VAN HELSING - A Short Story

Part Four, Chapter Twenty-One: The Beast Within

COLLINWOOD 

I flipped the canvas to finally show him the true image of Dorian Gray. How it made me happy to see him swap places with the demonic painting, gifted by the devil himself.

The girl had also finally ran off. I had already feared that she would make herself easy prey. With the essences of the children ripped from their infernal prisons, I needed her.

I flipped the painting again. I now looked into the beautiful face of the man that had stood before me merely seconds ago. I had wished for our future to turn out differently. Back before I had met Lily. Back when there was only the two of us.

But he did not want me with him when he was dying. I will remember that day until I die. 13th of February 1349. That was the last time we spoke to each other. He had only been a shadow of his former self but after all, he had suffered from the plague for months already.

I had been heartbroken to see him like this. And I was even more heartbroken when he cast me away. He said some very bitter things that day but I had not taken them to heart. He had been suffering.

The news of his death came a few hours later and I had regretted not telling him "I love you", one last time. When I found out that a demonic mage dealing in infernal paintings had resurfaced, I was even more stunned to find out that it was him.

I stole the paintings and the children he had taken in. Fosters. That was even after I had revealed myself to Lily. All my pain could have been avoided if he had come to me sooner. I had wanted to make him suffer, just as much as he had made me suffer.

Regardless of that. I had him now. He was dead now. And I would be able to cherish his youthful glow and beauty for an eternity. I would now have to catch the girl though. I believe she had enough of a head-start.

I sped out of the room, along the corridor and down the stairs to and through the entrée. I had already reached the door when I realized that there was a man sitting in a corner, eating a green apple. I had almost missed that he was even there.

I turned on my heels to face the stranger. I really had no time for another encounter and when I saw who he was, I had to swallow.

"Took you long enough..."

He shortly said, tossing the barely started apple onto the expensive carpet where it impacted with a splotch of juice and some bits breaking off.

"...I was about to come upstairs and beat you to pulp right there. But then I said to myself that Dorian's body should probably not see this. He always hated the other side to me."

I tried to back away, not able to say anything or not even willing to say anything. I may have been able to handle Dorian Gray. But I will not be able to handle the person that always accompanies Doctor Howard Jekyll.

"What do you say, my friend..."

He started to talk into a mirror close by.

"...Should we give the bastard a proper beating?"

I was almost too paralyzed to move. I backed away more and more, seeing the doctor take out a flask of green liquid from his inner pocket. The moment he took the stopper out with his teeth, the putrid smell of his chemical burned my nose's lining.

I turned to run but the moment I did so, he had already put the flask to his mouth and I was only on my porch when a gigantic, clawed hand took me by the shoulder and tossed me across the room and into the stairs. My vision blackened and when it returned, I saw Mister Hyde's towering silhouette coming closer to me. I heaved myself out of the wooden splinters with the utmost pain.

My clothes were torn and my skin bleeding. Pieces of wood were stuck in it but I could not afford to mend them right now. Currently, I had much bigger worries.

"Please..."

I attempted but the giant only let out a chuckle that sounded like a thunderclap.

"You do not deserve to beg!"

His voice was more of a grumble. Three octaves deeper than the doctor's. I tried to blast his figure with magic. But when the blasts hit his body, they were just absorbed into him. That was what made Mister Hyde so dangerous. Any type of magic was useless against him.

He had now reached me. And he reached out to grab my arm which he raised into the air. I heard something in my shoulder pop, followed by agonising pain and me dropping my cane. Hyde picked it up and snapped it like a toothpick.

The giant then picked me up by the neck and tossed me to through the wall to my right and his left, making me land in my garden, dirt and flowers scraping against my skin.

I impacted with the ground with my dislocated arm, forcing my stomach to turn from pain. I vomited right into my peonies as my vision blackened once again. I did not even have the strength to move.

I could hear more of the wall break and felt Hyde leap over me. Next thing, he landed on my legs, breaking both of them in the process. He crippled me like some worthless being. Like I did the children that I had taken from Dorian.

By now, I was sobbing. At some point in a man's life, he regrets every single one of his life's decisions. That was the moment. Bitterness and arrogance had blinded me. Love had disappointed me twice and there had been nothing left to live for. Doing the things that I did was when I had nothing left to lose. And look at me now.

"I'm sorry..."

I breathed. I did not even hope to calm the raging beast with that. I just spoke my mind and meant it.

"You are too late for this, Collinwood."

Hyde grumbled one last time before I felt pressure in my eyes and against the backside of my body. He was pressing me into the loosened-up dirt. Before he had managed to do so though, he was able to make my eyes burst too.

My screams were muffled and silenced by the dirt that was filling my mouth, stomach and lungs...