count grasped the neck of the fair woman and with giant's power drew it back. His eyes were blazing. The red light in them was like the flames of hell-fire. His face was deathly pale. He threw the woman from him. Then he turned to the others and said: “How dare you touch him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me!” The fair girl, with a laugh of vulgar coquetry, answered him: “You yourself never loved; you never love!” The other women loughed in a mirthless and soulless manner. It seemed like the pleasure of demons. The Count looked at my face attentively and said in a soft whisper: “Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Well, now I promise you that when I am finished with him, you will kiss him at your will. Now go!”

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Notes

1

Szekelys – секлеры, этническая группа венгров в Трансильвании (Румыния); мадьяры, считающиеся остатком гуннов.

2

Ugric tribe – племя угров, угорское племя – этническая группа венгров в Трансильвании.

3

Thor (Тор) – бог грома и бури; Wodin (Один) – верховный бог, отец Тора (скандинавская мифология).

4

Berserkers – берсерки, воины, главная ударная сила викингов (скандинавская мифология).

5

Huns – гунны, древние кочевые племена, переселившиеся из Азии в Европу.

6

Scythia – Скифия, древнее название юго-восточной части Европы. Занимала степи между устьями Дуная и Дона, включая степной Крым и лесостепные районы Северного Причерноморья.

7

Attila – Аттила, правитель гуннов, создавший державу от Рейна до Волги.

8

Arpad – правитель венгров.

9

Wallach – валахи, общее название предков восточнороманских народов (румын, молдаван и др.).