VAN HELSING - A Short Story

Part Two, Chapter Eight: The Three families

AMBRA 

I jumped out of another bed that wasn't mine, sucking in air sharply, making me cough as I fell out of the even more cloud-like sheets and onto the floor with a loud crash.

I heaved myself on my feet again and the sheets along with me before I rubbed my arm underneath them. I stumbled back into the bed, feeling like I had drunk too much. But I knew I hadn't.

And now it hit me again what had happened yesterday night. It was all bits and pieces but conclusive enough ones to be terror-struck as I was right now.

The panic hit me out of the blue, forcing my sight to blur away for a short while and my heart to pound against my chest, making it increasingly harder to take a proper breath.

My mind was racing alongside with it and I was certain that my head would burst anytime soon upon the questions and worries that were expanding within. But I did not even dare to think. It was as if ignoring the thoughts would undo the happened. Cassandra had cared for us and-

I jumped upwards again - this time without the blanket - and screamed as I darted around to knock down the white bedside table along with the candelabra and glass jug of water on it. I wanted to scream the air out of my lungs so that I would not have enough of it to be alive anymore. I wanted to take everything in this room and smash it to bits. I wanted to wander around wherever I was and wreak havoc.

"Calm down, child."

How dared she? I darted around once more and saw her tired and white face again with those purple eyes and nail. I did not want to blame her but my sub-consciousness took over all my senses. I lunged at her with my hands outstretched, thinking about all the ways that I could hurt her.

But she just pulled a black rod out of the depths of her cloak and repelled me with a blast of pink. I slammed back into the bed and I felt the breath escape my lungs for a short second. I was looking up and saw the white ceiling with pieces of golden decorations and ornaments littered over it. This entire place - or at least what I had seen from it - was white.

And only with the pure whiteness as background, was I able to notice the purplish blackness in the Black Fairy's white skin tone as she came into view and stretched her hand out for me to take it. Reluctantly, I took it. The first question regarding the entire situation was one that I could not banish from mind.

"Where have you been?"

I snapped at her. I did not want to shout at her but actually, I did. Deep down, I knew that if she would have been there like she had promised, none of this would have happened.

"For you to understand what I was occupied with that I could not protect you, I will have to take you back a little further than that."

I remained silent, afraid that I would be mad again.

"But first, take this."

It was a red liquid in a small flask that was emanating a pinkish glow.

"No, this is not blood. It is a potion that has a similar effect though. It will calm you down and still your hunger. Your eyes have gotten red again."

I took a glimpse at the mirror to our left and indeed. My skin was tinted in grey and my eyes were scarlet. Perhaps that was why I was so upset. Yet I killed someone after all...

I took the flask out of her hands and popped the metal cork open and drank the liquid to the last droplet. It tasted sweetly. Like a mixture of forest berries with a tint of lemon but also of spinach and meadow.

But the moment that the liquid slid down into my stomach, I felt the relief spread over me and my every limb. I observed how colour returned to my skin and how the red within my eyes faded back into brown. I was looking back at the girl I knew as myself and not the rabid beast anymore.

Also, I was actually calmer. I did no longer want to break everything or strangle the Black Fairy. But I became more aware of what I had done.

"Better?"

I nodded a couple of times and the Black Fairy touched my thigh in approval. She cleared her throat to begin talking about whatever she needed to explain to me. But she did not begin to talk at all. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed her thumb and index finger around my eye.

The place that she touched began to warm up immediately and I could see that the skin underneath her slid-down sleeve had all strange marks etched into it that were now glowing in the most vibrant pink that I had ever seen. But I could not focus on those for very long because I felt my sight to blur and my senses to weaken. It was as if I was drunk.

"Don't worry, child. It is easier if I show you what happened. Just lean in, relax and enjoy. As much as one can enjoy this story..."

Her last words I heard as if from the end of a distant tunnel. The room began to disappear and in its stead, I could see two castles. Two castles that could not have been any more different.

One was white, round and had glass panels set into almost every wall. The other was black and consisted of only several towers that miraculously held onto each other by thin bridges and minor seams of black bricks

Yet they seemed to belong together in an odd and twisted kind of way. The Black Fairy's words echoed through my head and through the scene once more.

"This, dear Ambra, is the story of the three families Draculéa, Tepeš and Van Helsing and those are the Walking Castle and the City of Glass..."