Dracula: Jonathan's Story

Moving On

"What's your real name? Agatha asked him. Dracula pulled on his shirt cuffs, and seated himself next to her on the wooden box, a bottle between them. He couldn't keep the surprise from his face, eyebrows rising and falling.

Agatha took a swig from the bottle. "Come on, you must have a Christian... she giggled until subsiding into a coughing fit. The devil with a Christian name, she snorted at the absurdity.

Dracula looked thoughtful. It'd been centuries since anyone had asked him that. "Vlad. Also known as Vlad the impaler. That nickname earned because I wanted the example to those who would oppose me. It was before I became as I am."

Handsome. Magnetic. Predator. Manipulator. Survivor. A wolf in sheep's clothing indeed. "Well there's a truth," she tipped the bottle back.

"What about you? You're not a nun," he turned it back on her, half statement of fact, half accusation. He cracked a half-smile. "Nuns don't drink like that. And you don't have the faith for it," that much he'd gathered from the sisters he'd consumed at the convent.

He took her shrug to continue.  "The Van Helsing name has followed me for centuries; the yin to my yang. The hunter to my hunted. The fun police to my... fun. I have managed to make the odd one my bride, and show them what they've been missing. I don't know if there are any left besides you. You would make a fantastic bride, if you were to carry through your transformation." He looked at her noting the changes starting to take place. The fingernails had fallen off, and her hair by her sides, lank and lifeless. She was livelier at night.

"Some extra blood to ease you. We could escape and make for shore," he suggested. The idea of survival seduced her, and she allowed herself to imagine what a life would be like with him. She shook her head as if to push away the vision.

Agatha stood up, her feet sloshing around in the water that was beginning to fill the cabin. "One more charge," she went into one of the cabins, and he followed trapping her between a bulkhead. "You are so easy herr Dracula. Always thinking everything is about you." she remarked.

He felt his knees buckle against his coffin. Agatha gave him a second shove, and he was on his back. She picked his legs stretching them in front of him. "I drugged that bottle. The results are enough to immobilize you in the coffin long enough to drown." she said.

Dracula laughed at the idea.  "You know that will never work.  I can feast on small fish, and put myself into a coma." Agatha pounded the nails into the bottom of his coffin. She moved up to his head, and paused as s he felt him fix her with his gaze. "The last face I'll ever see. Rather fitting it's one of you," She met his eyes as the mallet went first to one side and banged the nails into the top one side.

"Farewell Count Dracula." The other half of the closure was pounded into place. He felt the ship shake with the size of the blast in its hull.

*****

"Survive Johnny," Dracula's voice echoed louder than his normal guiding whispers in Jonathan's ears waking him early from his day's rest. He relocated from the basement to the second bedroom across from Maria and Alexei's. Insistent voices drifted up to him:

"He killed three people. Travellers coming to trade with us. Enough goods to mean the difference in surviving the winter."

"It was an animal attack," Alexei replied. He set his jaw, determined to be believed despite knowing different. He was a party to murder now.

Gruff, bitter laughter greeted his statement. Jonathan dressed and moved close to the top of the stairs. He counted three people standing the doorway, and could hear the heartbeats of at least 6 more nearby. The apparent leader had taken his hat off as a sign of respect, and held tight to it folding, and unfolding it. "We all know the man staying with you has become as the creature from the castle," The man's sister became one of Dracula's brides.