Level 9

Level 9

Dracula 3
Mina’s Story
Mina’s Story

Copyright © 2013 by Little Fox Co., Ltd.

All rights reserved.
September 4, 1876, London
Dear Diary,
When Jonathan told me that he had been asked to
travel to Transylvania on business, I was devastated
because I knew that it meant we might have to postpone
our autumn wedding plans. Regardless, I encouraged him
to go, hoping that he could use this opportunity to secure
more business from Count Dracula in the future. Still, I
was worried that I would be lonely without him.
To pass the time, I went to visit my best friend, Lucy,
at her seaside home in Whitby, a summer resort town
north of London. Her boyfriend, Arthur, had just asked her
to marry him, so we had a lot to discuss and plan for her
nuptials, as well as my own.
“Jonathan wrote me a letter from Transylvania, but it’s
very strangely worded,” I complained to Lucy one day.
“Maybe he’s ill,” she replied, but in the next breath, The sea air smelled so fresh and wonderful that it
she continued gushing over her beloved Arthur, describing revived my senses after so many long, dreary, English
how he’d proposed to her on the shore at dusk. She always winter days spent in London. Lucy and I took walks
talked about him and I felt myself becoming jealous. Why together each afternoon before teatime, along the beach
had Jonathan left me for so long? And why were his letters where the calm waves from the North Sea washed up on
so short and strange? I was angry with him, yet worried shore. The sky seemed perpetually blue, with no rain for
for him as well. many weeks, until one night, a terrible thunderstorm came

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in off the coast.
The next morning, a giddy Lucy banged on my patio
doors, waking me up early, and told me to put on my robe.
“Come out here on the shore!” she called. “Look! Look at
the ship!”
When I arrived at her side on the beach a few minutes
later, I could barely believe my own eyes. There on the
shore, just a few feet from her property, was a large ship
that must have crashed in the night. The townspeople were
gathered around it and Lucy asked a young man if there
was anyone on board.
“Nobody,” said the young man. “There wasn’t anyone
on board, dead or alive. But there were about fifty wooden
coffins filled with soil on the lower deck and when we
went to open the door, a large black dog jumped out. He
ran off into the woods.”
Everyone in town was talking about the mysterious vanished into thin air!”
ship that afternoon. “It’s a Russian ship,” I overheard one “Has anyone seen the black dog?” I asked. They just
man tell his friend. “Yup, it looks like it’s come across shook their heads.
the Black Sea from Varna. There are logs, but nobody has Sometime after midnight that night, I awoke to find
filled them out for weeks. A realtor from London came to my bedroom patio doors open and a cool breeze blowing
collect the cargo this afternoon, but even they don’t know into the room. I got up to close them, but when I looked
what happened to the captain and crew─it’s as if they had out, I saw Lucy skipping across the lawn toward the

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woods. Lucy had once told me a story of how she loved to
play in the woods as a child, close to the cemetery out by
the old abandoned parish down the road. I was overcome
with worry─maybe she was walking in her sleep and
didn’t know what she was doing? I promptly pulled on my
robe and hurried out into the yard to follow her.
When I finally caught up to Lucy, she was indeed
at the parish in the cemetery, but her mannerisms
were childlike and strange. She was sitting on top of a
gravestone, humming a song to herself; her eyes were
closed and she was swinging her feet like a child. Behind
her, a figure moved in the shadows─the dog!
Then, all of a sudden, the black dog leaped out
of the woods and attacked Lucy’s neck! She let out a
shrieking scream that scared it off. Then she tumbled
from the gravestone, landing hard on the ground, and lost
consciousness. family doctor, Jack Seward, and we waited anxiously for
I called for Arthur’s help immediately, and he came his arrival the next morning. Unfortunately, by the time his
rushing to Lucy’s side, knelt down, and picked her up in coach pulled up, Lucy’s condition had worsened─she was
his strong arms. Together, we carried her into her room and awake, but appeared to be in a trance, just staring out the
put her in bed. She had lost all the color in her face, but window toward the woods and humming a little tune to
had only two small puncture wounds on her neck, which herself.
were dripping with blood. Lucy’s mother telephoned their The strange illness persisted. The doctor and I took

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turns staying with Lucy through each night, watching for
any changes. One evening, I fell asleep in the chair next
to her bed, and in the middle of the night, I was awoken
by a noise. Lucy was standing next to the window and
talking out loud to herself. “Come to me,” she said. “I will
give you what you want . . .” I stood up and walked over
to her, but before I could stop her, she opened the window
and tried to jump out. I pulled her back to the bed, and as I
did, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the large black dog
pacing back and forth in the woods. I shuddered with fear.
Finally, after many stressful days, I received a letter
from Jonathan telling me that he was in Bistritz and would
be taking the next boat home to England. However, my
excitement was dashed because, after a fortnight, he had
still not arrived in London. Then, one chilly morning, I
received notice from a hospital in Budapest that my fiancé
was in their care after arriving on foot with nothing but dehydrated and his clothes are ragged,” she explained. “We
the clothes on his back. Poor Jonathan was quite ill─just think that he walked here on foot from Transylvania, but
as Lucy had suspected! I told Arthur about the situation, he won’t acknowledge any of our questions. He only asked
and he insisted that he would nurse Lucy so that I could go that we send notice to you that he was here.” Oh, my poor
take care of Jonathan. Jonathan! He was so frail and thin compared to when he
At the Budapest hospital, a sympathetic nurse led me had left for the castle in the spring, and I just collapsed in
down a long corridor and into Jonathan’s room. “He’s quite his arms crying.

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 “Why won’t you tell us what happened?” I begged.
But, instead of responding, he just handed me his diary
and motioned for me to sit in the chair next to his bed.
In the pages of his diary, I was shocked to learn of his
adventure in Transylvania and the horrible descriptions of
the count.
The next morning, I held him tight in my arms and
said, “Oh, Jonathan, I’m so happy that you are safe and far
away from that man.”
“Yes, Mina,” he replied. “As am I . . . I never wish to
see him again.”
As soon as Jonathan was well enough to walk again,
we returned to England by ship, and were married shortly
after in one of the largest churches in London. Our family
and friends were delighted to see Jonathan healthy again
after his great ordeal, and asked him many questions about
his experience in Transylvania. It was from Arthur. I ripped it open quickly, hoping that it
But no matter how many people approached him would be news about his wedding to Lucy, but wasn’t an
wanting a story, he never spoke of his time at Castle invitation─it was something I hadn’t expected! The good
Dracula again. doctor Seward had tried everything to treat my dear friend
Our lives seemed to finally be settling into place when, Lucy, but his efforts had failed─Lucy was dead. I told
one sunny afternoon, there was a knock at the door, and I Jonathan, and we made plans to attend Lucy’s funeral the
opened it to discover a letter had been left on the doorstep. next week.

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