Dracula's Lost Treasure Map

by V Bertolaccini

  He had no recognition of anything or anything happening before he had gone to sleep, and rested against the bed, and tightly wrapped the blankets around him, feeling the cold. The building definitely now had a deep coldness from something and he tried to trace any winds getting through and felt some sort of breeze gently blowing against his face from somewhere, and he jumped out of bed and started searching the window for any gaps.

  At the window he moved his hand about the edges feeling for anything, searching the hideous dark wood about the front, and suddenly realized the cold air was blowing against his neck, and he swiftly turned as though there was something there and slowly followed it over to the door where he felt it coming through gaps in the door.

  In the outer corridor he felt it coming from inside the building somewhere and followed it, in the darkness, confused as it was not where anything was, and he wondered if it was an open window.

  The coldness he felt there surprised him as it was far more intense than it should be, and it had not been there before, or had been marked on the weather forecast, and further along the corridor he looked in a room and saw nothing, and grew determined to trace the source and what was behind it.

  He recalled a dream he had and it was strange and he believed that it and his other dreams were influenced by the mansion and its surroundings, and they were mainly incomprehensible and he kept wondering why they had occurred! They never made sense and were with freakish things, and he never did anything in them.

  There were rooms all about his front that were on the left and right side of the corridor and he came to the stairs on one side, where he felt a more powerful breeze, and where the wind was coming from.

  He noted the air was far colder and fresher and with a scent of vegetation from outside, and as he went down the stairs he remembered himself earlier and being in a huddled posture with his blankets tightly wrapped about him, and reacting to the cold.

  At the bottom floor he walked along and watched the dark sky outside through a window near the door and the darkness and he tried to detect where the now vague breeze was coming from and realized it was not coming from there and was coming from behind him, and from further along the lower corridor, where he came to a torch he had, and walked along slowly behind its beam of light, and realized how peculiar the place was, compared to what he normally had, and he realized that he even liked it, and liked exploring it, even at night, and all the unexplored rooms and corridors and hidden mysteries, and its historical and unknown past and thoughts of the discoveries that could be there, and the fact that he had found one of the clues at the cemetery outside in the grounds.

  He realized he had never known so much isolation and emptiness and had spent all his life in city regions, and it was mysterious and unexplored and great untouched things existed.

  In his normal life things he encountered were too repetitive and he relished finding abnormal things to do and explore, especially when they had new outcomes and findings, and he wondered if it was why his uncle had bought the place, as he must have been stuck in congested cities and places packed with people.

  He moved into a side corridor, going sideways, where the breeze came from, where he had not been before, and he soon realized nobody had been in a very long time, where there were ancient webs covering it everywhere, from one side to the other, and ancient dust covering the carpet that was untouched.

  He came to a room and switched off his light and went up to the window and stared out into the darkness and ancient wood, with shivers running through him, from the breeze and cold, and thoughts of the cold outside, and the deadly things that he could encounter, and he spotted the small graveyard hidden away in the trees, and saw the moon appear through clouds and illuminate it.

  It was like another world to him! It was also like he was put there to explore there, and it was like a world thousands of light years away and he wondered what existed out in the grounds and realized he should explore there soon as he had found the grave there and there could be more.

  An array of loud door knocks made him jump and realize he was not alone there and he gasped and wondered who it could be, and he stood staggered with his mouth open, and considered if he should ignore it, and realized it had to be the front door, and that he should try to see who was there and as he shifted away he realized where the breeze was coming from and that the window had been recently partially opened and not closed properly, and he saw that it could not be used to enter there, as it never opened completely out.

  He shifted back along the corridor, to the front door, and when the knock appeared again, but more loudly, he came to a standstill, staggered, as he was starting to think it was just one of the strange sounds the place generated, and it left him confused at its identity.

  The floorboards creaked and cracked far further than he noticed and he was reminded of the age of the place, and he wondered again who had constructed it and had done it to such an extent.

  He shifted along and right up to the door, examining it, and unlocked the door and yanked open the thick heavy wooden door, which had been crafted by hand, and he stood staring out into the darkness, seeing nothing but consistent blackness, and slowly spotted a black figure standing glaring at him from the darkness at the side of the door.

  Eisenberg stood silently, as he thought he saw a gunman with a gun in his jacket pocket pointed at him, about to shoot, and stood waiting to be killed, and then wondered who the hell was there, and for a few seconds thought it was an apparition.

  “What’s up?” a voice spoke, and he recognized it straightaway and removed his light from his pocket and lit it and confirmed it was Kurt, standing there looking strange, studying him in an entirely different light, and Eisenberg wondered what the hell he was doing.

  “Well, are you going to invite me in?” Kurt moaned, marching in the door, and he watched him turn on the inside light.

  “How the hell did you get there?” he asked, curiously.

  “Taxi! I had a lot of work, and left late … You got food supplies? If not I’ll get them tomorrow …”

  Eisenberg examined him in the brighter interior light, and he seemed somehow different, and he just nodded and took him away over to the kitchen.

  Chapter 14

  The Disturbance

  When Eisenberg flicked open his eyes he never even recognized where he was! He had little memory of what had happened before he went to bed, and felt really tired, and examined his room for anything, and he sat upright and turned on the light, and wondered if it was caused by his lack of sleep or lack of food.

  In the distance he suddenly heard strange sounds that confused him, and he could not place what it was or where it was coming from, and he recalled a dream he had and was sure it had been in his dream.

  He recalled more of the dream with surprise and realized how incomprehensible it had been and he wondered if he had imagined it, and if it was caused by the occurrences and strange mansion. It made little sense and had been made up of freakish things.

  He liked how well preserved the room was, for such an era it was from.

  Kurt was in the room next to his and he heard him shifting about doing something.

  He mildly amused him, as he tried to recall a similar situation, as he looked different and as though he had done something dangerous or something, and he could not believe it was a reaction to him arriving late and surprising him as he had, and he realized he could have done something but started to think it could be something to do with his other relatives searching for the treasure.

  He recalled him reacting to heat in the kitchen as though he had been in intense cold for a long time, and he was surprised the haunted look of the mansion had little affect on him.

  He was peculiar now and liked it more than he should, and he especially liked it when he had given him information on his search for the treasure, and especially the outcomes and findings, which he had not fully done before, and it was as though he had something and was seeking the conclusion.
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  He jumped out of bed and switched on the light and went over to the window and put his face up against it to see into the darkness and ancient wood, and a shiver ran through him, from the cold, thoughts of the cold, and the deadly things that they could encounter there.

  An array of knocks made him jump and he saw the door shift about, on its old hinges, reminding him of the age of the door and place, and he wondered again why it had more advanced stuff for a structure if its age, and he realized again that the people who had reconstructed it had done it.

  He marched over and yanked open the thick wooden door, which he saw had been clearly crafted by hand, and he watched Kurt standing glaring at him from the darkness in the corridor, and he watched him point and suggest something was along the corridor, and Eisenberg just nodded and left the room and closed the door behind him and followed him along the corridor.

  He wondered why he suddenly liked being up in the middle of the night, and what Kurt was taking him to see, and he heard the distant sounds he had heard earlier but he could not grasp what was up ahead, and what Kurt thought was there.

  While they slowly approached the region of the corridor where they heard sounds and were at their loudest he became even more confused and started to recall if there was some sort of heating system, water pipes, or anything that could cause it and it seemed as if it had different states to it and regularly altered.

  At the region it was at its loudest he gasped and suddenly realized that he could hear sounds emerging from somewhere else, and the sounds seemed to be magnified or something and even blared out at one point.

  It mildly amused him for a moment when he saw Kurt trying to explain what was there, and Eisenberg tried to recall something like it or a similar situation and he realized that the sounds reminded him of nothing and were strange and had no real identity, and he wondered if it was because it was night and they were sleepy.

  “What the hell do you think it is then?” Kurt finally moaned.

  Eisenberg shrugged, and for a moment thought Kurt could believe the building was haunted, and even from something he had heard about it, and wondered what real ghostly sounds were like compared to it, and was surprised when they actually altered to authentic ones, and Kurt seemed to react like he had just proven he was right about their origins.

  Chapter 15

  The Map Discovery

  In the end, when he was totally positive he needed help to locate the treasure, he showed Kurt the map, but avoided telling him everything, and only what he should know, and Kurt was staggered at the map, and that he had been searching for the treasure itself, as he was now positive that the map was to locate it, especially going by Howard Eisenberg’s video message.

  Both of them sat at opposite ends of a table in the kitchen, while Kurt sat studying the map intensely, and started using a bright torch and magnifying glass to search places on it, and was amazed at it, and sometimes sat back in his seat trying to contemplate what he saw, and Eisenberg started to wonder if he had found something and if he should have kept the map a secret and found any alternative plan.

  He could not quite grasp something about Kurt now and sensed he was keeping something he should know from him.

  “You say it was found here, at the mansion!” Kurt moaned, realizing something.

  “Yes! What do you make of it?”

  “Firstly, I’m shocked he gave this place and clue to you, and do not currently know why! As he surely intended you to get it all along, and it is pretty surprising that we’ve all been searching all over New York for it in graveyards and libraries – trying solve the second clue – and searching virtually everywhere else there’s an ancient grave – and thought you’d packed it all in and were out the game, and you’ve been sitting out here with this …”

  “What now?”

  “What now! Well, at least I’ll not have to search another blasted graveyard or book or anything related to them …”

  “So we are still using the same arrangement as before? With our search for it!”

  “Of course, I’ve already agreed to that, when I came here, and when you told me of the map … Find anything in the map?”

  “I’ve not found anything on it, or about it, since I found it and do not know what it is of, and cannot make out anything on it … There are no words or anything, and I have started to wonder if the map has been damaged, and aged too much, and stuff on it has vanished …”

  Kurt put his head in hands and elbows on the table staring down at the map directly below him on the table considering something, and what to do.

  “Have you any maps of this place?”

  “There are a few of the region and roads but I have found nothing else … What do you think?”

  “I think it’s pretty hard to make out … And the stuff on it is all faded and there could have been other stuff on it, and if there was it’s now too faded … Have you anything on this building itself? There must be plans of it …”

  “Yes!” Eisenberg replied, digging into his bag, recalling the plans of the building the lawyer had sent him through the post in the parcel.

  Kurt took the building plans from him and put them on the table, and studied them.

  From the documents the lawyer gave him Eisenberg discovered that the mansion was rebuilt there in large sections from another far older building, and he had discovered there was nothing on the original building.

  For a long time Eisenberg cleaned areas of the kitchen, and the ancient dirt that had accumulated over decades still covering large regions of it, and realized he would eventually have to bring in people to clean it up, with proper equipment, and suddenly realized there were food wrappers nearby and picked one and realized how new it was, and realized that his uncle had servants that must have been at the mansion.

  When he looked about him at one point he saw Kurt had altered and looked as if he was doing something else, and he realized he had found something of interest and tried to grasp what.

  “Find anything?” he finally asked.

  “You missed something!” he replied, glancing over at him for a few seconds.

  “What?” he replied, wondering if it was anything of interest.

  “The treasure map is part of this building … There is an area of the top floor of the building that is identical to it!”

  Chapter 16

  The Top Floor

  Eisenberg unfolded a map Kurt made of the treasure map region with a plan of the top floor around it and he stretched it out across his front on the table, and he shone his light over it and studied its details under the magnifying glass.

  Eisenberg saw it made the treasure map area clearer and he examined it and was surprised when he recalled that section of the mansion and realized he had barely even entered it, and it seemed to be the only whole area he had not searched.

  “So do you recognize anything?” Kurt asked, curiously.

  “I’ve never searched that region.”

  Eisenberg thoughts went wild and he recalled the region at the top where he had found the room he was sure Howard Eisenberg had stayed in, which had been in just about immaculate condition, and he had been surprised to find that it had been directly over his room on the second floor, at the front of the building.

  It was incredible! He had known the room was there, but had not fully realized that there might be something of interest to him there, and it was as though it was haunted or something. Yet what could be at the room, and he recalled the grave in the small graveyard outside, where he found the clue, and he realized there could be something.

  Kurt realized something and picked up the old treasure map and started examining it further and he was sure he thought there was more on it, and that there was something missing in what they got from it, and he went back to searching the blurred marks on it searching for something that might have been blurred.

  Eisenberg tried to grasp what sort of person had made the map, and why he never thought Howard Eisenberg had made it himself, or som
eone with him, who had put together the treasure hunt, and he realized that it was far older, and proved it, and he was positive the material was, and that it was made to locate something, and he was sure that it could be used to locate something, and he sat back thinking of where anyone of that era would hide something.

  “What the hell is this clue to do with?” Kurt moaned loudly, desperate to grasp something.

  “That is what has been confusing me! Since I found the clue in the grave!”

  “Have you looked out there for anything else?”

  “Not really. I have not had enough time … This place needs cleaned up … I still have not found any cleaners that work away out here.”

  “Or anyone to help you locate what this map is of!”

  He examined it for clues to its identity, and why it was there and what it was used for.

  “Lets go up and have a look about,” Eisenberg announced, looking out the window, and about outside and saw no signs of anything outside.

  After a few seconds Kurt nodded, still not grasping something, and where it was, and Eisenberg took the map, and they started leaving the kitchen.

  When they reached the top floor he vaguely wondered how safe the mansion was, as it looked as though it could collapse in places, where the walls had shifted out, and looked as if it had been built by ancient craftsmen with basic knowledge of large buildings. Who could have designed it to last a few years or decades at the most! Yet if it had stayed up the amount of time it had it must be strong enough not to collapse!

  He was sure they could have built it to last. He had not seen anything like it crumbling away, and he had never heard of anything like it falling down. But he had heard of parts of modern structures collapsing.