Dracula/Alternate Ending

The ending to Dracula is all fine and dandy, but has anyone ever wished for a ... darker ending? My blood-thirsty self decided to write an alternate ending, and it turned out quite good! Enjoy! Info

Dracula: Alternate Ending
Jonathan Harker's Diary- November 6th

I must write this quickly, as my time is fading as fast as the sun in the blazing Transylvanian sky.

My sweet courageous wife lies beside me, her eyes glazed over, her breath frozen in her lungs. But alas, I tarry in my task. With the last of my fading strength I write down this terrible terrible story so that another guided by His hand will find and destroy this horror that has killed my beautiful wife and my faithful companions. If you are reading this, I charge you to find this abomination and extinguish it's undead life, so that it may not tarnish the world's pure air any longer. My soul will wander these miserable and barren lands until this task is accomplished.

I have found the last of Mina's diary where it lay, splayed from where her hand lies limp in the snow. I will add on the account of the last horrible hours so that when the time comes, another unfortunate traveler will find it and take it upon himself to kill the evil that prowls this world and become a minion of the holy spirit. To he whose eyes read this, know that the document is in all truthful, and there is throughout no statement of past things wherein memory may err, for the records chosen are exactly contemporary and given from the standpoints and within the range of knowledge of those who made them. Now the grim tale must begin, I must pass this knowledge onto a successor no matter how the ink runs when mixed with my flowing lifesblood.

It was late afternoon when Godalming and I saw the wagon being hurried along the rough path towards the Count's dreadful dwelling, surrounded by a horde of mounted men. The wagon was unwieldy and the horses pulling the load where unsure of their footing, stumbling along the steep and slippery road and the heavy wood of which the cart was built. This seemed unusual to me and I urged my mount around a boulder to investigate the source of the traveler's urgency. To my great surprise and excitement, to see Quincy and John perusing it, racing at breakneck speeds to cover the snowy distance. I shouted to Lord Godalming and together with a grim nod we spurred our mounts into a motion my hands shaking in anticipation, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the reins. Mina my poor poor wife's cure was after seemingly endless waiting in my grasp.

Oh what a fool I was! Cruel, cruel fate! To play with my hopes so! Is there no good in this damned world?

With rising apprehension I cried "Halt!" simultaneously with Godalming, and to my surprise they did. I looked to see Quincy and John on one side, and coming down the path leading to the Count's abode, the professor brandishing his Winchester in front of him. Beside him, looking deathly pale sat my beautiful brave wife, staring with wide eyes at the gypsies who were forming a tight circle around the now still wagon. My fear for my wife rose in a terrible wave, and I willed the professor to keep the cart in which they rode at bay, and to my relief they halted a short distance away.

A shout caught my attention as the leader of the group pointed to the quickly fading sunlight that seemed ablaze in the sky. I estimated we had mere minutes before the sun set, a short time to complete this guresome task. I threw myself onto the ground, the frozen grass stems crunching under my boots. I drew my Kukri knife and lept towards the wagon, the adrenalin rushing through me as I shouted a war cry and charged the peasants surrounding the cart. To my astonishment they parted way for me, barely causing any resistance.

I looked around to see the source of their easy compliance and saw that about two dozen wolves were approaching in a menacingly slow pace, coming in twos and threes. The peasants gripped their knives tightly and shifted uneasily as they drew nearer.

I shouted to Dr. Seward and Lord Godalming to hold off the wolves while Morris and I destroyed the Vampyer. With a great leap I bounded up the wagon and located the cursed casket which housed the monster that has caused so much misery in this dismal world. I wedged my blade under the nailed lid, and with Morris's help managed to pry the heavy oak wood off the coffin. I looked at the face of my friend and he said, "please Jonathan, let me strike the killing blow to this monster and avenge poor Lucy." Although I would prefer to kill this creature who has caused my darling wife so much grief, I nodded my consent and together we pushed the wood off the casket.

There, lying in the cold wooden encasing was Count Dracula, looking younger than I had ever seen him. His hair had turned a dark black, just as mine had turned white through the horror of the past few terrible days, and no wrinkles covered his evil face. All this I observed in a few short moments before Morris gave a yell and raised his great bowie knife and brought it behind his head in preparation for a deadly swing. Suddenly though Dracula hissed, exposing his sharp incisors as they gleamed in the almost vanished light. His eyes opened and gave Quincy and I a shock, they were blood red, and indeed, blood trickled out of their corners like dyed tears. Morris gave out a yelp and his knife halted on its downwards swing. I shouted and swung with my own knife to rectify for Quincy's hesitation but it was too late. I was too late. Oh God! If I had swung just a moment sooner I would be holding Mina in my arms, on our way back home to London where we could finally live our lives like any other normal couple. We could have lived, had children, grandchildren even!

But alas it was not to be. My knife emitted a dull thunk as it buried itself into the thick wood of the coffin. I whirled around to hear Morris scream as he was pierced by a knife flying out of the fray. His blood ran down his back and he looked at me with an odd expression, his eyes glazed over, and fell towards the ground, dead. What happened next was unbeknownst to me, but before the professor died he told me that I gave a strangled yell and attacked the man who's knife was embedded in my friend's chest. I went into a frenzy of killing, and all were afraid to come my way. I would have killed them all had not a shout roused me from my rage.

"Jonathan!" it was the voice of my dear Mina. I spun around to watch in horror as Count Dracula appeared behind her and sank his horrid fangs deep into her throat. She went as pale as a ghost and fell limp from his arms when he released her, smacking his bloody lips. As I stared in horror across the dim distance at my wife's figure lying in the snow, I heard a war cry coming from somewhere to my left. Professor Hesling charged forward brandishing a sharpened stake shouting, " away you hellion! You will not harm another good soul be it not over my stiff corpse!"

Before I could shout a warning, Dracula's haired hands shot out and grabbed the flailing professor by the neck and twisted. I could hear the fatal "crack" from across the suddenly eerie silence of the freezing landscape. Then, suddenly excited howls split the air. This sound roused me from my shock and I ran towards Mina's deathly form, splayed on the frozen grass.

Once I reached her I threw my knife to the side and pulled her head into my lap. Nothing mattered anymore, my beautiful, beautiful wife is dead! I don't know how long I sat there, rocking back and forth in my despair but when I looked around again I was shocked to see a blood drenching the ground all around. Wolves jumped through the frigid air, howling in anticipation for blood, while others of their number already feasted on the fresh meat of the peasants. Another yell tore through the symphony of agonized groans of the victims, and when my head jerked towards the direction of the sound, I was shocked to see the mangled corpse of what seemed to be Lord Godalming lying bleeding on the ground. He lay limply, his eyes gazing unseeingly in my direction, clearly dead. Above him, fighting valiantly stood Dr. Seward, defending his friend from the deadly beautiful animals. It was clear that he was loosing the battle as the 3 or 4 wolves surrounded him and, without seeming to communicate with one another lept at him at once. I watched in horror, unable to do anything to save my friend's life, as a white wolf tore at his neck, the pierced jugular spraying across the ground, driving the animals wild. They lept at him once more, and I waited for them to begin devouring the corpse of my friend, but to my shock, horror and disbelief, I watched as the white wolf rose to her hind legs and in a mass of flailing limbs and shedding fur, appeared as a beautiful woman, barefoot in the snow, clothed in nothing but a white shift. She stopped in front of the body, and before I realized what was occurring, her head darted forward, her exposed fangs clamping on the poor doctor's neck.

I was so caught in rapture as I stared at the horrific scene before me that I did not hear the crunch of footsteps behind me and did not smell the haunting rotting metallic scent in Count Dracula's breath as he approached from behind me. I was not prepared for the cool, white hot lick of the dagger which plunged into my abdominal area by a disembodied arm reaching over my shoulder. I howled in pain, and landed on the ground in a thud, where I lay for an immeasurable amount of time. All I know is this, that I knew I must lay so that Dracula thought I was dead, and that besides the sounds of human feet passing me in the snow, accompanied by the occasional padding of a wolves paws in the cold.

Wait! What was that sound, that emitted from my Mina? A moan, a sign of life, a glimmer of hope not sucked out by the monstrosity's hunger? I must go investigate as well as I can, but I do not know if I will be able to cross the few feet separating us with my fatal wound. I only have a few minutes before I am in His presence. But maybe He will spare my dear dear wife. I waste time with these ramblings, my mind seems to drift in circles,

I do not know why I feel the urge to finish my deceased husband's account of the tale that lead to my glorious rebirth into the world of the opaque night. Perhaps it is the lure of a last unfinished task that caused me to pick up this pen, slick with my husband's delicious blood. Perhaps it is so that I can complete this and present it to the Master with. I have always so loved keepsakes, his mind whispers in my head. '''Bring it to me. We will show the world what happens to those who dare rise against the power of Count Dracula! Together, with you at my side, we will become the rulers of our kind and those pitiful cowards that call themselves humans, the superior race on this earth. Now come my sweet, we have much to do. The first of the colonies' representatives arrive tomorrow. With more support we will return to England in the morning. They will suspect nothing.'''