"I know when you go down all your darkest roads, I would've followed all the way to the graveyard, oh, 'cause I keep digging myself down deeper, I won't stop till I get where you are"
- Graveyard by Halsey
It was an interesting rest of the day. We did go for a tea at an inn along the cliffs. It was old-fashioned and lovely, of course. We ran into some friendly cows on our way back, but we were all being very cautious of wild bulls.
We intended to head up to bed as soon as dinner was finished, but Mrs. Westenra, as it turns out, had decided she was in the mood to come down for supper for once, and she'd invited a young curate over. I noticed both Mina and Lucy's heads drooping at the table.
When we finally stumbled up to bed, Lucy was complaining quite a bit. "One of these days, someone is going to have to go about training young men, ones who don't take supper, and know what tiredness looks like in a lady!"
And we thought that was the end of it. All in all, not one of my better birthdays, having attended a funeral and gotten the news that a personal acquaintance had been murdered, but other than that, it hadn't been terrible.
*
Mina woke in the middle of the night, in complete darkness. She'd been having some sort of wretched dream, and she was grasping for just what it was when she felt an air of crushing emptiness, soul-destroying loneliness surrounding her.
She sighed. Her own paranoia getting the better of her. But when your best friend sleepwalks and you wake up feeling alone, you ought to give it a look.
She couldn't see Lucy's bed, so she stood up, her back making an odd crackling noise, and felt the bedclothes for a sign of warmth. Lucy had clearly gotten up.
Mina struck a match, and found that Lucy wasn't in the room at all. She considered yelling, but Mrs. Westenra had been in worse health than usual lately.
She looked around. Lucy's dressing gown and dress were both where they'd been left, so she couldn't be far.
Mina quickly threw on some clothes and ran to search the house. When she came to the door, she found it unlatched, and panic struck her immediately.
What was she to do? She had to look around, she had to search, she had to -
Surely something had to be done. It looked as if she'd already lost Jonathan, she couldn't -
Mina took a deep breath. No. Jonathan was not gone. She had not lost him. If anything, she had temporarily misplaced him. The same had happened to Lucy.
What did she do if she'd misplaced something? She'd retrace her steps. Done. Then she'd enlist help.
She thought she might have audibly groaned. She did not want to deal with vampires at the moment, even if it made sense. She was one woman alone, searching for another woman alone, and there were three supernatural creatures of the night upstairs. She might as well make use of them.
*
I woke to Mina shaking me awake. "Wake up, you useless lump! Lucy's missing! She's gone sleepwalking, I think she's outside, and I don't know where she is! Addy and Bess are already helping. Do any of you have a supernatural sense of smell?"
We don't, really. It's better than a mortal's, of course, but I'd never seen Mina like this. She had lost all of her composure, and it was terrifying me. She looked unusually disheveled.
And so I lied. "Yes."
Shawls were thrown on, and we were racing through the Crescent as the clock struck one in the morning. No one was in sight. I couldn't smell Lucy, but I couldn't smell death, either, and trust me, that's a lot stronger than any one individual person.
We ran, screaming Lucy's name, Mina yelling till her throat was hoarse, until she finally fell to the ground, whether out of despair or exhaustion, I'll probably never know.
She crumpled like a marionette whose strings had been cut, falling in a magnificent arc. I tried to catch her, but she broke her own fall when her hands hit the ground. "No no no no no." It was only the sea and Mina's whispers of worry.
Mina was stern, rigid, practically emotionless, and yet she'd been reduced to this.
"It was Lucy, wasn't it," I said, piecing the puzzle together. It made sense. Perfect, beautiful Lucy.
But that didn't make sense, did it? I'd seen her worry, I'd seen her stress each day when the post came and there was nothing from Jonathan. That was not something that could be lied about.
But then it clicked into place. Of course she cared about him. She cared for them both. Perhaps more for Lucy, though.
Mina Murray was turning out to be a much more complicated person than I ever could have expected, and I believe she may have gained a good deal of respect in my eyes that night.
I held out my hand to help her up. "Lucy will be fine," I said, taking care to keep my voice firm, "but she needs you to stand up."
Mina got to her feet, and Bess chose that very opportune moment to come barreling towards us, the added speed of being a vampire in full effect.
"She's at the bench, she's at the bench! I found Lucy, she's at your bench, where they found Mr. Swales!" She gasped for air. "There's something wrong with her."
We all ran for the churchyard, and as it came into a view, the moon struck the figure of someone sitting on a bench. Lucy, a snowdrop in the night.
Mina shrieked something I couldn't identify, and she took off running. As we got closer, I saw something else. A white figure, hunched over her. It looked up, and its eyes appeared red.
My heart stopped (as if it was still beating in the first place), and I began sprinting, moving in great leaping bounds, overtaking Mina.
The Thing snarled at me, but disappeared a second later.
Now it was just Lucy, alone on the bench. She was still asleep, but her breath was coming in great gasping heaves, and her hand was around her throat. I knew what this meant before I saw it.
I wanted to vomit, but I did not. Instead, I basically stabbed my lower lip with one of my fangs, which seemed to sate my bloodlust for the time being. I tore her fingers from her neck, and Mina threw a shawl around her.
Now it became all too clear she was fighting for breath, every moment a strain on her lungs. Blood trickled from her throat, slow at first, then pouring out in great rushing rivers. Mina ripped off her own shawl in an attempt to halt the bleeding.
Addy miraculously appeared a moment later. "There's definitely something wrong with her."
"No shit!" I snapped. "What do we do?"
Lucy moaned in her sleep.
Addy joined the war to staunch the bleeding. "Do you know what happened to her?"
"I think Dracula happened to her!" I exclaimed.
"As you so eloquently said, no shit! We don't have a lot of time!" She used the shawl to dab at her neck. "Bess, go find wild rose petals. Now." Her head whipped back to me. "He was feeding and you interrupted him, didn't you?"
"Feeding!" Mina shrieked.
"That's why she's dying!"
Luckily, Bess returned with a wild rose clipping, and Addy pressed a petal to her throat. Lucy made an odd hissing noise.
"Yes, that won't feel very good," Addy said with a grimace, removing the petal. All that was left was a circular burn mark on Lucy's neck. With the ironlike scent of blood gone, I stopped biting my lip, and turned into the nearby bushes to - you guessed it, reader - vomit.
"It should be safe to wake her up now," Addy said.
Mina pulled off her shoes, seeing as she was the only one of us smart to put them on, and fastened them to Lucy's feet before gently shaking her awake.
"Where am I?" Lucy asked, and I nearly jumped backward. Her voice was so tattered, so raspy. She sounded awful.
"In the churchyard," Mina said in a whisper.
"And why am I in a nightgown?" She grasped at lose folds of fabric. I could only imagine she was feeling very exposed.
"You were sleepwalking."
"You needn't whisper." She looked down at a strand of her hair that had fallen in front of her face, a blonde ringlet now caked in red. "And where is the blood coming from?"
"We couldn't find you, and when we did, you were bleeding," Bess explained, keeping her voice gentle.
"Dracula bit you," Addy said in the bluntest tone imaginable. "You'll be a vampire soon enough. Just like us."
Mina pivoted towards us. "What?!" Clearly, she had been too busy to listen to our conversation.
"Shut it, you'll wake up the whole town," Addy hissed.
"It's no trouble, Mina," Lucy said with a shrug. "I'll be fine, won't I? Well, I imagine I'll have to die first, but I'll still come back."
That was the moment I realized what a truly strange girl Lucy Westenra was.
"You will in the end, most likely," Addy said with a sigh, hands on her hips. I could tell that her overtired brain was looking for a solution to all of this, and failing to come up with any. "You might be very ill for a few weeks. But trust me when I say that you've just been cursed. Vampirism is a truly hideous condition."
"Come on, get up," Mina said in a very uncharacteristic way, her voice soft and quiet. She then turned her head to glare at Addy, which assured us all she hadn't changed a whit. "We need to get you home."
Mina limped along gravel streets, supporting Lucy, who was leaning on her shoulder. Bess, Addy, and I were also without shoes, but our feet had already been bloodied up sprinting back and forth all over Whitby, and we figured there was no use in complaining now.
"Do you want your shoes back?" I heard Lucy ask Mina. They were walking in front of us, a good bit ahead. I didn't mind. We were all used to skulking in the shadows anyway, and it felt oddly like home.
"No, keep them," Mina replied.
A few minutes later we all had to duck into an alley to avoid a drunk stumbling past. Another night he might have ended up as my dinner.
Here is a quick guide to being a vampire who feeds on humans in an urban area: First of all, stop what you're doing and consider your life - or afterlife - choices, and go find yourself a nice, I don't know, maybe there's a butcher shop nearby. Get blood there. There are blood banks, too, that's a nice option.
But if you must? Set up shop near a pub. Pick the least sober person who stumbles out the door. They probably won't remember anything in the morning, but better safe than sorry.
And you don't drink from the neck unless absolutely necessary. You could accidentally end up killing somebody. The wrist is the way to go.
But tonight was not the night to eat someone.
Mina confessed later that she was concerned about our reputations if this happened. Lucy remembered she just wanted to sleep.
In this case, I am more inclined to side with Lucy.
We finally made it back, and all washed our feet.
"Not a word of this to my mother," Lucy said as she stumbled upstairs.
Mina turned to us before following. "I'll be back in a few minutes, and I'd like to speak with you once I am."
So we sat in the parlor and waited.
As soon as all was quiet upstairs, Mina returned. "How could you," she said, her voice shaking with anger. I had been amazed by her composure the whole way back, certain her anger would burst out and drown us, but she'd kept it together because she didn't want Lucy to worry.
"What?" Bess asked.
"Why would you come here? Why? Are you all working for him, or did he target us simply because you're here with us?"
"It had nothing to do with us," Addy snapped as my heart began to sink. "How dare you accuse us of such a thing."
"It had everything to do with you!"
"Lucy was an easy target! She was out alone at night, and sleepwalking, no less! Like he wouldn't snatch her up!"
"What happened to Lucy is terrible," Bess said firmly. "But it is in no way our fault."
I couldn't help but wonder if this was a lie.
"I was very surprised it wasn't you who tried to bite her! You were all practically salivating! I know how you gain that longevity you never should've had! How old are you today, Mary, two-hundred twenty-three, was it? You're all abominations, scum of the earth!"
None of us bothered with a retort, because we all knew it was true. If any one of us had lost control again, it could've been disastrous, just like last time. Except this time it wouldn't have been a nameless individual in a dark forest in Transylvania. It would have been a friend in a lovely town in England, which made the situations two completely different entities.
As I write that, I realize for what must be at least the millionth time that I am absolutely a horrible person.
"Out of the kindness of my heart, I won't try to have you sent away! But I do expect you out of here by first light tomorrow morning, and if you ever set foot here again, I will personally rip you all to pieces!"
We sat in silence for a few seconds.
"LEAVE!" Mina screamed, and we all hurried to our bedroom as fast as we could.
Addy slammed the door behind us and Bess flopped down onto a bed. We sat in silence. "Think we ought to pack our belongings?" I asked weakly, trying not to cry.
"Oh, act like this isn't all your fault," Addy snapped.
Any sadness I had felt now transferred into aggression. "What do you mean by that?"
"Lucy almost died tonight, and I know that was your fault! I know it was you, I saw you running and I saw him disappear!"
"Addy, it looked to me like you were sitting in the churchyard waiting for him to finish her off! You're worse than me! You knew what was happening and you didn't even try to stop him!"
"I showed you every sign! You're the one who ignored them all, so how is this my fault? I told you, you know! I told you everything! I told you he was coming here to form his army, but you didn't listen to me because you didn't want to hear it!"
Bess jumped to her feet. "You knew!" she shrieked. "You were keeping information from me! How could you not tell me!"
"Bess, we didn't -"
"No! You both treat me like a stupid, fragile, child - well, here's a spot of news for you! I'm not! I've seen as much as both of you and I'm sick of it! Just because I actually show some fucking emotion once in a while doesn't mean I'm weak, so why do you keep doing this to me?"
"Now look what you've done," Addy snarled at me.
"Oh, yes, everything's my fault! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and take some responsibility!"
"Me?" She laughed wildly. "Me! This from the girl who's denying everything!"
"STOP!" Bess shouted. We both turned to her. "Mina's making us leave in the morning, and I honestly can't blame her, Lucy nearly ended up where we've been for centuries, locked up in a dark castle! So we go our separate ways, and we'll never have to see each other again. Does that make everyone happy?"
We both nodded slowly, in slight shock from the turn our conversation had taken.
"Alright! Then go to sleep!"
I climbed into bed, thinking that there probably wasn't a single person in the entire world who genuinely liked me, and that I almost deserved it. Leaving forever seemed like an impossibly good idea.
I must have started to cry, because from across the room, Addy told me to shut up.
Technically, my birthday had already been over for three hours, but I decided that this was the worst birthday I'd ever had. It was the worst day I'd ever had, full stop.
But that's how it always feels when what feels like the worst thing has just happened.
And here's the truth: The worst thing in the moment is never actually the worst thing. Yes, it might be bad. In fact, it might even be awful. But it's never the worst thing.
In the morning when I woke up, Addy had left the room, but Bess was sitting on her bed. "I was waiting for you," she said in a stiff voice. "You've been sleeping a very long time. Lucy calmed Mina down. She's still going to be wretched, of course, but we can stay. Lucy's not mad at all, she says she needs us now. I'm really sorry about last night."
"I'm sorry, too," I said with a sigh. "I don't think we'd live without you. I'll tell you when things are happening from now on."
"Alright. Good."
This was an odd conversation. Bess was usually an open book.
"Has Addy come around yet?"
Bess shook her head. "She's not talking. You know how she gets. Grudges are her specialty. She still wanted to leave, actually, but Lucy made her stay."
"Good. We couldn't get on without her, either."
Bess sighed. "No, you're right about that." She looked at a clock hanging on the wall. "You've been asleep for about twelve hours. Mina and Lucy are out on a walk with Mrs. Westenra, and they're going to be hearing some music this evening, but Mina's made it perfectly clear that we're not joining them."
Addy stayed quiet throughout the day.
As much as I appreciated Lucy talking Mina off the edge, I couldn't help but feel that perhaps we would have deserved it if she'd sent us away. At least a little bit, anyway.
Lucy came to our room the next day, thinking it was the only way she'd be able to have a civil conversation with us without interference. It was just Bess and I, as Addy wouldn't stay in a room with us. "Mina's been trying to keep me away from you," she said conversationally, before sitting down in a nearby chair. "She means well, she's just trying to protect me, she's just a little bit awful."
"I understand," Bess replied, even though it was very obvious she was saying this for Lucy's benefit alone. I understood it a bit more than that.
Lucy noticed and changed the subject. "I've been sleepwalking again. Does that have anything to do with becoming a vampire?"
"We were really young at the time, so we can't remember," I answered. "But based on the fact that you sleepwalk anyway, I'd say probably not."
"That's good."
We all sat there, staring at each other, until Lucy stood up.
"That's it. Just had to ask a question."
That made things even more awkward, but she kept going.
"Mina's been worried sick about Jonathan and I should probably help her calm down."
"She's probably more worried about you than Jonathan." The words popped out of my mouth before I could suppress them. I could easily keep the fact that I was a vampire from Mrs. Westenra, who was living in the same house as me, but clearly I couldn't keep a crush under wraps as easily.
Lucy's brow creased. "What?"
Well, it wasn't easy to go back on my words after that. I would have to say it. "I have an inkling of a suspicion that Mina may or may not be in love with you."
That is possibly the least smooth thing I have ever said.
Bess groaned, and then looked at me with hatred in her eyes. "Have you never read a romance novel? Or, I don't know, been alive? You always wait for the other person to confess their feelings! Nobody wants to hear about this from a friend."
"How do you know?" Lucy asked, her face, for once, very difficult to read. She was a pathological liar and an excellent actress, but I'd never had her use her skills on me before.
"I don't." What else could I have said? That Mina collapsed in the hour or so that she was gone and then I asked her if she was in love with her and she didn't deny it? Barely evidence, if any at all. Although Victorian attitudes to homosexuality were not very progressive, so I suppose the fact that she wasn't totally disgusted by the idea was a bit of a tip-off.
"There is a very high probability that you have been designed to be the worst at romance in the known universe," Bess complained.
Readers, I am aromantic. This term wasn't widespread in those days. In a way, yes, I am the worst at romance, so it's good that I have no interest in it.
I could see the color creeping into Lucy's cheeks now.
"Oh, God, did I just ruin a friendship?"
"No, it's just... I have to go."
She left promptly.
"You just ruined a friendship," Bess told me, before throwing a large book in my general direction.
Lucy returned the next day. "What happened?" Bess asked as soon as she walked through the door.
"Well, according to Mina, a bat tried to fly through my window."
"That was definitely Dracula," I replied.
"Would it be bad if he bit me again?"
"Yes," I answered grimly. "Since you already carry the vampiric infection and will likely start to change into a vampire soon, there's no point in biting you again. I suspect his original intention was to kidnap you as a soldier for this army he's starting to form, but then he saw us and fled, so he knows you know what he is and what's happening to you, so if he bites you again, he will most likely be trying to kill you."
Lucy digested this information remarkably quickly. She blinked twice and then said slowly, "I'll inform Mina, then."
"I meant what happened with you and Mina, but this is an interesting conversation, too," Bess said idly. "Dark, though. Also, I want answers."
"Oh, I told her about our conversation last night. There was a lot of 'that bloody bitch' and talk of murdering all three of you in your sleep, but I got her calmed down."
Lucy blushed hard. "I told her I'm in love with her, too. I mean, I am. You know, when you're raised knowing you'll be married for appearances and money... someone like Mina might be your only chance."
I thought this was a weird way of describing such things, and apparently this was clear from the look on my face because Lucy took one look and clarified.
"I wouldn't choose anyone else over her had I the opportunity to be with someone different."
I nodded approvingly.
Bess clapped her hands together. "You. Are. In. Love. This is so important! This is so good for you two!" Then she seemed to realize something and her smile fell. "What about your fiances?"
"Oh." Lucy shrugged. "It's not a conflict of interest, seeing as everything's already been arranged, and the two of us can't exactly get married, can we?"
This seemed a depressing outlook.
"And Mina's calmed enough to invite you to spend the day with us tomorrow. I already asked Addy, and she said no. She's not really speaking to me at the moment. I'd assume you know why?"
So then we had to explain the fight.
We spent the next day on the East Cliff. Lucy was reading some sort of adventure story, it might have been Treasure Island. Although it's also worth noting that I didn't know that particular book existed at the time, and I'm still not completely sure it did exist then, because I didn't read it until the seventies.
Anyway.
So Lucy was reading a book, Bess was sketching a portrait of Lucy, Mina was writing away in her journal, and I was writing something else. Probably a really romantic description of our surroundings. I don't know. I don't usually keep my notebooks past a decade.
We were on our way back to the house for dinner, when Lucy made an interesting remark.
The sun was setting, the last, desperate red rays sprayed across the sky as we walked the steps from the West Pier, and then she exclaimed, "His red eyes again!" She pointed at a stranger, a man cloaked in shadows, who was sitting in the cemetery, the exact seat where Lucy had been bitten.
"Dracula," I growled.
We hurried home, and Lucy went up to bed. Bess promised to keep an eye on her, and Mina and I went for a very silent walk along the cliffs. I couldn't even remember what I'd done at this point, I was so tired, so I made no effort to apologize.
When we returned, the sky was dark, and the moon was as bright as it's ever been, throwing magnificence on the oddest of shapes, and turning the most innocent of alleyways into dens of great monsters.
At first, the moon didn't show Mina and Lucy's window, but the shadows made it very clear that someone had draped themselves in a precarious, dangerous manner, out the window.
Mina muttered under her breath, and she waved to the figure. I didn't think this was so nonsensical an action. It could be Lucy waiting up for us, despite the fact that I had made it very clear that there was a vampire out for her blood, literally and figuratively, only the day before.
But then we crept around the corner of the building to see that Lucy was asleep, and there was something on her neck.
I have night vision, in case you were wondering, so it was very clearly a bat in my eyes.
I growled, and immediately start climbing the drainpipe with precision and speed.
Wow, I'm braggy today.
The bat took flight, and Mina came in the normal entrance. Lucy was still alive, but she was breathing heavily and one of her hands was clasped around her throat.
I gently moved her fingers away, but there was no blood.
"Could I have some help moving her to her bed?" Mina asked.
"I could do it myself," I suggested.
Very, very braggy today. Maybe I was just having a super braggy moment. Not that surprised. When you're this fabulous, it's hard not to brag.
Gotta love it when you're 50% "I am the most amazing being in existence and also hot as heck" and then 50% "I hate myself."
But that's besides the point.
Mina narrowed her eyes at me. "No."
"Fine."
I assisted her instead.
The next day we received two tidbits of interesting news, both depressing, although one more so than the other.
The first was that Lucy's mother was dying. "Her heart's getting worse," Lucy told us. "She's got a few months left, the doctor says. And a shock now could kill her. So nothing about vampirism, you understand?"
We all nodded.
I didn't like Mrs. Westenra from my few encounters with her, but I was sad for Lucy. I'd never had to lose someone before, not really. I'd barely had anyone to lose.
The other thing was that the father of Lucy's fiance (Arthur) was feeling better and now Arthur wanted the whole wedding to go full steam ahead, which made no one happy, not even Lucy. None of us minded that Arthur's father was better, but none of us wanted Lucy to go off getting engaged and married just yet.
Lucy's health got worse as well. Mina could hear her gasping for air in the night, she told us, and she'd wake Lucy up to make sure she wasn't dying.
She was leaning out the window a few days after the news broke, and when Mina tried to wake her, she found that Lucy had fainted. She was very weak when she woke up. She was fighting for breath, and sobbing silently in between. Her sleepwalking was helping Dracula.
The next morning, she sat down at the breakfast table, and said in a hoarse voice, "I don't want to die."
The next day, however, she was feeling much better, and was very cheerful. She was still a sickly pale, however, but Mina deemed her well enough for a trip to the cemetery.
"You know, I found you on this bench when you were bitten," I told her as she sat down.
She tapped the heel of her boot on the stone. "Well, my feet weren't very loud then! Mr. Swales would have said it was because I didn't want to wake up Geordie."
"Any ominous dreams recently?" Bess asked. "They might be a sign of Dracula messing with your mind."
Lucy screwed up her face in concentration. "I'm not sure I was completely asleep, or just imagining things, but I was walking through the streets, trying to get to this very spot. As I was crossing the bridge, a fish leaped out of the water, and I leaned over to look at it, and dogs were howling all around, and I saw red eyes and - I suppose I must have fallen off the bridge, because then I was sinking into dark green water, and there was singing, and then I must have died, because my soul left my body and I was flying over the West Lighthouse and then there was pain, and then Mina was shaking me awake. Actually, I saw you shaking me awake before I could feel you."
She laughed.
"That seems like a bit of a vampire dream," I began, "but also -"
"A Lucy dream?" Mina asked with a smirk.
"Yes."
The next day, Mina received a letter from Jonathan, via Jonathan's employer, Mr. Hawkins.
Two sentences in, Mina broke down crying, and Lucy had to read the letter aloud for the benefit of everyone.
12 August
Dear Madam -
I write by the desire of Mr. Jonathan Harker, who is himself not strong enough to write, though progressing well, thanks to God and St Joseph and Ste Mary. He has been under our care for nearly six weeks, suffering from a violent brain fever. He wishes to convey his love, and to say that by this post I write for him to Mr. Peter Hawkins, Exeter, to say, with his dutiful respects, that he is sorry for his delay, and that all his work is completed. He will require some few weeks' rest in our sanatorium in the hills, but will then return. He wishes me to say that he has not sufficient money with him, and that he would like to pay for his staying here, so that others who need shall not be wanting for help.
Believe me,
Yours, with sympathy and all blessings,
Sister Agatha
P.S. - My patient being asleep, I open this to let you know something more. He has told me all about you, and that you are shortly to be his wife. All blessings to you both! He has had some fearful shock - so says our doctor - and in his delirium, his ravings have been dreadful; of wolves and poison and blood; of ghosts and demons, and I fear to say of what. Be careful with him always that there may be nothing to excite him of this kind for a long time to come; the traces of such an illness as his do not lightly die away. We should have written long ago, but we knew nothing of his friends, and there was on him nothing that anyone could understand. He came in the train from Klausenburg, and the guard was told by the station-master there that he rushed into the station shouting for a ticket home. Seeing from his violent demeanor that he was English, they gave him a ticket for the furthest station on the way thither that the train reached.
Be assured that he is well cared for. He has won all hearts by his sweetness and gentleness. He is truly getting on well, and, I have no doubt, will in a few weeks be all himself. But be careful of him for safety's sake. There are, I pray God and St. Joseph and Ste. Mary, many, many happy years for you both.
"What do I do?" Mina asked helplessly.
"Go!" Lucy replied, her voice urging. "He's your fiance and he's recovering!"
"But..." Mina put her hand on top of Lucy's, and Bess and I locked eyes. Were there still possibilities of romance there?
"I'll be fine," Lucy said sternly. "We're almost through with our stay in Whitby, anyway. Me and the girls can take your trunk back to Hillingham for you until you send for it."
"We can take care of her, of course," Addy added, piping up for the first time in what must have been a week.
So Mina quickly packed, and as she was leaving, I stopped her in the hallway.
"Mina, wait."
She turned around.
"Jonathan may have met us under truly terrible circumstances, and I'm so, so, so sorry if whatever you learn from him distorts your view of us, and if it does, we deserve it, but I promise, we wouldn't hurt -"
She held up a hand, halting my rambling words. "Don't worry. You wouldn't do anything to Lucy intentionally. And if you did something, well... you all seem like people who have reasons behind their actions. And that is why I'm letting you take care of Lucy."
I was surprised by this woman. Who was she? Certainly not the same person who had screamed at me on the night Lucy was bitten. Perhaps Mina had come around after all.
She heaved her suitcase. "Goodbye, Mary."
Mina left immediately, and things felt odd and exposed without her. In an odd way, it kind of seemed like the end of an era, which was a particularly strange way to feel if you took it into account that I had known the pair of them less than a month.
But I do always get sad when an era ends. Mid-August, before the leaves even start to change, is one of those times. So is the last year in a decade, but at this moment in time, that's irrelevant.
Addy joined me in the doorway. She seemed to have broken her vow of silence, but without an apology uttered in any direction, and for that, I hated her. But now, I needed her, too.
"We'll be fine," she reassured me as the sun began to dip below the horizon. "There are three of us, and one of him. That's more than enough power to protect Lucy."
"We'll be fine," I repeated, "as long as nothing goes wrong."
If you've been following this story closely enough, dear reader, you know by now that something always ends up going wrong.