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Mina and Jonathan get married in Budapest and on return back home get asked by Mr.Hawkins to join him as family. His sole will is written down for them supplementing to their happiness but Jonathan is still mentally weak for his adventures from before. Alas! Mr. Hawkins also dies and funerals take place. In Hillingham that of the Westenra mother and daughter and in Exeter that of Mr. Hawkins. Much morbidity makes way in the story but for strange reasons Lucy makes a very beautiful corpse and seems to grow more beautiful with passing hours. The clever Dr. Van Helsing quickly takes possession of all of Lucy's diaries and the memorandum incase anyone else should get hold of it. When discovering that the all of Mrs. Westenra's will gets passed down to Arthur he asks of Arthur to keep hold of those possessions so that he may learn better of what exactly happened. He finds Mina's letters to Lucy and realises it could be a possible loophole to all the mystery. While in London Jonathan and Mina see Dracula staring at a beautiful girl and Jonathan reacts with profound horror, grabbing hold of his wife with much strength. Seeing that her husband is deeply troubled Mina desperately wants to help him in any way she can and after having read his journals does not really know what to make of the paranormal incidents. Dr. Van Helsing's letter to her then comes in answer as he might have some way or other of helping her understand what has happened. Their meeting is quite successful as both donate to each other's knowledge and the existence of the undead vampire is confirmed. The mystery of "the bloofer lady" in Hampstead catches Van Helsing's interest as children seem to be getting lured by a lady only to be discovered with a wound on the throat the next day. An animal bite is suspected by doctors but Helsing knows all too well that this again is the working of a vampire. What is most shocking then is the discovery it is actually Lucy who is behind this attack. Van Helsing with companion Dr.Seward enter Lucy's ancestral tomb at night and open up her coffin to find it empty. Later they see a white woman walking in the graveyard and Helsing saves a child who may have been attacked in the same way. With such evidence Helsing tries to bring to Seward the full idea of Lucy's transformation into the undead but his emotional attachment to her keep him in doubt of his teacher's deductions. The next day they go again to look at the coffin where they find Lucy, prominently beautiful and healthy looking with lips bloddy red. Van Helsing opens up her lips to show to him the pointed teeth that have been the cause of the punctures in the children's throats. Later he summons the three men who loved Lucy so dearly and with them venture again to the tomb at night. He keeps them positioned in different places and crumbles the "Host" in the tomb door. Lucy in her deathly pallor and voluptuous beauty then arrives with a child in her breasts and drops it when finally aware of others in her presence. With "eyes blazed with unholy light" and "a voluptuous smile" she tries attacking Jonathan and is stopped by Helsing and his crucifix. Astounded by the ambush Lucy tries to get in the tomb and is unable to do so until Helsing recollects the Catholic wafer allowing her "with a corporeal body" to "pass in through the interstice". All three men as shocked as they are become more sure than ever of Van Helsing's deductions and agree on helping him to the best of their abilities. The next day they arrive again to Lucy's coffin and Van Helsing produces different equipments from his bag among which are a "wodden stake, some two and a half or three inches thick and three inches thick" and a "heavy hammer". Arthur is given the task of setting Lucy's soul free so it may reast in heaven causing the "Un-dead to pass away". "Arthur took the satke and the hammer," "Then he struck with all his might." "He looked like a figure of Thor" as he did so and the thing in the coffin let out a screech of pain. The Un-dead was done away with and Lucy was put to peace again. Helsing allows Arthur to now give her a final kiss so that he is allowed a proper goodbye.One chapter of the greusome attack brought upon by Dracula is closed but not all is over as our heroes only take off some couple days to rest before they meet again with two new companions, Mina and Jonathan so that they may find a way to terminate Dracula and relieve England of the horror.
In Whitby our typical gothic heroine resides troubled by her sleepwalking inclinations and in Whitby arrives the schooner, carrying with it Dracula, sailing against the forceful tempest. The Count from castle Dracula has now arrived in London to terrorise several lives. From the captain's logbook we discover of a "something" that has taken abode in the ship and for our prior knowledge of the story we are almost certain it is the Count himself who has done away with the ship crew. The image of the dead captain arriving with his hands fastened to the wheel and a crucifix between the inner hand and the wood, still standing conjures gothic horror to every possible extent. A dog strikes out of the ship immediately upon its arrival only to be not heard of again. Is the vampire changing forms now? Lucy becomes ever more prone to her sleepwalking adventures and on one account Mina finds her in a seat at the St. Mary's church with a dark figure with eyes red behind her. The Count is certainly upto some trick but Mina confuses the sight with imagination and lets go of the matter. We find that Lucy has "two little red points like pin-pricks" on her throat and it is easy to guess now that the vampire has begun its blood sucking quest as it may be called. News of Jonathan finally arrives calling for Mina's departure to be with her beloved.
Lucy is in very bad health and is frequently found near the window in her state of sleepwalk. She is growing paler day by day and in her sickly state fulfils a gothic heroine's role purposefully. A bat is always flapping vigorously outside the window as if calling for her. It could only be that Dracula can also change shape into a vampire bat being a vampire himself. For the sake of Lucy's well-being Dr. Seward positions himself to her caretaking. Dr. Van Helsing, the likeness of Hercule Poirot from the Agatha Christie novels, is introduced to the story and adds to much of the excitement and mystery. The fact that he has been called upon as the last resort and the only hope declares much for his abilities. He is for the moment a walking talking oracle, a wise being who keeps knowledge to his own discretion adding to his air of mystique. He seems to know very clearly of what is happening and administers blood transfusion to Lucy who is getting paler and paler having lost blood some uknown way (at least for the moment). Arthur, Dr. Seward, Q.Morris and Van Helsing himself all donate their blood to Lucy chronologically in different ocassions to keep her heart beating lest she should die of insufficient blood in her body. Renfield gives in to timley fits, taking the whole asylum by a mad force and constantly refers to someone as "Master" and we realise certainly enough that here again Dracula has been the cause of the stirrings. Renfiled also manages to break out to a house time and again calling out to his "master" and we can only rightly guess that the house is the property that had been looked upon by the Count. In one co-incidental accident Renfield cuts the wrist of Dr. Seward while a wolf siezes attack after the window to Lucy's room is completely shattered. An attacking wolf which is otherwise quite calm and domesticated and has been visited by the Dracula as accounted by the Keeper of the Zoological Gardens? The wolf controlling abilities of the fiend cannot be doubted. Even the garlic that has been till then successful in keeping Lucy under the borders of safety does not come of use. To add to our horrors Mrs. Westenra dies of a heart attack and Lucy writes a memorandum in case she should die as well.I am writing this down after having read Miss. Beaumont's blog. If Lucy's death can be linked as punishment for her breaking down the heart of two men then can it be that Mrs. Westenra's comes as a result of her interference earlier when Lucy was set to protection with wreaths of garlic and its flowers all over the room? It does bring in this notion of Karma which is quite interesting as it could have a gothic appeal to it. Be careful of what you do because what goes around comes around and if you do something bad (if not evil) it will come to get you back. It's like a warning to the reader to be careful of their intentions and what they indulge in incase they should be faced with death...as is the result in book. Not such a happy thought really.
The next day Lucy dies as well and the twisted extension to this will be mentioned in the coming blogs. But for now we are assured of her death and her amazing transformation into a youthful beauty with her colour coming back to normal as she lies on her deathbed. In her last hours Arthur bids farewell and when about to kiss her gets flung off with amazing force by Van Helsing. Why or for what reason, it is not made clear as of yet. But Lucy's teeth becoming pointed give us definite sign that she has now turned into a vampire and could be causing possible harm.
Finally some of the drama has come to an end...or maybe not so for Van Helsing keeps us aware "It is only the beginning!"
