May 1898
Evening
The house was silent. It had been three hours since their heated argument and neither had said another word to each other since. Jonathan was in his study, making plans of his own. Occasionally, he would mutter to himself. "How could she?" and "That Devil!" Helping himself to another glass of port, Mina's portrait caught his eye. Jonathan studied it and lamented the past. He used to love Mina, at one time she meant everything to him. How things change. He had tried to save their marriage. He did the right thing by rescuing her from that creature, he had brought her to London and had become successful in his career. She lived in a new townhouse in a fashionable part of the city. What more could she want? Jonathan stared into Mina's eyes, searching for an answer. You are not what she desires, what she craves. He slammed the portrait on his desk in frustration.
It was obvious that things were never going to be exactly as they had been between them, but he thought that she would at least try. Jonathan assumed that Mina would love not working, he thought she would focus on other things, wanting children, for example. Or, refining her writing. Even using the time to recover from the past damned year. He had gifted her time to heal and this is how she repaid him? His glass clinked against his wedding ring and he thought of his career. It was not the done thing to have a working wife. He was a successful business owner now, she was not supposed to work. True, he had made the decision to sleep in separate rooms, but the dreams were too much for him. Moving rooms had actually helped their marriage last longer. They were always the same, the dreams. He could picture it now as clear as day.
"Mina! Open the door, Mina! You are not safe in there, Dracula is here!"
Screams from the asylum patients only emphasise the urgency. I must get to her. Pushing the door open with all my might, Van Helsing, Quincey, Seward and Holmwood cheer me on. I step into the room and the scene in front of me turns my stomach and breaks my heart simultaneously.
She is in its arms, her nightgown open to expose her breasts. Blood stains her mouth and her eyes are wild with passion. Bitemarks sit proudly on her neck. Mina writhes against the creature, making moans of pleasure.
It disgusts me. She disgusts me. The creature disappears; I try to cover Mina's nakedness to protect her modesty. She turns to me and laughs. Moving close to my face, she smears her bloodied mouth against my cheek and whispers in my ear.
"You are nothing. You cannot give me what I want, you cannot touch me like he does, you cannot make me feel things like he does. When I look at you, I feel nothing."
She licks the blood from my cheek and all I hear is laughter. They are laughing at me, the others. She is laughing at me. The rage inside me is burning; I grasp my hands around Mina's neck and squeeze hard. I want to silence her forever, but she disappears as mist. As I turn to face the others, the creature stands before me instead, its claws gripping my neck. It smiles at me.
"You can never have her, Harker."
The bone snaps and I am broken. I am dead.
Jonathan grimaced. It was always at that point he woke up, screaming. In the early days Mina would try her best to comfort him but he couldn't stand to look at her, never mind be in the same room as her. He felt angry all the time. Drinking didn't cure it either, some nights he would drink so much he would black out, yet the dreams still attacked his senses.
His thoughts often drove him mad. Does she love it still? Was she ever under its spell? Is it still alive? No, he was sure it was not. His head was separated from its body, Mina did that herself. What did it say to her in the Chapel of its castle? He would never know, for Mina would not tell him. She was a woman of many secrets and he found it hard to trust her. It was hard to understand Mina's thinking; he found it baffling that she did not go out in the day anymore. She would retreat to her room, avoiding him. Yes, he knew his marriage was now one of convenience, rather than love.
Working and drinking. This is what Jonathan did to cope. Recently, he had been thinking of divorce. It was a lengthy and costly process though, and what reason for divorce did he have? Adultery with a vampire? He would be laughed out of London. It was Mina who had the upper hand now, she could accuse him of cruelty after tonight's heated argument. He had never hit Mina before, not that he didn't want to at times, and it took all his strength not to lay a hand on her after those dreams every night. She wouldn't divorce him though, he imagined she was too proud to do that. No, he would have to endure it for now.
Perhaps he should let her go back to Whitby. He would be free of her for a week or two, perhaps his quality of life would improve. Perhaps the dreams would cease for a time if she was not around. It certainly could not get much worse. Though, how would that look to Seward? How would that look to his colleagues, his wife going alone to see a gentleman friend, in an asylum no less? Jonathan swirled the port in his glass, letting his thoughts wander.
An asylum. Of course! The answer had been there the entire time! He and Mina would go to Whitby to see their friend. Johnathan would talk to Jack discreetly, very concerned for his wife's health. He would tell him that she had clearly deteriorated since the events of last year: retreating indoors, isolating herself, giving up the work she once loved. He would tell him that he feared for her mind. Yes, they would both travel to Whitby, but only Jonathan would return.