A man appears in a torn, dirty shirt, and he is shivering from the cold. 

JONATHAN:
Fear, the urge to flee… then cold and wet… cold and wet. How I longed to escape that wretched castle.
(He sighs deeply, steadying his breath. A faint smile appears.)
And Mina… my dearest Mina Murray, my betrothed, the love of my life.
Through all my time in that dark and unholy place, the thought of her sustained me. Through every horror I beheld… I kept her face before me as a lamp against the darkness, an anchor to my very soul.
To think that I came so near to being seduced by the Count’s loathsome creatures, fashioned in the form of women. It shames me still.
Yet it is all buried here, within this coffin: my journal, as final and as certain as death!
My journal… still marked by the waters of the river that nearly claimed me.
(Sighs.)
The sisters of the convent were kind enough to dry both myself and my memories,
(shows the journal)
though I suspect they may have read its pages. All that matters now is that I am here.
I survived. I escaped the house of horrors in which I was kept, the castle of Count Dracula.
And though I was seized by a great fever and could not yet return to my Mina, she came from England to me.
(Mina enters, carrying a jacket. She smiles warmly, approaches Jonathan, and gently helps him into it. They take each other’s hands and share a smile.)

MINA:
I received a letter from a kind sister in Hungary, and so I came by ship, and we were married here, in this good convent.
Soon we shall return to England as husband and wife.

JONATHAN: (Holds tight to his journal.)
Promise me, Mina, that you shall only read the words written in this journal if times come when you must.

©Yael Mina Frank