Mina Murray

Her arrival in Darrow was hardly -- Mina tells herself -- the strangest or most momentous thing ever to happen to her. Disorienting, yes; but temporary, it must be. She'll find her way home when she achieves whatever she's been sent here to do, and she's made the best start she can; found an empty storefront with a deep, quiet basement, and begun to build her lair about her. Even so: there's something not quite right, something hanging fire, and she knows too well what it is. The lost hold on Vanessa, the empty place inside her, waiting for the connection to be found.

In the daytime, it is, eventually; a ripple of awareness, a plucked string, a hook breaking the water and tugging her to the surface of her sleep. She knows three things all twined together before her eyes can open: Vanessa's in the city; the demon inside her has met something else beyond the natural; and Mina can chase her down at any time she likes.

She waits for night, at least. For Vanessa to be alone, before sending herself out -- white dress, the twin of the one she's abandoned, and she curls herself deeper into her own bedding as she opens her projected eyes and takes in the sight of Vanessa, all pale skin and dark hair in the faint orange glow of the streetlights.

Her heart, unbeating, seems to twist and shudder and thump beneath her ribs. Mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good --

She hardly needs intend the streetlights to spark and blow out, all up and down the block.

Mailbox for Mina Murray

(a.k.a. Mrs Jonathan Harker)