Dracula's Guest

by Bram Stoker

When we started our drive, the sun was shining and the air was full of the happiness of early summer. When we were leaving, Mr. Delbruck (the manager of the hotel where I was staying) came down and said to the driver: "Remember you must be back before dark. The sky looks bright, but the cold north wind makes me think a storm is coming. But I'm sure you won’t be late," Here he smiled and added, "because you know what tonight is."

Johann drove off quickly. When we left the town, I said, after asking him to stop:

"Tell me, Johann, why is tonight special?"

He answered very slowly: "Walpurgis Night." Then he looked at his watch. I knew this was his way of complaining about stopping and so I sat back again and I only told him to carry on driving. He started quickly. Every now and then the horses smelt the air unhappily. The road was empty because we were travelling in a high, windy place. While we were driving, I saw another small road that went through a lovely valley. It looked so inviting that I told Johann to drive down there. But he refused to go and so I asked him some questions about it. He answered unhappily and looked at his watch again and again.

Finally I said, "Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I won’t ask you to come if you don’t want to; but tell me why not, that’s all I ask." He got very frightened and told me not to go. There was enough English mixed with his German for me to understand what he was trying to say. He always seemed like he was going to tell me something – but it frightened him. So, every time he stopped, only saying, "Walpurgis Night!"

I tried to argue with him, but it was difficult because I didn’t know his language. Although he began to speak in simple English, he always got excited and returned to German – and, again and again, he looked at his watch. And the horses smelt the air more and more often.

While we were talking, we heard an animal noise. It was far away, but the horses got very frightened and it took Johann all his time to control them. He was as white as death and said, "It sounds like a wolf - but there are no wolves here now."

"No?" I said, questioning him. "Isn't it a long time since the wolves were so near the city?"

"Long, long," he answered.

While he was trying to control the horses, dark clouds moved quickly across the sky. The sunshine went away, and a cold wind blew over us for a moment before the sun shone again.

Johann said, "A snow storm is coming before long." Then he looked at his watch and wanted to start our journey again.

I felt a little annoyed and said:

"Tell me about the place where the road goes," and I looked at the valley.

He answered, "It is an evil place."

"What is?" I asked.

"The village."

"Then there is a village?"

"No, no. No-one has lived there for hundreds of years."

"But you said there was a village."

"There was."

"Where is it now?"

Then he began a long story in German and English, so mixed up that I could not understand what he said. It seemed that long ago, hundreds of years, men had died and they buried them there; but people heard noises under the ground, and when they opened the graves, they found men and women alive and their mouths red with blood. And so, in a hurry to save their own lives, the people ran away to other places, where the living lived and the dead were dead. As he went on with his story, he got more and more excited. He looked really frightened - white-faced and looking round him like he expected something terrible there in the bright sunshine.

Finally, he cried, "Walpurgis Night!" and told me to get in.

I got quite annoyed at this, and standing back I said, "You are afraid, Johann - you are afraid. Go home! I’ll return alone, the walk will be good for me. Go home, Johann - Walpurgis Night doesn't worry Englishmen!"

The horses were now very excited and Johann was trying to hold them, while he was telling me not to do anything so stupid. I felt sorry for the poor man, he was so serious, but I had to laugh. His English was gone now. He had forgotten that my only way of understanding him was when he talked my language. It began to get boring. I turned down the road into the valley.

Johann turned his horses towards the hotel. I looked after him. He went slowly along the road for a while, and then a tall, thin man came over the hill. I could not see much in the distance. When he came near the horses, they began to jump and kick, then to scream with fright. Johann could not hold them; they ran madly down the road. I watched them and then looked for the stranger; but I found that he was gone too.

I turned into the road through the valley which Johann had not wanted to visit. There was not the smallest reason for his worry and I walked for a couple of hours without thinking of time or distance and without seeing a person or a house. It was completely silent.

I sat down to rest and began to look around. It was colder than at the start of my walk. Looking up, I noticed that thick clouds were moving across the sky from north to south. A storm was coming. I was a little cold and started walking again.

The valley was now more beautiful. There was beauty in everything. I did not notice the time, and it was only when it began to get dark that I thought about finding my way home. The air was cold. There was a far-away sound: I seemed to hear that wolf, but I thought I could see the empty village, so I went on.

As I looked, snow began to fall. I thought of the miles and miles of country I had passed, and then hurried on to the wood in front of me. The sky grew darker and darker and the snow fell faster and heavier, till the earth was a shining white carpet. The road stopped here. Then the wind grew stronger, till I had to run in front of it. The air became icy-cold and I began to worry. The snow was now falling so fast that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Every now and then, the sky was lit by lightning, and I could see trees in front of me, all covered with snow.

I was soon under the trees and, in the silence, I could hear the wolf around me again.

Now and again, through the black cloud, the moon appeared and showed me I was near a thick forest. As the snow stopped falling, I began to look around more carefully. I had passed so many ruins that I thought I could find an old house to rest for a while. As I walked near the wood, I found a wall and here the trees made a path to a square building. Just when I saw this, however, the clouds covered the moon, and I walked up the path in darkness. The wind was colder as I walked.

I stopped because there was a sudden silence. The storm had stopped. The moonlight showed in the clouds and I saw that I was in a graveyard and that the square building in front of me was a huge tomb, as white as the snow all around it. I was shocked and I felt the cold in my heart. Then the storm started again. I went nearer to the tomb to see what it was and why it stood alone in this place. I walked around it and read, over the door, in German:

LADY DOLINGEN

LOOKED FOR AND FOUND DEATH

1801

On the back I saw:

"THE DEAD TRAVEL FAST."

There was something so strange about this that I felt sick. Now, I wanted Johann's advice. With a terrible shock, I remembered this was Walpurgis Night!

Walpurgis Night was when graves opened and the dead came out, when all evil things of earth and air and water lived again. This was the place where the driver had specially refused to come. This was the empty village of centuries ago. This was where the dead lived and this was the place where I was alone - cold with a winter storm around me! I had to hide in the only place away from the storm, the doorway of the tomb.

When I pushed against the door, it moved slightly and opened. Even a tomb was welcome in that terrible storm and I was going to enter it when lightning lit the sky. At that moment, I saw, as my eyes looked into the darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman with red lips, sleeping on a grave. I hurried outside. It happened so fast that, before I understood what I saw, the snow was falling on me again. At the same time I had a strange feeling that I was not alone. Just then there was more lightning. The dead woman moved for a moment. I ran and ran. The last sight that I remembered was white figures moving, like the graves were sending out their dead, and they were coming towards me in the driving snow.

I felt dreadful tiredness. For a time I remembered nothing. When I woke up, my feet were very painful, but I could not move them. There was an icy feeling at the back of my neck, and my ears, like my feet, were dead; but there was a welcome warmth on my chest. But it was also a nightmare because it made it difficult for me to breathe.

Silence was all around me, like the world was asleep or dead - only broken by a noise, like an animal near me. I felt something warm at my throat, then I understood the dreadful truth which sent the blood to my head. A huge animal was lying on top of me and was now licking my throat. I was afraid to move; but the animal knew there was a change in me, because it lifted its head. I saw the two great burning eyes of a wolf on me. Its white teeth shone in the red mouth, and I could feel its hot breath on me.

For a time I remembered nothing more. Then I became aware of a low growl, repeated again and again. Then very far away, I heard "Hello! Hello!" like many people shouting together. Carefully I lifted my head and looked in the direction where the noise came from, but I could not see because the graves were in the way. A red light began to move in the trees. As the shouts came closer, the wolf growled faster and louder. I was afraid of moving. The red light came nearer. Then, suddenly, I saw horsemen with burning lamps.

The wolf got up from my chest and ran to the graves. I saw one of the soldiers lift his gun. His friend hit his arm, and I heard the bullet fly over my head. Then, the soldiers ran forwards - some towards me, others following the wolf as it disappeared among the snowy trees.

When they came nearer, I tried to move but I couldn’t, although I could see and hear everything that went on around me. Two or three soldiers jumped from their horses and stood beside me. One of them lifted my head and placed his hand on my heart.

"Good news!" he cried. "He’s alive! Come away quickly! This is no place to stay, especially tonight!"

"What was that animal?" was the question everybody asked. Different answers came. The men all wanted to speak at once, but were frightened of speaking their thoughts.

"A wolf - but not a wolf!" one said.

"No use trying to kill him without a silver bullet," a second said.

"There was blood on the grave," another said, "The lightning never brought that there. And look at him - is he safe? Look at his throat! The wolf was lying on him and keeping him warm."

The officer looked at my throat and said, "He’s all right, the skin isn’t broken. What does it all mean? It was because of the wolf that we found him."

"What happened to it?" asked another man.

"It went home. There are enough graves here where it can lie. Come, friends - quickly! Let’s leave this terrible place."

Some men put me on a horse. A young soldier jumped behind me, took me in his arms, gave the word to move and, turning away from the trees, we rode away.

I was silent. I think I fell asleep; because the next thing I remembered was standing up, a soldier on each side of me. It was almost daylight and, in the north, red sunlight was like blood over the snow. The officer was telling the men to say nothing of what they’d seen, except that they found an Englishman with a large dog.

"Dog! That was no dog," cut in a man. "I think I know a wolf when I see one."

The young officer answered quietly, "I said a dog."

"Dog!" repeated the other. It was clear that his courage was rising with the sun; and, pointing to me, he said, "Look at his throat. Is that the work of a dog?"

I lifted my hand to my throat and it hurt. The men crowded round me to look; and again there was the answer of the quiet young officer, "A dog, as I said. If we say anything else, people will laugh at us."

They took me to the hotel where I was staying - the young officer went with me, and the others rode away.

When we arrived, the hotel manager hurried so quickly to meet me that it was clear he was waiting inside. I said that the officer must come to my room. Over a cup of hot coffee, I thanked him and his men for saving me.

I asked the manager, "How and why did the soldiers look for me? How did you know I was lost?"

"The driver came here without his broken carriage."

"But surely you would not send soldiers only because of that?"

"Oh, no!" he answered, "but even before the driver arrived, I had a telegram from the owner of this hotel," and he took it from his pocket and handed it to me.

I read: “Take care of my guest - his safety is most important to me. If anything happens to him, do everything to find him. The snow and wolves can be dangerous at night. Do not lose a moment if you think he’s hurt. I will pay for everything - Dracula.”

There was something so strange in all this, something so impossible to imagine. From another country a message came that got me out of the danger of the snow and the wolf.