| I shrugged my shoulders, however, and rested... 719 |
[Jan. 29th, 2010|07:32 am] |
I shrugged my shoulders, however, and rested silent, for Van Helsing had a way of going on his own road, no matter who remonstratedHe took the key, opened the vault, and again courteously motioned me to precedeThe place was not so gruesome as last night, but oh, how unutterably mean looking when the sunshine streamed inVan Helsing walked over to Lucy's coffin, and I followedHe bent over and again forced back the leaden flange, and a shock of surprise and dismay shot through me
There lay Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her funeralShe was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever, and I could not believe that she was deadThe lips were red, nay redder than before, and on the cheeks was a delicate bloom
"Is this a juggle?" I said to him
"Are you convinced now?" said the Professor, in response, and as he spoke he put over his hand, and in a way that made me shudder, pulled back the dead lips and showed the white teeth"See," he went on, "they are even sharper than beforeWith this and this," and he touched one of the canine teeth and that below it, "the little children can be bittenAre you of belief now, friend John?"
Once more argumentative hostility woke within meI could not accept such an overwhelming idea as he suggestedSo, with an attempt to argue of which I was even at the moment ashamed, I said, "She may have been placed here since last night
"Indeed? That is so, and by whom?"
"I do not know
"And yet she has been dead one weekMost peoples in that time would not look so
I had no answer for this, so was silentVan Helsing did not seem to notice my silenceAt any rate, he showed neither chagrin nor triumphHe was looking intently at the face of the dead woman, raising the eyelids and looking at the eyes, and once more opening the lips and examining the teethThen he turned to me and said,
"Here, there is one thing which is different from all recordedHere is some dual life that is not as the commonShe was bitten by the vampire when she was in a trance, sleep-walking, oh, you startYou do not know that, friend John, but you shall know it later, and in trance could he best come to take more bloodIn trance she dies, and in trance she is UnDead, tooSo it is that she differ from all otherUsually when the UnDead sleep at home," as he spoke he made a comprehensive sweep of his arm to designate what to a vampire was 'home', "their face show what they are, but this so sweet that was when she not UnDead she go back to the nothings of the common deadThere is no malign there, see, and so it make hard that I must kill her in her sleep
This turned my blood cold, and it began to dawn upon me that I was accepting Van Helsing's theoriesBut if she were really dead, what was there of terror in the idea of killing her?
He looked up at me, and evidently saw the change in my face, for he said almost joyously, "Ah, you believe now?"
I answered, "Do not press me too hard all at onceI am willing to acceptHow will you do this bloody work?"
"I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body
It made me shudder to think of so mutilating the body of the woman whom I had lovedAnd yet the feeling was not so strong as I had expectedI was, in fact, beginning to shudder at the presence of this being, this UnDead, as Van Helsing called it, and to loathe itIs it possible that love is all subjective, or all objective?
I waited a considerable time for Van Helsing to begin, but he stood as if wrapped in thoughtPresently he closed the catch of his bag with a snap, and said,
"I have been thinking, and have made up my mind as to what is bestIf I did simply follow my inclining I would do now, at this moment, what is to be |
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