I said enthusiastically:
..
- But we are both men of science, and we both know that what is not seen, heard, smelled, or understood, simply does not exist.. » . Dr. Richard smiled confidently.. Then he went to Juan in the corner of the room and opened his drawer and took out a full envelope.
He handed it to me and said:
- Read these papers before you talk about science...
Before I could respond, Mrs. Cummings entered with a cheerful face...
In English I tried to make it elegant, I thanked her for the dinner.. Then we started talking about the weather.. Then I praised their house.
And expressed my admiration for the painting of the Last Supper that was hanging.. She began to explain to me the story of the painting and the looks of astonishment drawn on the faces of the disciples.
...and...
- Do you know the secret of Westerners' pessimism about salt falling on the table?
I shook my head, admitting my ignorance. She said:
- Because (Judas) the traitor is drawn in the painting and salt has been spilled on the table in front of him...
Do you see his face? This is a face on which all the sins of mankind are drawn.. He is subject to the devil but he surrenders to this and finds no other way...
At this moment I had entered the world of the painting but
I was also thinking about the long distance that separates me from
the warm bed and reading this envelope that I am carrying.
When I returned to the hotel, I stretched out in bed and contemplated
the envelope that Dr. Richard had given me. It was full of old papers and photographs.
One of the pictures was of a strange ancient palace, another of a closed marble coffin, then a picture of something I did not understand what it was, then a picture of an oil painting of a tall bearded man.
As for the piece of yellow, worn paper, it had a map drawn in black ink of an unknown palace with catacombs named with Slavic names that I did not even know how to read...
So many riddles...
Finally, a paper in English - in Dr. Richard - says: "We searched for months in the crypts of Count Dracula's palace in Transylvania, which the authorities have banned tourists from visiting because it is in danger of collapsing in more than one place... Finally, we found the attached map that showed us the coffins of the Count's family in an old crypt full of dust and bats... We opened all the coffins until we found the Count's mummy. On its chest we found an ivory box containing a letter written by the Count's servant for future generations: I am writing this letter to those who come after me to warn them of a terrible imminent danger. The devil has chosen this wretched region. This is for him... Dracula is the first vampire to be born in this country. My master the Count is known among the peasants for his cruelty, tyranny, and his use of an army of mercenaries to impose his authority. All this made them call him (the devil) or (Dracula)... Every evening, the Count began to drink a damned mixture From the blood of pigs, wine and spices, claiming that it restores youth, he began to study black magic.. and became increasingly isolated and strange.
His face began to lengthen and his voice took on the tone of a wolf's howl
on moonlit nights. He began to go out in the evening and return at dawn and seclude himself for hours in the basement of the palace alone.. In fact, he no longer ate.
In the books of magic, I found an explanation for his condition.. This mixture that he drinks leads to immortality in the most hideous ways..
It turns those who are addicted to it into human bats that feed on human blood at night, sleep in a coffin during the day, and die if they see sunlight...
And I had to know..
The next morning I gathered my courage and went down to the basement of the palace where his family's coffins were. The smell of rot filled the place, and the mice were roaming freely. In a marble coffin I found what I was looking for (this part is not clear in the manuscript). No breathing.
His face was as pale as the dead, and on his lips were drops of blood that had not yet dried, and his eyes were open, staring at nothing...
I approached his lips, gathered my courage, and opened them...
I found two rows of fine teeth, like those of wild beasts. That unknown terror that paralyzes the mind completely overcame me... I ran in panic, and was dominated by one idea:
Escape... I don't know where... and I forgot to close the coffin again...
So the Count had become a vampire, and had become a burden on himself
and on others. So the villagers were right when they drew a cross when they passed by the palace,
and so this was the secret of the old beggar's body which they found near the palace lying on the grass with two red holes in his neck. This is why the Count removed the white curtains and the icons, and this is why there was that howling which shook the palace on moonlit nights...
This is why...and this is why.
I went back to the magic books to read them, the vampire is a nightmare.. and it is my duty to find a cure for this nightmare
especially since he has not yet sucked my blood, perhaps because he needs it..
Killing vampires is easy, he dies from any
religious symbol.. he is a symbolic creature, his existence is a symbol and his death
is done by symbols, light, white color, silver and heavenly books all kill him, but the effective method is a wooden stake that is driven into his chest, then the prayer for the dead is recited over him,
and the magic books warn that: just as the vampire is a symbol
his death is a symbol, he returns to life once every hundred years to wreak havoc on the earth, then after he spreads terror and death he is killed
by a human being who has not been polluted... and .....
Here I felt something unusual in the room.. I raised
my head and found Count (Dracula) standing over my head blocking the door while smiling a terrifying yellow smile, night had come
without me knowing and when he got up he found the coffin lid Exposed
And I realized that I understood!
And I looked at him in panic...
His face no longer bore any relation to the face I knew.. His
terrible fangs.. His pale wrinkled skin.. The smell of sulfur
that all the magic books talk about, moved in front of the mirror and I did not
find his image, even the candle did not leave a shadow of him on
the wall..
I screamed: Oh my God.. Save me!
He was startled.. and stepped back for a moment.. I ran to the door as I had never run in
my life to my room.. I locked the door with the key, and on
the bed I fainted, and the last thing I saw was the door handle
moving, but the door was closed.
Yes.. The Count has become the devil's successor on earth,
He is sick and he knows it, and I have decided to relieve him.
I will kill him today, the magic books said that he will die at the hands of
an untainted man.. And I am that man, I am the judge, the prosecutor,
and the executioner together, I will descend upon him with the silver dagger, the tattoo, and above all
everything. By my faith
And if I am polluted and have met my death, let whoever finds this
letter know what I have learned and let him wait for the return of the count every
year, and let him who is right among us triumph.
The Count's servant / Giuseppe Michael
In the year of the Lord 1559...
After the end of the letter, I found a small comment in Dr. Richard's handwriting saying: They found the mummy of the Count, and on its chest was this warning for future generations, and that this means that the servant succeeded in his mission... The notes ended. I turned off the lamp switch and closed my eyes to rest them in the dark... So this nonsense is what occupies the mind of the great scientist... And all this foolish talk that they say in cheap horror films about Indians, Spartans, and Chinese mummies... Nonsense. I went on to amuse myself by trying to imagine the form of evil in the world... A red-eyed ogre... An octopus with six arms... I couldn't... And for some reason I don't know, the image of Judas's face in Da Vinci's painting didn't leave my mind... The miserable, sinful look... The look of a sinner who can only sin... And I didn't know how, nor when, I sank into a deep sleep.