SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, henry mills

chapter twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE
THE FUNERAL

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Dressed entirely in black, the van Helsing family made their way from their home in the direction of the church for Frank's funeral. Nicholai was notably absent, not because he didn't want to attend the funeral, but because his status as an unholy being meant he could not enter the church where the funeral was being held. In the planning stages they had offered to have the funeral held someplace Nicholai could attend but he had insisted on keeping it at the church. Frank was a devout man even if he didn't get to church every Sunday, he would have wanted his funeral to be held there.

Seeing as they had helped to arrange the whole thing, the van Helsing’s were the first to arrive at the church. With how absent she'd been in the planning, Josie was relieved to see the church was not only familiar to her, but Father Gabriel waiting there for them.

Father Gabriel had known Josie for her entire life. She'd been baptized in this very church, as had Tori, and he was the one who supplied them with their holy water. He'd even helped them with an exorcism once and when Abraham was hunting the nightmare demon when Josie was a child — the very same one she'd helped him with — it was Father Gabriel who had assisted and reassured him. And, though it was a rare occurrence, when they needed a place to shelter someone who some unholy creature was after, Father Gabriel was the first person they thought of and he was always willing to help out someone in need.

After the van Helsing family, it was Snow White, David and a baby Josie vaguely recalled to be their son, though his name escaped her as, with all the chaos of the two worlds coming together, he'd been watched over by someone else who Josie didn't know. She couldn't blame them for keeping him out of it. With Marian having been taken, she could more than understand the desire to keep their son somewhere they knew was safe. Snow and David approached Abraham and Luella, greeting them before moving into polite small talk.

While others began to make their way into the church — residents of Nightmoor who knew Frank and residents of Storybrooke who wished to show their support — Josie mostly stayed silent, staring straight ahead with a blank expression as she stood next to her parents and sister, only answering questions when they were posed to her directly. She didn't cry, as tempting as it may have been. Not only did she know that Frank wouldn't have wanted her to waste her tears on him, but she had to be strong. She was a van Helsing, after all. How would anyone believe she was strong enough to do her job if they saw her acting so weak?

It wasn't until she saw Henry enter that she cracked a smile. He came in with Regina, Robin, Roland and Teresa, all of them dressed in black. When he saw her, he gave her a smile and a small wave and she couldn't help but give him a small smile in return as she waved back. Not a moment later, his attention was pulled away by something Regina was saying to him and Josie looked down.

She leaned down to her sister. “You stay here, alright? I'll be back in a minute.”

Tori made a sound of protest as Josie tried to pull her hand away, tightening her grip instead. This day was confusing to Tori, Josie knew. She had never met Frank with how the rest of the family had decided to keep her out of the hunting world. Even Luella had only met him maybe once or twice, truly only knowing him through what Abraham and Josie told her. But Tori knew they were at a funeral, knew it was supposed to be sad. And she knew that her father and big sister were sad, as much as they tried to hide it from her. Josie knew it had to be confusing to think she was supposed to be sad and not understand why.

“I'm just going to say hello to Henry, it'll only be a minute,” she tried to assure her sister.

“Don't go, Josie,” Tori said, pouting at her and looking truly hurt at the idea of not being able to keep holding her sister's hand.