Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to the movie Van Helsing are the property of Stephen Sommers. This is an amateur effort with no intention of infringement of copyright policies. This story is for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 6: Link to the Past
She was the first woman he laid eyes on, and in some ways she was the last.
It was funny the way things had worked out. He arrived in Budapest the night of Vladislaus Dracula's annual Halloween Masquerade. It was ironic that he had laid eyes on the Count's escort for the evening, the beautiful blonde woman at his arm. Half her face was covered with a silver mask, small sapphires studded around the edges of the mask and diamonds near her eyes. Her eyes were covered in silver powder to match, melding the mask completely with her face. She was wearing a silver and white gown with angel wings attached to the back, walking down the stairs as if she were descending from heaven itself.
He was entranced the moment he laid eyes on her, ignoring his host, the man at her side. All his attention was taken up by the angelic creature at his side. Vladislaus ignored him, greeting the public of his ballroom and introducing her to all the mingling groups around the dance hall. He overheard the introductions. Her name was Alice, a British woman whom Vlad had met on business to England and fallen madly in love with.
"Ah, Gabriel." He said, bringing the woman to him. She smiled sweetly as she curtseyed and lowered her head slightly, a lock of blonde curl tumbling into her face. Vlad smiled. "I suppose she has attracted your attention to. Gabriel Van Helsing I want to introduce Alice Daniels to you."
"Pleasure to meet you." She said, offering her hand.
For a moment he was too stunned to move. Finally he took her gloved fingers in his hand, the soft silken gloves within his reach as her perfume filled his nostrils. She was intoxicating in her gown and wings, the epiphany of beauty and grace within his reach. He kissed the knuckles gently, still watching her from behind his black mask, his dark eyes meeting her own crystal ones as they found themselves lost in the moment.
"The pleasure is all mine." He said quietly, releasing her hand. She placed it at her waist, blushing almost crimson at him, shaking her head a little as Vlad laughed lowly to no one in particular. He saw the blood in her face and he too was obsessed with her immediately, but for completely different reasons.
"Vladislaus!" A voice beckoned him from the crowd. The Count turned to the dark haired woman summoning him, her red dress standing out in the crowd of mostly black, no more than Alice's, however. He smiled.
"Excuse me." He said politely, bowing low. "An old friend my dear. Entertain her will you, Gabriel?" He drifted off into the crowd to the youthful dark haired woman, smiling at her as if they had not seen each other in many years. Van Helsing watched Alice, completely speechless. She too had nothing to say. He took a deep breath.
"Would you care to dance?" He asked her. She smiled and nodded.
"I would love to." She replied, taking his hands in hers, his black gloves clashing with her white ones. He felt like an ink blot, completely out of place and unnecessary to be standing so close to such a beautiful woman as the one who stood before him, her hand on his shoulder resting gently. She seemed so foreign to the ballroom, unsure of how to move or how to act without the Count resting at her arm. It took Alice a moment to get her tongue working again.
"Your accent is foreign, Mr…"
"Van Helsing." He added. "Gabriel Van Helsing." She nodded. "I am actually from London but I'm here on business with Count Dracula."
"What kind of business?"
"Finances."
"Are his finances in danger?" The dialogue was back and forth, something he found refreshing for a woman in a day and age when they were neither respected nor heard out. Gabriel often found them fascinating to listen to.
"No." He replied. "They're immaculate actually."
"I see." She continued dancing with him but they really weren't moving very far. Vlad was still on the other side of the ballroom with his dark haired friend. The pangs of jealousy were evident in his companion's stare. Alice seemed hurt by his attentions for the other woman. She grew closer to him in a response to it. "How long have you and Count Dracula worked together?"
"Our work began just recently." She nodded, listening intently, except for the brief moments that her attention was taken from him by the concern for the Count, watching him and another woman talking in hushed voice across the ballroom. She slowed, looking at him now.
"I apologize, Mr. Van Helsing, but I must go. Thank you for the dance." She said.
He watched her leave the ballroom. He felt the pangs of jealousy consume him. Count Dracula was getting a woman he didn't deserve.
He was suddenly regretting waking up. The unconscious world had numbed his senses down to a point where he could actually breathe without gasping for breath. He could actually function in his painless stupor. The second he emerged from the waters of sleep he found that the wound on his shoulder was causing his lungs to stop cooperating and his whole body to freeze up in pain. His legs were stiff and almost dragging limply underneath him, and Gabriel found he was thankful for the support he was receiving since his injury from Morgan.
Mina Harker, as she had introduced herself, was pulling him along with his left arm slung over her slender shoulders, holding him up and off the street. Her heels tapped on the cobblestone softly, the sound dulled by the thick skirt that covered them. He looked over at her, getting a catch of her scent, the elegant aroma of her perfume filling his nostrils.
She was fairly young, more than likely in her mid twenties. Her hair was thick and brown, half of it hanging loosely down her back in limp curls while the other half was pinned up in a twisted knot that was steadily tumbling down her shoulders and curling around her neck. She too had chosen to wear black, her gown much more primitive than Morgan's ornate beaded frock. She was wearing a long coat much like his only with a wider collar that provided perfect space for the gray embroidery there. He couldn't tell the design from his position against her side, but he could only assume the thousands of shapes it could be. About her neck was a long black scarf that covered her throat completely from clavicle to her chin.
"Where are we going?" He asked. The look that appeared on her face when he spoke told him she hadn't noticed that he was awake. She looked a little shocked, moving her eyes from him to the road ahead of her.
"My home." She replied. "You will be able to rest there for as long as you need." He tried to get control of his legs and feet to stand once again but found that he could not, and they hung uselessly from him. "Relax, Mr. Van Helsing, I assure you I do not wish to harm you. I wish to return a favour which you graciously showed upon me years ago."
"Do we know each other?" He had to ask. Mina nodded.
"It was long ago." She added, looking at him once again. His appearance was strange to her, but she could never forget that face. She looked at the sunken cheeks and the dark hair and knew it was Van Helsing. "It is strange that you cannot remember."
"It's become a common occurrence with me." He replied, breathing rapidly and painfully as his ribs cracked against one another. Mina stopped and listened to them for a moment and she sighed deeply.
"It is a very bad injury." She said, running her gloved fingers over the bloodied shirt. He jerked back from her touch, causing the bones to crack further. Gabriel winced slightly, finding himself relaxing against her a little more. Mina nodded to herself and quickened her pace. "My home is not very far from here." She reassured him, pulling him along with a quickened pace. He felt his chest explode into agony, his breathing constricted more so.
"So we know each other?" He asked her, trying to stay awake. Unconsciousness was creeping up on him once more. She nodded and stopped in front of a stone step. He looked at what he could only assume to be her home. It was a tall building made on stone once again, not nearly as furnished as Morgan's but it seemed to suit Mina fine. She lowered him gently against the wall being very careful of his injury before she grasped a skeleton key from a pocket in her coat and slid it into the door.
She swung the knob roughly a few times, her strength finally being displayed as the door swung open very quickly. Mina looked back at him.
"
She swung the knob roughly a few times, her strength finally being displayed as the door swung open very quickly. Mina looked back at him.
"You were a great assistance to myself and my husband." She said, lifting him up on her shoulder again and patiently awaiting him to come up the step and into her house. "Slowly and gently, Mr. Van Helsing." She urged, much with the air of a mother speaking to her infant child. Gabriel would have commented on this but he could scarcely breathe. "That was years ago. How is it that you came to forget?"
"I can't remember."
"Fair enough." She replied, closing the door behind them and locking it tightly with three locks: one on the handle, one just above it with a linked chain, and the third a large dead bolt. Paranoid?He thought, his chest compressing on itself slowly. The wound was starting to crush his lungs.
Mina didn't seem too worried about it. She looked up at her long line of mahogany stairs and the living room nearby.
"Can you walk up the stairs, Mr. Van Helsing?"
"Probably not."
"Very well." She replied, leading him to the left of the door from the hallway all the rooms on the main level were attached to. He found her house comfortable if anything, the sort of home one with small amounts of money had. There were odd decorations about the house, some hanging on the walls with drawings and sketches. Inside the living room there were two very expensive looking couches surrounded by tables of scientific glass ware. On every wall there was a large book shelf filled with books on anything and everything. He noted famous English philosophers and infamous scientists making up her library.
Mina eased him down and onto the couch, allowing him to rest most of his weight on her and not seeming to mind at all. She was surprisingly strong for her size and despite being at least fours inches shorter she was able to carry him from Hamilton's home to her own.
Gabriel could not even remember how they got out of Hamilton's house. He remembered Mina walking in and inspecting his wounds, speaking in a voice that he could have understood if his body wasn't so far in shock. She then lifted him from the floor with his good arm and darkness carried them away before he woke on the street, staring down at the rain covered cobblestones.
"Who are you working for now, Mr. Van Helsing?" She asked him, lighting several lamps around the room and setting them around the couch on the tables there. He let his head loll back on the couch, his eyes closing again as his whole body relaxed against the soft violet cushions of her home. Mina pulled off her coat and dropped it over a chair back before searching through her equipment.
Gabriel wanted to remember this woman. He wanted to know under what circumstances they met and what transpired between them. For all he knew, he could have been the husband she spoke about. He drifted into unconscious for what he thought was a moment, finding himself awoken by her voice only moments later.
"Mr. Van Helsing?" She asked him. He blinked, opening his eyes and allowing them to refocus slowly as he face came into view. Mina slowly tugged on the collar of his coat. "I will need to take a look at your wounds."
"They'll be fine." He assured her. He was still unsure of how deep their trust went. Dracula remembered him but it didn't mean they were on good terms. Mina sighed deeply.
"I swear to you I will not hurt you further. Our past relationship would never condone such an action." She said to him, trying to ease his distrust of her. "Now if you would please allow me to help you I can dress this and if you can leave if you wish, but it would go against my morals to allow you to wander through the streets of London with broken ribs."
Gabriel breathed as deeply as he could. The wound on his right shoulder made his head swim as oxygen was lost within his body. He reached his left hand up and began working the coat off his body, allowing Mina to take over the rest as she slid it down his arm. He lifted himself to help her, pushing his left arm back to his side.
His wound stretched and cracking was heard beneath the skin. Gabriel hesitated as he winced in real, visible pain. Mina was careful, her hands steady as she pulled off the jacket from his left arm and set it over the other couch.
"You're lucky Morgan didn't hit anywhere else." She said, taking up a pair of long and thin scissors from where she had set them on the couch. Her hands traced over the stab wound, the blood running down his chest and almost at his waist by then. "She has the unfortunate tendency to murder off the men that she keeps company with."
"I've noticed." He said, remembering the body on John Hamilton on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood. Mina began to cut away at his shirt, giving herself a clear area to work with. "What were you doing there?"
"The same as you." She replied, peeling the fabric from his skin. The blood had already begun to scab and caused some minor pulling on his skin. When she reached the wound it caused more blood to flow out. Mina seemed prepared with everything though, taking a square of thick gauze off the arm of the couch and pressing it down to stop the bleeding. His intercostals muscles contracted painfully once again and another crack was heard. "I have been hunting her since she arrived in London, watching her in her home, buying her time away while she conducts her murders."
She made several more cuts near his neck, eyeing his throat carefully. He caught her looking and reached up for her hand, stopping her for a moment. She locked her eyes with his, swallowing hard before pulling her fingers from his and peeled away the gray fabric that covered the slash from the dagger. She clenched her teeth, eyeing the severity of it.
"She's stealing the swords." Mina added.
"I know." Gabriel replied. "Why?"
"Well…" Mina began, pressing several more pieces of gauze into the wounds. Van Helsing tightened his eyelids together and breathed heavily from the pain and heat radiating from the open skin. Her fingers were gently but any physical contact around it seemed to set it off again quickly causing more white hot pain to race up his neck and into his mouth. "I've been trying to find out why precisely she takes the swords." She continued speaking as she pressed the gauze firmly into place before grabbing a needle and roll of thread off the couch arm. He watched her with his glazed eyes, the oil lamp she lit and it made his eyes burn and water more. He looked away as she threaded the needle.
"The swords are completely random weapons and yet she chooses them very carefully." Mina explained, pinning the needle into the couch before reaching over to the couch arm once again, bringing up the small vial in her fingers and shaking the clear liquid a little. Gabriel breathed raggedly, watching her insert a needle into the closed end of the vial and fill it with the watery fluid.
"What is that?"
"Morphine." She replied. "It's home made but I'm sure it will have the same effect." The needle was filled with a small amount of the sedative before she noticed that he was shaking his head.
"I'm fine." Mina nodded, but kept the needle filled anyways. She continued talking as she removed a piece of gauze from his neck and brought the needle to the wound.
"The people she kills are famous collectors." She began stitching the open flaps of skin back together. He felt the needle puncture the skin and the thread pulled through after. "They also speak of some kind of order they belong to." She pushed the needle through the other open flap of skin and professionally continued. Gabriel hissed, glancing over at the filled syringe but opted against it. He needed to stay awake.
"Each of the men has a strange tattoo on their bicep." She said, her fingers dancing in front of Gabriel's face as the blood covered thread was pulled in view of his eyes. The wound was screaming now, blood oozing from the cracks in the stitches and dripping down his chest a little. She swore under her breath and reached over to the table, snatched up the deep metal dish filled with water. It steamed a fair bit and smelled strange. She dipped the gauze into the water and held it over the section she had already stitched. His back arched when the burning water hit his shoulder. Mina set the water on the floor, hushing him gently with her hand on his shoulder.
"Shh…" She told him, running her cool fingers over his cheek for a moment. He breathed shakily and allowed his muscles to relax, the water cooling slowly. Mina removed it from the wound and organized the two threads that hung from his chest. Gabriel closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on anything except the agony of his chest.
"The tattoo is in the shape of a dragon," She began, "With a crucifix near its mouth and a circle beneath its feet."
Gabriel thought hard about it. He tried to picture what she described to him as he opened his eyes and blinked again, his eyes running with hot tears from keeping them tightly closed. Mina moved down the length of the cut already made. She looked from Gabriel to the needle of morphine that was on the couch but hesitated, not allowing her self to go against his wishes.
He's in pain, Mina. She sighed deeply. Gabriel lifted his head as high as it would go.
"I've seen that shape before." He told her. Mina stared at him. "I know I have."
"I find that easy to believe." She told him. "It's the symbol of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table."
"No, it wasn't in a book. I remember seeing it on a flag."
Mina's eyes narrowed. He could have been dreaming but she trusted he wasn't.
"How could you have? They are a legend from the 1100's and never seen again in England after Arthur's alleged death?" Gabriel shrugged.
"I don't know." He said.
"You can remember a flag but you cannot remember recent memories within your own century?" Gabriel shook his head, swallowing hard. Mina was suddenly very interested in him now. As a scientist and as an old friend she was very interested in Gabriel Van Helsing.
Author's Notes: I apologize if Mina is a bit OOC. I am not using Bram's original story for her character as I mentioned previously. Instead I'm using Alan Moore's interpretation of her character. Carl will be returning shortly, more than likely within the next two chapters. All Carl fans must simply wait with baited breath for Gabriel to get a little TLC from Mina for a bit.
Oh, and I was meaning to ask: How many would have great objections to Mina being paired with Gabriel? I'd love some thoughts on the issue.
