Katherine Van Helsing

Katherine Van Helsing
As life Began

Some people called him a murderer some called him a holy man but I called him father. My name is Katherine Van Helsing and my father was Abraham Van Helsing, the amazing slayer of Evil. Throughout my life, I have wondered about this. Because my father never informed me of what he was or even, my own destiny.

My mother was dead, my father claimed to work for the church, explaining why he went there so much. Of course, I did not believe him. Nothing seemed to ever be right with me. When I was in the ninth grade, I couldn’t help but feel alone and different. When we would have free time, my drawings would be of things no one had ever seen but seemed too real. I remember one time, I was drawing a Werewolf, when it suddenly turned its head and howled at me. I let out a scream and fell backward out of my chair. The teacher ran over to me and asked if I was ok. All I could do was look up at her and smile. The teacher stared into my sphere blue eyes and could tell that I was alright. As the teacher left, the boy that I would never forget came up to me. His gray eyes twinkled as he looked down at me, his black hair hanging to his shoulders. He smiled slightly, he never smiled much. “Are you ok?”

I couldn’t help but smile as I sat up, “Oh I’m fine. Just got a little scared, that’s all.” I brushed my silky black hair behind my shoulders and sat myself back into my chair. The boy took the seat next to me, with his drawing in his hands. “What did you draw?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

He smiled, “A vampire, or at least what I think they’d look like. I’m Drake by the way. Nice to meet you,” he held out a strong yet soft hand.

I shook it, smiling. “I’m Kat. Nice to meet you too, Drake.”

After we introduced ourselves, we switched drawings too see what each other’s looked like. His drawing shocked me a little. The vampire had huge wings coming out of its back. The fangs where massive! All of its skin was the same color and it was skin and bones! Like my Werewolf drawing, it seemed to look at me. Observing everything I did. Like anyone would have done, I leaned forward to see if it was looking at me. As soon as I got about three inches away from the paper, the vampire turned and glared at me than it disappeared right in front of my eyes. “Drake, Drake!” I flung my head to Drake, my eyes filled with terror.

He looked at me like I was crazy, “What?”

“Your drawing, it’s…….” I looked back at the paper, Drake looked at it also to see what all the freaking out was about. And the vampire was back in its place! “Never mind,” I said very quickly, hoping he hadn’t started to think that I was a loon. Lucky for me, he just laughed.

After school that day as I walked home I couldn’t help but feel like someone or something was following me on that cloudy cold day. Yet, whenever I spun around, no one and nothing was there but road. And when I arrived home, my father was acting a little strange. Being raised around my dad, I was a real church goer. After talking with my dad during dinner, I brought up the subject of his strange behavior and he looked as if he was hiding something from me. The conversation went something like this:

“Dad,”

“Yes,”

“I was wondering, why where you acting so, so weird when I told you ‘bout my drawing?”

My dad froze for a second then looked up from his plate, his brown eyes looked nervous though his voice showed no sign of it. “No reason. So, how was your walk home?”

There was another odd subject that I ended up talking about with him. “Well,” I took a bit out of my meat then continued, “I kinda felt like someone or something was following me.”

He dropped his fork full of food onto his plate and his eyes shifted around the room. “Do you still have the feeling?”

This was usual for me, my dad usually acted weird. “No, it disappeared as I passed the Clayton’s house three streets down.”

All my father did was nod.

Then, like I did every night, I walked down to the church where my father’s friend (a monk named Carl) and his son (my best friend) worked and lived. This time my dad came with me. Every now and then, asking me if I had the same feeling again. I answered no. Even when I answered no, he seemed to stand close to me as we walked down the street. He seemed to never leave my side until we arrived at the church.

Once we entered the church, my dad left me alone as usual and I ran off to find Nick, the Monk’s only son. He was my only true friend that I could talk to about anything. This time, when I found him, he was sitting, facing the fire in a huge room with big, soft chairs and couches. I hesitated, coming up to him, thinking that he was praying. When all of the sudden he fell backward, screaming. I ran over to him, slapping my hand over his mouth. “Nick, what’s wrong?”

“Mmmmm mm mmmmm. MMMMMM!” he said.

“Oh sorry,” I said and removed my hand from his mouth.

“As I was saying,” Nick continued, wiping his lips off. “I was reading a book but, it didn’t scare me.”

I shock my head giggling slightly. “Oh really, is that why you’re as white as a candle?” And he was mind you! I reached for his book and he jumped onto it. We fought nothing unusual to the people downstairs. Finally I had him pined to the ground and I punched him, blood dripping from my own lip, soon to be his as well. “Say sorry or I’ll hit you again!” I raised my fist for a second time.

“Ok ok, I’m sorry!” Nick wined.

I snatched the book from Nick’s hand as I go to my feet. He got to his feet as I read the title of the book. I couldn’t help but laugh, “Dracula?” I looked up at him into his soft green eyes and raised an eyebrow. “You’re the son of a Monk; you can’t expect me to think that you believe in Dracula?”

Nick gave me an odd look threw his shaggy blonde hair, “You don’t believe in them, Vampires?”

“I won’t believe until I have proof.” I said, sounding more confident then I was.

“Fine,” he said, a grin swiped across his face. “I’ll have to prove to you that they’re real.”

I must have gotten the strangest look on my face, “Nick, what are you talking about.”

“Follow me Kat and I’ll show you!” Nick and I made our way down the steps to the bottom floor where normal people go to pray. “I found this secret passage way just a few days ago.” He walked over and pulled on an unlit candlestick. A door opened that was hidden behind a curtain. He moved the curtain and led the way.

“This is amazing!” I said as I entered behind him.

“What’s even more amazing is where it leads.” Nick said in a joking voice.

I rolled my eyes, “Please don’t tell me that it leads to the women’s bathroom.”

“No! At least not this one…. Anyway, I’m going to prove to you that Vampires DO exists!” Nick said, continuing to walk.
After a while, he stopped holding a finger to his lips telling me to be quiet. We looked threw holes in the left-hand side wall when he muttered, “Oh man, it’s gone!”

“Maybe you where just,” my words where cut off by the sound of talking. The voices where entering the room. Nick and I froze in our places, staring threw the holes. Than, the loud voices, finally entered the room.

“So, where is it?” A man’s strong sounding voice asked.

“We had to move him. The sun was coming threw the window, we would have lost him if we would have left him here any longer,” said a timid sounding voice.

My head slowly turned to Nick, who returned the turn. “It’s it’s…..” I couldn’t believe it. It was our parents! My dad and Carl were talking about something. We turned back to the holes to watch and hear more of the conversation.

“Well, has he said anything about his children?” My father asked, sounding mad.

“Nnnnnooooo, Van Helsing. He hasn’t. Are you sure that some lived?” Carl asked.

“Well, my daughter said that she had a strange feeling as she was coming home from school today. It made me think, could they still be out there?” He turned to the Monk, who shook his head.

“I don’t know Van Helsing, I just don’t know.” Carl said quietly as they left the room.

When the door shut, Nick and I felt like it was safe so, we started talking again.

“I told you Kat but, nnnnooooo you wouldn’t believe me!” Nick said in a teasing voice.

“Shut up and let’s see if we can get into that room.” I muttered in annoyance.

We started feeling on the wall. After about fifteen minutes, we stopped pushing and/or pulling on the wall. I let out a sigh, “Maybe there’s not a way in there from here.”

Nick leaned against the wall which fell backwards and into the room, pulling Nick along with it. He landed with a loud thud.

I froze, “Do you think they heard?”

Nick also froze but, after about three minutes, no one should up. We both let out a sigh of relief and slowly looked around the room. “Wow,” Nick whispered as he scoped out the left side of the room.

My mouth dropped open as I leaned over the ground as scooped up some goop with two fingers. “What in the world?” I questioned. As I examined the goop, it was a strange color of teal. It leaked threw my fingers like really thick soap.

“Ewe, that’s Gross!” Nick exclaimed as he came over and looked at the goop.

“Shut up you baby or they might come back.” I said quietly as the goop dripped from my fingers and to the ground. “Hum, I wonder.” I pulled out a plastic bag from my pocket and put the goop inside. I wondered over to the door. Slowly and quietly I opened it. Nick followed me and we both peeked out. Thousands and thousands of people from the church where running around like a wildfire.

Some yelling, “It’s loose,” and “Run,” or “Duck!”

What looked like a gigantic bird flew over the heads of the people. My eyes went as wide as a clock, “Nick,” I whispered, “Do you know what that is?”

Nick, who was peering out from under me at the time, nodded. “Yes, that’s a pterodactyl!”

“That’s what I thought,” I answered back, stuttering a little.

The pterodactyl flew over everyone’s head, making a few dive bombs to scare people. There was massive panic everywhere, men running from one side of the huge room to the other, our best guess were that they were looking for something to try and stop the pterodactyl. There was a loud shot, so loud that everyone, even me, covered their ears. The pterodactyl fell to the ground, still breathing. Applause broke out all around the room. All heads turned to a colossal staircase and at the top, holding a vast gun was…. my father.

He walked down the steps with the vast gun over his shoulder. Carl ran up to him calling, “Van Helsing, you didn’t kill it did you?”

My father laughed, “No, I just used a stun gun. Don’t worry.”

As Carl nodded, a complete group of men ran over and picked up the pterodactyl.

“Put him in the unbreakable cell,” Carl ordered, “He’s a feisty one, isn’t he Van Helsing? Van Helsing,” The Monk looked around, my father was missing.

“Oh no,” I muttered, slamming the door shut.

Nick moved his face just in time; he looked up at me, a little shocked, “Kat, why did you do that? They could have heard!”

“No,” I shook my head, “It’s too loud out there, and I’m more worried about where my dad went.”

Nick raised an eyebrow, “I was wondering about that.”

“Come on.” I took off running to the opening in the wall, with Nick coming up right behind me. I stopped and turned to him, “Nick, you knocked down the wall, you put it back up.”

We both ran back saw that there was handles on the wall. We both took one and pulled as hard as we could, after about eleven tugs, it came up. “Stupid wall,” Nick muttered as we ran back down the small passageway. He pushed back the curtain slowly and there, right in front of it, with his back turned to us was my dad. “Oh,” I slapped my hand over Nick’s mouth yet again, hoping my dad didn’t hear.

“So,” My dad said, “What were you doing then?”

“Well,” replied a weak, scared sounding voice, “I just went out for a flight, please don’t kill me Van Helsing!”

“I would, if I could,” He said, sounding rather annoyed at he couldn’t, “But, you’re protected by the church and I’m just suppose to look over you and all your freaky little friends.”

“I’m sorry Van Helsing but, I just couldn’t stay cooped up here forever.”

“You can, and you will. You kind aren’t welcome in the outside world.”

“And what about yours Van Helsing, your daughter right?” the voice asked with a tone that sounded like it was filled with pleasure. “She is, as your monk friend describes us, abnormal. Shouldn’t be known to the world…”

My father ran from his spot, picked whatever it was off of the ground and slammed it into the wall, “My daughter is normal. She must and will never know of her true destiny. I will not screw up her life, like mine is.”

“Oh really Van Helsing,” the voice whispered with pleasure, “and what if she were to know the truth. Huh? Are you scared that she will learn the truth her way? Van Helsing, she will find out what she is and what she is to become, mark my words.”

“If you weren’t protected by the church,” my father answered in rage, “I’d make sure that you where the one marked. Not your words Count!”

“I knew it.” Nick whispered threw my hand as we poked our heads out from behind the curtain. I yanked his head back behind the curtain, hoping that one of them didn’t hear us.

Dracula grinned, “Or maybe she already knows part of it.”
My eyes went wide as we hide behind the curtain and in the tunnel. Part of it, I thought, what else is there to know?

My father glared at Dracula, his soft brown eyes turned yellow, “Tell me Dracula, do some of your kids still run amuck?”

All Dracula did was laugh which pissed of my father. He threw Dracula across the room, then picked him up by the throat and carried him out.

After about five minutes, I let go of Nick’s mouth and we left the tunnel. “What else is there to know?”

“Do your children still run amuck?” Nick said. We stared at each other for quite some time, “I think the only place that could help us would be the church’s library.” I nodded in agreement and we were off.

“Nick,” I asked as we entered the Library, “What exactly are we doing here?”

“Well,” he started, “The Monks always keep documents on everything that they do. And whenever they’re done writing something, they take it here. So there’s got to be something here on Count Dracula.”

We looked threw every book of the Library. Nothing, I sighed in defeat, “There’s nothing here. Nata, zero, zip!”

“There’s got to be a trick or a password or something like that,” Nick said and started to say out really annoying things as if they were passwords. Nothing worked. He turned to me as if I knew what it was and wouldn’t tell him, “What is something that your dad and the rest of the monks would remember?”

I looked at him in shock, “How am I supposed to know?”

“Because you’re you, you’re a Van Helsing….” that’s all it took. The walls spun around a whole bunch of new books appeared on the shelves. “What did I do?” Nick asked a little startled.

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just see what Count Dracula was talking about.” I said and ran to the one of the shelves.

“What are we looking for?” Nick questioned as he rushed over to another bookshelf.

“Anything, information about Count Dracula or even better, something about my dad.” I said pulling books off the shelf then putting them back on once more.

“Ok,” Nick said and grabbed a book and flung it open. It lunched up at him and teeth appeared, it started to bite at him. He let out a loud girly scream and slammed the book shut.

In shock, I ran over, asking him what the matter was and trying to hold back my laugher from his girly scream.

“Nothing,” he said, trying to sound manly. Than a loud thump came from behind us, causing him to let out another girly scream as we both spun around. What had scared us both (more Nick than me) was a book that had fallen off a shelf.

“That’s weird,” I wondered, slowly approaching it.

“What are you doing Kat?” Nick asked following slowly and a few steps behind me.

“I’m going to pick up the book stupid!” I said and that’s what I did, reading the title shocked me; the title was My Journal, by Van Helsing. I was in aw as I stared at it. The sound of footsteps coming down the hall to the Library broke my trance. Hear the voices; Nick and I both knew who they were. It was our parents. “Quick,” I urged, “Say whatever it was that you said before the books changed and stuff!”

“Umm…. I think it was ‘Because you’re you, you’re a Van Helsing….’” the walls all returned to normal, every book was back in its shelf and the original shelves where back. “What now?”

“Grab a book and start reading.” I ran to a book case and grabbed a book; I hid my father’s journal under my seat. I plopped down on a huge fluffy chair, Nick on the coach next to me. I flung open the book just as the knob on the door turned; we quickly started to read from whatever page we opened it to.

My father and Carl entered quietly talking to each other. Carl, once seeing us, stopped in mid step, looking at my father. He whispered something like, “Do you think they heard?”

My father shook his head, than looked at me, “You ready to go?”

I looked over my book smiling sweetly at him, “Yes, but can I take some books home to read? I’ve reread all the books in the house already?”

I hoped with all my heart that my father couldn’t see threw me and I believe he didn’t, “Sure Kat. I’ll meet you outside.” He turned and left.

I looked at Nick, hoping that he could distract his dad while I grabbed the journal. But, it seems like he knew I was going to ask so he jumped up and lead his dad out of the room so I could grab another book to hide the journal.

Please Excuse my Spelling if you find something wrong! Like There, their and They're or Through and Throw. I was writing face to get my thoughts down! If you would like to read more feel free to message me and I'll send you more, if not all of it. Mind you in Microsoft Works Word Processor it's 23 pages long so it's quite a read but if you would still like to read it send me a message and please comment! And the picture is what I would use for a cover if my writing became a book.