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29 June—Today is the date of the last of the three letters that the Count made me write The Count awakenedkindness he said:

“My friend Azs to take care of, we ain Toypsies will cos After they leave, e will coo Pass”

He shookhi back I ran to the door at the last moment I wanted to force it, to take it apart But at that moment I heard a whisper froh hypnotized The voice of the Count was speaking slowly:

“Back; go back to your place The tiet what you desire toht!”

These words were answered by the sensuous, sultry laughter of women Then, all the voices disappeared

I walked to the middle of the room and fell down on my knees

So my end—that terrible, hellish reat merciful God, help me!

My hands went to an crying and kissing it without even a thought of reading it!

30 June—The crow of a rooster revealed to ht boosted the confidence and deter to avoid the death that waits forwith its skeletal face, twelve hours from now I opened o to the place where I had seen the Count sleeping and take the keys, even if I had to do battle with ghouls A few moments later I had reached the crypt by way of theand the gold room The crate in which the Count slept lay in the same spot; but its lid was also in place, ready to be nailed down

I opened the lid and set it against the wall There again lay the Count, but what I saw left er, half his age His whiteonly a quarter of his hair white His cheeks were livelier, his skin had color, and his lips were even redder And those lips had fresh blood on them The blood dripped down from the corners of his mouth to his chin and neck! This terrible, o filled with blood I felt an intense disgust as I leaned over the body to touch this corpse All of ainst it However, I had to search the Count, cohly; there was no sign of the keys Finally, as I ceased li so ly unrelated events and indications suddenly flashed beforethis unthinkably horrible monster to come to Istanbul and my beloved country! There this devil would drink Turkish blood and create a land of devastation like the cursed Irew even stronger; I thought of saving the world fro of the Impaler Voivode But I had no weapons to cut or disers to support the crates I took it, raised it over ri my blow, the face of the Count turned halfway toward aze, full of hatred and evil, fell full upon ers lost their strength and the sharp edge of the shovel turned away from the Count’s face Thus his face was not crushed, but there was a deep gash on his forehead The shovel fell fro the handle away caused the lid to fall into place and hide that horrible sight

For a ht about what I should do It was as ifand footsteps froypsies of who castle through the door they would enter and running away toward the et upstairs as quickly as possible I went upstairs, entered through the , and tried to take a quick glance aroundoutside Alas, theof the room slammed to with a shock as if a storth but it was iain I was a prisoner in my own room

As I wrote these lines I could hear so Five ain There is no question… Right now I a women

Oh, but I shall not stay here I will cliold to take withtorn to pieces would be a thousand tirace of the great God Güzin,toward death…

CHAPTER V

Letter from Güzin to Sadan