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decrease11 July, 1905 - My Room in the Chao Muang ’s Palace - about 9 am
This morning I awoke to an empty bed, as before, but felt much more drained than last time. I had, again, slept badly, and my anxious meditations of the day had transformed themselves into nightmares. I dreamed that Dau left me in the middle of the night, and that soon after, the Chao Muang visited my room again, and dived for my neck, but that this time he did not back away, but sank his teeth into my neck and drank my blood until I was drained!
I shivered at the memory of the nightmare, but then, shaking myself, I smiled as other memories returned. Dau! She had taken my sexual experience to new heights. She began with what she called a ‘tongue bath’ which consisted of licking me all over - and when I say all over, I mean everywhere - even my most intimate places. I cannot describe the intensity of that situation – made more intense by her almost prehensile tongue! Of course, being a gentleman, I had no choice but to return the favour. It seems that Siamese men are better at receiving than giving pleasure, because it was a new experience for her and she went as wild as though she was on some exotic hallucinogenic drug. Then she took me into her, and oh! I did not realise that there were so many doors to the palace of pleasure. Three doors I entered, and three times left a calling card. “Oh for a fourth!” she sighed. I sighed too, but knew from my night with Gai and Gaeo that I had no more cards to leave.
So I was not surprised to feel so enervated this morning. What did surprise me, however, was the blood on my sheets. My first thoughts were that I had entered the rear door to the pleasure palace too roughly, or that her mens had begun during the night, but then I realised that the blood was mine, and that it was coming from a wound on my neck.
With trembling hands I reached for my shaving glass and examined the wound. At first I could see nothing but blood. However, when I washed the blood away I saw the telltale marks - marks that I have seen before - and that I hoped I would never see again. The two neat holes, about two inches apart, that signify the bite of a vampire! So it was no nightmare after all - what I thought I had dreamed is what had actually happened! And what is worse, I deserve it. I have broken my marriage vows a second time, I have revelled in carnality like a brute beast - and I therefore deserve this punishment even more than the men of Sodom and Gomorrah!
I have only one chance – Van Helsing!
11 July, 1905 - Letter to Dr Van Helsing, M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt.
Dear Abraham,
Come at once! I am in grave danger! Many years ago you saved Mina and I from the worse supernatural horror known to man - the chief of all vampires, Dracula! This morning, I found on my neck the unmistakable marks of a vampire bite - something that I thought I would never see again, especially in this exotic land so far away from the brooding gloom of Transylvania! I know that you will want to know every detail so that you can prepare yourself as best as you can to help me. I think the best way to do this - and the easiest, as I am almost too weak to write - is to tear out the pages from my journal and enclose them with my letter. You will find that they give a minute account of everything that has happened to me from the moment of my arrival.
Do not delay! My life may depend upon your coming quickly!
Your friend in desperation,
Jonathan
11 July, 1905 - about noon
I sent for Minister Rattamontrii to take my letter, but only after cleaning myself up and tidying the bed to conceal the worst of the bloodstains - I didn’t want him to see how weak I was - I don’t know who I can trust! However, he saw at a glance that something was wrong and was very concerned. I tried to make light of it, but he insisted I saw a doctor. He went to the door, and I heard him questioning the guards about last night - not that I could understand a word they said. Then he sent one of the guards to fetch a doctor. Moments later, my two serving maids reappeared. They bathed me and changed my bed, so that by the time the doctor arrived I was at least clean and comfortable. That doctor was a magician! I am speaking figuratively of course - though for all I know he could have really been a magician (anything seems possible in this strange land!). He bound my wound with aromatic herbs and gave me something to drink which had a euphoric effect upon me - some tincture of opium perhaps. That said, I am sure that he could not have performed the blood transfusion that my friend Van Helsing once performed on poor Lucy – so much more advanced is our science than even the most exaggerate claims of magic. Ah! we failed to save her in the end, though we slew the creature she had become and restored her soul to her body and to heaven. Will that be my fate, I wonder?
11 July, 1905 - about 9pm
I am feeling so much recovered that I can’t help wondering if the whole thing was not a figment of my overheated imagination. Still - the throbbing pain in my neck is still there, and no doubt, if I removed the dressing, I would still be able to see the tell-tale marks.
About an hour ago – to my horror – the Chao Muang came to visit me – but fortunately, Minister Rattamontrii and the doctor, came with him. As they entered my room, I couldn’t help reflecting that, of the three, the Chao Muang was the only one I had never seen in daylight. He looked at me strangely, his steely gaze seeming to bore into my wound, making it throb all the more painfully. The three of them spoke in a low voices in their own language for a while, and then Minister Rattamontrii said, “We do not wish to alarm you, Mr Harker, but his excellency thought it best that you know the doctor’s diagnosis.”
I sat up with fearful interest.
“The marks on your neck are the same as the marks that were found on the dead girl. You lost a lot of blood, but you are stronger, and you survived.”
At this point the doctor muttered something to the minister.
“But the doctor emphasises that you could not stand another such loss of blood.”
At this point the Chao Muang intervened, “Have no fear, Mr Harker. I will tell guards that their own lives depend on keeping you safe. No living being will pass your door tonight!”
These words struck me with horror, for it was not the living that I feared - but the dead – the undead to be more precise – and the one person to whom the guards would certainly not deny access was the Chao Muang himself!
After a few stern words with the guards, the Chao Muang left and I could breathe easily again. The doctor changed my dressing and administered another dose of the opiate, while the minister watched him anxiously.
Clutching at a straw, in the hope of at least some human company (for I doubted that I would be strong enough to play the lover), I asked if Dau could come to look after me. The minister looked at the doctor, and he nodded his assent.
“She will be sent to you,” he said. “In the meantime, rest. The doctor tells me that, after a good night’s sleep, you will be almost back to normal. Then we will complete our business, and you can go - away from the curse that haunts this palace!”
When they had gone, I decided to bar the door with the teak chest that stood against the far wall. I did not have the strength to move it alone in my present state, but with Dau’s help, I might be able to barricade myself in for long enough to survive until Van Helsing’s arrival.
© Bangkok Byron, 2007. All rights reserved by the author.
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February 24, 2007, 21:20
"This morning I awoke to an empty bed, as before, but felt much more drained than last time."
Dammit Rob, this is scaring me. I used to do this all the time. Stop creeping me out. Are you Irish btw?
:-)