VAN HELSING - A Short Story

Part Two, Chapter Ten: A Doctor, A Scientist, A Woman

LISA WHITLEY

I loved doing what I did but when it came to tidying up my work, I wished that I had never chosen to become a healer. But that is just me. Always been and always will be a lazy little dear.

What I enjoy most about my work was what I did for the people. How I helped them with everything they needed and science and medicine have rarely failed me.

Because that was what I was. A doctor and a scientist and the only woman I have ever encountered in that line of work. Whose fault? The Patriarchy. I have heard of too many midwives burned at the stakes for just existing. Accused them of witchcraft. Little did they know that real and actual witches and warlocks were sitting beside them in the leadership chair – or bending over to them in bed for the matter of the Patriarchy having contact with women – without even caring about the innocent dead.

If it had not been for the Van Helsings, I doubt that I would have remained that well hidden from the church's permanent gaze. I did not like either's ideology but I did not complain about what Vettle and his siblings offered me.

And talking of the devil, I saw him walking up the path to my little hut in London's outskirts, followed by a pale and platinum-blonde woman just when I was sorting the mortar and pestle next to the small lump of gold, a side effect of trying to fake the healing power of a mixture of tea-herbs. At least that was what I told the whole world...

I finished off my cleaning and took the few steps towards the door, which I opened and leaned against the doorframe.

"Have not heard of you in a while. What wound do you need me to patch up again?"

I greeted him and he just offered me a laugh, masked in a loud grunt.

"No wound. This is Camille Tepeš and she needs your help."

I raised my eyebrows. Was this a dream? A Van Helsing taking sides with a Vampire? A Creature of the Night? A Downworlder? I would not have bet to see this in my lifetime.

"Has she vexed your mind or what happened to you, Vettle?"

I asked him as I waved my two guests inside.

"I woke up."

He snapped and I shut up. He never was a man of many words and when he spoke, it was never something kind and not by any chance a compliment. But as the youngest of three, that had been the treatment that they have given him all his life. How would he know to behave any better than them?

That Vettle would see the errors of his ways was yet again something that I had not thought possible. I don't know how many times I have asked him the purpose of their hunt for Downworlders. Never did I understand his explanations. Morally, that was. As I took it, it was only some path for revenge on some issues that were hundreds of years old. If I had not known any better, I would have put them on the same level as the Christian church – both protestant and catholic – in terms of vileness.

"Was about time..."

I dared to finish my thought but it did not seem to irate him. Instead, he just looked to his feet as he took a seat in a chair to the side and while Camille laid down on my slab. I directed my attention towards her.

"...and what is it that you're missing, dear?"

But I did not need an explanation any longer for I saw the cause for her troubles. The question I pondered now though was how this was even possible?

"How?"

I just breathed, unable to formulate a clear sentence as even my thoughts were only fog.

"If I had known, would I be standing here?"