Dracula

The novel's climax unfolds as the vampire hunters — Van Helsing, Seward, Holmwood, Morris, and the Harkers — pursue Count Dracula back to Transylvania after he flees London with his last box of native earth, having been driven out after the group sterilized most of his other resting places. Mina Harker, cursed by Dracula's blood after he forced her to drink from him during an attack at the asylum, retains a faint psychic connection to the Count. Van Helsing uses hypnosis on Mina to track Dracula's movements, and the group follows his trail to Galatz, Romania.

The hunters split into two parties. Van Helsing takes Mina to Dracula's castle, where he destroys the three vampire women who had earlier threatened Jonathan Harker, ensuring they can never harm anyone again. Meanwhile, Harker and Holmwood pursue Dracula's box, transported by boat along the river, while Morris and Seward track it by land. As dusk approaches on the day the group finally catches up, Romani men are seen transporting the box on a wagon toward the castle, racing to get Dracula home before sunset when he would be at his most powerful.

The hunters attack, fighting off the Romani guards. Jonathan Harker slashes Dracula's throat with a Kukri knife, decapitating him, while Quincey Morris simultaneously drives a Bowie knife into the Count's heart. Dracula's body crumbles instantly into dust, dissolving the curse that had marked Mina and freeing her from the threat of becoming a vampire herself. In the chaos of the fight, Morris has been mortally wounded by the Romani. He dies moments after Dracula's destruction, comforted in his final moments by the knowledge that Mina has been saved and the evil vanquished.

The novel closes with a brief note written by Jonathan Harker seven years later. He reflects that their written records — letters, diaries, and phonograph transcriptions — might seem hard for anyone to believe as evidence, but that this hardly matters, since they themselves know the truth. The Harkers have gone on to have a son, whom they have named Quincey in honor of their fallen friend, and the survivors remain close, bound together by the horror and triumph they shared.