I do not own Van Helsing or my friends whos characters are starring in this fanfic. I do own Brooklen who is my figment of imagination.

I do warn you that this first chapter will probably be crap. But hey!

RESPECT TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS FANFICTION!!!!! RESPECT TO ALL THE AWESOME PEOPLE WHO CREATED AND STARED IN VAN HELSING!!!!
RESPECT TO THE PARROT IN THE LILT ADVERT WHO GAVE ME THIS LINE, EVEN THOUGH HE'S NOT PARTICULARLY AWESOME!!!

Millie's POV

I hate maths homework. Really, I do. It's the bane of my life. I always get it on Mondays when I haven't got a decent amount of time. That's because my Guides starts at seven and I always leave it 'till last. Who doesn't?

Today, I got dividing and multiplying decimals. Unless I grow up to be an accountant I don't quite see how decimals are going to help me much.

First things first, my name is Millie Demdike. Yes, Millie as in short for Millicent and Demdike like the Pendle witch. Don't poke fun. And yes, I do go to Guides. It's awesome! You do great stuff and get to go on trips. Year before last, we got to go to Italy. You get to do that.

I'm on the road to Guides now. I still haven't done my homework. Eh, what can ya do? I'm not even wearing my uniform. Just a black zip-up, knee length jeans and my school pumps. Luckily, they're fashionable and very easy to run in. I do like to be able to run. I may not need to but I like to be able to. It gives me comfort. Or am I just paranoid? If I am, what about? God, am I weird or what?

Getting out of our car is always a challange for me. The gap between the seat and the door is always too small to get through gracefully. I always manage to make a fool of myself. The only excitement is to see how.

Great.

This time I managed to catch my foot against the seat and land flat on my face. Admittedly, not the most spectacular fall ever. It's the start.

Gathering my dignity, I sauntered into the church hall. I was very early. The Beavers meeting hadn't even started yet. I glanced down at my watch and cursed. It was about an hour early. Beavers start at six, Guides at seven. Crap. What am I supposed to to do now? My Mum's just driven off, leaving me standing here like a wally! Isn't life fantastic?

" Hello, young lady. How're you?" came a voice from behind me. I turned around to see old Mrs Macloon. She's the caretaker. She's also a very nice lady. She's quite short, with brown eyes and a curly brown perm thing. She's also got the most comforting voice I've ever heard on lady. Her husband died a few years back, so I think she gets some comfort from us and the other church-hall frequenters.

" Hiya, missus. Bit early for the Guides, aren't I?" I said, a little lamely. She just gave me a warm smile and shook her head. Then, I had a stroke of genius. Well, why not? It wasn't Friday, for sure, but there was no reason why not." Hey, Mrs Macloon, is the back room free?" I asked. Getting a positive answer, I headed over that way. Every Friday, me, my friends and fellow Guides: Brooklen, Lexi, Toni and Ally go to the room at the back of the hall. It's sort of a small meeting hall where the parishioners and likewise have their bingo nights. When we go there on a Friday, we hang up a cardboard target that's been glued onto a pillow and have target practice. We've done that ever since I saw the sceane were that guy or girl chuck that dagger and spear the grain of wheat mid-flight. House of Flying Daggers, I think it was. Or was it Crouching Kitten, Hidden Lizard? I forget.

Anyway we try doing that on the target-cum-pillow with just about anything we can get our hands on. Penknives, pencils, water bombs, sharp protractors, anything. My aim has gotten quite good. I'm working on a way to do it with the sharp stuff up my sleeves. Assassin-like, see? I saw that in another movie. I'd have to ask Ally which one. She's got a memory for this stuff.

I phoned all my friends up on my mobile in the order of where they're placed on my speed-dial. That's Toni first and Lexi last with Brooklen in the middle. Ally is Brooklen's sister so if she's free then Ally should be as well. Toni and Ally are eleven. Me, Lexi and Brooklen are thirteen. No matter. We're still all great friends. Even if we're all quite different.

Ally is a dancer and gymnast and a runner. Believe me, she is seriously fast, you would not believe. She's quite sweet, sensitive and loves animals. Little bit of a tree-hugger too. One of her favourite hobbies is striking up conversations about absolutely nothing and everything.

Brooklen is the academic one of the group. She's up for physics, chemistry, geography, technology, pretty much anything that she needs her hands and her smarts for. I think that's why she loves hacking into video games so much. She's able to pick up unusual bits of knowledge and remember them, like song lyrics. That's how we learn all the songs we do. It's funny when you're in a coach and someone refuses to turn Oul' 'Uns off on the radio and then we start singing at our loudest... Anyway she can remember stuff like that. And she researches a lot of myths. And weird subjects.

She and Ally's father is Scottish and their mother is Romanian. They actually lived in a couple of places in Scotland before I met them. Normally the accent is very light, but when they get angry or annoyed it can get very hard to understand what they're saying.

Lexi is the really musical, cheeky one. She's made it her positive duty to learn how to play as many musical instruments as humanly possible. So far she's mastered singing, playing acoustic guitar, drums and the keyboard. Particularly the type of keyboard that plays different types of weird noises ( snores, belches, farts etc.). Adds a whole new spins to music nowadays. She's awesome at singing and music though.

Toni is the jokiest out of all of us. She does volleyball (like a madwoman) and is a bit of a stand up comic. She knows lots of really grown-up jokes and can swear in German. She's the one of us that tries out new things and loves acting, singing, drama of all sorts. She's gonna grow up to be a famous actress, I can tell.

And then there's me. My family comes from Pendle. I often wonder if we're related to Old Demdike. As far as I can tell, no body's made the connection except my friends and that's because I told them. I'm more cautious than the rest of us and I'm interested in History. I like netball and swimming and, as I think I've said before, I've got very got very good aim.

Out of everyone on my speed-dial only Lexi was free

Ah, well, I'd see the rest of them when Guides started. Lexi only lives a couple of streets down. Until she came I'd just have to sit on one of the radiators.

Trouble was, as I sat there, I began to remember dreams I had before. Or... just the one dream. One that goes too far beyond the weirdness threshhold for comfort. It's strange, and really vivid, and slightly different every time. In each one I'm running from something. Sometimes it's a weird sort of bat. Other times it's a great big dog of something. But there's always a great big castle with three towers in the distance and I'm always running towards it... I wake up feeling as though I ought to go to the funny-farm.

' They're going to take me away, ha-ha, to the funny-farm..'

I winced. Why, oh, why did I have THAT as my ring tone?

As I reached for my phone, the door opened and revealed Mrs Macloon.

" Come this way, dear." she said. Confused, I followed her into the chapel. There was this old guy in red with a funny cap on. Now, I'm not very well versed in religeous clothing, but he looked like a cardinal. Standing beside him was Lexi. She waved her mobile at me and mouthed: ' Why are we here?' I gave a shrug.

" Millie, this is Cardinal Pironti from Vatican City."

" Vatican City? In Italy?!" exclaimed Lexi.

" No, Lexi, the one in Timbuktu." I deadpanned.

" Ooh, hardy har, hilarious," She retorted.

" Isn't it just?"

" Why of all places did you pick Timbuktu?"

" Sounds intelligent."

" Is that the only reason? Surely you must have a better reason!"

" Well, I don't so ju--"

During all of this Cardinal Pironti was watching all of this with a slightly amused and very irritated expression.

" Just let them man talk, won't you?" sighed Mrs Macloon. The Cardinal nodded.

" Come girls," I filed away the sound of his accent for later impersonations, " There is much to explain..."

I know it's not much right now but bear with me. It's only the first chapter. I can guarantee that there's good stuff ( I wish) coming up.

Pleeze feel free to comment, give praise, flame, give ideas, whatever you want. Just review after you read this, kk? I NEED reviews!