Read Online Trapped in Transylvania by Tony Abbott - Free Book Online Page B

there was a wolf trying to break in.
    On the third night, Lucy got out of the house somehow while everyone was dozing. Nobody knew where she went, and Lucy herself didn’t remember anything.
    That’s when Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris finally entered the scene. Holmwood, Lucy’s fiance, was this very English guy with perfect manners and a fancy velvet vest. But Morris was a big blustery American and tramped around like a cowboy in a tight suit. I guess he was the author’s idea of a Texan from Texas. He was all “howdy” and “gosh” and “man alive!”
    Frankie and I liked him right away.
    Both Holmwood and Morris gave Lucy blood transfusions, too, but nothing seemed to work.
    This went on for over a week.
    Finally, one morning, Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, and Holmwood did their usual check on Lucy while Frankie and I stayed in the hall. When they came out, Holmwood was crying, and Van Helsing’s face was all sad and droopy. He shook his head. “No … no … no …”
    Frankie looked at me. Her eyes were wet.
    It was a fairly unfunny and grim moment.
    We walked down the hall together. Finally, Frankie stopped. She pointed to the book in my hands.
    â€œLucy … um … sort of … dies … doesn’t she?”
    I skimmed the next couple of pages until the words got a little blurry. Finally, I had to nod my head.
    â€œI’m pretty sure she does, Frankie. Sorry.”
    â€œOh, man. We’ve made some wrong mistakes before, but the garlic mistake is one of the wrongest.”
    â€œIt was sort of in the book anyway,” I said. “Lucy’s mom really does take the garlic away. But, yeah, I guess we all goofed up pretty major.”
    Frankie was way bummed. I hated to see her like that. I became bummed, too. I could imagine that we might just want to give up on the whole book. The story was just too sad in a lot of ways. But then I realized that the story had to keep going. It had to, or we’d never get to the end.
    â€œOn the plus side,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, “she’s only a character in a book.”
    â€œBut you get attached, you know?”
    â€œI noticed that. But on the plus-plus side, Lucy doesn’t really die. She becomes one of the undead. Dracula recruits her to be a vampire and she starts doing the biting thing on other people. Think of it as a career move. Not a good one, but a move.”
    She almost smiled. “Thanks for trying to make me feel good, but I gotta ask. Why do people write sad stories?”
    I shrugged. “Why do people read them?”
    â€œThat was heavy, Devin. Very heavy.”
    â€œIt must be all that spaghetti I ate.”
    She snorted a laugh at that. “Dude, I know what you mean. Mine isn’t sitting too well, either.”
    Over the next half hour, Frankie and I took turns reading the sad pages about Lucy’s death. She died, was buried, then became a true vampire, attacking and biting people living in Whitby. Van Helsing convinced everyone that they had to perform a ceremony on Lucy by driving a wooden stake through her heart. He said it was the only way to cure a vampire.
    It was brutal. But we found we couldn’t stop reading until we were standing outside Lucy’s tomb. By then, all the guys had done the ceremony to stop Lucy vamping around the neighborhood at night. It was pretty sad and gross, but at least it was over.
    Van Helsing stared at Frankie, Dr. Seward, Holmwood, Morris, and me, the wind swirling his frizzy hair.
    â€œIt is done,” he said. “Lucy is no longer of the undead. She is now just plain dead.”
    Dr. Seward shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a letter. “Today, I received news from Jonathan Harker and Mina. They have returned from the hospital in Budapest and are now in London. And they have seen Dracula there—”
    â€œThen go to London we must!” Van Helsing announced.