#draculoop

[ink-stains-and-constellations]

Seven years and six months. Everything is okay. It's good. It's wonderful. It's normal, gloriously, impossibly normal. You go to work. You come home. You eat dinner. You kiss your son goodnight. You fall asleep to the steady rhythm of your wife's beating heart. You barely even have nightmares anymore.

You go to work. You come home. You eat dinner. You kiss your son goodnight. You fall asleep.

You wake up to silence.

You jolt upright, tangled in your bedsheets, your heart pounding as your wide, unseeing eyes look frantically around the (horribly familiar) room. Not again, not again, God, please, not again -

It's a dream, you reassure yourself as your pulse refuses to slow, although you're unsure if you mean this panicked morning or the sleep-hazed memory of your wife's heartbeat. Wife? Your diary says she's your fiancé, the words scratched in shorthand on the creamy white paper next to a recipe for a Hungarian chicken dish you've only had once in your life.

Oh, God, not again.

You go about your day. You prepare to travel to the castle in the mountains, determinedly ignoring the dread that lingers deep in your soul, growing with each familiar step. (You've had seven years and six months to forget, but it's your fifth time back here and your body has the motions memorised.)

The old woman begs you not to go. You are desperate to agree - go tomorrow instead, or the day after, or next week, or never - but duty once again forces your hand, and you leave as planned, the cool weight of the crucifix hidden beneath your shirt.

You don't have to get your dictionary out to know the words muttered during the coach ride, though they still send a shiver through you. The driver whips his horses in a grim frenzy of speed, and you internally join the pleas of your companions for him to go faster. If you can just get there early enough, if there's enough time for you to agree to go on to Bukovina -

But of course, there isn't time. For the Dead travel fast.

You clutch the crucifix around your neck, and (praying desperately to everything holy that this is the last time, that you'll never do this again) step once more into the night.

[jonathan-harkers-recipe-blog]

Good day, Mr. Harker! Is everything ready for the trip to Transylvania? Are there else for us to be done in your absence?

...I am not ready. God, how could I ever be ready to return to hell? I can only pray that I will wake up tomorrow and find myself still here and not on my way to Transylvania again.

[reallucywestenra]

April 30, 1898

I cannot get it out of my head. The feeling is in every drop of blood that runs through me and every single word I say. I drink much water and it does not work, it lingers like the taste of sleep when you wake in the morning. It lingers this feeling, the words I cannot articulate on the tip of my tongue. The best approximation I can give is that there will be something to fear. An old sort of fear that has not bound me in many years. Fear. What do you fear? -Lucy

[asideofkimchi]

[the following post contains spoilers for Dracula, especially the ending]

In my (admittedly brief) exposure of the concept of the dracula daily time loop, I haven’t seen anyone mention the epilogue that takes place 7 years later. The loop goes from taking care of Dracula in November, and then resets on the train in May, with Jonathan writing his journal entries on his way to Castle Dracula.

This makes sense. It’s the year that we the readers follow along, so it makes sense that it would be what our good friend Jonathan Harker must experience time and time again.

…I can’t help but think about that 7 years later epilogue.

the gang is together, bonded by the trauma they’ve shared, but they’ve lived past it. Life has settled. Those who are gone are not forgotten; new family members carry their name. They’ve fought hard for this peace, they’ve earned it, and they gather together to enjoy each other’s company. Maybe days, weeks, months go by where they don’t think about the vampiric circumstances that brought them all together like this.

But there must be days where they reflect. Mina looks at her son, looks for a sign that the spirit of his namesake is in there. She calls out his full name one day and is struck by hearing herself say all those names in concession, and she’s reminded of those meetings long ago. Jonathan catches his hair in the reflection and remembers the night he came across that monster forcing himself on his wife. There are nights where he wakes up screaming, having relived those memories of being under the Count’s glowing red eyes, and his wife must hold his shaking body as he sobs. Their son’s very birthday is the anniversary of the end. The summer before the seventh anniversary, they traveled to where it all began, and ended. They reviewed their journals, all of Mina’s hard work in typing multiple copies of everyone’s story. They recognize this was a hard-won peace, but they won. They won. And life goes on.

That’s when I think the time loop should reset. After those seven years of reestablishing their lives, of finally reaching a place where everyone has carried on but not forgotten. Therein lies the tragedy, of thinking you’ve finally won and moved on in your life, you’ve finally acquired peace and happiness, only to wake up and find yourself back at the beginning with nothing but a vague recollection of a son named after a very important and dear friend who sacrificed himself for your freedom.

But there is no son. You’re not even married yet. Your fiancée is back in Britain, and you need to make sure you remember to write down the recipe for paprika hendl to bring back to her. But first, you must get on with your travels- the Count is waiting.

[jonathan-harkers-recipe-blog]

You survived it already so many time you will survive it again dear. Hold onto hope. We will be there for you as much as we can. This too shall pass.

...this too shall pass. We will survive. We will continue.

I am scared, I do not want to go back.

You all do enjoy playing jokes on me, don't you.

[jonathan-harkers-recipe-blog]

How have you been spending this last day Jonathan? With Mina and Quincey i presume? Have you tried your best to remember little Quincey's face as it will be a while until you see him again? Does Mina suspect that this is the last day before you all go back?

...I have been spending it with my family, yes. Mina knows, I have told her, I learnt long ago to never keep secrets from her... Quincy does not, he would not understand, he is too young. All I can do is hold him close.

[jonathan-harkers-recipe-blog]

🫡 Promise to yell at you to not be a dumbass and exclude Mina. Will you listen when October rolls around again? We'll have to see i suppose.

Any other requests?

...if you can.... if it's at all within your abilities...

...

...make sure I kill him at the castle, when I find him sleeping. If I can manage that... it would end a lot of suffering before it even began.

[jonathan-harkers-recipe-blog]

Hey what if we all tell you that you are in a time loop when it starts repeating again? Maybe we can help you remember and try to break the loop?

...I do not know. I do not know how these things work, I do not know if I would even believe you. If you can remember... if you can do anything, change anything, then... please. Keep Mina safe.