MMCM - Chapter 4: Boxes of Earth

Описание: MMCM - Chapter 4: Boxes of Earth

Jonathan’s fear becomes certainty when he sees Dracula perform an impossible act, crawling headfirst down the outer wall of the castle like a lizard. The sight destroys any last attempt to explain the Count as merely strange or cruel. Desperate to understand what is happening, Jonathan explores deeper into the forbidden parts of the castle and discovers a chapel vault filled with boxes of native earth. In one of them lies Dracula himself, motionless and unnatural, resting in the soil of his homeland.

This discovery reveals the scale of the danger. The boxes are not random cargo. They are part of a plan. Jonathan finds evidence that Dracula intends to travel to England and has already arranged property, transport, and refuge there. What Jonathan thought was a private nightmare inside a locked castle is suddenly much larger. He realizes that if Dracula reaches London, the evil contained in these mountains will spread into the modern world. Jonathan is unable to stop it. He can only watch the design take shape and understand too late that England is now the target.

Morning gave no comfort here
Only colder stone and thinner air
I woke within a borrowed room
And knew the night was waiting still

I searched the stair, I tried the locks
I mapped each hall with shaking care
The castle kept its secrets shut
And fed me only dust and prayer
At noon I found a ledge of rock
A narrow path beside the wall
Below, the black ravine lay wide
Above, the towers stood too tall

Then movement caught my frozen gaze
Not bird, not rope, not drifting cloth
A figure sliding down the face
Headfirst upon the outer stone

Boxes of earth
Boxes of death
Packed for a voyage west
Boxes of earth
Under his hands
The grave becomes his nest
He leaves this height
He hunts my home
He carries night abroad
Boxes of earth
Bound for the sea
And England pays the cost

He wore his cloak pulled close and black
His fingers gripped the ancient seam
He moved with calm obscene control
A thing no human frame could keep
No ladder hung, no foothold showed
Yet down he went through open air
And every law I trusted snapped
To watch him pass from stone to stone there

I bit my hand to stop the cry
I turned and ran through arch and dust
For now I knew the road ahead
Was not escape, but dreadful proof

Boxes of earth
Boxes of death
Packed for a voyage west
Boxes of earth
Under his hands
The grave becomes his nest
He leaves this height
He hunts my home
He carries night abroad
Boxes of earth
Bound for the sea
And England pays the cost

I found a chapel sunk in grime
Its altar split, its candles dead
Beyond it lay a vault of crates
Rank soil piled in wooden beds
There in one box the Count lay still
His face was hard, his mouth drawn red
No breath disturbed the heavy dust
No pulse moved through that filthy bed

I raised my hand
I thought to strike
To end the thing before it woke
But fear and weakness broke my will
And all my courage turned to smoke

I searched the papers left nearby
The names of ships, the dates, the port
The plans were set for English ground
For house and passage, claim and court
This was no prison built for me
Alone, apart from any war
I was one page within a scheme
Whose reach would spread from shore to shore

Boxes of earth
Boxes of death
Packed for a voyage west
Boxes of earth
Under his hands
The grave becomes his nest
He leaves this height
He hunts my home
He carries night abroad
Boxes of earth
Bound for the sea
And England pays the cost

The castle keeps me for its own
The gates stay shut, the wolves still call
But worse than chains around my hands
Is knowing what will cross the wall
I write this down with stiffened fingers
And pray some future eye gives heed
The Count has packed his homeland dirt
And set his hunger free to feed

Boxes of earth