The Unholy Night

Chapter VII

"I know when you go down all your darkest roads, I would've followed all the way to the graveyard, oh, 'cause I keep digging myself down deeper, I won't stop till I get where you are"

- Graveyard by Halsey 

It was an interesting rest of the day. We did go for a tea at an inn along the cliffs. It was old-fashioned and lovely, of course. We ran into some friendly cows on our way back, but we were all being very cautious of wild bulls. 

We intended to head up to bed as soon as dinner was finished, but Mrs. Westenra, as it turns out, had decided she was in the mood to come down for supper for once, and she'd invited a young curate over. I noticed both Mina and Lucy's heads drooping at the table. 

When we finally stumbled up to bed, Lucy was complaining quite a bit. "One of these days, someone is going to have to go about training young men, ones who don't take supper, and know what tiredness looks like in a lady!"

And we thought that was the end of it. All in all, not one of my better birthdays, having attended a funeral and gotten the news that a personal acquaintance had been murdered, but other than that, it hadn't been terrible. 

* 

Mina woke in the middle of the night, in complete darkness. She'd been having some sort of wretched dream, and she was grasping for just what it was when she felt an air of crushing emptiness, soul-destroying loneliness surrounding her. 

She sighed. Her own paranoia getting the better of her. But when your best friend sleepwalks and you wake up feeling alone, you ought to give it a look. 

She couldn't see Lucy's bed, so she stood up, her back making an odd crackling noise, and felt the bedclothes for a sign of warmth. Lucy had clearly gotten up. 

Mina struck a match, and found that Lucy wasn't in the room at all. She considered yelling, but Mrs. Westenra had been in worse health than usual lately. 

She looked around. Lucy's dressing gown and dress were both where they'd been left, so she couldn't be far. 

Mina quickly threw on some clothes and ran to search the house. When she came to the door, she found it unlatched, and panic struck her immediately. 

What was she to do? She had to look around, she had to search, she had to - 

Surely something had to be done. It looked as if she'd already lost Jonathan, she couldn't -

Mina took a deep breath. No. Jonathan was not gone. She had not lost him. If anything, she had temporarily misplaced him. The same had happened to Lucy. 

What did she do if she'd misplaced something? She'd retrace her steps. Done. Then she'd enlist help. 

She thought she might have audibly groaned. She did not want to deal with vampires at the moment, even if it made sense. She was one woman alone, searching for another woman alone, and there were three supernatural creatures of the night upstairs. She might as well make use of them. 

*

I woke to Mina shaking me awake. "Wake up, you useless lump! Lucy's missing! She's gone sleepwalking, I think she's outside, and I don't know where she is! Addy and Bess are already helping. Do any of you have a supernatural sense of smell?"