June 1898
It had taken Mina just three days to gather her things and walk out of her Baker Street home, just three days to walk out from Jonathan and their marriage. After their argument he had not spoken a word to her, in fact, she hadn't even seen him. Jonathan would return from work and shut himself in his study, if he was drinking, he kept himself to himself. She would have left the very next day if it hadn't been for him hiding the front door key. She couldn't believe he had stooped so low, was she to be a prisoner in her own home? No, she refused to resign to his will. After two days of searching the house from top to bottom, Mina had found the spare key on top of the doorframe of his bedroom. She had arranged a hansom cab and left quickly, whilst Jonathan was still at work. She did not have much to pack: a few dresses, hair combs and brooches. Her most prized possessions were her writing materials and the portrait of her and Lucy. She looked at it with fond recollection; Lucy had insisted of having a photograph of themselves at the beach at Brighton pier.
"Come on, Mina, it's just a bit of fun. We haven't had a picture taken of us before now, and you are my best friend. Let's have this memory of our perfect holiday printed permanently. We shall look back on it when we are old and grey, wrinkled after too much wine and our constantly frustrating husbands!"
It had cost quite a bit of money, but of course that was no matter to Lucy. She had paid for not one, but two photographs, so they could each have a print. That was the kind of person Lucy was, generous and kind. Mina really did miss her.
Before long, the cab arrived and Mina shut the front door behind her. She didn't look back but a made a point of asking the driver the time.
"It's 10 o'clock, Miss. Don't worry, we'll just make your train."
Mina wasn't worried. After settling into the cab, she wrote in her journal.
Thursday 2nd June
10 o' clock in the morning.
Right now, at this exact moment in time, I count my marriage to Jonathan Harker as finished.
Mina.
Mina hadn't travelled alone before. She had gone shopping in London without a chaperone, but she had not been on the train by herself. She liked to think of herself as a forward-thinking woman, but even she was slightly nervous at the thought of a near four-hour solo journey. Still, she couldn't turn back now. She felt alive, a spark had been ignited in her and she was looking forward to this adventure. Her life had been sorely lacking in anything fulfilling over the past six months.
After settling into her private carriage, she visibly relaxed. The train conductor was very helpful, and she had noticed she was not the only woman travelling alone. Have things have changed so radically in the past six months? The scenery was beautiful once they left the capital, she felt so inspired that she did something she had not done for a very long time: she wrote poetry.
Emerald deserts stretching for miles
Clash with steel, uniform tracks
Soldiers standing in aisles
The countryside bleeds with grey cracks.
Beauty is not so perfect
It is raw, real and scarred.
Crumbling leaves and sharp-edged thorns
Litter soft moss, becoming marred
Look toward to the wild sea
Embrace the salt, wind and sand
Remember him, remember he
Whose feelings of yours were banned.
She stopped.
Mina re-read what she had written, and with a sigh, crumpled the paper in her hands. What was she doing? She was going to Whitby to help her dear friend, Jack, and mourn the death of her Lucy, not to chase memories of him. Mina gazed out the window as the scenery ambled past her. Stifling a yawn, she could not wait to see her dear friend's face when she arrived at his door. But now, she should sleep. She was not used to being up in the daytime, her body clock was demanding her to shut her eyes.
Her dreams were vivid and relentless.
"Mina. My Mina."
She is surrounded by darkness. Her breathing is heavy and her eyes wide, she feels for something, a door, a window, anything to make sense of where she is.
"You are coming to me. I can feel you. I crave you: your touch, your kiss, your love."
She feels him behind her. His breath caresses the back of her neck and she shivers, not with fright, but excitement.
"Yes, my love. I can feel you. You will be free soon, we will be together for all of time."
Her senses are heightened as he tightens his grip around her waist, inhaling the scent of her hair. His fingers begin to trail lightly up her corset towards her décolletage.
"It is not long now. Wake up."
Mina woke with a start. Feeling shaken, she sipped some water from the stand next to her seat and began to focus on a spot on the floor so she could steady her breathing, all the while thinking that she was absolutely, definitely losing her mind.
A knock at her carriage door brings her back from her thoughts.
"Pardon, Miss, but we will shortly be calling at Whitby. Would you like me to gather your luggage?"
This is it, she thought, the adventure begins.