VROLOK

by Nolene-Patricia Dougan

Then once more he heard them. Once more they sounded as if they were just behind him. This time Jack was afraid to turn around. He couldn’t make himself look behind—he was too afraid of what he might see. A gust of air touched the back of his neck. When Jack felt this he had to turn around, and again the street behind him was silent and empty.

  A strong wind rustled through the trees that lined the avenue. It was so strong that a few leaves started to fall, and then fog poured into the street, engulfing him so that he could not see anything. The running started again and this time he heard voices, first close and then distant and then close again. These voices kept repeating the same phrase.

  “Help me!”

  Jack reached out, trying to feel for whoever needed his help. He felt nothing. No one was there. “Help me,” the woman’s voice whispered again. “Help me, Jack.”

  “Tell me how I can!” Jack shouted.

  “Help me! No one else can, Jack.”

  “I recognise your voice! Who are you?”

  “You know who I am, Jack.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You do, Jack.”

  “No, I don’t, who are you?” Something touched his arm.

  “It’s Lucy, Jack.”

  “Lucy Harker? Are you playing a trick on me?”

  “No, Jack you know I am not Lucy Harker.”

  “No, you couldn’t be.” This time something touched his other arm and he jumped around.

  “I am Lucy, Jack, you know I am.” At this Lucy’s face suddenly appeared before him in the fog. Jack covered his eyes and started to scream and run.

  “Jack, there is nowhere to run—he is coming for us both.” No matter how fast Jack was running in the fog, the voice followed closely behind him, whispering in his ear, never dropping back, not even a step. Jack stopped running; he realised it was useless and he turned around and faced whatever it was that was chasing him.

  “Who is coming for us, Lucy?”

  “He is Jack…he is.”

  “Who, Lucy? Who?”

  “Dracula!” The voice was no longer a whisper—it was loud, stern and menacing. Jack was shaken to his very core and he began to run again.

  “No, we killed him,” Jack shouted.

  “You didn’t do a good enough job; he has come for all of you.” The phantom took hold of Jack Seaward, pulled him to the ground, and bit down hard into his neck. Jack blacked out. When he awoke, he began to run through the streets of Whitby to the Harkers’ house.

  “That is exactly how it happened?” Mina asked.

  “I woke up and I ran here,” Jack answered.

  “What should we do?” Jonathon asked Mina.

  “I don’t know,” Mina answered.

  “I am not sure I can go through this again.” Jack’s hands were still shaking. Mina got up from her chair and went over to him. She kneeled down in front of him, bringing her sweet face in line with his gaze.

  “We must do what we must do, Jack. We’ll get through it; we will help each other.” Jack’s tired eyes were comforted by Mina, but he was still dreading the days ahead. Jack Seaward’s worst fear was Dracula himself.

  “Is he asleep?” Mina asked her husband.

  “Just,” Jonathon answered.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “First, we shall send for Van Helsing.”

  “You really think that is necessary?”

  “I do, best to be cautious, but…”

  “But what?”

  “We know Dracula is dead. We saw him die, it could not be him,” Mina said.

  “Then are there other Vampires? Are there more?”

  “There could be, but I am not so sure.”

  “Why?”

  “The Doctor who just checked on Jack said there was no blood loss.”

  “How can that be?”

  “If it was a Vampire then it can’t be so. I asked him to look at the marks on his neck. He said they were scratches.”

  “Scratches?” Jonathon queried.

  “Just simple scratches, I don’t think we are in any real danger.”

  Mina and Jonathan went up to their room but before they could they heard shouts coming from Jack’s room. Mina and Jonathon ran to his room and when they went inside, they saw Jack standing in the corner and pointing.

  “Get away from me,” Jack shouted. Mina and Jonathon could only see Jack staring and pointing at something that was not there.

  “They can’t see me; I have only come for you.” The voice that only Jack could hear whispered. Jack did indeed see something, even though Mina and Jonathon could not. He saw a dark, hooded figure. It approached, then retreated, and then approached him again. The dark figure kept repeating this motion. Every time it got close Jack covered his eyes and struck out at it, and then it pulled away. Mina, not seeing the figure or hearing the voice, thought Jack had been struck by madness. She thought years of nightmares and haunting memories had finally taken their toll.

  “Oh, Jonathon, I am so afraid for him.” Mina went over to Jack and took his face in her hands and said, “There is no one here.”

  “Yes there is, it’s him… it‘s him! Can you not see him?”

  “Believe me there is no one there!” Mina begged him to listen to her. Jack stared at Mina and wondered how she could possibly not see this figure. Then what he saw began to disappear and Jack fell to his knees and wept; was he imaging these things, he thought—had his sanity left him after all? He hoped so. Anything was better than the alternative.

  Nicolae and Isabella were walking away from the Harkers’ home.

  “Well, it worked,” Nicolae said.

  “It’s working,” Isabella corrected.

  “You won’t be happy until he is actually mad.”

  “I won’t.”

  “I don’t think I have the stomach for this.”

  Isabella turned towards him. “I told you to leave.”

  Nicolae turned back to look at the Harkers’ and said, “I will stay for the moment.”

  The next night followed the same pattern. Mina and Jonathon were awakened by Jack Seaward’s shouts. Again when they entered the room they could see no one but Jack shouting and pointing at the corner.

  “Don’t let him take me!”

  Mina started to cry.

  “Jack, there is no one there,” Jonathon snapped. As Jonathon said this Jack’s vision disappeared. He was taking longer and longer to calm down. He was breaking out in a cold sweat. His eyes darted about the room looking for the menacing figure to reappear. When he slept his dreams were filled with nightmares and he carried these nightmares into his waking hours. His wife had come to see him and was frightened by the state her husband was in.

  “He seems completely terrified,” his wife stated.

  “We thought it best he stay here,” Mina said.

  “Thank you. You have always been so kind, Mina,” Jack’s wife replied.

  “There is no need for thanks. He can stay here until he gets well.” The truth was Mina did not want Jack to go home; she did not want him spouting warnings of Vampires to frighten his wife. His wife knew nothing of what the group had been through.

  That evening, the shadowy figure of Vlad appeared before Jack for the last time.

  “Jack Seaward, wake up!” Isabella shouted into Seward’s ear. Outside the room Quincy was on his way down to the kitchen. He heard a woman whispering to Jack. He did not hear what she was saying and thought nothing of it at the time. He presumed it was his mother trying to comfort Jack in some way. Quincy was the only person who could hear Isabella, as he was the only person who was not susceptible to her power. When Jack looked at Isabella all he saw was Lucy Westerna. “Jack, why didn’t you save me from him?” Isabella asked.

  “I tried, Lucy, I tried.”

  “You didn’t. You let me die because you were afraid of him.”

  “No, I tried to save you.”

  “You did nothing to save me, you sent for that Dutchman to kill me!”

  Ja
ck pounded his hands against his head. “I can’t stand this anymore! I can’t go through this.”

  “What did I go through? Consider that!” Isabella snapped.

  “No, it’s not true.”

  Jonathon and Mina now heard Jonathon’s cries. “Should we go down to him?” Mina asked.

  “It does no good. Perhaps we should just leave him tonight and see if it makes a difference,” Jonathon said. Mina did not agree with her husband, but they had tried everything else to snap Jack out of his lunacy.

  “You have to kill him; you know how it is the only way I will be saved,” Isabella continued.

  “I can’t remember how.”

  “You know how you need the Dhampir’s blood.”

  “There is no Dhampir’s blood! Van Helsing is in America.”

  “There is another Dhampir.’”

  “Who?”

  “Quincy.”

  “Quincy?”

  “He is a Dhampir. His blood is the only thing that will kill him. You need his blood to kill Dracula and then we will all be saved. Get the letter opener from the dresser and kill him.”

  Jack now had a purpose. He snatched the knife and ran down downstairs, knife in hand. Isabella went to Mina’s room and whispered in her ear. Mina by this time had fallen back to sleep.

  “Mina,” Isabella whispered. “Your son is in danger.” Mina’s eyes opened. Instantly she was filled with a sense of danger and concern for her son. She ran to his room and he was not there; then she heard a noise coming from the pantry. Quincy was rummaging around for something to eat, unaware of the danger he was in. Jack stealthily entered the pantry; he knew only what his weak mind told him to do.

  Quincy heard a noise and turned around to see Jack Seaward walking towards him. Quincy did not notice the look on Jack Seaward’s face; as far as he was concerned it was a friend that stood behind him.

  “You hungry, too?” Quincy asked. Jack made no answer. “Mother hates me doing this, getting up in the middle of the night and raiding the cupboards. Are you feeling better?”

  “I am sorry, Quincy.” Quincy looked over at Jack strangely.

  “Sorry for what?” Jack lunged at Quincy with the knife but by this time Mina had run in with her husband very close behind her. Mina grasped at Jack but she could not hold him back. However, she restrained him enough so that the knife only struck Quincy’s arm. Jonathon then pulled him back and threw him towards the wall. Jack struck the wall hard and fell forward onto the floor. The two parents, realising that Jack was beyond causing harm, turned their attentions towards their son.

  “What has come over him?”

  “Madness,” Mina said. “It is the only explanation for it.” Mina looked over at Jack, who was still lying on the floor not moving. Mina observed a growing pool of blood seeping out from his body.

  “Jonathon, I think he is dead!” Jonathon rolled Jack over. He had fallen on his own knife. With his last breath he whispered the word Dhampir, but because of Isabella’s influence only Quincy heard it.

  Jack Seaward’s murderess attended his funeral.

  “I am so sorry, Quincy, I know he was a good friend of yours,” Isabella said.

  “Thank you. I still do not know what happened.”

  “It’s probably best not to think about it,” Isabella answered. The pair strolled around to the church where the Harkers were talking to Arthur Holmwood.

  I WOULD GIVE MY LAST DROP OF BLOOD TO SAVE HER

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “So what is his worst fear?” Nicolae asked. Isabella was reluctant to tell Nicolae—he would not like the answer. “What is it?” he demanded. “When you shook his hand today, I know you were reading him.”

  “His family.”

  “His family?”

  “Losing Lucy almost killed him. After Vlad died he became morose and retreated from society, retreated from everyone. His family was concerned for him, especially his cousin Vivian. She went to see him every day. He was resistant to her visits at first, not even wanting to let her in his home, but she gently pushed her way in. Gradually he began laugh again and started to begin to live again, and he was so grateful to Vivian. He soon came to realise that he loved her and he married her. He found happiness. They had two children. Then one died before his sixth birthday and again Arthur retreated, and although Vivian was devastated herself, she managed to bring Arthur out of his melancholy and to seek solace in the child that remained. Loss is his worst fear, the loss of his wife and child. He would never recover from that.”

  “Isabella…” Nicolae clasped his hands around Isabella’s arms and held her in front of him. “You cannot be seriously planning to do this.”

  “I can, and I will.”

  “Have you no heart?”

  “My heart died four hundreds years ago. I am a Vampire, and so are you.”

  “The malevolence within you is suffocating me.”

  “The malevolence within me? Have you not killed people? Am I talking to an innocent? Your blood lust has always been greater than mine. The difference between us is only that I always knew what I was.”

  “I know what I am; I am what you made me. I may not have a soul but I do still have a conscience.”

  Isabella turned to Nicolae. “Your conscience has no place here,” Isabella said calmly.

  “I don’t think I have a place here anymore.”

  “That is your decision.”

  With this Nicolae left Isabella, but before he departed he said one last thing.

  “Isabella,” he said softly. “Your eyes, they are red; they look as if they are on fire.”

  Isabella said nothing, for she was not surprised.

  After his final argument with Isabella, Nicolae went to meet Lucy Harker, whom he had been meeting frequently. Lucy smiled when she saw him.

  “I have missed you, Cole.”

  “You saw me yesterday,” Cole said.

  “I know, but I still missed you.”

  “This certainly is not the rude defiant girl I met that first day at the Harkers.”

  “You have mellowed me.”

  “Have I indeed?”

  “You have.”

  “Sit down with me. There is something I have to tell you.” Lucy sat down and stared at Nicolae with adoring eyes. Nicolae did not want this woman to look upon him with anything but adoration.

  “What do you want to tell me?” Lucy asked.

  “Nothing, it can wait for awhile.”

  Lucy leaned forward and kissed him.

  Isabella crept into the room of Arthur Holmwood’s daughter. There would be no slow death for this victim; her death would be easy and quick. She crept in and bit her neck. Arthur Holmwood’s child would never wake up.

  Isabella silently crept into Arthur’s bedroom; his wife was the next to die silently and without pain. Arthur slept beside his dead wife until the morning. As the first rays of sunlight entered the room, Arthur awoke. He reached over in order to wake his wife but when he touched her arm it was cold. Arthur Holmwood’s heart was filled with terror. He turned his wife over to look at her; a pair of dead eyes stared back. He looked at her neck and saw two puncture marks on her neck. He then ran to his daughter’s room and saw another pair of dead eyes staring back at him.

  Arthur fell to his knees. He was finally a completely broken man.

  MY LATEST AND TRUEST THOUGHT WILL ALWAYS BE FOR HIM

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Nicolae and Isabella attended the funerals of Arthur Holmwood‘s wife and child. Nicolae stayed out of everyone’s view, but Isabella knew he was close. Quincy was holding Isabella’s hand, and after the funeral Isabella went over to face Nicolae alone.

  “Holmwood will probably just kill himself, you realise that,” Nicolae said.

  “He hasn’t the courage to kill himself,” Isabella replied.

  “I think courage is the wrong word.”

  “Whatever you may call it. What I read in his heart is that whatever this world has to throw at him�
�he fears what the next world holds for him even more. He will live in misery for the rest of his days.” Nicolae sighed and there was a pause in the conversation.

  “One last time, Isabella.”

  “One last time what?”

  “I am going to beg you to abandon this plan.”

  “I will not,” Isabella said.

  “I will not ask you again.”

  “However many times you ask, my answer will still be the same.”

  “You realise you are going to die here.”

  “I do.”

  “You cannot rely on me on any longer.”

  “I never relied on you, Nicolae. I have never relied on anyone!” Isabella answered.

  “That is a vicious and malicious thing to say—all these years and you say you have never relied on me?” Nicolae questioned.

  “Never.”

  “All right. If that is the way you want it…you cannot trust me to stay quiet. I may warn them.”

  “Do what your conscience dictates.” Nicolae left Isabella and this time he had every intention of never going back to her.

  Isabella had lied to Nicolae when she told him she had never relied upon him. During the twenty years since they had had been reunited he had been her only constant. Reliance and trust had become very important to her. She had never had this with Vlad. Nicolae’s leaving was devastating to her, but Isabella was too stubborn to ask him to stay and in a way she was glad. Olya’s prophecy still haunted her. Blackness was chasing and for the first time she could feel it biting at her heels. As she watched Nicolae walk away she felt he was walking towards the light. Nicolae had freed himself from the fate that Isabella was inevitably going to face, or so she thought.

  The next day when Isabella went to the Harkers she found the mood and spirit very sombre, but Quincy still greeted her with a smile.

  “Arthur, I take it, is inconsolable?” Isabella asked.

  “Of course, but my parents have more bad news today.”

  “What has happened?”

  “News from America. My father’s oldest friend Van Helsing is dead.”

  “I am so sorry,” Isabella lied.