Memorandum of Lucy Westernra(contenued)

Oh, but if only I had awaken to see the brightened rays of promising dawn dancing through the grim transom of my window. If only I had risen to see my precious Arthur and my poor dear mother beside me, set woth the joyopus smiles I knew so wee, sure to ease my burdened heart. Surely arthur would take me into his arms and whisper to me that the night had been no more than a cruel nightmare. Certainly the mere sight of Mother's rosy cheeks, tender in the full bloom of abundant life would assure me that hte horrid events which had befallen had been but a wicked incubus.
But as my eyes -heavy and burdened by sleeplessness- arose, despair fell over me like the weight of my own coffin seal, for I realized that the night was still young and the spiteful shadows of the midnight sun still loomed over head. Wolves still howled in the distance and a thin, hopeless mist lingered lethargically in the frozen air
The room had fallen silent in my wake -as silent and as cold as dear Mother's heart- and the silver shadows cast by the luminescent moon still filtered through the drawn sable curtains. Still, shattered glass remained spilled apon the ice-cold floor like a child's clear marbles, glistening in the vacant shadows and casting a most eerie array of light across the dreary room. The ghastly glow of the broken glass seemed to leave me weak and frail - my veins hollow like barren canals- and barely could I breath, let alone stand. But the empty lull of silence bolstered me into lethargic awareness. The night was alive..awake, and breathing with a radiant fear and a morbid, horrifying sence of presence...
Of bereavement.
At once, I called for the servants, and nearly was I taken aback, for my voice had become a mournful and desperate sound, like the desolate cry of a begotten child in grave stillness -but from down the listless hallways there still was no reply. Whilst my strength and memory began to recollect- though not at all wholly- I forced myself onto my feet, trying as I could to avert my laden eyes from the corpse lying beneath the sheet of my bed -for the sight alone would encumber me- and quietly I fumbled my way towards the ajar door. One vigilant step after another, I wearaly evaded the razor-sharp fragments, deciding that I must noy stay and rest among the dead. Such would be far too much to bear,
As I crept through the horrid stillness -my every breath sounding ominous and shrill- it occored to me very suddenly that the violent moan of the distant wolves had ceased altogether, and now, in the settling terror of complete, utter, and ears rand as louder than the St. Mary bells as a new fear quickly nestled into my heart.
What If I were not alone? What if the same vile creature who had drugged the servants and brought my dear Mother -God help her soul!- to her ill- fated death; still lurked within the shadows of perhaps this very room! My heart became all but frozen inside my chest and the very blood of my veins ran cold at the very consideration of such a possibility. And yet it was no sooner than had the thought prowled into my distraught mind than a vulgar, bone-chilling (yet ancient, and oh so eloquent) sound echoed in my thoughts like a voice that had not been spoken at all, though somehow I had heard.
"My dear, my dear," The very sound of it's life-draining drone cried like some horrible abomination cast out from even the deepest pits of Hell. The voice, though smooth and righ, made the terror which had come over me only moments before seemed like nothing more than a petty fright; a hollow shadow on the wall. Instantly, my knees buckled beneath me and in abrupt hysteria, instinct chased away all logic and fragments of the shattered window still embedded in the floor bit into my legs and hands. I fell to the ground in a terrible fit, struggling to pull myself away from whomever -whatever- was dwelling in the demonous shadows, but all without liberation. Sudden dryness clasped my throat as a frantic shreik fought to excape my arid lips and immediatly I was on my feet -off my feet actually, for I was suspended in the air!- as a force stronger than any human could muster closed around my shoulder, jerking me from the floor and in an instant placing me upright with it's harsh, bony streangth never once releasing the frail form from it's grasps- all with the most pristine grace and speed. Again, I cried out, but not even the pierce of my call shook the creature's iron grip and intoxicating mein, "You needen't be afraid darling," It moaned. Apparantly melting and shifting, the air itself began to warp! The force which had surrounded me seemed to materialize into an actual, living form!
I tried to turn; I tried to flee, but Dear God in Heaven... I was trapped-spellbound by the gently, petrifying purr that was it's -no, his!- voice. His, I knew, for I realizen now that the manipulating wave of dread had entered my mind before! I had heard this terrible being with my own ears many, many times before. His was the song which had lulledm me into the frightful trance which Mina had found me in so long ago. And now again! I tried once more to break free the hidious clutches that I now felt slithering around my tender, exposed neck and wrists, but his grip was like steel and his will I could not challenge. "Now sleep, child." he cooed, "and no harm shall come to you. I need only to awaken myself....You will understand, for you have that which I desire," It was then that I saw the beast in his true form.

(will contenue later.....)