Dracula engsub

CHAPTER 14: Mina Fears the Night

While Mina stayed behind and sullently went to sleep, the men left the asylum and crept next door to Carfax through the dark. Each carried a crucifix, some garlic, and a pice of sacred wafer.

They had skeleton keys also, which can sometimes, if jiggled properly, open many different doors. The bolt to the front door of Carfax eventually opened; with a push, its rusty hinges creaked and the door slowly gave way. Peering inside, the men could see that he hole place was thick with dust and masses of spiderwebs. They crossed themselves as they walked over the threshold.

"You saw maps of this place when you were arranging the purchase," Van Helsing whispered to Jonathan. "Lead the way to the chapel."

Jonathan quickly found the boxes filled with earth that they were looking for but, counting them, the men saw that there were twenty-nine, not fifty. Just then something started moving on the floor beneath their feet. Was it the count crawling? Other vampires?

No, it was rats - hundreds of them. The place was alive with rats!

Lord Godalming reacted calmly. Taking a sylver whistle from his pocket, he blew. It was answered from behind Dr. Seward's house by the yelping of dogs. After a minute three feisty terrifers came rushing through the open door of the house into the chapel. They charged and barked wildly, and all of the rats scurried away.

The men searched the rest of the house, but found nothing. The count was not there.

"At least we were able to count the boxes," Van Helsing said as they made their exit. "We also gained a sense of the house."

The men agreed it was best that Mina had remained behind. they also agreed that they would not share the frightening details of their job with her. This wasa hard for Jonathan, because he and she had always been partners, but he would do anything to protect her, and so he went along with their plan.

When they returned to the aylum, Jonathan checked on Mina. He found her looking paler than usual, but otherwise she seemed well and was sleeping softly.

The next day Mina awoke feeling strangely sad nad low-spirited. It must have been her horrible dream, she thought, shivering as she remembered it. There had been mist, a heavy smoke pouring in through the cracks of the door. The air had seemed to grow heavy and dank and cold. And then there were red eyes and dark fingure, bending over her.

Surely, she thought, this was just guilt over the part she had played in Lucy's death by bringing her to Whiby. The next few nights, however, she experienced the same thing, and felt even worse when she awoke. She was growing paler and more tired by the day. She asked Dr. Seward for some medicine to help her sleep.

Dr. Seward prescribed something and the next night Mina took it, but as it began to take effect, a strange fear overtook her. Suddenly she wondered if she might have  a mistake in taking medicine that would not allow her to wake up if she needed to. Suddenly she suspected that she might be safer is she was awake.

But it was too late, for sleep had come.