This is a co-written story between AngelOfMusic387 and me. We didn't like the ending to the movie, so we decided to write our own, and continue it into a sequel. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The wolf snarled as he pounced on the girl in front of him. They all but flew across the room, landing on a red velvet sofa. He felt a sharp prick in his abdomen, but he didn't pay attention to it. There was fresh meat in front of him, and hunger was the only thing on his mind. He was about to rip into her throat when he caught sight of a glint of silver out of the corner of his eye.
Whipping around, he grabbed the wrist of the man who held a silver stake mere inches from the wolf's heart. The wolf let out a menacing growl, and the man back up slightly, terrified. Then the man changed his focus, staring in horror at the girl who lay unconscious on the sofa.
The wolf looked down, seeing an empty syringe sticking out of his belly. Letting go of the man's wrist, he pulled the needle out and looked at it before tossing it aside without a second thought. Then he turned back to Anna.
Anna? His human mind was starting to force its way back to consciousness. He looked at Carl, confused. He was a wolf… but he wasn't. He was a man. Van Helsing. What was happening?
"She's dead," Carl said, stumbling backward.
Dead? Anna couldn't be dead! And yet, she was laying on the couch, still and not breathing.
He picked her up, and she lay limp in his arms. He let out a mournful howl that changed to a heart-wrenching human cry of anguish. The antidote worked; he was human once more, though he barely noticed. He was focused on the woman in his arms, not the changes in his own body. He held her close to himself, holding her head to his as sobs wracked his body.
Carl bowed his head and said a tearful prayer for Anna's soul- and Van Helsing's as well. He knew that the two of them had begun to fall in love, and he knew already that Van Helsing would take Anna's death very hard, especially since her death was by his own hand.
He was about to walk further away to give Van Helsing time to mourn in peace when he heard a loud crashing sound from behind him. He turned to see that the other tower seemed to be crumbling before his very eyes.
"Van Helsing?" he said nervously, running toward him.
Van Helsing did not respond at first. He continued to hold Anna, tenderly kissing her forehead. When he did look up, he noticed that Carl seemed fairly frantic.
"What is the matter?" he asked sadly.
"The castle is falling apart! We must leave now, or face our deaths. I don't want to die!"
With a sigh, Van Helsing rearranged Anna in his arms and ran for the exit.
"Then let's hurry up and get out of here!" he yelled, anger starting to seep through his sadness. Anger at himself, at Dracula, and even at Anna, though he wasn't sure why.
They ran out of the castle as fast as they could. As they shot through the castle gate, Carl ran past Van Helsing, who was running slightly slower so as to not further abuse Anna's body.
Carl stopped abruptly, almost losing his balance. As he backed away from the edge of the collapsed bridge, a few stones from what remained of the bridge plummeted into the river that flowed hundreds of feet below. Carl spun around to slow down the fast approaching Van Helsing.
"What's the matter? Why did you stop?" he asked a nervous looking Carl. Then he turned slightly to see a gaping hole in the bridge.
"How are we going to get across, Van Helsing?" Carl asked, facing the crumbling castle and trying to judge how long before the it would catch up to them. All of sudden Carl was yanked forward.
"What are you doing? You aren't going to…"
"Jump." interrupted Van Helsing. "You might to hold on a little tighter, Carl."
In one bounding leap, Van Helsing flew over the gaping chasm and landed forcefully on the other side. Letting go of a terrified Carl, he quickly rearranged his grip on Anna and started off toward the portal. Quickly realizing that Carl was not close behind, Van Helsing turned back.
"Carl!" he yelled.
"Van Helsing," Carl muttered as he slowly began to come to his senses, "do you realize what you just did?"
"If that castle doesn't catch up to us, I will have saved your life!"
"Right, let's go!" he shouted as they headed for the portal.
With the castle collapsing down behind them, Van Helsing and Carl narrowly escaped through the mirror-door. Van Helsing slowly walked toward the door of the library.
"Carl, you close the door. I'm going to take…her to her room," he said, holding back tears. He could not even bring himself to say her name out loud.
Carl nodded, watching his friend until he left the room. Then he turned to try to figure out how to close the portal. But it wouldn't close. Something was coming through.
"Van Helsing?" he asked frantically, even though the chance of the man hearing him now was not very likely. He stood with the silver stake in hand, just in case this being was one of Dracula's creatures coming to avenge its father's death. But this was not a vampire child or even one of his brides. It was far too large.
Frankenstein's monster forced his way through the portal, brushing the snow off of his shoulders. He looked around and saw that Carl looked about ready to drive a stake through his heart.
Carl breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only the creature that he had come to think of as a friend. He lowered the stake.
"I am glad to see that you are alive, but how did you get across that bridge? Half of the bridge was missing," Carl asked, very curious to know how this gigantic thing made it across.
"I did not go over the bridge, but under it. I found a winding staircase that led me to bank of the river. There was a raft just sitting like it was waiting for someone. Since no one else was around, I took it and crossed the river. Once I got across, there was another staircase. But this one was carved into the rock, so I climbed up. When I reached the top, I saw you going through the portal and decided to follow you," Frankenstein's monster replied.
"Well, that is certainly fortunate," Carl said. Then he looked back at the mirror, trying to remember what to say to close the door.
"How did you find this portal in the first place?" Frankenstein's monster asked, hoping it would help him close it.
"We just read the inscription on the parchment. Why do you ask?" Carl asked, momentarily stopping his search.
"Did it say anything about closing the portal after it had been opened?" the monster asked.
"No, it didn't say anything about that at all. But there must be some way to close it?"
"What did you say to open it?"
"I believe that it said 'In the name of God, open this door.' Yes, that is what it said. What are you getting at?" Carl was not following the logic.
Frankenstein's monster sighed in frustration. "Perhaps you should say something about closing the door, then."
"In the name of God, close this door," Carl said firmly as he faced the portal.
To their astonishment, the map that had once hidden the portal rematerialized to conceal the gateway to Castle Dracula.
"Where did Van Helsing and Anna go?" Frankenstein's monster asked.
"Van Helsing took Anna to her room so that she could be at peace."
"Why does Anna need to be at peace? Is she injured?"
A look of despair came over Carl. He dropped his head in sorrow and said grimly, "Anna is dead."
"What do you mean? What happened?"
Carl then began to recount the events of the past hour. Frankenstein's monster just bowed his head in silence.
Van Helsing tenderly laid Anna's lifeless body on her bed and turned to shut the door. When he turned back around and saw Anna lying there peacefully on her bed, his anger turned to sorrow, and it consumed him. He numbly walked to her bed and knelt down at her side. His grief overwhelmed him and he collapsed onto the bed, burying his face in his arms.
"I'm so sorry, Anna," he whispered through his sobs, his voice muffled by his arms. He was finally allowing himself to fully mourn what he had just found only to lose it all in the same instant. She was dead. He had killed her. It was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.