If anyone wants to know whilst writing this chapter I was listening to: Evgeny Emelyanov – "Kalediscope" and "Children Of Water", Arkana Music – "Genesis", Nightcall – "Sleepwalking", Audiomachine – "An Unfinished Life" and Ethos Music "Nothing Left to Lose". I found the drama of it helpful in producing this :)
This chapter is a little different… the speech throughout the chapter is inspired by an episode of Buffy where a character did a similar style of speech.
I hope you guys like this finale, I'm pleased with it.
Monsters are real… Jagged fangs, red eyes, and pale skeletal claws… They are among us, hiding within the shadows – waiting – to strike. And they live within us. They are an unending pit, a hole in the soul where one should trip and fall.
Reality was contorted. It was a sick distortion of a pessimist's worst case scenario. There was no other option.
They weren't dead. His mother, father, Grace – pale faces bleached with false life, smiles through canine teeth.
They were undead.
Vlad stood beside them, eyes glittering crimson, teeth stained with the spoils of his fights. Leaning into the Chosen One, Grace smiled at him as Vlad's tongue slid along the bite marks he'd made.
"Mum, dad?" Ragged breaths scraped Jonno's oesophagus as he looked on his undead parents in distain.
Mina Van Helsing gave a deadly smile. "What do you want, slayer?"
Immediately Jonno felt acid bubble in his stomach at her words, looking into the cold abyss of their eyes. No longer were they the people he knew, shells of humans with now a desire to do evil.
But...
God, he couldn't bear it. He shut his eyes. Screwing them tight, urging the horrible image of his parents out of his head and reality.
"Jonno?" That was his mum. Please please please, don't be dead. Jonno silently pleaded as his eyelids flicked open.
Phew. Though pale she was, Mina was most definitely alive. She opened her arms, beckoning him to hug her, "Jonno – I've missed you."
He wrapped his arms around her. "It feels like I haven't seen you for months." How he'd missed her. He may have been eighteen and an adult but in world like his – having anyone was amazing.
"I'm not leaving you again." She smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder until she suddenly jolted forwards.
Shocked by the sudden weight Jonno followed Mina's palm to her chest where a wooden stake protruded from her heart, blood spurting from the wound.
Then she exploded into ash, leaving the youngest Van Helsing clutching at her remains. Ingrid held a bloody stake, staring at him numbly.
"Vlad told me to do it."
The vampire in question slid out of the darkness mouth dripping with blood. "And now it's your turn, Jonno."
Gasping for air Jonno jumped to siting position, shaking his head violently as he took in his dark office. Nightmares were not uncommon, for slayers in general and Jonno had suffered them since Stokely. And this one had been so… so… vivid.
He swallowed and looked down at his hands. Mina's plasma stained them red. "Oh god."
Then Jonno puked his guts out into his bin.
They sleep. Dormant.
Until unbidden, unwanted and unexpected they lash out. Surge to the surface and slash someone dear.
They leave an ice trail in your chest.
His hands hadn't been red, but his vision was. Vlad had done this to him.
He'd taken his father, his mother, and a girl he didn't even like, Grace. Following Jonno into his sleep he'd produced nightmares and the horrors he'd seen whilst trying to collaborate with Vlad – it was proof that peace could never work.
The training dummy's frame was battered by the repetitive jabs from the weapon. As Jonno sliced at the straw body he took heavy breaths, imagining that each hit was a stake in to Vlad's evil chest.
He was going to do it.
Screw the guild's plan – it hadn't worked – Vladimir Dracula had been a monster for too long and Jonno needed to end it.
Maybe the vampire had tried but no, the child from Stokely, Vlad, may have been there but the thing he'd become at fourteen was pulling the strings.
A final violent punch sent the dummy's head flying off the wooden balance and spiralling across the floor. Jonno hurled the stake. The engraved weapon pinned the stuffed sphere through the eye to the floor.
Feeling ready wasn't necessary, Vlad needed to die and, for the sake of Jonno's sanity, he had to do it.
But where there is a monster…There is a saint.
Sweet and soft. Silent, rare and fragile. Wishing for a world where the saint didn't lose.
Waiting for the moment. Waiting for the saint to be chosen.
"Her name was Grace."
Vlad shivered at his voice, looking up from where he was stumbling to link eyes with Jonno who stood rigid, knuckles white around a stake.
The vampire's mouth opened briefly and Jonno saw apprehension flicker in those lying, sapphire eyes. "Who?"
Who? Who?! Of course, Vlad wouldn't care, it wouldn't affect him – no, the death of an innocent teenager wouldn't affect a vampire in the slightest. "The slayer you killed, bastard!"
Before Vlad could react Jonno charged forward, slicing at the Chosen One with his stake. The vampire snarled in his face reacting to the sharp swipes aggravating healing cuts on its cheeks. Dark blood spilled down a cold face as Jonno was shoved roughly in the chest and his quarry backpedalled.
Vlad visibly shook recalling some of himself. "Jonno please, I don't have time for this!"
The slayer charged again, this time with a furious cry. If Vlad thought he was escaping this he was an idiot. Murderers didn't get to walk away.
The pair hit the ground with the crack of concrete on bone and Jonno slugged Vlad in the face with his free hand inciting the vampire to roll them until the slayer was pressed against the damp ground. He received a punch of his own; feeling his lip split but Vlad was already getting up and trying to move away.
"Look, I know there's bad blood between us but-" He didn't have time to finish as the Van Helsing pulled a pistol from his belt and fired three unsteady shots. One of them hit and the vampire dropped to the floor, this time with a splat.
Jonno stalked towards him and stood above him. "What- the- hell is this?" Vlad gurgled, blood spilling from his lips, hand pressed tightly on his upper rib.
"Pure argentalium shells, cooled in liquid garlic – something that will get through even your thick skull." Evans had encouraged him to take the weapon, wanting him to test it – he was convinced it would kill Vlad.
Something in the sentence chilled the vampire to the bone and he went rigid, blue eyes boring wide into Jonno. "This is happening again –you're going to kill me," He murmured.
"Again?" The slayer laughed, now Vlad was the mad one! "These bullets didn't exist until two days ago. Just one of these through the brain will kill you."
Jonno fired. "But you are right. I am going to kill you."
Vlad dropped to the floor, black slivers leaking from the hole in his skull. The slayer fired again, in the heart for good measure.
Then he gasped for air, much like when he'd woken from his nightmare.
Finally. He'd killed Vlad and the blood sucker was dust. He was free. Free from the merciless guilt that chased him for letting Vlad live; that tore at his heels every time he spoke to the Chosen One; that would not let him forget.
Hyperventilating over, Jonno's eyes slid to where Vlad's dust should've lain.
All there was, was the body.
Why wasn't he dust? He should be dust – he- he couldn't have survived the bullet so why was he not dust?! Jonno emptied the gun cartridge into Vlad's heart but all it did was spill more blood.
Oh god. It was everywhere, dark crimson staining the night black and-and- the slayer shivered.
"Oh god…" He murmured, dark eyes fixed on the corpse. He should've been dust. Vlad should've been dust!
A car rumbled along a near street and Jonno jerked to attention, ragged breathing, frantic, jerking hands ignored.
His breath froze solid in his throat and he gave the corpse a final glance.
Why wasn't he dust? It made Vlad seem… human.
That thought was too much to bear and Jonno trembled.
As fast as he could, the slayer sprinted into the night.
Sometimes monsters have saints. It defines them. The defiance of their nature to something pure. It makes them glow, beautiful.
And the saints have monsters. As without monsters we'd be without mistake. Decisions would be golden hearted and the saints wouldn't die.
But…
Monsters are real. And when the monster dies… the saint dies with them.
This is Jonno Van Helsing, the Chosen One is dead.
AND WE ARE FINISHED!
Well not exactly, first I need to give you guys a huge thank you and then write this sequel.
I'm reckoning that I'll post the first chapter in about a week as it gives me time to put together a basic plan and start work on the beginning chapters.
