I haven't read Dracula since highschool and one thing I am noticing - I'm not sure if it's because I'm older or because Dracula daily is making me take my time so I'm noticing more little things- is how young the main characters are. Lucy, Mina, Jonathan - they're all kids in their early twenties trying to set up their lives. It makes them so much more vulnerable socially and Dracula's attacks more tragic because he's robbing their futures.

It is jarring to think about--especially as we'll discover in later hints that these three specifically have been friends since childhood. Mina and Lucy bring up their shared time as little girls together. Hawkins will go on to mention how he's known Jonathan and Mina since they were small. Which means, by way of Mina's mutual connection, she, Lucy, and Jonathan have likely been each other's closest circle of friends since they were toddlers.

Going by the further context of their broken/semi-nonexistent parental deals, they were probably as near to family as they ever got too. They grew up as best friends, loving each other first in that way, then in the way of romance. Lucy being Lucy, I imagine her little girl-self picturing them all coming together as grownups in one big house, everyone family, everyone friends, everyone in love.

Even when the 'rules' were hammered in as they all grew up, I can't not see them low-key picturing a future where they lived practically in tandem with each other.

Living close by. Attending each others' weddings. Visits to and from each other's doorstep. Raising children who would make their own circle of friends from each other. All still together, all plush and loving.

And then Dracula happens.

The big bloodthirsty boot coming down to trample all three of them and their dreams into a nightmare.