12 Lucy Changes Again

CHAPTER 12 Lucy Changes Again It was just fifteen minutes before midnight when the group, consisting of Van Helsing, Quincey Morris, Seward, and Arthur, climbed over a low wall and reached the tomb. The professor unlocked the door, lit a lantern, and pointed to Lucy's coffin. It was empty. Arthur winced, as if in pain. The professor, however, sprang into motion. First he closed the coffin, took a piece of communion wafer

第十二章露西又变了。午夜前十五分钟，范·赫尔辛、昆西·莫里斯、西厄德和阿瑟这群人翻过一堵矮墙，来到坟墓前。 教授打开门，点上灯笼，指着露西的棺材。 它是空的。阿瑟畏缩了一下，好像很痛苦。 然而，教授突然动了起来。 他先把棺材合上，拿了一块圣餐饼

into his hands, crumbled it up and wet it, and made a sort of paste. He pressed this paste into the coffin's seals. "What are you doing?" Morris asked. "I am sealing the tomb with the communion wafer, that blessed holy bread. It repels evil. Now let's go wait outside." The men arranged themselves in the bushes. "Shhh," Van Helsing warned. "Someone is coming." The men crouched and watched as a white figure moved toward them. Instantly they recognized the figure as Lucy, but all were shocked by how altered a Lucy she was. Her old sweetness had turned somehow to cruelty, and her old purity to a new evil. Arthur gasped. Van Helsing raised his lantern and shined the light on Lucy. In its glow the men could see that her lips were crimson with fresh blood.

他把它揉碎，弄湿，做成一种糊状。 他把这种浆糊压在棺材的封条上。 “你在干什么？”莫里斯问道。 “我正在用圣餐饼封住坟墓，圣餐饼就是神圣的面包。 它击退邪恶。现在我们到外面去等吧。” 男人们在灌木丛中摆好姿势。 “嘘，”范赫尔辛警告道。 “有人来了。”他们蹲下身子，看着一个白色的身影向他们走来。 他们立刻认出那个人影就是露茜，但大家都惊讶地发现，露茜变了一个样。 她过去的甜蜜不知怎么变成了残忍，她过去的纯洁变成了新的邪恶。 亚瑟气喘吁吁地说。范赫尔辛举起灯笼，照着露西。 在它的光芒中，人们可以看到她的嘴唇被鲜红的鲜血染红了。

When Lucy saw the men, she snarled and hissed angrily, like a cat taken by surprise. Her eyes blazed with evil. But then she changed course. "Arthur," she said, sweetly stretching her arms out to him. "Come to me." Arthur moved toward her as if under a spell, and Lucy lunged for him. Van Helsing was ready for her, however, and leaped between the couple, holding a gold crucifix. Lucy jumped back, her face contorted, and moved as if to rush back into the tomb. When she got within a foot or two of it, however, she stopped, sensing the wafer Van Helsing had placed within. She turned, confused and enraged. Sparks seemed to be flying from her. If looks could kill, hers would have. She was a monster. "May I go on?" Van Helsing asked Arthur. Arthur fell to his knees. "Do what you need to," he said, weakly. He closed his eyes, thinking Van Helsing was going to kill Lucy

露茜一看见这些人，就像一只受惊的猫，愤怒地咆哮着，发出嘶嘶声。 她的眼睛里闪烁着邪恶的光芒。 但后来她改变了方向。 “亚瑟。”她说，甜蜜地向他伸出双臂。 “到我这儿来。”阿瑟像中了魔法似的朝她走去，露西扑向他。 然而，范赫尔辛已经准备好迎接她了，他拿着一个金色的十字架，在这对夫妇之间跳来跳去。 露茜向后跳了跳，脸扭了扭，动了动，好像要冲回坟墓里去。 然而，当她走到离它一两英尺远的地方时，她停了下来，感觉到范赫尔辛放在里面的薄片。 她转过身来，既困惑又愤怒。 火星似乎从她身上飞了出来。 如果外表能杀人，她的也能。 她是个怪物。“我可以继续说下去吗？”范赫尔辛问阿瑟。 阿瑟跪倒在地。“做你该做的，”他虚弱地说。 他闭上眼睛，以为范赫尔辛要杀露西

now. Instead Van Helsing walked past Lucy, removed the bread from the coffin's crevices, opened the container, and stood back. With something that could only be described as relief, Lucy glided in, and the professor closed the lid. "Tonight is not the time," he said. The next day they went back and found Lucy asleep in the coffin. The men took one last look at the beautiful woman's still- bloodstained mouth. The smile that lay on her lips as she slept was a devilish mockery of her life's sweetness. Quickly Van Helsing removed his tools from his doctor's bag, including a round wooden stake that had been sharpened to a fine point. "When the victims of the bite become officially undead," Van Helsing explained, "they keep adding new victims and multiplying their evil. Unless stopped, the

现在。相反，范赫尔辛从露西身边走过，从棺材缝里取出面包，打开容器，站在后面。 露西带着一种只能用宽慰来形容的心情溜了进来，教授盖上了盖子。 “今晚不是时候，”他说。 第二天，他们回去发现露西在棺材里睡着了。 男人们最后看了一眼那个美丽的女人还在流血的嘴。 她睡着时挂在嘴唇上的微笑是对她生命甜蜜的一种魔鬼般的嘲弄。 范赫尔辛迅速从医生的包里取出工具，包括一根磨得很尖的圆木桩。 “当被咬的人正式变成不死族时，”范赫尔辛解释说，“他们会继续增加新的受害者，增加他们的邪恶。 除非停止，否则

circle is ever widening, like ripples from a stone thrown into the water." He spoke gently to his friend. "Arthur, if I had let Lucy kiss you on that day when I first stopped her, or last night when you wanted to hold her again, you would have become a vampire, too. "If we kill her now, however, the wounds of all of the people she has bitten so far will heal right away, as her power over them will stop. And we will free Lucy as well. "Instead of growing more and more wicked each day, our angel will take her rightful place where she belongs, with the other angels. We are doing her a kindness, if you think about it." "Then let me do it," Arthur said firmly. "Just tell me what to do." Van Helsing explained that Arthur must drive a stake directly through Lucy's heart. "You must not hesitate," Van Helsing said.

圈子越来越大，就像扔进水里的石头泛起的涟漪。” 他温柔地对他的朋友说话。 “亚瑟，如果那天我第一次阻止露西的时候让她吻你，或者昨晚你想再抱她的时候，你也会变成吸血鬼的。 “如果我们现在杀了她，那么所有被她咬过的人的伤口都会立刻愈合，因为她对他们的力量将会停止。 我们也会救出露西。 “我们的天使不会一天比一天邪恶，她会和其他天使一起，找到她该有的位置。” 你想想看，我们是在帮她的忙。” “那就让我来吧。”阿瑟坚定地说。 “告诉我该怎么做。” 范赫尔辛解释说，亚瑟必须用木桩直接刺穿露西的心脏。 “你不能犹豫，”范赫尔辛说。

And Arthur didn't. Within a second the terrible task was over, and in the coffin was no longer an evil monster but their old Lucy, in a normal body. The look of calm on her face comforted all of the men as they looked upon her. Finally Lucy was at peace. "Now you can kiss her," Van Helsing said. And, leaning down, Arthur kissed her on the forehead. "Our work has only just begun," Van Helsing announced. "Next, we must find the author of all this sorrow and stamp him out. Will you all help me? Shall we work as a team?" The men agreed that they would meet two nights later at the asylum where Dr. Seward worked and lived. Van Helsing would bring two other men. Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing said, had kept a careful journal of his encounter with the beast, which was going to come in handy in their hunt.

但阿瑟没有。一秒钟之内，可怕的任务结束了，棺材里不再是邪恶的怪物，而是他们的老露茜，在一个正常的身体里。 她脸上平静的表情使所有看着她的男人都感到安慰。 露茜终于平静下来了。 “现在你可以吻她了，”范赫尔辛说。 阿瑟俯下身，吻了吻她的额头。 “我们的工作才刚刚开始，”范赫尔辛宣布。 “接下来，我们必须找到这一切不幸的始作俑者，把他消灭掉。 你们都能帮我吗？我们要不要团队合作？”两人同意两天后在精神病院见面。 苏厄德工作和生活。范赫尔辛会带另外两个人来。 范赫尔辛说，乔纳森·哈克仔细记录了他与这头野兽的相遇，这将在他们的狩猎中派上用场。