3 October.
It is six o’clock in the evening, and I am writing in my diary. I feel very nervous. I need to write to stay calm. Mina was crying this morning, but she was brave. She told me to trust in God. Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward returned from Renfield’s room. Renfield was dead. His face was crushed and his neck was broken.
The doctors spoke to the man who watched Renfield. The man heard Renfield shout the word "God" many times. Then he heard a loud noise. He found Renfield on the floor. Dr. Seward decided to tell the police it was an accident. He did not want to tell the truth. Nobody would believe a story about a vampire.
We decided to tell Mina everything. We did not want to hide secrets anymore. Mina said she was not afraid for herself. But she said, "If I become a danger to the people I love, I will die." She meant she would kill herself to keep us safe.
Van Helsing was very serious. He told Mina she must not die yet. If she died now, she would become undead (a dead body that moves like it is alive). She would become a vampire like Count Dracula. She must stay alive until the Count is destroyed. Mina promised to try.
Van Helsing explained the plan. We needed to find all the Count’s boxes of earth. We must make the earth holy, so that a vampire cannot use it. We would use pieces of the Sacred Wafer (holy bread from a church). During the day, the Count is weak. He cannot change his shape or disappear. He must walk like a normal man.
I wanted to go to the house in Piccadilly immediately. Van Helsing said we must be careful. We did not want the police to stop us. Van Helsing wanted to hire a locksmith (a person who makes and fixes locks). We would act like the owners of the house. We would open the door during the day when many people were in the street.
We prepared to leave. Van Helsing wanted to protect Mina while we were gone. He touched her forehead with a piece of the Sacred Wafer. Suddenly, Mina screamed. The holy bread burned her skin like hot metal. It left a red scar on her forehead.
Mina fell to her knees and cried. She felt like a sinner. She cried, "Unclean! Unclean!" Van Helsing told her not to despair. He said the scar was a sign of what had happened. He promised the scar would disappear when Dracula was dead. We all held hands and promised to help Mina.
We went to the house at Carfax first. We entered the old chapel. We found the large boxes of earth. We used tools to open the boxes. We put a piece of the Sacred Wafer in each box and closed them. Now, the Count could not sleep in those boxes. I saw Mina in a window of the asylum. I waved to her, and she waved back.
Then we went to Piccadilly. Lord Godalming and Quincey Morris found a locksmith. The locksmith opened the door of the Count's house. The house smelled terrible. It smelled like old earth and decay. We found eight boxes of earth in the dining room. We put the holy bread in each box.
But we were looking for nine boxes. One box was missing! We looked around the room. We found Dracula’s papers and a bunch of keys. Lord Godalming and Quincey Morris took the keys. They went to find the other houses in London. The doctors and I stayed in the Piccadilly house. We waited for the Count to return.