| Then he turned to me and said,
"Here, there... 439 |
[Jan. 27th, 2010|02:08 am] |
Then 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 doneBut there are other things to follow, and things that are thousand times more difficult in that them we do not knowShe have yet no life taken, though that is of time, and to act now would be to take danger from her foreverBut then we may have to want Arthur, and how shall we tell him of this? If you, who saw the wounds on Lucy's throat, and saw the wounds so similar on the child's at the hospital, if you, who saw the coffin empty last night and full today with a woman who have not change only to be more rose and more beautiful in a whole week, after she die, if you know of this and know of the white figure last night that brought the child to the churchyard, and yet of your own senses you did not believe, how then, can I expect Arthur, who know none of those things, to believe?
"He doubted me when I took him from her kiss when she was dyingI know he has forgiven me because in some mistaken idea I have done things that prevent him say goodbye as he ought, and he may think that in some more mistaken idea this woman was buried alive, and that in most mistake of all we have killed herHe will then argue back that it is we, mistaken ones, that have killed her by our ideas, and so he will be much unhappy alwaysYet he never can be sure, and that is the worst of allAnd he will sometimes think that she he loved was buried alive, and that will paint his dreams with horrors of what she must have suffered, and again, he will think that we may be right, and that his so beloved was, after all, an UnDeadNo! I told him once, and since then I learn muchNow, since I know it is all true, a hundred thousand times more do I know that he must pass through the bitter waters to reach the sweetHe, poor fellow, must have one hour that will make the very face of heaven grow black to him, then we can act for good all round and send him peaceYou return home for tonight to your asylum, and see that all be wellAs for me, I shall spend the night here in this churchyard in my own wayTomorrow night you will come to me to the Berkeley Hotel at ten of the clockI shall send for Arthur to come too, and also that so fine young man of America that gave his bloodLater we shall all have work to doI come with you so far as Piccadilly and there dine, for I must be back here before the sun set
So we locked the tomb and came away, and got over the wall of the churchyard, which was not much of a task, and drove back to Piccadilly
NOTE LEFT BY VAN HELSING IN HIS PORTMANTEAU, BERKELEY HOTEL DIRECTED TO JOHN SEWARD, M(Not Delivered)
27 September
"Friend John,
"I write this in case anything should happenI go alone to watch in that churchyardIt pleases me that the UnDead, Miss Lucy, shall not leave tonight, that so on the morrow night she may be more eagerTherefore I shall fix some things she like not, garlic and a crucifix, and so seal up the door of the |
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