Quicker and quicker danced the dust. The moonbeams seemed to quiver as they went by me into the mass of gloom beyond. More and more they gathered till they seemed to take dim phantom shapes. And then I started, broad awake and in full possession of my senses, and ran screaming from the place.

The phantom shapes, which were becoming gradually materialised from the moonbeams, were those three ghostly women to whom I was doomed. I fled, and felt somewhat safer in my own room, where there was no moonlight, and where the lamp was burning brightly.

When a couple of hours had passed I heard something stirring in the Count's room, something like a sharp wail quickly suppressed. And then there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me. With a beating heart, I tried the door, but I was locked in my prison, and could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried. As I sat I heard a sound in the courtyard without, the agonised cry of a woman. I rushed to the window, and throwing it up, looked between the bars.

Vocabulary:

Gloom: Depressing dark
Phantom: Ghost-like
Materialise: Appear from nowhere
Doomed: Certain to finish
Stir: Move around softly
Wail: A mix of crying and screaming
Chill: Make suddenly cold
Agony: Great pain