Chapter 7

"Erika, you must tell me who taught you to do it so well. The tea you make is always so tasty and fragrant… and it never takes long for me to fall asleep - it's quite the contrary, as soon as I put my head on the pillow, I'm like dead. Tell me, what's the secret?" Carl asked, while his new friend was preparing his drink.

"Stop questioning, I never give out my secrets!" Erika grinned. It appeared as though this girl lived here forever. Her once so pathetic modesty was gone, and she was treated no less but a friend of Carl and Anna. Van Helsing, however, tried to hold at arm's length, but the girl seemed to pass it.

"Fine, just tell me what ingredients do you put in it? I can't recognise them." Carl looked at his cup, amused.

"Why won't you just go to bed right now?" she ignored his question deliberately, sounding a little bit annoyed.

"It's not that late yet, and I have nobody to talk to, so I guess I'll stay here for a while…" he winked, and noticed the strange expression on her face. "Hey, are you not happy about it?"

"No, no!" the expression was quickly gone. "Stay here for as long as you wish… How comes you have nobody to talk to? What about Anna and Gabriel?"

"Oh, these two… They only care about each other, at least that's what it seems."

Erika blinked. "I've never noticed that."

"Oh, dear, you should pay far more attention-

Carl stopped, unsure why. "Well, I don't know if something's between them or not, I'm probably just making things up in my mind… forget what I just said."

"Fine. It's not that I believe in you anyway." She sighed. Erika didn't know them well enough to say that something was happening. In fact, she hardly ever saw them together… This cannot be.


"Why do you keep avoiding her? She's such a sweet child, and she has helped me a lot…" Anna gave Gabriel another questioning look. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, but I also don't want to disappoint the girl, it looks like she has had many difficult things happening in her life, hasn't she?"

Van Helsing stroked her hair tenderly, but kept his look away from hers. "All of us have difficult lives, in different ways. If you changed the point of view, you would most surely change your opinion about that."

"Have you no heart?" Anna asked, her voice sounding not quite the way she wanted it to. Gabriel heard doubt in her voice. She trusted him, and she trusted Erika, but they seemed not to trust each other. The weird feeling inside was tearing her apart.

"Carl thinks she's amazing. And you don't, can you tell me why?"

"Do you?" Gabriel's tone scared her. "Do you really trust her? Is there not any single doubt in you about who she is, and who she was, and what she wants from us?"

"I don't understand you." Anna quailed. I do. "It was you who brought her here. I might not trust in her, but I trust in you-

"I think I made a mistake." The tone of Gabriel's voice was cold and certain. "I've met many different people on my way, and she seems, I'm almost sure she is one of a kind…"

"Don't scare me, tell me who she is… Tell me!" Anna forced him to look to her eyes.

You look beautiful this way. Van Helsing restrained from saying it. "I wasn't sure at first… first few days I had no suspicions at all. Then… she started to act strange."

"What do you mean, strange?" Anna bit her lip, strange foreboding filling her body.

"Making things fly and such…" Gabriel shrugged, putting no emotion to his voice at all.

No, no, no! Anna choked, then gasped for air. Van Helsing had to ease her down a bit. She just motioned for him to go on, her eyes said that she was shocked, but believed in him.

"…well, Carl was in the town, and he mentioned Erika for whatever reason… and people just started whispering to each other, and he was told that if he had something to do with that girl he must stop that right away, otherwise, God knows what may happen… he obviously didn't believe in them, but calmed everyone down with saying that 'Van Helsing is still here'. It's like I was almighty." Gabriel shrugged.

"Can we get rid of her somehow?" Anna found her tongue. She remembered noticing a few things… and that drink, she never was too much out of the count, but it made her sleep like a baby… "I feel so stupid. I have noticed something strange too..."

"I don't think that getting rid of her is going to be simple." Gabriel took her hand. "Soon, people will find out she's still with us, and I'm afraid it may lead to a bad case, even though you're their beloved princess…"

"Oh."

"She still has no idea we know about her… well, Carl still doesn't. But she will understand that soon. And living with a witch is never a good thing…"

Anna tried to make out the mess that her mind has turned into during these few minutes. "What if… if she's a good witch?"

"Believe me, Anna, she isn't." Van Helsing whispered.

"What should we do?" Anna knew the answer, but hoped there was another way…

"We must leave, as soon as possible. Preferably tomorrow."