Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to the movie Van Helsing are the property of Stephen Sommers. There was no infringement of copyright laws intended. This is an amateur effort. No money was made off this story.
Chapter 11: Interrogation
"It's up here somewhere." She said, holding out the gas lamp to search through the dusty attic. Gabriel felt his eyes water the second he entered the attic area, finding it so filled with cobwebs and dirt that he could barely breathe. Mina coughed pleasantly and waded through the boxes and books that could be found there. She set the lamp down on an old piano wrapped in canvas and tied with baling twine. He stepped into it as if it were another world, finding inside it everything that Mina had obviously hidden away from long ago and either chose to forget about or simply forgot about over the years. He found the shadows on the wall rather frightening, created by the mannequin that was stalking Mina and two rats that scurried quickly away from the light. Mina pushed off the old boxes and carried away the old papers to reveal a carefully engraved hope chest. She blew off the dust which rose like a melancholic gray cloud and made her cough. She made a fist in front of her mouth and hacked away at the debris in her trachea. Before she had fully recovered she opened the chest.
Gabriel looked inside, finally reaching her side, discovering the back of the chest pinned with paper clippings and written letters. Some she slid her hand over anxiously, pulling them off and sliding them under the white fabric within the chest itself with a small and bashful smile. He knelt down with her. The lightning flashed for a moment, illuminating the room with a brilliant white light. Her face gleamed almost like a corpse. His own was darker, but still gave off the illusion that he was dead, just as much as she.
The inside of the chest looked normal enough. It was a woman's treasury, filled with a small crown of flowers that had dried and frayed over the years almost to the point that it was dust. Next to it was folded white fabric he found when she pulled it from the box was a wedding gown. The pieces of paper she had hid from him went with it.
Once she had removed the top layer that hope chest's mood changed. Underneath it was an odd supply of weapons (most likely where she had got the pistol from). There were several wooden stakes, two other pistols, boxes of bullets, an assortment of hunting knives, and a small silver crucifix at the top, lying with the knives. He caught sight of the engraving on it and reached for it, not stopped by Mina at all. She looked as if she wanted him to see it.
Gabriel pulled the crucifix out. He remembered the cold feeling of it in his hands, or one just like it. It was strange but he remembered this, held out in front of him, the sound of something hissing in the darkness sadistically with a sharp and bright grin. Their lips curled around glistening fangs. The woman in white was not going to come quietly and instead decided to threaten him with her deadly good looks.
He turned it around and found the marking under his fingers. The small engraving was faded over the years but still legible after a moment. He squinted in the poor light and found the words, "Van Helsing."
"It was the only thing Jonathan kept of yours." She said quietly, slumped against the hope chest with one arm crooked over the open lid to keep her self up. Her bare feet poked out of the base of the dress, the hem hanging between her slender ankles and curling between her toes. Gabriel continued to look at it, transfixed by it. "He wanted it. He felt it brought protection just on its own."
There was the sound of objects shuffling, drawing his attention back to her. Mina's hair tossed over her shoulder as she turned back to him with a journal, the edges bound in wax from a candle to prevent it from being opened.
"This was his journal." She said, handing it to him. Again the guilt passed over him, just as it had done when he put on the man's shirt. He felt as if he were walking over Jonathan Harker's grave. He was sleeping in his house. He was wearing his things. He was looking at his personal effects in an attic with his barely clothed wife. It seemed as if Jonathan's happiness was slowly becoming his own. Gabriel felt a chill move down his spine at the thought of Jonathan watching this scene from beyond the grave, his lips curling in anger slightly at the sight of his beautiful wife in her night clothes speaking with a man who was not her husband and she had not seen in years.
Of course, Gabriel could not even remember what Jonathan looked like, but the chill still moved down his spine slowly. He held the journal back to her. Mina looked from it back to him.
"I thought you might like to read it?" She said, pushing it back to him slightly. "My husband would not mind. He would want you to have seen it…again." She added in the final word a little hesitantly. He took back the old book and pealed the covered open from the wax, finding it opened quite easily. The pages were sealed and unable to be opened. But Mina kept watching him, waiting for him to look within the worn pages of her husband's life.
He finally pealed away the first page without ripping it, discovering that the pages inside were loose and able to turn freely. Gabriel's eyes skimmed through the words, Budapest, the dates, the carriage…He flipped closer to the end and Mina's eyes continued to stare at him. He glanced up at her, finding that a tear was working its way from the far corner of her eye to her chin, falling slowly down her cheek. She didn't seem to notice it, shrinking back from the look he was giving her. He was reaching towards her only to have her shy away and wipe it with her white sleeve.
"Sorry." She said. Gabriel didn't understand why she was apologizing. He closed the diary.
"I don't remember any of this." He said. "Just…fragments." Mina nodded.
"I know." She said quietly. "I suppose I just want you to remember."
"Why?" He asked her. Mina shrugged a little. She looked at him.
"I don't know." She said sincerely, shaking her head a little with a small, saddened laugh. "I really don't know. I just feel like you should recall this so you…so you acted as if we knew each other. It's silly…"
"No. It's not." He said, trying to keep her talking. "It's not silly at all."
"It is silly." She replied.
"It's not." He told her.
There was silence. They hadn't noticed how close they had moved to each other, her face just inches from his. The light streamed across her cheeks, her breath moving slowly on his neck and under his chin, causing his hair to ripple slightly.
The small window behind them burst open with a gust of wind and a million voices filled the room. The rain struck the gas lamp full force, knocking it to the ground and causing a fire to spread in a complete circle on the floor. Mina rushed to it, extinguishing the flames with her skirt. She pressed it over the fire quickly, assisted by Gabriel when he could make it over with a pile of canvas he had discovered next to the chest. Once the fire was out he could focus on the voices that had filled the room, searching for something.
Mina's eyes twitched. She ran for the chest in hopes to grab a pistol but the lid slammed down, nearly taking off her fingers if Gabriel had not pulled her back at the last minute. Small whizzes of colour danced about the room and tiny voices were spinning around, speaking so quickly they could not understand. Unfortunately with the open window more continued to flood inside. Mina reached for the chest again and felt a sharp pain as something dug its teeth into her flesh.
There was a small shriek. In an explosion of dust the invisible creature died. Mina ripped back her hand as the cut healed in moments.
"Come on." He said, pushing her towards the stairs. The trap door leading down to the rest of the house slammed shut and more laughing could be heard. Gabriel kicked the area clean and bent down this time, opening the door so quickly the creatures did not have time to bite him. They did trail after Mina and him down the stairs, occasionally sinking their sharp teeth in his flesh, straight through his shirt and pants. Mina was thankfully free of their fangs, but she was at the mercy of their claws to her hair. They still could not be seen, but she cried out at the feeling of several of them yanking at her scalp. She batted her hands around before being pulled down to the main level by Gabriel, where Carl was busy dealing with his own faerie problem.
He found the time to toss Gabriel his gun before more of his items were snatched from him and held over his head. He jumped for them in the living room, reaching up to the floating stakes and bullets he carried with him. Gabriel began firing at the objects in the air, unable to see them, but he could hear them whenever they giggled or shrieked.
Books were tossed off the shelves and the glass tubes and vials were shattered by the giggling faeries. Mina grabbed Gabriel's pistol from under his pillow, cocking it quickly and aiming at one of Morgan's servants.
"Not that one!" He shouted, but it was too late. Mina had already fired, causing a glass bullet to fly from the chamber. It impaled two faeries on its way to the wall, but caused a giant circle of flame to erupt on the wall.
"I told you not to fire that one!" He shouted.
"I didn't have much of a choice!" She shouted back at him. Carl stopped leaping for his things and grabbed a box from his sleeve.
"Here!" He shouted, tossing them to Mina. She caught them before the faeries did and dumped the exploding bullets from the gun before filling it with the bullets Carl had given her. "Shoot them at the wall!"
She did as she was instructed. Large flashes of blue were seen around the room as frost spread from their points of impact in her wall, stopping the fire. Gabriel heard the voices grow more urgent and he turned, the sword that Carl had brought for him drawn from the sheath and the faeries giggled, laughing about their mistress being pleased with them.
Mina fired the bullets at them, catching two in orbs of solid ice. They tumbled to the ground, the glass shattering. A single faerie was broken into a million tiny pieces when it struck the ground, the tiny blue limbs still twitching as it slid around the room. The other remained in tact, the piece of ice around his head breaking and cracking so it could begin to escape. The third could not lift the sword by itself. It found it even harder to hold onto when Gabriel grabbed it from its clutches and ripped it from its hands.
The voices shrieked and were called back. The front door burst wide open and the millions of servants were called home to their mistress's call. The lightning cracked and snapped through the sky, startling the three as the room became as light as day. It disappeared along with the slamming of the door, along with the voices.
The last of Carl's belongings dropped to the ground around him. He scurried to pick them up but it was impossible to find them in the mess that surrounded them. Papers and books were scattered everywhere. Broken glass shards were found all around the tables and strange chemicals festered in her carpet and gave an extremely odd odor. Mina sighed deeply at the state of her home. Gabriel held tightly to the sword, eyeing it carefully before looking around the room. Carl put his hands on his hips.
"Good God, I hate faeries." He said.
"I can see why." Gabriel said, looking at the state of the room.
Mina looked down at the floor, finding half the orb of ice moving slowly out into her hallway and to the door. She followed it, bending down and picked it up before turning it over.
It was a small winged creature with a blue body and face. It had large eyes and sharpened teeth and claws that lashed out angrily at her. Its ears were like fans, open to even the smallest of sounds. She jerked back when she saw it growl at her, biting at her and shouting with a long line of obscenities that she did end up taking offense to.
"Let me go you…"
He didn't even finish his sentence before Mina flicked him with a sharpened fingernail. He growled again and grabbed his face, screaming out so loudly that she had to drop him to the floor and grab her ears. He tried crawling away again, only to find that Gabriel snatched him up next by the arm and held him in the air with the large barrel of a gun pointed at him.
"Oh! Think you're so strong because you have a gun? That must make you in charge."
Gabriel cocked the gun. The faerie shut up rather quickly.
"Are you going to tell me why you and you're friends decided to attack here or do I have to force it out of you?" The faerie laughed in its shrill voice.
"Like I'm going to tell you." It said, its voice dripping with sarcasm. "Besides if you kill me you're out of luck."
"Fine." Gabriel said. "I won't kill you. But I'm sure both Miss. Harker and Carl have devices and reasons to make you start speaking." A mischievous gleam was in his eye, one which made the faerie stare up into the three faces of his captors.
The faerie let out another scream as it was dropped back under the water. Carl had come up with the contraption rather quickly, with a small amount of help from Mina. The faerie's ankles were tied with a heavy piece of iron and his arms were held by Carl on a piece of string. Every time he refused to answer a question he was dunked back under the water.
Carl's knowledge of faerie's exceeded what he had told Gabriel at the Vatican. He determined that this faerie was a wind spirit, seeing as how it traveled with the currents of wind. His invisibility was not self induced, but actually controlled by Morgan who most likely controlled him while he was invisible. Now that she had the rest of her servants back she probably assumed this one dead rather than being tortured in Mina Harker's kitchen in a water bath.
He was pulled from the water again, still shrieking loudly. Mina had her ears covered now every time it surfaced from the noise it made with her heightened sense of hearing. She winced painfully at it. He saw how much it pained her and continued.
"This isn't getting anywhere." Carl said, and without warning, dropped the faerie back under the water.
The faerie sunk to the bottom of the tank, and Carl showed no indication that he was ever going to let it back up again. He walked away from it to both Mina and Gabriel. She was still gripping her ears, trying to regain some of her hearing, while Gabriel was staring at the faerie as it struggled to break free.
"Just keep an eye on it for a moment." Gabriel said, watching the faerie in the bottom of the jar. It choked on the water, unable to breath from the air loss. He was struggling for the surface, his blue wings pounding viciously against the water. Carl's brow furrowed angrily at it, already angry that he had to be in the same room with such a thing. Gabriel still watched it but did nothing more.
Eventually the faerie started struggling so violently the large glass container was pushed on the surface of the table slowly inching towards the edge. That was when Van Helsing marched over and in one swift movement snatched the faerie out of the water and held it open to the air for a moment. His feet were still under the surface. He was not screaming anymore, his lung filled with water as his body convulsing and coughed it all out.
"ALRIGHT!" He said loudly between coughs. "YOU WIN! I'll talk…"
"Why did Morgan send you here?" Gabriel asked him.
"Morgan?" The faerie asked, confused. "Who's Morgan?"
Gabriel dropped him back into the water. The faerie was screaming silently under water, his breath so strong the whole surface of the water was bubbling till it was white. Gabriel finally pulled it up again and the faerie let out a loud cough for a second.
"OKAY! Morgan. I know Morgan. She sent us here because...." The faerie didn't finish the statement. He pulled himself up to Gabriel's hand and bit it hard.
Gabriel didn't hesitate this time. He dropped his hand back in the bowl. Water flowed over the edges of the container while blood flowed freely inside, drifting out from the cut that the faerie was still latched onto. After a moment it let go, dropping back off Gabriel to the bottom of the bowl. The monster hunter, now very aggravated with their prisoner grabbed the creature around the waist and pulled him back up to the surface, crushing down on the small and no doubt fragile bones of the faerie.
"You have one last chance to tell me before I crush you."
"You're going to kill me anyways!" The faerie snapped back as it struggled to breathe.
"No." Gabriel said sternly, his voice growing louder. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I won't kill you if you tell me why she sent you here."
"Oh like I know."
"Fine." Gabriel said, tightening his grip. The faerie's eyes widened as he realized that Van Helsing would actually kill him.
"The sword…" He managed. Gabriel released him. Mina and Carl moved in and watched him.
"What about the sword?" Gabriel asked him calmly. The faerie groaned and coughed.
"She wants the sword." He said. "The one with the piece of Excalibur in it is the one she wants."
Gabriel looked up at Carl and then at Mina. Carl's mouth opened in shock before he looked at the dagger and came to a startling realization. The faerie was dropped back into the water while Carl grabbed the smaller blade from Gabriel's side and lifted it up to the light, pulling it from the sheath.
"Of course!" Carl said. "It's an unbreakable alloy! It makes perfect sense!"
"Mind filling us in on what makes sense?" Gabriel asked him, looking at the faerie at the bottom of the water jar. He was still struggling with his bonds. Carl ran his fingers along the ridge down the middle of the blade where the two metals met. He smiled to himself.
"It appears as if there's something extra grafted into this blade Van Helsing." He said.
Author's Notes: This weekend I might not have a lot of time to write. Silly Psychology and American History classes. I have a few year end projects due so it's going to be a fun ride. Thank you to all the reviewers! These are some of the most reviews I have ever received on a single story and I'm so happy!
Reviews:
Verona Dracula: I totally agree. I like this Van Helsing because I'm a 'new age' violence girl. I need the gorgeous muscular guys running around with a wide assortment of weapons every now and then.
Ouch! Mina gets bitten three times by Dracula! That's got to be a pain in the neck. Alright, that was a really bad pun. Sorry about that I couldn't resist.
Thanks for the comment about the plot! It's actually inspired by some original fiction I'm working on, but I found that the story worked much better for this. There's some more Mina/Gabriel at the beginning of this chapter, but I'm not going to have them do anything just yet. I think it's cute to wait it out.
Mandolin: Thank you for your support! I don't really want to write exams and I just want this year to be over. Courses are killing me and summer is coming! And then I remember that I'm getting a job. L. Anyways, the support is great and I'm happy that you're enjoying the story.
In a response to your second review: I wonder just what Carl could cart around in his robes. I mean, they looked a little too big for him in the movie. Perhaps there is something that he is not telling us? Also, I will have to add in the idea about Jinette finding out about the bar maid. I've already worked in a semi-plausible situation in which it could happen (but not until the end!)
Saerry Snape: I hate to disappoint you but in the first volume of the League there is no Dorian Gray. I was shocked because I saw the movie before I read the story and found no Tom either (I love Shane West!)! It is a very worthwhile book just the same. Although I loved Mina, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde was my favourite character. I have a copy of Dracula now so I hope to get reading it! Just as soon as I finish Battle Royale…Oh, so many books, so little time.
EvilspoofauthorSven: Out of town? Lucky you. I'm still stuck in my town. Thank you for the information about Gabriel being Abraham's brother! That answers a lot of questions. For the record though, I'll still work this story under the assumption that Gabriel is Abraham.
Summer Knight: The Many Faces of Van Helsing? I must go to Chapters and find it. I'm a book junkie. I will find it if I have to go to the ends of the Earth. Well, maybe not that far. I heard that too, that Gabriel was Abraham's brother. That's actually an interesting take on the story, but I'm still connecting him to Abraham.
Scholar: Silly Morgan. This chapter answers the question everyone was probably losing sleep over. David Wenham was fabulous in Lord of the Rings as Faramir! Do you want to know something scary? Watch Moulin Rouge and look for the character Audrey. That's David Wenham, and you will not recognize him! I swear!
Grissom: That's the scene I gathered the most inspiration from because I couldn't see him simply smiling and saying, "You're hot. Let's go make out." You're right, his heart does lie with his duty. He is very dedicated and that's another idea that made the movie refreshing was that he was not constantly looking at Kate Beckinsale and thinking about the above statement.
I agree with you completely about slash! It's not me being against homosexuals. I just can't imagine Male Pregnancy and Gabriel actually condoning to any act where he and Dracula are naked together (shudder). No offence to anyone who chooses to write that way, since it is your choice entirely.
The final part of your review reminded me that I have to get my hands on the novelization of Van Helsing. The only problem: I have to order it into our bookstore (eye twitch).
HyperCaz: Don't feel bad about your French. I stopped taking it after Grade 9, but all you really need to know is: Parlez-vous Anglais? And Je ne comprende pas. Je ne parle pas Francais (I apologize to anyone who can speak and write in French for my terrible grammar in the language. I commend any and all who have mastered it). I've seen two Dracula movies. The first was Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving it (which I loved) and the second was the Francis Ford Coppola one which I was extremely disturbed by.
J: I wanted to make her sired by Dracula. Originally the story was supposed to be that Morgan had trapped a part of Dracula inside her and she was going to kill Morgan to break the spell, but I figured that was very much like the whole "Anna comes back from the dead" story and I avoided it. Otherwise I would have wanted to stay true to the story because I was pretty sure that Mina was bitten by Dracula beforehand. I'm glad you aren't angry or upset about the change in events!
Fanfiction Fanatic: Exams suck. I have four of them this semester and the only two that are looking okay are Psychology and American History. Calculus is going to kill me and I mean that quite literally, and I'm already slipping in Biology so that one will be jolly good. I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Doodily Doo: I love your name! It's fun to type out. Anyways…I hope this chapter was just as good. The faerie wasn't too far fetched was it?
Shadowsage: Thank you for not revealing what secrets of the story! Infernally interesting huh? Thank you! I try! (Takes a bow)
Vampire Princess, Morwinda: Morgan is a very fickle character. My own interpretation is that she brought Camelot down by sleeping with Arthur. Imagine. You bear a child who is the illegitimate son of the King. It would put Morgan in a position of power if she was bearing the King's son rather than Guinevere (who Morgan disliked). If you read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morgan is described as wanting to make a fool out of her brother's court (She succeeds by the way). Some people even disagree with the idea of Morgan bearing Mordrid, and say it was a mistake made with another character. Either way, it was a power play for Morgan to have the child of the King. That's my interpretation from everything I've read and there are many different versions of Morgan le Fay.
Exams do suck! They take away from my writing time!
Naitriab: I would hope everyone loves Carl. He was needed in the story just for that little bit of extra laughter. He was awesome.
THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH! I hope this chapter was worth the wait (for those who are returning). And for those who have just started, I hope you are enjoying it. Thank you!
