Whispers from the Beyond

Everything was prepared...

That day, I went out with Mrs. Catherine Cummings for a lovely stroll in the English countryside. We talked about everything except the mummy in the basement. I was afraid my tongue might slip, but it seemed she already knew everything...

We returned to the house in the afternoon and had a decent meal. Then Dr. Richard invited us to rest because we would be staying up all night.

In my room, I fell into a deep sleep...

Transylvania... the Devil... Dracula... Dr. Richard... Sally... Judas... blood and bats... the moon... bats and blood... a hundred years... the embryo of evil... Dracula enters the room... "Come with me"... No... not me... give me another chance... I'm not Azrael... I'm just a harmless vampire... Judas's gaze... I wish I were a bat chirping in the morning... No, bats don't chirp... A peasant woman going to the field in my village... when... when what... I don't remember... Don't come near me...

For a moment, I didn't know where I was... Was the darkness of the room part of the dream? Or was I myself the dream? And... The sun had set, and night had come, but why hadn't anyone woken me?...

Then I realized what had woken me—it was the sound of strange footsteps walking in the hallway outside my room. There was something suspicious about these footsteps... They weren't the steps of someone passing by casually but confident, deliberate steps meant for me to hear!

Carefully, I reached for the bedside lamp, unplugged its cord, and turned it into a makeshift weapon. Slowly, I moved toward the door. And there, to my utter shock—the footsteps resumed—and my blood froze... The person behind the footsteps was now standing right outside the door!!

Was it Richard? Or Lovarsky? But why this sneaking around? I reached for the doorknob and opened the door. In the dim light of the hallway, I saw a familiar figure.

"Dr. Rifaat... Something has happened."

"Catherine? What brings you here... and what's going on?"

She was pale and trembling, her beautiful blue eyes clouded with unshed tears...

"There's no one there..."

"I don't understand."

"No one's there... All their rooms are empty. Mummy, Daddy, and Dr. Lovarsky..."

"All the rooms are empty?!"

"All of them... What time is it now?"

"Eleven at night."

"So there's an hour left until the monster rises... But where did they go? Did they leave? Are they hiding somewhere? And why did they leave me and Catherine behind?!"

"I'm scared, Dr. Rifaat... I fell into a deep sleep, and when I woke up, there was no one..."

She was trembling like a leaf... I reached out and held her... Something stirred in my heart. For the first time, I realized I had lived thirty-five years of my life alone... What a strange feeling it was to be responsible for someone, to have them need you so much that they cry... I took her hand, and we went down to the basement...

Everything was as it should be... The ominous coffin was in its place... The bat mummy and the bucket of pig's blood... I said to her:

"Do you know what was supposed to happen tonight?"

She nodded yes...

"And do you know there's only an hour left?"

"Yes..."

"Did you search the house thoroughly for the others?"

"In the garden... in the basement... No one... They've left us..."

I lit a cigarette and sat on the edge of the coffin, thinking.

"Should we call the police?"

"We don't have a phone. The nearest phone is half an hour's walk away."

"Great!!"

Then the basement was plunged into complete darkness... The electricity had gone out, and what a time for it to happen...

I lit a candle that was lying on the floor... Our shadows loomed on the wall like giants watching what we were doing and saying...

I exhaled cigarette smoke and said:

"Do you know, my dear? It seems to me that all the lines are converging at one point..."

"They've forced us—you and me—to be the only ones responsible for the return of this devil... Are we the most suitable people for this? Does the devil see in us some hidden evil that qualifies us for this so brilliantly?"

"We've been forced..."

Catherine shouted in frustration:

"But why are we forced? We can leave this horrible house, and in half an hour, we'll reach civilization... warmth... safety..."

I shouted back:

"No... If we do that, we'll forever burn in the flames of insatiable curiosity, and we'll forever curse our cowardice and ask a question that will never be answered:

Would Dracula have risen?

Outwardly, we're free, but in reality, we're bound by sturdy shackles of scientific curiosity..."

"We have no choice but to continue... and we will continue..."

"But..."

"No buts... If we miss this opportunity, it won't come again for a hundred years, by which time we'll be long dead... We'll die without knowing..."

She was young and didn't fully understand my words, but she couldn't leave alone... Whoever orchestrated this situation was a devil with a hellish mind, knowing full well that whoever faced this test would inevitably continue it...

"And where are the others?"

"I don't know... And there's no time now to answer that question. The important thing is to prepare this place to receive the Count."

There were ten minutes left until midnight. I brought the bucket of pig's blood closer to the coffin and placed the preserved bat on the mummy's chest... Then I extinguished the candle so as not to disturb the Count when he rose.

In seven minutes, Jupiter would align with Mars, and the moon's face would emerge from behind the clouds... And in seven minutes, science would know forever whether magic was a myth or not... and whether the ancients were deluded or not.

As for me, I kept muttering like a madman in Arabic, which she didn't understand:

"This thing won't rise... it won't rise... I'm sure of it... Otherwise, we'll be in an unenviable position..."

Four minutes left... three…