JeanieBeanie: Yeh girl power! Aha that takes me back to the dawn of time and a random pop group called the spice girls, they changed my life and I deny I was ever a fan. Street cred is a terrible thing. Newho yeh I missed lil drac so he had to pop up somewhere can't tell you how much fun it is to imagine him waltzing round my garden!
Fortune Zyne: Thanx! Coolie is what I aim for
Shoadow of the Moon: Yay new reviewer! Dracula will never be forgotten! It is my mission to get him and Anna back for the Van Helsing sequel steven summers will be getting my script any day now…
HughJackmanFan: The end? (insert evil laugh) My Friend I haven't even started yet!
ChristineMarquez: Tony does look at me like that, he keeps telling me I'm gonna give birth to the devil someday, or that im cursing him lol I'm like just give me a reason…
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 12
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Amie asked clutching Bob's arm as the group made their way in to the dark Alton woods.
Marston glanced back down the group then returned his attention to the path ahead and the small beam of light from his torch that barely picked out the dirt trail from the damp foliage around and across it.
"It looks different in the dark, but I think we're on the right path." he called back confidently, smiling when he climbed over a familiar fallen tree trunk.
"You think?" Jory asked grinning and sticking the light from his own torch beneath his chin, casting long dark shadows over his face and cawing like a demented Crow into the dark trees.
He laughed when Amie glared at him grinning slyly back, he didn't watch the dark path in front of him so promptly stumbled over a tree root to land face first in a muddy puddle.
He cursed loudly when five torch beams rested on him and his friends erupted with laughter.
"And that, Jory, is why you should use the torch properly." Tony sighed sarcastically grinning as he sauntered past.
"We for once I'm glad it wasn't me." Carl said smiling as he helped the soaking boy to his feet.
Sarah hid a chuckle as she brought up the rear just a little way back from the group.
She was the only one without a torch her vampiric night vision allowing her to see through the deepest shadows, to her it was no different to walking through the woods on a sunny day when the sun's rays shone green through the canopy and spotted the grass with yellow light. She could picture that perfectly…well she could if she wasn't trying to lie terribly to her mother on her mobile.
"It's for a few weeks, three at the most…no I'm not sure how many exactly…the dogs fine he's in the Horninglow kennels… you know, the ones that open out on to the forestry commission?…I've paid already don't worry about that …yes I put the shirt I was wearing yesterday in with him."
She groaned at the thought of the money she'd just spent putting the dog up and the heartbroken look he'd given her when she'd handed his lead to the owner.
But as guilty as she felt, there was no-way she could have taken him to Van Helsings world, for all she knew the zombies ate dogs…ok they probably ate people, but she didn't really want to be running for her life and have to stop so he could sniff at a random lamp post.
"Yeh it's with Amie's family." she lied, blushing when Anna turned to give her a reprieving look from just ahead. "I'll call you when I can but I don't think they get a signal in that part of Wales…ok…love you too…Bye!"
She breathed a sigh of relief and promptly turned off her phone running to catch up with the group while she slipped into her hip bag.
Dracula slipped out of the shadows to her right and somehow managed to keep pace with her whist giving the impression he was having a leisurely stroll. "Tsk Tsk my dear, lying to your mother! And here I thought you were a little angel."
She flashed him an evil grin. "What you can't see my halo?" she whispered breathlessly as she caught up with Anna.
The Count gave an exaggerated sigh. "All too clearly." he muttered melting back into the darkness.
Anna looked at the breathless girl as she caught up. "What did your mother say?" she asked with interest adjusting the blanket around the sleeping baby in her arms.
Sarah shrugged. "She's worried…mum always could tell when I was lying about something."
Anna nodded brushing the unruly black wisps of hair off baby Velkan's forehead. "Mothers have an instinct for that sort of thing. My mother always did." She gave a sad chuckle looking ahead at the path though not really seeing it. "Velkan and I used to sneak into village at night and make wagers on each other to enter the graveyard, we were foolish really…Mother knew what we were up too and waited up one night to catch us in the act." Anna's voice grew sad and distant. "I've never seen her so afraid and angry…"
They walked on in silence Sarah absently testing the draw of the katana strapped to her back. 'Three weeks at most.' she'd told her mum. Three weeks…they were about to disappear again, voluntarily this time. She'd listened to her friends calling their parents one by one to lie to them.
"I'm camping with Murphy and Aran." Marston had said. "Back in a coupl'a weeks might go down to the coast."
Amie and Bob had said they were going back to their flat for the holidays, no one would call there, no-one would know whether they arrived or not. A sobering thought.
Tony's excuse was his girl friend in Birmingham. Jory's was camping with the group. He'd come off the phone laughing and saying "God I love being a legal adult they let you do anything!"
What if those calls were the last they'd make? She doubted her mother would survive losing her daughter again, or her twin losing her sister. Well this time they had a time limit, this time she would get back safe and sound and her friends would too because she refused to go through all that again.
She remembered vividly the month she'd spent in hospital with severe "Blood poisoning" as the doctors had diagnosed it. One of the nurses had laughed and joked "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were dead!" She'd stumped the Doctors, bearing scars that looked years old but her mother informed them were new. Her blood was still her own but there were mutations in it, the sort of thing that gave her, her superior night sight.
"The Dracula Gene." Tony had cheerfully informed her on his visits.
Her friends had escaped hospital weeks before she was finally, all be it, reluctantly released. They'd been treated for minor injuries and a few major.
Bob still limped slightly on his bad leg and displayed the scars proudly where the doctors had pinned the bones back into place, he'd had the longest hospital stay of a good two months before he learnt to use his crutches properly.
Jory and Marston compared the stitches on their wrists weeks after. Jory trying to convince Marston that Sarah's fangs had done way more damage than a mere nip from a "demented Ewok/jawa- hybrid -midgit thing."
As they finally entered the clearing and stood facing the spot where the portal would materialize she pushed these thoughts aside there was no going back now.
"This is it." Marston announced playing the beam of his torch over the chains of the large infamous tree towering over the clearing.
Amie shivered. "Why couldn't it be flowers? Just a dimensional portal surrounded by blue bells or tulips."
Sarah grinned "Tree in chains adds atmosphere." she stated proudly.
They watched Carl expectantly as he retrieved his portal device from the folds of his habit and quickly checked it over.
"So do your thing." Bob said expectantly.
Carl blinked looking sheepishly round at all their expectant faces. "Err, well I would…but there is a slight problem." he shifted his feet nervously.
"Like what?" asked Tony apprehensively.
Carl held out the small remote, the vial on the back was conspicuously absent leaving a yawning gap in the wiring. "Well I managed to fix the device, but the main component was almost irreplaceable."
"Bloody brilliant." Bob sighed running an agitated hand through his hair.
"Does this mean we can't go?" Amie asked almost hopefully.
Jory stepped up "Almost? You mean that green sludge Sarah got covered in?" Jory asked leaning over the Friar's shoulder to get a closer look.
Marston shot Sarah a grin remembering the look on her face when she'd fallen back through the portal and found her favourite skirt and top covered in green slime.
Carl winced "Yes that…about that."
Amie joined Jory making the poor Friar feel very crowded suddenly. "What was it?" she asked curiously.
Carl slipped from between them and up to Sarah.
"Yeh what was it Carl?" she asked morbid curiosity getting the better of her.
"Well you see … your not going to like it."
"Just tell me, it washed off so it doesn't bother me." she assured him confidently.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"Carl."
Tony shone the torches harsh beam on to his face like a cop interviewing a difficult suspect. The poor Friar seemed to shrink under the pressure.
"Alright! You see the only way to create a stable portal is to have something from both worlds on your side and connected to the portal." He sighed in relief when Tony stepped back apparently satisfied.
"So that stuff was?" Bob prompted impatiently.
The Friar met Sarah's eyes apologetically. "When Dracula turned you… he mixed his blood with yours, your DNA contains both yours and his genetic codes. You are the catalyst that opens the portal."
Sarah swallowed "So it was…"
"The vampire organs you regurgitated last year." he said quickly. Bile gathered in the back of the girl's throat as she shivered in disgust.
"Oh god I am never gonna be clean again!" she cried in horror.
Amie looked at her in horror "Tell me you took a shower and burned your clothes!"
Sarah rubbed fiercely at her skin trying to rid herself of the filth that might still linger "Goddess I wish I had!" she groaned. "But I couldn't shower! Carl was taking my stuff apart! I had to guard the Tv!"
Carl blushed apparently eager to press on. "Yes, well could I kindly ask you to give me your hand?"
The poor girl froze looking at him with barely disguised suspicion. "Er…can I ask why?"
"If you want to get into my world you'll do as I say and not ask questions." the Friar said somewhat impatiently.
Tony grinned "Do as he says woman you can't fight a man of God!"
Sarah scowled at him but reluctantly held out her hand. Carl grasped it firmly. "Marston, Jory would you…hold her still for me?" he enquired.
Marston and Jory took up positions either side of the poor girl grasping her gently but firmly, holding her in place and making sure she couldn't pull out of Carl's grasp.
"Is it too late to go home?" she asked pitifully nausea twisting her stomach.
Carl held her gaze compassionately. "this won't hurt a bit." he assured her.
Jory sniggered "Ever notice how doctors only say that when it's gonna hurt like hell?"
The group all turned to glare at him while Carl made a large show of examining Sarah's hand and then taking advantage of the distraction, reached into his habit and passed a scalpel across her skin with all the swift ruthlessness of the best doctors.
"Son of a…!" she yelped trying to yank her hand away as warm blood began to flow down her arm from the long cut across her palm.
Marston and Jory winced in sympathy there faces flashing with guilt and muttering apologies to their friend.
Carl placed the remote device into her blood filled hand and pressed it down firmly. Amie held her other hand squeezing it in sympathy when her friend gritted her teeth and hissed in pain.
"Sorry but it is necessary." Carl said sounding anything but sorry.
He turned and pressed the red button aiming the tip of the remote between two of the dark forest trees. The blood on the device seemed to change into a pulsing mist flashing with bursts of electricity, it reached out tendrils of red light pulling and tugging at the air before it. The teens watched in amazement as a brilliant flash of light illuminated the woods around them and they found themselves bathed in cool winter sunlight.
Beyond the portal stood a daylight winter forest fresh snow heaped upon the ground the oldest showing the barest hints of the battle fought in that spot hours before.
Sarah pulled bitterly out of her friends grasps, accepting the cotton wool pad and bandage Tony handed her and hissing while Anna hurriedly bandaged her wound. "You could have warned me!" she hissed at Carl.
The Friar blinked "I thought it best that you didn't get chance to panic first."
Grumbling the girl stomped forwards and stepped through the portal. "I think I'll take my chances with the zombies." she muttered darkly.
The others followed soon after looking around the woodland nervously as they slipped on the first patches of snow.
"We've not even started yet and Sarah's hurt, why do I think that isn't a good omen." Bob muttered to Marston before he miss placed his foot on some ice and ended up looking at them from the hard cold ground one leg still partly in his own world.
Marston laughed helping him to his feet.
Sarah sighed deeply willing herself not to be angry at her friends, above her the trees of a deep evergreen forest shone deep earthy green sunlight sparkled on the few patches of snow that had managed to settle on the thin branches. Amie stepped up beside her looking with concern at the blood stained bandage. "Are you ok or deeply disturbed that he used a scalpel on you?" she asked smiling.
Sarah had a small phobia of scalpels ever since and unfortunate incident involving her thumb and using a scalpel to cut potatoes up in GCSE biology.
Sarah smiled "Possibly just the scalpel thing." she answered.
Bob wandered over to where Carl was examining the portal, beyond the shimmering perimeter the Dark Alton woods stood beneath the quarter moon, pitch black but for the meagre sunlight that filtered through the portal.
"You know you look at this thing and you think "Yes, easy step in step out" so why the hell do I always end up arse over tit on the other side?" he asked in annoyance.
Carl closed the portal and regarded him eagerly. "Well I have a theory that as you cross the boundary between worlds the shift in reality and the pressure of the anti-matter disturbs…"
Bob backed away with his arms up in surrender "It was rhetorical!"
They all took in the light woodland relieved to see day light and not the dark night that the enemy thrived in.
"I'm just glad we actually guessed right about the time differences…err…is it possible to have portal lag? Like jet lag only…with a portal…portal lag." Jory wondered aloud.
Anna smiled at him "Come on we can reach the village by noon if we start now, once we get to the manor we will have a few hours to rest and prepare before we move on." she secured Baby Velkan in her arms and turned to lead the way through the trees.
Marston grinned "So no welcome home? No nostalgic "Hey remember when Sarah tried to kill us?" reminiscing when we get there?"
"Ah good times" Bob muttered dreamily.
Anna smiled "We don't have time…unless you wish to stay past sunset and face the walking dead yourself?"
"Just call me Shaun, baby!" Marston exclaimed, Sarah rolled her eyes but grinned none the less.
"I thought your name was Marston?" Carl exclaimed in confusion.
"Err…it's a film. Shaun of the dead…he fights zombies? It's not funny if you have to explain it." the boy huffed a little bit put out.
Jory laughed "I didn't think it was funny before."
They made their way out of the clearing, the snow still held traces of the fight that had occurred only the night before when Anna and Carl had fled in darkness. Dead blood stained the snow drifts trampled down by clubbed and awkward foot prints.
Sarah glanced to the side when something caught her eye and immediately regretted it when her eyes met those of a body, mutilated and covered in a light sprinkling of snow the stumps of it's arms clear and black in the patch of sunlight it lay on.
Tony stepped up beside her wincing at the grisly sight. "No place like home."
Amie gasped in horror, turning and dragging Bob quickly after the Princess and Carl.
Marston strode up to get a look "Hey Sarah it's your buddy stumpy! Guess that means his arms are around here somewhere."
A high pitched shriek sounded up ahead and the teens rushed up the path in alarm to see Amie scrambling to her feet having tripped over one of the unfortunate zombies missing appendages.
Bob was trying desperately to calm the poor girl down while Carl used some twigs to seize the disgusting object and carry it before him like a demented trophy, hoping to get a better look at it in his room at the manor.
Amie stumbled off the path and behind some trees pushing a concerned Bob away when he tried to hold back her hair. "Amie I'm trying to help, let me help honey." he pleaded uselessly.
Sarah rushed up to help him "Err Bob do you mind turning your back a minute?" she pleaded oddly.
"What!"
"She really needs to throw up and she can't physically be sick in front of you, it's like she thinks you won't love her if she's sick and you see it." she explained hurriedly.
The poor boy blinked in confusion but dutifully turned his back and stepped around the tree. He winced at the obvious sounds of vomiting coming from behind it.
Sarah led the pale girl unsteadily back to him. "God I hate Transylvania." Amie hissed weakly accepting his comforting hug. "I'm sorry hunskull."
Sarah caught up with the group who were all keeping their distance from Carl who was developing the annoying habit of forgetting the human arm he was carrying and swinging it towards those unfortunate enough to drift to close.
"Is Amie ok?" Jory asked glancing back to where she leant against her boyfriend her cheeks carrying an unhealthy green ting to them.
Sarah shuddered "Nope, not even close to. Can't blame her for throwing up I was close and I was the one who chopped the damn things off!"
"How'd you know she couldn't throw up in front of Bob?" Marston asked curiously.
"Woman's intuition…that and a long phone conversation about a month ago."
"Indeed"
They stalked on all careful not to look too closely at any suspicious piles of snow upon the way, feelings of de'ja vu settled around them as the approached the crest of a small rise and found themselves looking down on the Transylvanian village of Vaseria.
Note: wow long one! Ok guys keep those reviews coming! I'm back in full swing now if you couldn't tell!
