Olga Boyko - The Chronicles of the Counts Dracula-Cardie. Adapted from Baron Olshevris novel «Vampires»

JAMES

Quiet, gentlemen, quiet.

KARL IVANOVICH

(reads the teacher’s diary)

None of the villagers has seen him from that night. My suspicion that there was something fatal linking the “incidents’, left me.

INT – STUDY IN THE TEACHER’S COUNTRY HOUSE-DAYTIME, THE TEACHER’S MEMORIES

BEGINNING OF THE MEMORIES

The TEACHER (28 years old) sits at the table in his study and writes. A pen in his hand slides on the paper.

TITLE: 1852

TEACHER’S VOICE

(behind the scenes)

Yesterday my doubts came back. Heinrich the hunter had disappeared.

INT – LIVING ROOM IN THE TEACHER’S HOUSE – SAME DAY

Heinrich’s sister, MARIA (25 years old) cries in the teacher’s house. The teacher and his sister MINA (30 years old) comfort her

MARIA

(wipes her tears)

My brother is missing! He went hunting early on Friday morning, promising to return in time for the evening service.

TEACHER

(walks about the room)

Don’t cry, we will find Heinrich.

MARIA

(knits a sock)

The rumor in the village says that the only place where we should look for him is the Witches’ Valley.

Mina crosses herself after Maria’s words

TEACHER

(stands still, looking at them)

So let’s go to the valley. But why should he be there?

MINA

(knitting)

Even though Michel, the ironsmith, was found in the Witches’ Valley, it was only because he was dead drunk.

TEACHER

(scratching his head)

That’s right. His hunting field is on the opposite side, in the mountains.

MINA

(puts knitting on her knees)

The brother is right, they won’t find your Heinrich in the Valley.

The teacher looks reproachfully at his sister. She understands that she is saying the wrong thing and becomes silent. Maria cries again

END OF THE TEACHER’S MEMORIES

INT – ROOM IN THE VILLAGE INN – SAME NIGHT

Karl Ivanovich pauses and puts the notebook down

TITLE: 1912

HARRY

(claps his hands)

Tomorrow we are spending the night at the Hunting House. It’s just near the Valley.

CAPTAIN WRIGHT

(yawns in the armchair)

Right now I don’t understand anything.

HARRY

(smokes his cigar)

You will understand once a witch gets hold of you.

CAPTAIN WRIGHT

(lazily)

What is it, the Witches’ Valley?

JAMES

(takes whisky off the table)

I thought you knew.

HARRY

(blows smoke rings)

The Valley is located at the foot of a mountain, on top of which the castle stands. In the valley’s centre there is a lake. The lakeshore is very swampy and at sunsets mists rise from its water.

He breathes out another portion of smoke

JAMES

(holds the glass of whisky in his hand)

It was this very mist that gave rise to all the legends.

HARRY

(gesticulating with his cigar in the air)

In the moonlight the mist takes on forms of beautiful women.

CAPTAIN WRIGHT

Not bad.

HARRY

Everyone who ended up in the Witches’ Valley on full moon was found dead.

JAMES

The lake women drink a man’s life with their kisses.

Drinks his glass of whisky at a draught

VILLAGE DOCTOR (48 years old) enters the living room

VILLAGE DOCTOR

Of course he will die, the lake water is stagnant and rotten.

Everyone looks at him

HARRY

(makes a hand gesture in his direction)

Doctor, you may pay for your lack of belief.

VILLAGE DOCTOR

(sits down in a spare chair)

If a drunk makes his way to the swamp, he will either drown or catch a fever.

The front door claps on the ground floor (sound behind the scenes).

EXT – VILLAGE INN – SAME SUMMER NIGHT

It is dark outside. Crickets sing.

INT – ROOM IN THE VILLAGE INN – SAME NIGHT

Harry and his guests sit in a room with a fireplace.

Georges sleeps. Karl Ivanovich looks into the notebook

KARL IVANOVICH

(rearranges his glasses and reads)

It was only after he regained consciousness that we were able to pry open his fingers. There was the medallion of Holy Virgin.

HARRY

I guess we have missed something, haven’t we?

KARL IVANOVICH

Yes, there is a gap in the records.

EXT – WITCHES” VALLEY – SUMMER EVENING, HEINRICH’S MEMORIES

BEGINNING OF THE MEMORIES

TITLE: 1852

HEINRICH – the hunter (20 years old) sits on the ledge of one of the rocks near a hawthorn bush.

The moon is bright. Mist rises from the lake.

Heinrich leans towards the hawthorn bush, smells the fragrance of its flowers and yawns.

Suddenly a gust of wind shakes the bush and a hawthorn branch strikes Heinrich on his chest – in an instant, white flowers cover him.

A white veil covers Heinrich. The veil shines and in the middle of it a beautiful female face appears, pale and wondrous, with huge greenish eyes and pink lips (Countess Maria’s face).

She moves closer to him. Heinrich is unable to take his eyes off her. He tries to reach for his medallion but there is no holy picture and lace on his neck.

The LAKE MAIDEN (26 years old) moves closer to Heinrich and kisses his lips. Everything around Heinrich starts to spin. He falls down unconscious.

END OF HEINRICH’S MEMORIES

EXT – WITCHES” VALLEY – SUMMER DAY, THE TEACHER’S MEMORIES

BEGINNING OF THE MEMORIES

The teacher passes by the lake back to the village. He sees a white nenufare underfoot, stops, picks it up from the ground, examines. The flower is little wilted

TEACHER

How did it get here?

INT – TEACHER’S BEDROOM IN THE TEACHER’S HOUSE – NIGHT OF THE SAME DAY

The teacher sits in his bedroom in his house on the second floor. He is about to go to bed.

Almost full-blown white nenufare stands in a glass of water. The teacher looks at it

TEACHER

(talking to the flower)

You are so beautiful…

The flower in the glass begins to transform. The white nenufare seems to move, it opens its petals a bit more.

Droplets of water shine on its petals. Those are either droplets or blue eyes of a woman

TEACHER

(breathing the air with his nose)

What is this, a fragrance?

The nenufare no longer floats helplessly in the glass of water, but sways proud on its high stem, but this is no longer the stem, but a slim woman’s body (aka Countess Maria)

She has a pale face with big sad eyes and pale pink lips. Her golden hair falls in beautiful waves upon her breasts.

Her figure sways softly and with every movement grows bigger and bigger until becomes a normal woman, yet her body stays translucent.

Now she floats on air from the table. The room is filled with inaudible sounds.

Her figure as if floats on air. She comes closer and closer; soon she sways beside the teacher’s bed, whispering something. She leans over him. She stretches out her arms, as if begging for something

TEACHER

(pushes the ghost aside with his hands)

No! No!

A crash and sound of breaking glass are heard in the room.

EXT-WITCHES” VALLEY – SAME SUMMER NIGHT

The fog band moves away from the open window of the bedroom towards the Witches’ Valley. In the moonlight it seems magical glow.

INT – TEACHER’S BEDROOM – SAME NIGHT

Frightened Mina appears in the room. The teacher sits in the bed and looks at the sister.

The broken glass decanter lies on the floor next to the bed in a puddle of water

MINA

(grumbling)

Why shouting, you have broken the decanter!

The teacher looks at the desk suspiciously: the nenufare dies helplessly in its glass. The teacher mops his brow slowly

TEACHER

(smiles, embarrassed)

Only a dream.

MINA