The Castle of Unclean Abominations
By Childe Valancourt
A Romance of Astonishing Terror
A note to the readers: This is the fanfiction equivalent to a pilot episode. If I am met with no reviews, I shall assume that no one has found it interesting enough to follow and thus shall not write a second chapter. Therefore, if anyone enjoys it all and would like to see more, then please review and accept my gratitude in advance!
Chapter One
Van Helsing could hardly tell which was worse: too much superstition or too little of it. In London, he had grown used to the jaded cynics and materialists who pooh-poohed at any hint of the supernatural outside of the bounds of their prosaic complacency. In Romania, he found the victims of the ignorant peasantry who were all too ready to find the Devil hiding at every crossroad.
Anna Valerious, whom the unfortunate vampire hunter had somehow been unable to avoid during the last few weeks after the Dracula and Wolfman fiasco, cocked a critical eye at the knots that held the unconscious young woman bound to a tree.
"Flogging," she remarked with all the surety of a Scotland Yard man, glancing at the brutal bruises and cuts upon the woman's arms.
Van Helsing bent down to examine the knots but before he could lift a finger, Anna executed one of her expert karate chops – of which she possessed an inexhaustible supply – and hewed the rope in half. The young woman fell forward, still in a dead faint.
Anna turned and stalked away, considering the job effectively done. Van Helsing and Carl, however, tried to help the young woman into a sitting position and attempted to revive her. Anna snorted impatiently.
"It is clear what it was that happened to her!" she declared. "She was suspected of witchcraft, scourged, and left to die here. We have saved her – what more can we do?"
Just as Van Helsing was about to wearily reply, the sound of approaching horse hooves caused both him and Carl to turn their attention from the irate Anna to the two coal-black steeds that drew to a halt beside them. In the darkening shadows of evening, he could barely make out the features of the two men; but their dark robes and cowls indicated that they were priests.
"Merciful Heaven!" one of the men spoke, his voice low and genial though now tinged with surprised bewilderment as he crossed himself. "What has happened to this poor child? Is she yet another victim of those imbecilic peasants?"
"So it would seem." Van Helsing gazed at the two riders with narrowed eyes, unsuccessfully attempting to make out their faces. "And you good men are…?"
"Brother Ambrosio at your service, sir." The man gave as much of a bow as he could manage from his saddle. "And my companion Jasper Helwyze," he added, gesturing towards the other rider who acknowledged the introduction with a slight, courteous nod. "Is there anything that we may do to assist you? The young lady appears half-dead."
Van Helsing came to a decision. "We are horseless, sirs, and as you say, this woman is in need of a physician. Could you – "
"Certainly," Ambrosio replied, thoroughly understanding Van Helsing's intentions. The other rider named Helwyze dismounted and lifted the unconscious maiden upon his own horse before remounting behind her.
"God be with you!" Carl called out as the two riders spurred their horses to an efficient trot along the highway.
"And with you," came the reply, though in a voice different from that of Ambrosio's and full of a resonant irony that tainted the otherwise innocuous words. Van Helsing knew it to be the voice of the formerly silent rider.
"I suppose that we ought to seek out those imbecilic villagers so that we can find a place to stay for the night," Carl remarked.
"I expect that we've only a few more miles before we reach such a place," Van Helsing said, stifling a yawn. The encroaching fog and the howling of the distant wolves, rather than unnerving him, only served to make him all the more sleepy somehow – perhaps because they served as annoying reminders of the lateness of the hour.
As Carl, Anna, and Van Helsing continued in silence down the woodland highway, however, the sound of running feet caused them to turn and behold to their surprise the figure of a young man as he raced up to them, his breath coming in heaving gasps.
"Kind travellers, I beg to know – have you seen a young lady with long, golden hair, green eyes, and a fair complexion as you passed along this highway?"
"Yes," Van Helsing replied, eying the dishevelled fellow severely. "She was badly injured, however, and two priests happened upon us and were kind enough to bear her away to a physician."
At these words, the young man turned pale as death. Then, wringing his hands, he cried wildly, "Ah, then all is lost! All is lost! Know you not who those two riders were? Priests? Ha, yes – priests of the Inferno! One is Brother Ambrosio, an apostate monk, and the other – the other I only know the name of: Helwyze. Yet I know that these two men are most infamous sinners and that they have long had designs upon my beloved Antonia. And now – now – because of your allowance, they have her within their hellish grasps at last."
Van Helsing, who was growing a little weary of the young man's verbosity, exclaimed, "Get ahold of yourself, man! What business do these men have with your Antonia?"
The young man shuddered. "It is often the way of excessively depraved natures to seek after the unusually virtuous. Such is the case in this circumstance. The great beauty and virtue of Antonia bewitched many ordinary citizens like myself, to be sure, but it also attracted these two creatures as well. You would be horrified to know the manner in which they have mercilessly sought after her."
"I am sure that I would not," Van Helsing replied. "And it may keep me awake until we reach some stable where we can take up residence for the night."
"You mock my fears," the young man muttered. "Whilst all the while, the virtue of my Antonia is threatened by the most villainous pair to walk the Earth since Faust and Mephistopheles!"