Dracula (A Modern Telling) Read Online Free PDF

not to come here. I wear that crucifix around my neck and don’t take it off even to shower. I hold it sometimes and it comforts me. It’s funny, I was raised to think religion is a crutch for the weak and that you couldn’t be a true thinker if you believed in fairy tales, but how much you cling to those fairy tales when there’s no one else there to comfort you.
    I think my only chance of getting out of here is to talk to the Count and get him to reveal something to me. I wish I’d made a run for it at that club but somehow I didn’t even have the urge. Looking back on it, that’s probably what the drink was for: to put me out of myself.
     

Midnight
     
    I spoke to the Count at some length tonight. He must’ve been high on something because he was in a particularly good mood. I asked him about his childhood in Romania and he talked about battles and castles and villages as if he had seen them all himself. His recollection of detail was truly amazing, much better than I’ve seen in other musicians who are usually so self-centered they don’t focus attention to their surroundings.
    “People thought the Mongols were werewolves,” he told me. “They used to cook raw meat on the backs of horses. Or I should say warm the meat, as they preferred it raw with blood. When that was not available, they happily ate the dead. But what witch or werewolf could match the ferocity of a Genghis Khan?” He held up his arms, revealing marble-white forearms, “And that’s the blood that flows through these veins. A Dracula was there with the great Khan, and with Attila before him. A Dracula was there for bloody battle after bloody battle. That is the legacy I was born into. Born into blood.”
    He stared off in the distance after saying this and we sat quietly a while.
    “Morning’s coming,” he said. “I can … taste it. You should sleep now, Jonathan. A good sleep is a rare thing for an adult. For some reason, that sweetness can only truly be tasted in childhood. Maybe because you don’t have the worries and conflicts gnawing away at your insides when you’re a child.” He rose. “But you’ll find good rest here.”
    He saw the screensaver on my Mac. It was Mina. He stood still for an uncomfortably long time.
    “Who is she?”
    “My fiancé, Mina.”
    “She could be … she is identical to someone I once knew. More than identical … do you believe in fate, Jonathan?”
    “No.”
    “Because you wish to be in control. When you let go of that control is when you truly find your freedom.”
    With that, he left and shut the door behind him. I heard it lock from the outside.
     
     

May 12 th
     
    A Longer Stay
     
    It seems I’m going to be staying in LA. The Count came to me yesterday and asked me a few questions about shipping something across the country back to Boston. He also asked why I didn’t have a Boston accent and I explained to him that it was something I could control and had worked to remove. He then spoke about my biography that he’d read on the Rolling Stone site that talked about my upbringing in London, the place of my birth. Where my family lives now.
    I told him it would be much cheaper and quicker to do it by plane but he insisted that he wanted to ship something by sea, so we talked about it and I told him the little I knew , but suggested we talk to a travel agent or research a website that specialized in this sort of thing. He assigned the task to me.
    Then, he said something I didn’t expect him to say: “You will be staying a bit longer.”
    “Why?” I asked.
    “Our interview’s not complete. I want to give you the full story , and for that you’ll have to stay longer.”
    “Why don’t we just finish now?”
    “No, my head must be in it. This is something I am leaving for posterity. I want it perfect. For that, you need inspiration and I don’t feel inspired right now. You’ll just have to stay longer.”
    I have to say I really felt like I didn’t have a choice. I