Dracula: The Empty Tomb

Seward was angry at first, sure that the professor had gone mad with grief.But Van Helsing only asked him to come and see for himself, first at a hospital and then at the churchyard.At the hospital they saw one of the lost children, and the tiny wounds on the child’s throat were exactly like Lucy’s.

That night the two men went to the Westenra family tomb, and Van Helsing opened the heavy door with a key.By the light of a candle he unscrewed the lid of Lucy’s coffin and cut through the lead beneath it.Seward held his breath and looked inside — and the coffin was empty.

“Perhaps someone stole the body,” said Seward, though even he did not believe it.They waited outside among the graves, and near dawn a white figure moved between the dark trees.When they ran toward it, the figure was gone, and they found a small boy lying alone on the grass.

Luckily the boy had no wound, and they left him where a policeman would soon find him and take him home.At noon the next day they came back to the tomb and opened the coffin once more.This time Lucy lay inside, more beautiful than ever, with rosy cheeks and red lips, as if she were only asleep.

Van Helsing gently pulled back her lip, and Seward saw that her teeth were sharp and pointed, like an animal’s.“She is Un-Dead,” said the professor quietly, “and to give her peace, we must drive a stake through her heart.”But first, he said, Arthur must see it all with his own eyes, for Lucy had been the woman he loved.