Bram Stoker's Dracula told in miniature form by Nick Futter (Malamute) using miniatures and scenery from his collection.
Dracula
Its may 1897 and a young English lawyer Johnathan Harker has travelled to Transylvania at the request of a certain Count Dracula to negotiate the sale of properties in England.
Its may 1897 and a young English lawyer Johnathan Harker has travelled to Transylvania at the request of a certain Count Dracula to negotiate the sale of properties in England.
Johnathan is staying in Bistritz and is about to leave on the coach when the locals try to stop him, warning him not to go to the castle. A kindly woman presses him to take a crucifix....
As the coach pulls away the locals can be seen in the distance giving the evil eye sign and crossing themselves.
The coach driver races to reach the Borgo Pass before nightfall. The coach leaves Johnathan stranded next to a roadside shrine.
Johnathan awaits the arrival of the Counts coach. What evil lurks in such a place?
The Diary of Johnathan Harker: "All around me wolves began to howl"
"Then a Caleche with four horses drove up behind me. The horses were coal black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from me. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight."
"The time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now almost in complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept on ascending. Suddenly I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky."
"I stood close to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of massive stone."
"I heard a heavy step approaching from behind the door and saw through the chinks the gleam of a coming light. Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise of long disuse, and the great door swung back"
"Within stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache.He motioned me in with a courtley gesture saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation:- "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!""
He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. "Count Dracula?" I enquired"
He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. "Count Dracula?" I enquired"
"I am Dracula... And I bid you welcome... Mr Harker... to my house."
Johnathan Harker's Journal, May 7th 1897: The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from a window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! The Count spoke.
"Come, Tell me of the properties you have procured for me... I do so long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity - to share its life, its changes, its death..."
"Come, Tell me of the properties you have procured for me... I do so long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity - to share its life, its changes, its death..."
"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked. There is reason that all things are as they are... We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things"
"Should you leave these rooms, you will not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old and has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely."
"Should you leave these rooms, you will not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old and has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely."
In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner.I thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me and looked at me for some time.
They whispered together, then they all laughed -such a silvery, musical laugh. "Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right to begin"
"He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all"
They whispered together, then they all laughed -such a silvery, musical laugh. "Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right to begin"
"He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all"
I lay quiet, looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation. The fair girl advanced and bent over me until I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. I could feel the soft, shivering touch of her lips on my throat and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there.
But in that instant another sensation swept through me as quick as lightening. I was conscious of the presence of the Count. "How dare you touch him, any of you?... This man belongs to me...When I am done with him...You shall kiss him at your will."
But in that instant another sensation swept through me as quick as lightening. I was conscious of the presence of the Count. "How dare you touch him, any of you?... This man belongs to me...When I am done with him...You shall kiss him at your will."
My feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the Count begin to crawl down the castle wall face down, with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.
15th June. I hear below the sound of many tramping feet and the crash of weights being set down. The Count has a lowly group of gypsies enslaved to him. Day and night they toil, filling boxes with decrepit earth from the bowls of the castle. Earth? Why do they fill these boxes with earth?
There in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth lay the Count!
This was the being I was helping to transfer to London. Where - perhaps for centuries to come - he might amongst its teeming millions satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless.
I shall not remain alone with these awful women; I shall try to scale the castle wall farther than I have yet attempted. I may find a way from this dreadful place. Away from this cursed land where the Devil and his children still walk with earthly feet.
I shall not remain alone with these awful women; I shall try to scale the castle wall farther than I have yet attempted. I may find a way from this dreadful place. Away from this cursed land where the Devil and his children still walk with earthly feet.
Captains Log, The Demeter, Varna to Whitby
Written 18 July, things so strange happening, that I shall keep accurate note henceforth till we land:
On 6 July we finished taking in cargo, silver sand and 50 boxes of earth bound for London. At noon set sail. East wind, fresh. Crew, five hands . . . two mates, cook, and myself, (captain).
Written 18 July, things so strange happening, that I shall keep accurate note henceforth till we land:
On 6 July we finished taking in cargo, silver sand and 50 boxes of earth bound for London. At noon set sail. East wind, fresh. Crew, five hands . . . two mates, cook, and myself, (captain).
On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something. Seemed scared, but would not speak out.
On 14 July was somewhat anxious about crew. Men all steady fellows, who sailed with me before. Mate could not make out what was wrong. They only told him there was something, and crossed themselves.
On 16 July mate reported in the morning that one of the crew, Petrofsky, was missing. Men more downcast than ever. All said they expected something of the kind, but would not say more than there was SOMETHING aboard.
On 17 July, yesterday, one of the men, Olgaren, came to my cabin, and in an awestruck way confided to me that he thought there was a strange man aboard the ship. He was in a panic of superstitious fear, and I am afraid the panic may spread.
Later in the day I got together the whole crew, and told them, as they evidently thought there was someone in the ship, we would search from stem to stern. . We left no corner unsearched. As there were only the big wooden boxes, there were no odd corners where a man could hide.
22nd of July, the ship passed Gibraltar with apparently no further problems. Two days later, however, another man is lost, and the remaining men grow panicky and frightened.
August 3rd. In a panic, the mate, a Roumanian, hisses, "It is here." (The mate thinks that "it" is in the hold, perhaps "in one of the boxes.") The mate descends into the hold, only to come flying from the hold moments later, screaming in terror, telling me "He is there. I know the secret now." In despair, the mate throws himself overboard, preferring drowning to a confrontation with "the thing."
4 August.--Still fog, which the sunrise cannot pierce, I know there is sunrise because I am a sailor, why else I know not. I dared not go below, I dared not leave the helm, so here all night I stayed, and in the dimness of the night I saw it, Him! God, forgive me, but the mate was right to jump overboard.But I am captain, and I must not leave my ship. But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with them I shall tie that which He, It, dare not touch. And then, come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain.
CUTTING FROM "THE DAILYGRAPH," 8 AUGUST
(PASTED IN MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL)
One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been experienced here, with results both strange and unique...Before long the searchlight discovered some distance away a schooner with all sails set.The wind had by this time backed to the east, and there was a shudder amongst the watchers on the cliff as they realized the terrible danger in which she now was.
Between her and the port lay the great flat reef on which so many good ships have from time to time suffered, and, with the wind blowing from its present quarter,it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the harbour.
(PASTED IN MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL)
One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been experienced here, with results both strange and unique...Before long the searchlight discovered some distance away a schooner with all sails set.The wind had by this time backed to the east, and there was a shudder amongst the watchers on the cliff as they realized the terrible danger in which she now was.
Between her and the port lay the great flat reef on which so many good ships have from time to time suffered, and, with the wind blowing from its present quarter,it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the harbour.
There was of course a considerable concussion as the vessel drove up on the sand heap. Every spar, rope, and stay was strained,and some of the `top-hammer' came crashing down. But, strangest of all,the very instant the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below,as if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow on the sand.
Mina Harkers JournalAugsut 10th
Poor Lucy seemed much upset. She was restless and uneasy all the time, and I cannot but think that her dreaming at night is telling on her. She is quite odd in one thing. She will not admit to me that there is any cause for restlessness, or if there be, she does not understand it herself.
Poor Lucy seemed much upset. She was restless and uneasy all the time, and I cannot but think that her dreaming at night is telling on her. She is quite odd in one thing. She will not admit to me that there is any cause for restlessness, or if there be, she does not understand it herself.