Free Trapped in Transylvania by Tony Abbott Page B

bleeding.”
    â€œI’m fine,” she replied. “Barely a scratch.”
    Van Helsing frowned. “But it could have been—”
    â€œIt was just a bat, Professor!” Mina said sharply. “It wasn’t Dracula. I’m sure of it! I feel perfect. Perfect—do you hear! Now, you men go on to Carfax alone. I’ll be fine here. More than fine, in fact. I’ll be perfect!”
    â€œIs good!” Van Helsing said. “Now, let us go to the Carfax hurringly. Water I have, that is blessed and holy. Ya, everything Dracula is not. We sprinkle and sss! we sterilize his filthy dirt boxes of filth. That way, Dracula has a place to sleep nowhere. Ya! We must find this vampire and drive him out!”
    â€œDrive?” said Frankie. “Let’s make him walk like everyone else!”
    As we all stood up, it suddenly seemed like one of those special moments of bonding. Without a word, we clasped our hands together. Frankie had to put the book down on the table to do that. It was the first time, I think, that either of us had done that. But I think it meant something.
    It meant that we were part of the story now.
    I turned to Frankie. She seemed to feel it, too.
    â€œThis is the ‘let’s go’ part of the book, isn’t it, Dev?” Frankie asked.
    â€œI think so,” I said. “There’s only one thing to do and everybody knows it. Go ahead, Frankie. Do the honors.”
    Taking a deep breath and looking around at all the faces, Frankie said. “Okay, everybody … let’s go!”
    â€œAch! Ach!” Van Helsing sputtered under his thick mustache. “I say when we go! I the vampire expert am!”
    He waited until everyone was looking at him.
    Finally, he said, “Let’s go!”
    And we went. And as we went, Mina chirped happily from the door, “I feel perfect, you know!”
    I turned to Frankie. “Why does she keep saying that?”
    â€œSimple,” she said. “She doesn’t have too many lines in this chapter.”

Chapter 15
    As we made our way across Dr. Seward’s lawn, Carfax Abbey stood against the darkening London sky like a huge stone ruin.
    â€œThey must have used one giant pile of stones for this place,” I murmured to Frankie.
    She snorted. “Now the stones want to be a pile again.”
    It was true. The place was totally falling down.
    The gates in front were of old wood and even older iron all eaten with rust. It took no more than a minute to push through them and enter the big overgrown yard.
    The house loomed ahead. There were only a few windows in it, all of them dark. Iron bars crisscrossed the glass—which should have told us something.
    â€œLair of evil, number two,” Frankie mumbled as we climbed up the front steps.
    At the door, Van Helsing raised his hand. “My friends, we are going into terrible danger. Be watchful!”
    At the professor’s signal, Harker and Seward pressed on the door. The rusty hinges creaked. Slowly the old door opened.
    I had been prepared for some kind of smell, but the stench that came blowing out nearly knocked us over.
    â€œOh!” Harker said, burying his nose in his coat.
    â€œAch!” Van Helsing exclaimed. “Every breath of that monster Dracula clings to here! But we must proceed.”
    I sniffed my armpits as we entered.
    â€œLet’s find the boxes quickly,” said Godalming.
    Harker, for some reason looking right at me and Frankie, said, “Why don’t you two come with me. We’ve done this before, haven’t we?”
    â€œAnd it was such fun the first time,” I mumbled.
    Van Helsing nodded sharply. “You find boxes. We other men will examinate every cranny and nookle to discover some clue about the where of Dracula now.”
    As Harker headed into the dark interior of the vampire’s evil lair, I nudged Frankie. “You afraid?”
    â€œNah!” she said. “Well,