Page 6 - MeekooBedtimeBunny

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FAcT oR fICtIOn?
They make great stories, but is there any truth in the tales?
DRACuLA
In 1897, the Irish writer Bram Stoker published possibly the most famous horror story ever – Dracula. It’s also one of the most terrifying! He came up with Count Dracula – Prince of the Undead, a chilling vampire with sharp white fangs who stalks the land at night, hunting for humans in order to suck their blood. But did you know there was once a real-life bloodthirsty Dracula?
He was the 15th-century prince of Wallachia, in Transylvania, Romania. His real name was Vlad III. His father ran a secret
society, the Order of the Dragon, and was known as Dracul, the Transylvanian
word for dragon. So, Vlad III became ‘son of Dracul’, or Dracula. There’s no record of Vlad ever sucking blood, but he certainly saw a lot of it. He impaled his enemies on sharpened stakes, stuck them in the ground and left the bodies there to rot. That’s why people called him Vlad the Impaler!
But the most mysterious thing about the connection between Vlad and Dracula? About 120 years ago, when researchers dug up Vlad’s grave to study his remains, no body was found. So was Vlad actually Prince of the Undead? And might he
still be walking among us today?
A VAMPIRE WITH SHARP WHITE FANGS WHO STALKS THE LAND AT NIGHT