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Content warning. This episode

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contains racist stereotypes. Jonathan

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Harker's journal, kept in

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shorthand. The 24th

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of June before morning.

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Last night, the Count left me early

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and locked himself into his own room. As

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soon as I dared, I ran up the winding stair

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and looked out the window, which opened south.

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I thought I would watch for the Count, for

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there is something going on.

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The Saskani are quartered somewhere in the castle,

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and are doing work of some kind. I

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know it. For now and then I hear a faraway

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muffled sound as of mattock and spade,

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and whatever it is, it

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must be the end of some ruthless villainy.

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I had been at the window somewhat less than half an hour

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when I saw something coming out of the Count's

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window. I drew back

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and watched carefully,

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and saw the whole man emerge. It

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was a new shock to me to find that he had

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on the suit of clothes which I had worn whilst

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travelling here, and slung

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over his shoulder the terrible bag which

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I had seen the women take away. There

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could be no doubt as to his quest,

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and in my garb.

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screaming from the place. The

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phantom shapes, which were becoming gradually

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materialized from the moonbeams, were

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those of the three ghostly women to

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whom I was doomed.

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I fled,

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and felt somewhat safer in my own room,

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where there was no moonlight, and

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where the lamp was burning brightly.

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When a couple of hours had passed, I

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heard something stirring in the Count's room,

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something like a sharp wail quickly suppressed.

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And then there was a silence, deep,

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awful silence which chilled me. With

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a beating heart, I tried the door, but

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I was locked in my prison and could do nothing.

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I sat down and simply

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cried. As

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I sat, I heard

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a sound in the courtyard without the

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agonized cry of a woman. I

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rushed to the window and, throwing

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it up, peered out between the bars.

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There indeed was a woman with disheveled

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hair holding her hands over her heart

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as one distressed with running. She

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was leaning against a corner of the gateway.

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When she saw my face at the window, she threw

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herself forward and shouted in a voice laden

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with menace.

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She threw herself

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on her knees and, raising up her hands, cried the same

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words in tones which wrung my heart. Then

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she tore her hair and beat her breast and abandoned

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herself

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to all the violences of extravagant emotion.

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Finally, she threw herself forward and, though

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I could not see her, I could hear

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the beating of her naked hands against the door.

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Somewhere high overhead, probably

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on the tower, I heard the voice of

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the Count calling in his harsh, metallic

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whisper.

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His call seemed to be answered from

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far and wide by the howling

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of wolves. Before

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many minutes had passed, a pack of of them poured

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like a pent-up dam when liberated

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through the wide entrance into

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the courtyard. There

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was no cry from the woman, but

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the howling of the wolves was but short.

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Before long they streamed away singly,

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licking their lips.

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I could not pity her, for

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I knew now what had become of her child,

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and she was better dead.

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What shall I do? What

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can I do? How

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can I escape from this dreadful thing of night

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in gloom and fear? This

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episode featured Ben Galpin

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as Jonathan Harker and Maddie

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Opincaru as The Mother, dialogue

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editing by Steven Indrosano, sound

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design by Tal Meneer, featuring

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music by Travis Reeves, produced

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by Ella Watts and Pacific S.

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Obadiah with executive producers

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Steven Indrosano, Tal Meneer, and

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Hannah Wright. A bloody FM

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production.