"Good evening, I'm Elizabeth Vargas, here for 20/20."
The news reporters strong voice echoed through the newsroom, which cued that the program had begun.
"Tonight we go over the ever growing case of Sharon Kraller, a thirty-two year old Ohioan who disappeared about two months ago in a small rural village near Transylvania, Romania. This case has become infamous for its lack of evidence, as there were no eye-witness accounts, no video-surveillance, nor suspicion of foul play. The police had nothing to go on…until now."
There was a suspenseful pause as the screen shifted to a picture of an old fortress. "It was only just last night that tourists discovered her phone in the prestigious Valerious Castle, or the last place Sharon had been seen. Remarkably, it appeared as though she had documented all of her whereabouts, from the night she vanished, to just this Friday. Police have just allowed for this information to be made public, so 20/20 is the first to bring it to you."
The aired screen suddenly went pitch black, as the title screen wavered into view. "Here are the logs of Sharon Kraller: the victim of the perfect kidnapping."
The image faded in and out as the focus tried to adjust itself on one of the many faces that littered the shot. Eventually it settled upon a blond woman in the front, who was currently discussing the history of the location being filmed.
"Ladies and gentleman, as you can see, all of the pieces in this home have been perfectly preserved; all of the weapons shine as if they are still new, and even the paintings still retain their natural luster and color, despite this area not exactly bearing the kindest weather."
A couple people within the large tour group gave small awkward chuckles at her comment, before a succession of snaps went off in the area as several tourists took pictures. One could hear the murmur of a few clusters as they discussed the significance of these items, as well as the shrill whine of small children as they constantly complained about the cold or hunger.
"If you will follow me," the tour guide pipes up, which arouses the attention of the assembly. She began to lead them through various halls, and eventually she stopped in front of a very large painting. "This is one of the more fascinating pieces here in the Valerious home. It is a large map of Romania, and it seems to be coated with notes from the former head of the house. Records from the family's youngest daughter, Anna, state that her father would spend hours staring at it."
"If I may ask, what was it that he was looking for?" an older woman near the front questions.
"Princess Anna wrote that her father was trying to discover Count Vladislaus Dragulia's secret castle," the tour guide explained, which earned only some-what impressed responses.
"Count Dracula's castle?" a woman with brown hair, a phone currently in hand, most likely recording the conversations, stated.
The tour guide offered a cheery smile. "Why, of course!"
There were several gasps at this revelation, and some of the children even cried out in fear. How could the monster they watched in movies be real? Stuff in horror movies weren't real...were they?
"Did he ever find anything?"
"Of course not miss," the tour guide peered haphazardly as the scribble of a name written on the brunette's tag. "Kraller. If he had discovered something involving this map all of those years ago, then I'm quite sure that we would have discovered something here in the twentieth century." she replied, in quite a condescending tone. "Now, let us continue on our excursion," she stated, and the small congregation followed her lead. That is, all except one.
Sharon was a tad bit peeved at how she had spoken to her. "I had merely asked a question," she mumbled, irritated. She slowly crept closer to the map, and let out a slightly disappointed sigh when she realized that it really was just...a map. The various names of cities, rivers, mountain ranges littered a majority of the surface area. However, in the lower left-hand side, there was a long inscription written entirely in Latin.
"Huh," she said, and inched her way closer, so she could more easily read whatever was written. "I guess it would only make sense that this was Latin...considering how much of an influence the church had over this area during the time period."
Her dark eyes scanned over the message, and she easily picked apart the more important parts of the message. I guess all of the years learning various foreign languages wasn't a waste after all, she mused to herself, before she began to whisper the text aloud.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she continued to go down the passage, puzzled as to what it all meant. It was mainly discussing a curse that was to plague a family until an unspeakable evil was defeated. "Who was plagued never to ascend into Heaven? The Valerious family?" she thought aloud. "But why? Why would they be stuck in Purgatorio?" she let out a long exhale, clearly vexed at all of the questions this was bringing up.
Sharon adjusted her sore neck, and bent over to more easily read the last portion. Her eyes immediately focused onto a strange insignia in the corner, which was a snake wrapped around a sword. "Huh," she said, and then she moved over to the last sentence. "In nomine Dei aperire ostium…in the name of the God, open this door."
As soon as Sharon uttered that phrase, the map before her shifted from aged parchment to ice. Her brown eyes widened in complete shock and surprise, and she brought up her phone to record the astounding phenomena. "What in the world?" she gasped, and she raised a shaky hand up to its surface.
She knew that she shouldn't touch it...but, she couldn't resist. She placed a timid hand on it to investigate and almost screamed at the reaction. She went through the ice, as if it were nothing more than a strange doorway, and it was cold, very cold.
"How is this possible?" Sharon questioned, her mind still trying to wrap itself around this preposterous scenario. "Did what I say somehow affect the molecular structure of the paper? But, that's...that's impossible! How could something so old have voice recognition technology?" she practically screeched.
Suddenly her heart nearly stopped as she heard the tour group coming back around to head on the other half of the tour. "Oh man, oh man, oh man!" she whined, and she started to flail her arms. "What do I do?" she whispered, and stopped still, her eyes wide and fearful. What if she got into serious trouble for somehow altering the physical form of one of the oldest pieces in the castle? She knew she wouldn't be able to pay for the damages.
Well, there's always...that one option, Sharon's eyes narrowed at the doorway in front of her. Should she do it? Should she bail? Should she go through the creepy-ice-door?
"Alright everyone, we'll just regroup in front of the map and then head out on the rest of the tour very shortly."
"Bail, definitely bail." Sharon nodded, and leapt into the icy passage.
Sharon could feel her bodily slowly go through the ice, and although the feeling wasn't unpleasant, she had never experienced anything like it before. It only lasted for a few seconds, nevertheless, she had held her breath the entire time, and when her feet landed on solid ground, she let out an overdramatic gasp.
"Well that was...oh my god." she said, her voice going slightly hoarse at the last couple inflections. In front of her stood a tall, ominous castle, whose pillars seemed to piece the dark sky that it lay under. Wind howled through the area, which caused a deathly chill to resonate through her body.
Sharon swallowed, suddenly regretting her decision of going through the mysterious looking glass. She whirled around to try and escape the icy hell, and only found a cold, hard concrete standing before her. "What the…? Oh no, no, no!" she wailed, and pounded and kicked against the stronghold. "Dammit," she huffed, once she knew she wasn't going to be allowed back.
"You can't stay out here," she mumbled, as another gust of wind went straight through her. "And I'd rather get lost and drop off of one of those pillars than die of hypothermia." she nodded in resignation as she came into agreement with her decision. With one final glance at her only exit, Sharon slowly, yet surely, made her way towards the entrance of the castle.
Author's Note: so, here I am...writing a fanfiction based on Van Helsing...oh boy. Anyways, haha, I hope that you liked this chapter. I got this idea after re-watching the movie and I thought it to be pretty neat, so I wrote this for you wonderful fans. Now, I hope you're not confused one the POV in the beginning. What I was thinking is that it would be kind of live James Cameron's Avatar, you know how sometimes we could see Jake talking to a camera to record his progress? Well, this is kind of the same concept. All that Sharon had recorded or taken pictures of will be written in (Like, "She recorded…" or "she quickly snapped pictures of…" etc, etc) yet we will be able to see what happens to her in third-person point of view. I hope this makes sense to you all, because if it doesn't, don't worry. This will be the only time that it occurs. (Maybe perhaps during the final chapter as well, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it) Anyways, I hope that you liked this chapter! Please favorite, follow and review. Thanks!