8 Lucy Sleepwalks to the Cemetery

CHAPTER 8 Lucy Sleepwalks to the Cemetery The storm left Whitby as quickly as it had come, as though it had accomplished its one and only purpose. It turned out the strange ship was Russian, called the Demeter, and carried a very unusual cargo—a number of great wooden boxes filled with dirt. Members of a firm came by a few days later with papers proving that they had been hired to pick up and transport the boxes. The police authorized their removal.

In the dead captain's pocket, the police found a bottle containing a note. Written shortly before he died, the note told a tale of a fearful crew whose members had gone missing one by one. Someone had reported seeing a tall, thin, pale man—not one of them—aboard. A search, however, revealed no one. The note told of fog growing and engines failing and still more men disappearing. Finally only the captain and one man were left, a Romanian who claimed not only to have seen the tall, pale stranger but to have stabbed him with a knife—only to have the blade slice right through him, as if through air! "He is probably hiding in one of those boxes!" the Romanian concluded, vowing to go down and search every single case. Only a few minutes later, however, the captain heard a horrible scream followed by the

Romanian running back up on deck. "Save me!" he had cried, according to the note in the captain's pocket, his eyes bulging with fear. The captain had watched with horror as the Romanian ran to the rail and threw himself to his death in the cold water below, claiming that only the sea could save him now. Finally, the note related, the captain saw the pale man, too. "But I will not leave my wheel," the note concluded. "No matter what happens, this evil monster cannot make me!" No one knew what to make of the note. Had the captain been insane? The entire town attended his funeral, except, that is, for poor Mr. Swales. He had been found dead that morning, sitting on the women's favorite seat in the cemetery. He had died of fright, the doctor said. His face still had the expression of someone staring at something horrible. What could he have

possibly seen? The night of the funeral, Mina was so tired that she slept deeply and did not hear Lucy get up and sleepwalk down the stairs and outside. When Mina awoke she found her friend gone. She had a feeling where Lucy could be. Grabbing a heavy shawl, she ran toward the cliffs and the cemetery. Sure enough, as she approached and the moon peeked out from behind a cloud, she could see her friend in the distance, pale in her white nightdress, sitting upon their favorite headstone seat. But what was that behind her, that long, dark thing seeming to bend over her? A shadow from a cloud? Some kind of man or beast? Mina ran as fast as she could and, upon arriving, confirmed it: Something long and dark was bending over her half-reclining friend. "Lucy!" she cried, and the dark thing raised

its head, revealing a white face and red, gleaming eyes. Or perhaps she herself was sleepwalking and dreaming? The clouds momentarily hid the moon again, making everything dark. When the moon came back, the monster was gone, and Lucy was still asleep. Mina shook her gently awake, and Lucy moaned and put her hand to her throat. She had probably caught a sore throat, Mina thought, from the chilly night air. Giving Lucy her shawl and pinning it at her friend's throat with a safety pin, Mina led Lucy back to the inn. The next day Lucy seemed fine, except for two little pinpricks on her throat. "I'm so sorry," Mina said. "I must have pricked you with my safety pin." "Don't worry," Lucy said. "I didn't feel a thing." But Mina was worried, for, over breakfast, Lucy described what she was certain must have been a dream, featuring

the same long, dark figure with red, gleaming eyes that Mina herself had seen. That night Mina locked the door to their room and kept the key on a string around her wrist, so that Lucy could not find it and leave the inn again. Lucy tried another route, however. Mina was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the window latch being opened. Mina went to get her friend and pull her away from the window. There, in the sky between them and the moon, she could see a giant bat coming and going in great whirling circles. "Go back to your bed," Mina said, shivering, and the sleeping Lucy obeyed. Every night after that, Lucy continued to sleepwalk to the window. Once there, she would fall asleep, her head resting on the sill. One night Mina was awakened by a cold gust of wind and sat up to see her friend sleeping