Read Online The Mammoth Book of Dracula by Stephen Jones - Free Book Online
Authors: Stephen Jones
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Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror, a study of the intersection between pessimistic philosophy and supernatural fiction.
Count Dracula travels to England, where he is about to lose his heart...
~ * ~
COUNT DRACULA RECALLS how he was irresistibly drawn to Mina Harker (nee Murray), the wife of a London real estate agent. Her husband had sold him a place called Carfax. This was a dilapidated structure next door to a noisy institution for the insane. Their incessant racket was not undisturbing to one who was, among other things, seeking peace. An inmate name Renfield was the worst offender.
One time the Harkers had Count Dracula over for the evening, and Jonathan (his agency’s top man) asked him how he liked Carfax with regard to location, condition of the house and property, and just all around. “Ah, such architecture,” said Count Dracula while gazing uncontrollably at Mina, “is truly frozen music.”
Count Dracula is descended from the noble race of the Szekelys, a people of many bloodlines, all of them fierce and warlike. He fought for his country against the invading Turks. He survived wars, plagues, the hardships of an isolated dwelling in the Carpathian Mountains. And for centuries, at least five and maybe more, he has managed to perpetuate, with the aid of supernatural powers, his existence as a vampire. This existence came to an end in the late 1800s. “Why her?” Count Dracula often asked himself.
Why the entire ritual, when one really thinks about it. What does a being who can transform himself into a bat, a wolf, a wisp of smoke, anything at all, and who knows the secrets of the dead (perhaps of death itself) want with this oily and overheated nourishment? Who would make such a stipulation for immortality! And, in the end, where did it get him? Lucy Westenra’s soul was saved, Renfield’s soul was never in any real danger ... but Count Dracula, one of the true children of the night from which all things are born, has no soul. Now he has only this same insatiable thirst, though he is no longer free to alleviate it. (“Why her? There were no others such as her.”) Now he has only this painful, perpetual awareness that he is doomed to wriggle beneath this infernal stake which those fools—Harker, Seward, Van Helsing, and the others—have stuck in his trembling heart. (“Her fault, her fault.”) And now he hears voices, common voices, peasants from the countryside.
“Over here,” one of them shouts, “in this broken down convent or whatever it is. I think I’ve found something we can give to those damned dogs. Good thing, too. Christ, I’m sick of their endless whining.”
<>
~ * ~
MANDY SLATER
Daddy’s Little Girl
MANDY SLATER has lived most of her life in Canada, but in 1994 returned to her native England and presently lives in North London. Mandy Slater’s anthology appearances have included Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, Sex Macabre, 100 Twisted Tales of Torment, The Tiger Garden: A Book of Writers’ Dreams, Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror and Zombie Apocalypse!
Additionally, she was the dialogue scriptwriter for the BBC’s The Animals of Farthing Wood CD-ROM and a contributor to the 2001 World Fantasy Convention CD-ROM.
She has also worked as an assistant film publicist in Romania (on Last Gasp, starring Robert Patrick and Joanna Pacula) while, as a media journalist, researcher and photographer, she has contributed to X-Pose, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Locus, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Sci-Fi Wire, SFX, Science Fiction Chronicle, Sci-Fi Magazine and several volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series.
She lives in North London and currently works in PR & Communication for a well-known mobile phone company.
The decades pass, and Dracula travels widely, never staying for more than three or four years in one place. But now his past is about to come back
Count Dracula travels to England, where he is about to lose his heart...
~ * ~
COUNT DRACULA RECALLS how he was irresistibly drawn to Mina Harker (nee Murray), the wife of a London real estate agent. Her husband had sold him a place called Carfax. This was a dilapidated structure next door to a noisy institution for the insane. Their incessant racket was not undisturbing to one who was, among other things, seeking peace. An inmate name Renfield was the worst offender.
One time the Harkers had Count Dracula over for the evening, and Jonathan (his agency’s top man) asked him how he liked Carfax with regard to location, condition of the house and property, and just all around. “Ah, such architecture,” said Count Dracula while gazing uncontrollably at Mina, “is truly frozen music.”
Count Dracula is descended from the noble race of the Szekelys, a people of many bloodlines, all of them fierce and warlike. He fought for his country against the invading Turks. He survived wars, plagues, the hardships of an isolated dwelling in the Carpathian Mountains. And for centuries, at least five and maybe more, he has managed to perpetuate, with the aid of supernatural powers, his existence as a vampire. This existence came to an end in the late 1800s. “Why her?” Count Dracula often asked himself.
Why the entire ritual, when one really thinks about it. What does a being who can transform himself into a bat, a wolf, a wisp of smoke, anything at all, and who knows the secrets of the dead (perhaps of death itself) want with this oily and overheated nourishment? Who would make such a stipulation for immortality! And, in the end, where did it get him? Lucy Westenra’s soul was saved, Renfield’s soul was never in any real danger ... but Count Dracula, one of the true children of the night from which all things are born, has no soul. Now he has only this same insatiable thirst, though he is no longer free to alleviate it. (“Why her? There were no others such as her.”) Now he has only this painful, perpetual awareness that he is doomed to wriggle beneath this infernal stake which those fools—Harker, Seward, Van Helsing, and the others—have stuck in his trembling heart. (“Her fault, her fault.”) And now he hears voices, common voices, peasants from the countryside.
“Over here,” one of them shouts, “in this broken down convent or whatever it is. I think I’ve found something we can give to those damned dogs. Good thing, too. Christ, I’m sick of their endless whining.”
<
~ * ~
MANDY SLATER
Daddy’s Little Girl
MANDY SLATER has lived most of her life in Canada, but in 1994 returned to her native England and presently lives in North London. Mandy Slater’s anthology appearances have included Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, Sex Macabre, 100 Twisted Tales of Torment, The Tiger Garden: A Book of Writers’ Dreams, Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror and Zombie Apocalypse!
Additionally, she was the dialogue scriptwriter for the BBC’s The Animals of Farthing Wood CD-ROM and a contributor to the 2001 World Fantasy Convention CD-ROM.
She has also worked as an assistant film publicist in Romania (on Last Gasp, starring Robert Patrick and Joanna Pacula) while, as a media journalist, researcher and photographer, she has contributed to X-Pose, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Locus, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Sci-Fi Wire, SFX, Science Fiction Chronicle, Sci-Fi Magazine and several volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series.
She lives in North London and currently works in PR & Communication for a well-known mobile phone company.
The decades pass, and Dracula travels widely, never staying for more than three or four years in one place. But now his past is about to come back
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