JeanieBeanie: I think angst is easier to write lol I never feel any so my characters get it just piled on! To take up the slack.
Note: Sorry it's taking me so long to get these chapters up im just struggling to get them all together and into the action again think it'll flow better after these chaps are over and done with, and after I pass/fail my theory test next Wednesday :shudders:
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Not a penny.
Chapter 10
"What? Tell me your joking!" Amie yelled into her mobile. Bob looked away from the road to give her a questioning glance but obediently looked back when she gave him a pointed look and gestured meaningfully at the road a head.
"Nope not joking their right here, Carl's dissecting my toaster … has been for the last hour actually." Sarah said laughing and walking past the friar who was whittling away at the piles of wires and fuses that used to be her faithful old toaster.
"You let him have your toaster?"
"Well it was that or the TV."
Amie winced at the thought "Good going with the toaster…but what are you gonna do if you want toast?"
Sarah smiled slipping into the kitchen. "The old fashioned way with the grill."
"Sarah, don't use the grill."
"Why not?"
"You and gas and fire…just don't risk it." Sarah smirked when she heard Bob chuckle in the background.
"Hey I'm not that bad around the kitchen! Anyway we're off topic where are you?"
Amie glanced up and hurriedly read one of the road signs before it flashed past. "Lichfield, we'll be home in about twenty mins."
Sarah sighed in relief "Thank god your coming home a day early, we're mobilizing the troops at my house."
"Ok well I'll run home with Bob and drop my stuff off then I'll be round yours in about …forty five minutes?"
Sarah smiled looking forward to seeing her best friend for the first time in a month. "Great you need to hurry and save me from the mad Friar I managed to sneak the phone before he saw it and what it could do, but it's only a matter of time."
Amie laughed and hung up.
Bob waited patiently for her to explain but she just sat thoughtfully staring out of her window absently playing with her hair.
"So?" he prompted.
Sarah wandered back into the living room and laughed aloud when she saw Carl staring transfixed at the X-men movie Jory had put on.
"It's Van Helsing! How is that possible!" he was babbling pressing his face up against the screen to scrutinise the pictures.
"That's not him Carl…it's not Gabriel." Anna said softly from the sofa, baby Velkan was sleeping soundly in her arms.
"We can turn it off if you want Anna." Sarah said apologetically picking up the control from beside Marston.
The Princess smiled shaking her long brown hair. "No I like seeing him, whatever he looks like, it brings him home somehow."
Sarah grinned looking back at Wolverine on the screen "Yep Hugh Jackman's definitely easy watching."
Marston stretched and stood from the chair turning to see Jory rushing behind him and into it. "Jump in my grave why don't you."
Jory grinned and then turned his attention to Sarah. "So what did they say?"
"They'll be here in half an hour maybe more, did you manage to get in touch with Chris?"
Marston nodded "He can't get out of uni for another week and he can't afford the train back so he's stuck down there."
"We can't wait a week." Anna said immediately. "We can't even wait a day if we are going to do anything we have to go back tonight when it gets dark in your world."
"Why then?" Jory asked curiously, sniggering when Carl gave a yelp of shock and rolled back on to his arse when Wolverine's claws shot out.
Anna stood and began to pace restlessly. "We've already lingered too long, the village may have been destroyed already."
Carl stood looking flustered and brushed down his robes. "Yes, I have a theory that those creatures…"
"Zombies." Jory supplied helpfully.
Carl blinked "Err…zombies…I believe their like vampires in respects that they cannot tolerate sunlight or in fact any daylight, their eyes and skin are just too sensitive to it. It seems that whenever we open a portal from our world to yours during the night it is always daylight here, so we're hoping…"
"If you open a portal during our night it'll be day in your world." Sarah finished.
"Great night woods." Marston said happily.
"I'm gonna see if Tony's home." Sarah said quickly rushing to retrieve the phone from the kitchen, she didn't want them to see how freaked the whole idea of going back to Transylvania made her.
She'd died there…nearly three times, she'd been back every night in her nightmares. Going back for real was something she'd never considered and going back to face a Zombie army and it's new master without Van Helsing…it didn't sound like her perfectly planned summer was going to be any different than the last.
The hollow ringing of the phone calmed her slightly as she paced the small kitchen smiling when she heard Jory replacing X-men with Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
"See this is you. Faramir Captain of Gondor."
Carl's voice rose in astonishment. "Look at my hair! It's long! I look good."
Sarah chuckled "You won't be saying that after what happens to you in Return of the King!" she called.
She jumped slightly when a sleepy voice grunted a greeting over the phone line.
"Hello?"
"Tony! Hey…er you sound terrible.
The rustle of bed clothes sounded over the receiver followed by an exaggerated yawn. "I was sleeping woman!"
Sarah laughed "Tony it's gone three in the afternoon and your still sleeping!"
Tony grunted . "Yeh well you don't work sixteen hours a day, I do eight hours at the bookies everyday from 10 am to 7 at night then I wait three hours and go to do the night shift at ASDA till 7 next morning then I get two hours sleep before I have to get up for the bookies again! I haven't slept properly for fourteen days!"
"That's crazy! What do you need two jobs for? No wonder I haven't seen you around lately."
"Yeh well I get paid a shit load of money for it so it's worth it."
Sarah laughed "No it's bloody not! Do you even get the weekend off?"
She could hear him pacing his room in the background.
"I get 20 hours off on Sunday that's it I'm knackered. If I shave I get one of those 3'clock…err…4'clock…"
Sarah smiled "5'clock shadows." she prompted.
"5'clock shadows yeh, those. I haven't had a haircut in four months I look like Chewbacca!"
She laughed "I gotta see that, you can show me when you come down in a bit."
"What for?"
"Well you remember last year…Vampires, near death experiences…actual death experiences?" she prompted.
Silence sounded over the other end of the phone. "You mean lesbian brides and you turning into a concubine love slave? Yeh vaguely."
Sarah groaned "I was not a love slave!"
"Yeh right, we don't know what happened and Dracula was a good looking guy, no one would blame you. Plus you had that weird obsession on him for years before." Tony teased apparently finally awake enough to take the piss out of her.
"Ok off topic Tony!" she hissed blushing and glancing around to check that ghostly Drac wasn't eaves dropping.
Tony chuckled "Sorry, so what about it? You having a party or something?"
"Er…Well it's a funny story actually…This morning me, Marston and Jory went back to Alton and we ran into some old friends." she said hesitantly.
"I'm waiting for the funny." Tony said after a pause.
"It was Anna and Carl…with zombies."
"What the Fu? Zombies! As in…Zombies!"
Sarah cringed at his horrified tone. "Yeh…zombies, as in Dawn of the dead, none of that half hearted shuffling crap these guys were grabby."
Tony sighed "So whose there with you?"
Sarah glanced into the living room wincing as Carl wrestled Jory for the remote.
"Go play with your toaster!" Jory yelled chuckling when he won and promptly sat on the remote to keep it away from the Friars eager hands.
Sarah laughed and stepped back into the kitchen leaning on the edge of the dinning table. "I'm guessing you just heard Jory, that's Carl he's yelling at, who desperately wants to destroy my tv. Marston's on the sofa with Anna and her baby."
"She has a sprog?" Tony exclaimed in amazement. "Way to go Van Helsing!"
Sarah ignored him "So can you get down here? Amie and Bob are on their way, Chris can't make it he's stuck at uni."
She waited patiently as he thought it over smiling as she pictured him pottering aimlessly around his room and muttering to himself. "Give me half an hour, your house is the one with the bush on the garden right?"
"Yeh don't go to the wrong one."
"Please woman I think I remember where you live."
Half an hour later there was a small knock at the door. Sarah stumbled over her dog pushing him back with her foot as she pulled the door open and found Tony on the step. His dark black hair had grown out falling a cross his forehead to touch the top of his eyes, she grinned when she noticed the small goatee that had grown in in the last month or so since she saw him.
The sound of the neighbours door closing and the sheepish look on his face made her laugh.
"You went to the wrong house didn't you." she said grinning fondly as he glared at her
"You'd think by now you would have put the house number plate up." he muttered stepping up to her.
Sarah laughed and pulled him into a hesitant hug happy to see him again.
"Hey Hongy!" Jory greeted him as they pulled apart and he entered the crowded lounge.
A few minutes later Amie and Bob finally arrived after emotional greetings all round and a quick run down of events Sarah dragged her friends up to her room to talk in private while Anna and Carl began to watch the Van Helsing movie with barely contained curiosity and enthusiasm.
Sarah lead her friends upstairs and opened the door to her annoyingly pink room.
The group entered the room settling awkwardly on to the bed and the computer chair.
"Hey you got a new Blade!" Amie exclaimed hurrying across to where a pewter athame sat beside the computer.
Sarah smiled proudly, "Yeh it's an Egyptian athame off E-bay."
"You can buy knives off E-bay? They let you do that?" Tony asked eagerly.
Marston chuckled looking around her room catching sight of her other Athame on the altar and the katana resting in its place above her bed. "Your like armed to the teeth!" he exclaimed.
Bob wandered up to Amie casually glancing around the altar, he held up her fire candle staring at the triangle engraved on the side. "What's the triangle for?" he asked curiously.
"I read about it in the De Vinci code." Jory said from the bed. "They worship it, right?"
Sarah nodded. "Sort of, it's a bit more involved than that."
Bob laughed "Sarah are you in some kind of Wiccan pyramid scheme?"
"How would that work?" asked Amie smiling.
Marston smirked shrugging "You put energy in and you get it out again."
Sarah laughed "I knew I shouldn't have brought you all in here."
She jumped when the door behind her creaked open and spun like a frightened rabbit expecting to see Dracula's dark silhouette bearing down upon her. Instead a small black nose poked it's way around and her dog bounded in rubbing his head against her leg affectionately.
"I thought Witches had black cats." Jory laughed.
She grinned kissing the course fur on the back of Toby's neck. "He's better than a cat."
Tony settled back on to the computer chair crossing his legs and arms to lounge with proud authority. "So what did you want to talk to us about?" he asked immediately.
Sarah cringed as her friends all turned to stare at her settling back to perch on the end of the bed and the trunk beneath the window.
"What did you dream about last night?" she asked the Chinese boy directly, settling cross-legged in front of him on the pink sheepskin rug that was her sisters pride and joy. Toby clambered possessively on to her lap.
Tony grinned "You want to hear about my erotic dreams?"
Bob laughed pulling Amie on to his lap, but his lone chuckle faded when he realised the others hadn't even cracked a smile? "Ok…I've definitely missed something." he muttered flustered.
Marston stepped forward "Raise your hands if you had a fucked up dream about Van Helsing last night."
Sarah and Jory raised their hands and waited patiently. One by one Tony, Amie and Bob did the same.
For a moment they sat in silence all of them choosing not to comment when Sarah began to unconsciously finger the twin scars on the side of her neck and Jory and Marston rubbed agitatedly at the jagged scars on their arms.
Amie gave Sarah a fearful look. "I had a nightmare…about Van Helsing…we were all there."
Bob went pale. "I had that dream…with Anna having her baby."
"Van Helsing riding away" Tony added scowling.
"We all had it." Sarah whispered.
Jory scowled. "So all that stuff happened? He really left her…Van Helsing left Anna after everything that happened last year!"
"And now there are zombies." Marston added bitterly.
Sarah sighed "You help save the world and you turn your back for a few months…" she muttered sarcastically.
Bob ran a nervous hand through his hair making the shorter wisps stick up slightly at the back which Amie fondly brushed back with her fingers. He smiled at her before sighing and looking back at the rest of the group.
"So what do we do now? Do we go back?" he asked seriously.
A thoughtful silence descended on the group as each nervously considered this. Sarah swallowed hard unconsciously holding her dog closer until she could feel his heart beating against her chest slightly faster than her own reassuringly prominent pulse.
"Zombies." she whispered. "It's not even in the vampire league…but still, this time we wouldn't have Van Helsing with us." doubts flashed across each face.
No Van Helsing, no trained hunter to hide behind, no expert hunter to train them and pull them out of harms way. Just them facing an army of the undead with nothing but a sword and their friends at their backs.
Tony stood and walked across the room to stare at the Van Helsing poster that dominated the wall, he gazed critically at it for a few moments before turning to look at Sarah. "So…he needs our help this time?"
Sarah nodded. "Maybe…we don't know what's happened to him."
"He could be dead." Jory said seriously from his position on the bed.
"How long do we have to decide if we're going?" Amie asked weakly from her boyfriend's comforting embrace.
"Till it gets dark." Sarah whispered. "Then Anna and Carl are heading back with or without us."
Note: will be uploading next chapter 2moz night! Read and review! Sorry about delay again computer trouble lol can'tcha tell mercurys in retrograde!