Chapter 26: Land of Horrors

Sora, Donald, and Goofy landed somewhere in a dark, dank city. It seemed to be in perpetual night and a full moon hung overhead. Suddenly, Sora only counted three heads in his group. "Hey, where's Riku and Kairi?" He asked.

Goofy looked around, then came to the only reasonable conclusion. "Uh…I think they got lost somewhere in here."

Sora heaved a great sigh, then shook his head in disbelief. "Great!"

Clouds parted to show an eerie silver, full moon. A wolf howled at it as large, silver, eerie words that spelled out 'Land of Horrors' appeared. As the clouds moved back in front of the moon, the words faded out of existence.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were wandering around the eerie city. So far, it didn't look like the friendliest place to be...

"This place's like Halloween Town on steroids." Sora said, taking in every detail of the creepy town.

"Sure is spooky here, ain't it, Donald?" Goofy asked.

Donald rolled his eyes. That was the umpteenth time that Goofy had tried to scare him. "Nice try, Goofy. I'm not gonna answer that, cuz I'm not-"

Predictably, a hand tapped Donald on the shoulder and he ended up screaming and clutching Goofy on the face. Sora and Goofy, who still had Donald shuddering on his face, turned to see a man with long, black hair, black clothing, and a matching cowboy hat.

"Uh…hey?" Sora greeted, somewhat uncomfortably.

The man didn't answer, but took out a mirror and put it in front of the three. He then saw their reflections and put the mirror away. "Well, judging by your reflections, you're definitely not vampires."

"VAMPIRES?!" Sora HAD heard about vampires, bat-like people who roamed the worlds at night, sucking people's blood. He often had nightmares about them, but he didn't really imagine them as real creatures. "Well, no wonder this place's called Land of Horrors." He turned to the man, then introduced himself. "Anyway, I'm Sora and these are Donald and Goofy. Who're you?"

Donald finally got off Goofy's face and realized who their visitor was. "Van Helsing!" He quacked, pointing his finger at him, accusingly.

The man that Donald addressed cocked an eyebrow from under his cowboy hat, which shaded his visage.

"You know this guy?" Sora asked.

Donald nodded, then added, "Yeah, he's…"

Donald never finished his sentence because Goofy snapped his bill shut, so the rest of his sentence was inaudible.

"Don't mind him. Anyway, Mr. Van Helsing, sir, what're you up to?" Goofy asked.

The man known as Van Helsing looked off toward another part of town and answered, "Searching for someone."

This response heavily reminded Sora of Cloud when he was looking for Sephiroth. Who was THIS guy after that was so important? "Well, what's he look like?" he asked.

Van Helsing kept his description short, sweet, and to the point. "Large, muscular, has a cigar. Goes by the name Mr. Hyde. If you see him, tell me." Van Helsing then hurried off into the misty town.

Sora turned to Donald, whom Goofy released, then asked, "What were you going to say, Donald?"

"Ah, forget it." Donald said, almost grouchily, "You'll find out soon enough!"

The trio wandered through town for a while before coming to a woman that was lying on the ground. Upon rushing over to her, Sora found that she was already dead.

"Who would do this?"

Goofy scratched his head at Sora's question. "Kill someone? Well, I would guess a cold-blooded, low-down...

"No, not that." Sora quickly said, "This."

Sora reached down to an area just beside the woman and picked up a cigar that seemed to have a bite pattern on it. "Who in their right mind would chew a cigar?"

Suddenly, a voice rang out from another part of the misty town. "Van Helsing! YOU MURDERER!"

Sora turned on the sound of the voice. Had he heard what he thought he heard?

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Sora said, following the chill running down his spine.

"We'd better check it out!" Goofy said, pointing to where the voice came from.

The three ran to a crowd, who was circled around someone dead. The corpse seemed to be very old, judging by the wispy white hair, had no clothing except for a pair of shorts, had several scars on him, and an arm missing.

"Man! This guy's been massacred!" Sora said, wincing at the wounds.

"Van Helsing!" Donald pointed in one direction and the group saw Van Helsing was riding on a black horse through the city of mist.

"Let's go!" Sora said, not exactly wanting to leave town without answers.

As they chased after Van Helsing, trying to stay on his trail, Donald turned to Sora. "You wanna know HOW I know this guy, Sora?"

"How?"

"He's the biggest murderer in the worlds!" He answered, "The deaths are different, but always horrible!"

Sora was shocked. It seemed that the voice was right; maybe Van Helsing was a murderer.

Goofy, on the other hand, thought differently. "Ah, I don't think so." He said, "I think he's one of the good guys!"

"Prove it, ya big palooka!" Donald squawked.

Goofy thought and thought, but in the end, he couldn't think of any proof. "Uh…I dunno."

"Look, I don't care what you say." Sora told them both, "I'm still going after him. I have a feeling I'll get some answers from him."

The three of them followed the black steed through the Land of Horrors until he led them to an ancient city. Unlike the last city, this one was golden thanks to the bright sunlight and a had a pearly-white church. As they watched, Van Helsing dismounted his horse and entered the church. Hardly having any breath left, they followed him without question.

"Van Helsing!"

Van Helsing made an abrupt halt, then turned to see Sora behind him, gasping for breath. "Oh, it's you again." Van Helsing said with slight surprise, "What do you want from me?"

Sora straightened up, then looked Van Helsing in the eye and asked one question he had been wanting to ask since Donald told him of what Van Helsing was. "Why'd you kill that guy back there?"

Van Helsing ran his hands along a wall of the church, then answered Sora without turning to face him. "THAT was Mr. Hyde."

All three people paused, then realized what the monster hunter had just said. "WHAT?!" They all asked.

Donald stamped his webbed foot and began his usual angry outburst toward a certain person. "He didn't look ANYTHING like the guy you described!"

"That's the problem." Van Helsing filled in, "Mr. Hyde was actually another person called Dr. Jekyll. He drank a potion that allowed him to become a powerful monster." He looked down at the floor in slight shame, then said, "I was…supposed to bring him alive, but he gave me no other choice but to kill him."

"Still, THAT wasn't very good!" Donald said, his temper still on the rise.

Van Helsing turned to meet Donald with the ferocity of a beast in his eye, then seized Donald by the collar and lifted him clean off the ground. His voice was both quiet AND intimidating at the same time.

"You think I LIKE being the most wanted man in the world?" He asked, fiercely, "I go in and people see ME standing there as these monsters become the men they once were!"

Van Helsing took a deep breath, then released Donald, sending the duck mage careening to the floor and landing on his feathery back. Goofy looked around just as Van Helsing opened a secret door in the wall. Sora picked Donald back up, then followed Van Helsing down the secret stairs. Goofy looked where they were, then darted down the stairs to catch up.

"Well, what is this place?" Goofy asked.

As Van Helsing reached the bottom of the stairs, Sora found that they had reached an entire organization. It seemed to be a headquarters full of scientific experiments, weapon development, and philosophical research. Amongst the organization were monks and other spiritualists from all across the Land of Horrrors.

At that moment, Van Helsing answered Goofy's question. "The hiding place of the Holy Order."

Van Helsing

A wanted man in Land of Horrors who's a world-renowned monster killer. He tracks down monsters and, though he's supposed to bring them in alive, kills them (occasionally, it's inadvertent). He hates being seen for it and being taken for a murderer because of it, even though he's one of the good guys. He first appeared in Van Helsing 2003.

Yes, THIS is number two of my three miscellaneous movies, which weren't made by Disney. Please review.