Disclaimer: (sighs and grits teeth) I don't own Van Helsing or anything associated with it, it is purely the property of Universal pictures and Steven Summers.
Note: Ok I forgot to mention that this story is based on the Van Helsing movie but almost like it actually happened somewhere and Steven Summers just added bits and cut bits out to make it more Hollywood hopefully the next few chapters will help explain it…or make you head really really hurt lol Thanx Christine Marquez for asking about it and yeh gonna try and build up a Van/Anna thing.
Chapter 6
Anna led the way through the streets until the houses thinned and a cobbled road could be made out in the moonlight leading up towards a gothic mansion set against a mountainside. "Holy crap she lives here?" Marston whispered to Sarah who was beside him.
"Of course she does, she's a gypsy princess."
Jory giggled "Gypsy? So what, no caravan?" Sarah rolled her eyes. Chris and Tony were ahead of them just behind the Princess. "You do realise that's Kate Beckinsale!" Chris whispered to them. Sarah shook her head
"Nope that's Anna Valerius. Kate Beckinsale doesn't exist here, just like the guy behind us never played Wolverine."
Bob looked at her "God I'm confused."
Tony looked at Sarah carefully "So looking at this scientifically. Your what going down the Quantum Theory road?" he asked.
She nodded "That's what I'm thinking."
"But it's just a theory."
"Not anymore."
He frowned considering this "Ok the "multiverse" theories never said anything about movie universes."
Amie clasped Bob's hand "I think their both crazy" she whispered. Bob looked at her amused "Took you this long to figure that out?"
Sarah considered her answer for a moment. "Right what if movies, even the most unbelievable story lines, were based on real events happening in another universe parallel to our own?" she asked "wouldn't it be fair to say that maybe writers pick up on that and take them as original ideas to be put on film?"
Tony frowned "well how do you explain the fact that these people look exactly like the actors playing them?"
"Maybe the actors are drawn into the roles of their parallels in the other universe because it feels familiar to them?" she suggested.
"Now you're just speculating." He replied.
She looked at him steadily "It makes sense."
"Not to me it doesn't" muttered Jory.
Some time later they arrived at the main doors of the manor Anna watched with some small amount of pride as they stared up at her family home in awe. She glanced over them to where Van Helsing was walking covering their rear, he signalled that it was safe and without hesitating the Princess unlocked the huge oak doors and pushed them open revealing the candle lit interior of the main foyer.
Sarah felt suddenly small as she looked up towards the distant ceiling. The walls were lit by candles places around them and here and there long medieval tapestries decorated them. One Tapestry caught her eye, it dominated the entire left wall reaching to just a meter below the ceiling. It was the Valerius family tree stretching down through the ages. Behind the writing a silver Dragon twisted its way along its length, it was a beautiful piece bordered with spectacular Celtic knots.
Reluctantly she pulled herself away and followed the group who were heading towards a large fireplace at the back of the room. Several passages and corridors broke off the Foyer leading to other parts of the manor and a huge ornate staircase with a deep oak banister lead to the next floor.
The group settled themselves on the two couches that sat in front of the fireplace. Anna and Van Helsing remained standing. Before anyone could break the awkward silence, footsteps were heard approaching fast from one of the passages.
"Van Helsing? Anna? Is that you?" a voice called.
"In here Carl" Anna called.
The footsteps got louder as Carl approached and then the distinct squeal of a shoe slipping on tiles sounded followed by a loud crash. "Sorry! Sorry!" came the high-pitched yell from the passageway Jory laughed the rest of the group struggled not to do the same.
Van Helsing rolled his eyes and sighed as the Friar entered the room straightening his robes. "That floors dangerous and who puts a suit of armour there?" he was muttering as he looked up to find everyone staring at him.
"Holy crap its Faramir!" exclaimed Jory. Anna, Van Helsing and Carl looked at him in confusion, Sarah laughed, "That's Carl," she said.
Jory looked at her "I didn't know David Wenham was in this movie."
Carl kept a wary eye on the group and sidled up to Van Helsing "Er…Van Helsing why is there a large group of teenagers in strange clothes in here?"
"We found them in the woods."
"So now your bringing home strays?" asked the friar rising and eyebrow.
"It looked as if the Wolfman had been hunting them, we think Dracula has some interest with them and I want to know why."
Tony turned to stare at Van Helsing while Sarah patiently tried to explain Carl to Jory. "Wait did you just say we were being hunted?" he asked raising his voice shrilly. The group went silent and stared at the three adults.
"We were hunting the Werewolf and his trial followed yours." Anna said simply. Sarah suddenly felt nauseous remembering the howling they had heard in the trees. "Velkan" she whispered.
Anna and Van Helsing stared at her "What?" The princess asked stepping forward.
"It was him wasn't it, Velkan your brother." Sarah said quietly.
Amie and Bob exchanged a glance "So while we were in the woods, that werewolf guy was after us?" Bob asked worriedly.
Van Helsing ignored him watching the girl carefully "How do you know of Velkan?" he asked, "No one beyond Anna, Carl and myself know the truth of his disappearance!"
"We know," piped up Amie. "What was it werewolf trap or something and he got bitten to save his sister, didn't really pay much attention to the rest." She said casually.
Anna looked spooked and her hand went nervously to the hilt of her sword, Sarah saw this and immediately decided a change of subject was in order; jumping to her feet she addressed Van Helsing directly. "If the werewolf was hunting us, why didn't it attack?" she asked, "We were defenceless and we were separated for who knows how long, easy prey."
Van Helsing nodded "You seem to know who we are and everything about us, why do you think he didn't attack?" Sarah realized he was testing her trying to gauge how much she knew. Everyone watched her expectantly as she quickly considered every possibility. "Well there's no real reason…unless." She looked up eyes wide with fear as a possibility occurred to her. "Unless he was under orders not to harm us." She finished.
Around her, her friends shifted uncomfortably. "That's a good thing right?" asked Chris watching Sarah's expression worriedly. The girl looked at him "It's sort of the good news bad news kinda thing." She said. Van Helsing and Anna were listening to her closely amazed that she had reached the same conclusion they had.
"So what's the good news?" asked Jory quickly.
"We didn't get mauled by the werewolf." Said Tony Sarah nodded her accent.
"And the bad news" asked Chris quietly.
Sarah looked at the trio in front of her. Carl was watching her fascinated, Anna still held her sword ready and finally Van Helsing just waited patiently for her to confirm his theory.
She took a breath "Around here one person is master of the werewolf, it's his servant, his spy if the werewolf didn't kill us it means we've attracted its master's attention."
Bob and Amie looked at her in fear both realizing whom she was talking about. "Oh shit" muttered Bob.
"So who controls a werewolf?" asked Marston slowly not sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"Count Dracula." Sarah said ominously.
"Perfect" muttered Chris sarcastically.
Van Helsing stepped forward to stand in front of the young girl who looked at him apprehensively. "How do you know so much? Who are you?" he asked.
Sarah met his gaze "Ok first off you can sense evil right?" he looked surprised but nodded. "Good so you must know that none of us is evil."
"Except maybe you" Said Tony grinning. Sarah glared at him. Amie lent over and patted his arm "Not a good time Tony." She said sweetly.
Anna stepped up to stand beside the hunter "Well?" she asked him. He seemed to be considering this and his searching gaze travelled from one face to the other finally returning to the girl in front of him. "I don't sense any evil or threat," he said finally.
Sarah released the breath she had been holding, as he had been searching them with his gaze she'd had a horrible thought, that he might sense something in her because of her Wicca and assume she was evil. Relieved that her fears had not been confirmed she grinned.
"Now answer my question. Who are you?" Van Helsing repeated.
Sarah smiled "Ok I can do introductions." She began pointing to her friends one by one "Ok the guy with the long hair that's Marston" Marston raised his hand in confirmation "Next to him is Jory, he's fairly random." Jory grinned and nodded "Then there's Chris who's just laconic." Chris frowned trying to figure out what laconic meant. "Next to him is Tony, don't really think there's any explanation for him." She said grinning.
"And the couple holding hands, are Amie and Bob they're joined at the lips." Tony spoke up.
"The crazy girl talking to you is Sarah and she's a witch!" he said grinning.
"Tony!" Amie yelled at him "you just told the guy who's famous for killing things he thinks are evil that Sarah is a witch!" Tony suddenly looked very guilty.
Sarah had frozen and was slowly backing away from the monster hunter who was looking at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement. Anna had drawn her sword and Carl was regarding her with open horror.
Van Helsing reached up a hand and Sarah froze flinching as he reached out. Behind her, her friends had all gotten to their feet and it registered that Tony had been the first to bolt to her side to protect her. It was not needed however as Van Helsing just lifted the end of her necklace up to his eye level tracing the green disk's pentagram with his fingers. "I did wonder why you were wearing this," he said calmly letting it drop to rest against her throat again.
Anna watched Van Helsing sceptically as he turned to her "She's not evil Anna" he said reassuringly Sarah nodded behind him. Slowly Anna replaced her sword in its sheath but still regarded Sarah with suspicion. Carl stepped forward "Recite the lord's prayer" he demanded brandishing his cross at her like a dagger. She grinned and did so perfectly, Carl grinned "Fascinating!"
"So you're not going to burn her at the stake then?" asked Jory bluntly.
Anna grinned "Not yet."
Sarah was still trying to figure out if she was kidding when Van Helsing spoke up.
"You still haven't explained how you know almost everything about us." He prompted.
Tony lent back and smiled at them "This should be good." He said grinning. Sarah looked at him "So I take it your not going to help me on this?" she asked Tony shook his head
"It'll be more entertaining to watch you try to explain it." He smirked while she rolled her eyes.
"Ok er …anyone want to help me here?" she asked looking pleadingly at the group. Chris smiled "Look at it this way Sarah you are the only one who seems to have the slightest idea where we are and how we got here and honestly I think the rest of us need an explanation too." The group nodded and Sarah suddenly felt nine sets of eyes watching her.
"Right…well…ok basically there's a scientific theory that multiple parallel universes exist, like here you have your universe with vampires and other stuff.
Basically other universes exist almost identical to this one but with some differences, like vampires may not exist in one, and people might not exist in another, or something smaller like in one world the only difference could be there would be no shrimp."
"Not shrimp!" exclaimed Marston in mock horror.
Sarah grinned at him and continued. "Sometimes these universes can overlap and interact, for example people could glimpse a figure out of the corner of their eye and that figure would be gone when they turned around. What they saw was another person in another universe which briefly interacted with their own." Sarah paused and looked around. Everyone was watching her with somewhat blank expressions. "With me so far?" she asked. Surprisingly they all nodded, Sarah grinned and continued.
"Ok so you get that concept? Multiple universes exist parallel to each other. Now another thing is that time technically doesn't exist." She said, "Time is a human concept made by humans and because of this some of these universes may not be in the same time period as each other. Like where we come from the year is 2004." Carl's eyes widened and Van Helsing and Anna shared a glance. "It's 1887" said Carl quickly his voice high and excited.
"Great" muttered Jory "no phone, no cars, no Tv!" Tony nudged him sharply to shut him up as Carl's attention had turned to him his eyes lit up with curiosity. "What were those things he was saying?" asked to Friar.
"Nothing." Said Marston quickly.
Anna spoke up "None of this explains how you got here or how you know us." She pointed out. Sarah nodded and turned to Amie and Bob "Your turn I'm done." She said sitting down on the arm of the settee.
"Well?" asked Van Helsing after a few minutes.
"Well…you see….er … you don't exist your just characters in a movie." Bob said hesitantly. Friar, Hunter and Princess all looked at him blankly. "Tell them honey." Bob said nudging Amie who rolled her eyes "Ok where we come from stories are told through moving pictures projected with sound on to screens." She paused and the trio nodded in comprehension. "These are called movies and your story was one of these movies, we thought it was all made up…but…yeah I don't get how you're here." She finished lamely.
Tony sat forward eagerly "Right Sarah said the universes interact sometimes right?" Van Helsing nodded in confirmation. "Right so the theory we came up with is that your universe interacted with ours in a way that made the guy who wrote the movie, think he had just come up with it like maybe he dreamt about it or something and wrote it down, changing some parts in it but essentially keeping the story, the characters and the dialogue the same. He then made it into a movie."
"Which me Amie and Bob went to go and see, I kinda went more than once because I liked it." Sarah said sheepishly.
"And then some" laughed Chris "You went three times, bought the poster, the book and spent all your free time reading fan fiction based on it!"
Sarah grinned "Yeah but that's how I know so much."
Bob suddenly thought of something "Wait how come you know all this "multiple universes" stuff anyway?"
Sarah shrugged "Stargate is a very educational programme" she said seriously. Amie laughed "The swimming pool show?
"It's not a swimming pool it's a wormhole!"
Bob and Amie grinned at each other "Swimming pool." They said knowingly. Sarah rolled her eyes "Ok I also read it in a Michael Crichton book the other day. It is a scientific theory, and Tony agrees with me." The group's attention shifted to the dark haired boy who nodded in confirmation. "Seems to fit, and it would how we got here and how here exists." Sarah smiled at him gratefully.
"We basically were out camping in the woods and found a sort of …tear in reality." He said.
"And Jory just had to touch it" Put in Chris glaring at Jory who tried to make himself as small as possible. "It sort of pulled us all in."
Carl looked almost giddy with happiness of this new scientific discovery, while Anna and Van Helsing exchanged confused looks. "So in your universe we don't exist?" Anna asked carefully.
"Nope." Marston answered too cheerfully.
"But we do know about you through the movie." Sarah added. Van Helsing looked sceptical "You claim all this but I have yet to see any proof."
The group exchanged glances and then they all turned to Sarah again.
"What? I'm not the only one who saw it!"
"No but we weren't really paying attention and you are pretty much obsessed." Said Bob, Amie nodded.
"Not obsessed." Sarah said defensively. Amie raised an amused eyebrow and gestured towards Sarah's denim hip bag, which she had been wearing when they were pulled through and was still draped over her shoulder. "I know for a fact that you've got the "Van Helsing" book in that bag."
Jory, Marston and Tony laughed and Chris grinned "Oh Sarah that is incredibly sad." He muttered. Sarah looked mildly embarrassed as she pulled the novel from her bag; she flicked through the pages and began to read out loud:
"You! Let me see your faces!" It was a command not a request.
Van Helsing was not very good at taking orders. He raised his head slightly and looked up at her from under the wide brim of his hat. "Why?" he asked.
"Because we don't trust strangers."
Sarah closed the book neatly and handed it to Van Helsing who was shocked to see his picture on the front, a demonic vampire swooping in behind him. "Proof enough for you?" she asked.
Mutely the Hunter passed the book to a pale Anna who opened it and found an accurate account of her brother's battle against the werewolf. She swayed slightly and sat down heavily on the arm of the settee passing the book to Carl.
"This is incredible!" he exclaimed and to Sarah's horror opened the book at the last page. "No!" She cried Amie and Bob echoing her from the other settee. Quickly she lent forward and snatched the book away from the astonished Friar.
"I just wanted to see how it ends." He said apologetically. Sarah nervously returned the book to her bag.
An awkward silence descended on the group, Anna and Van Helsing stared at the Friar and understanding dawned. That book contained their futures, whether they would live or die, succeed or fail it was all there.
Anna stood shakily, "you know everything that's going to happen?" she asked.
"Oh crap," muttered Sarah images of Anna's dead body entering her mind Van Helsing sobbing pitifully over it.
"Like we said the film was only based on your story so...we don't know what is fact and what was just added by the writers." She backed away slightly.
Tony looked concerned "Is the ending that bad?" he mouthed to Amie and Bob who nodded.
Amie stood up quickly stepping between her friend and the princess. "I think showing them the book was a bad idea" she said.
"You think?" said Bob sarcastically.
Van Helsing stepped up placing a gently restraining hand on Anna's arm "I don't think we should know Anna." He said sincerely.
"But Van Helsing!" she exclaimed. He shook his head.
"If you read that book and it tells you the worst, what would you do? What could you do but think of that as fate? You might give up hope and throw away any opportunity to succeed." He explained patiently. Anna's eyes flashed with anger.
"I would never give up, I can't fail." She said sharply.
"That's why we shouldn't know." He said. Finally the Princess nodded.
Van Helsing turned back to look at Sarah amusement in his eyes "Just do me a favour, warn me before we get attacked." Sarah smiled "will do." She said.
Sometime later Anna led them all into a richly decorated dining room and a large oak table had been set with ten places, plates piled high with meat and vegetables on front of each chair.
"The servants tend to come and go." Anna explained, "They believe my family to be cursed and so avoid everyone they can in here, I doubt you'll ever see them." She took her seat at the edge of the table and everyone began to eat.
The meal passed pleasantly as the group and their unlikely hosts conversed. Anna had found herself the centre of attention as she recounted the various battles she had fought in since she was twelve. Jory and Marston listened in awe as she described the siege of castle Frankenstein the year before her father had disappeared.
"The doctor and the monster fled to the windmill, but we surrounded it and burnt it to the ground…" she was saying, the boys hanging on her every word.
Sarah and Tony were more eager to argue over the place of women in history. "Boudicca was the greatest warrior queen in history! She held the Romans off for years!!" Sarah was saying an amused grin on her face. Tony smirked back "She still lost didn't she? Now Alexander the great he conquered most of the world!"
"Oh yeah he was great he died of a cold!"
Amie and Bob were talking with Carl. "So you're a monk?" Asked Bob.
"No I'm a Friar."
Amie frowned "What's the difference?"
"Friars can curse, damnit!" Carl answered energetically. Amie and Bob looked at each other. "Er Good for you."
Van Helsing laughed at the Friar "He's a little eccentric." He pointed out helpfully to the grinning couple.
Only Chris remained distant picking slowly at his food, Amie looked at him concerned. "What's up?" she asked.
Chris shrugged and remained silent for a minute before looking up "I was just thinking we don't really know how we got here…doesn't that worry anyone?"
Bob frowned "How do you mean?"
"If we don't know how we got here in the first place then how are we going to get back? What if we can't?"
An uncomfortable silence descended on the table, Anna and Van Helsing regarded the group with sympathy. They both knew what it felt like to be separated from family and friends.
"We could be stuck here?" asked Marston his voice catching slightly. Sarah and Tony exchanged alarmed glances. How could that not have occurred to them?
Bob spoke up "Let me just get the whole picture…we are stuck possibly forever in the 1800s with no modern technology what so ever, the king of all vampires is after us for some reason and we are with his worst enemies which makes us targets anyway, Monsters really do exist here and we have no way to get home."
He looked across the table at Sarah who nodded silently. Carl spoke up. "I don't understand can't you just do a spell and send everyone home?" he asked Sarah.
The girl shook her head "It doesn't work like that…"
Tony cut in "That's because none of it's real!" he said scathingly.
Sarah turned on him "Don't go there Tony! You have your beliefs I have mine! A group might be able to get enough energy together but I couldn't do it on my own, and I wouldn't know where to start." She said keeping her voice neutral.
Marston looked at her bitterly "So we are stuck here."
"Everything happens for a reason." She answered simply.
"Notice how you only ever say that about the bad stuff." Amie pointed out with a small smile.
"I'm sure we can work something out." Said Carl "Anna has numerous books on unexplained phenomena, together I'm certain we can get you home…and if not…" he trailed off.
Anna stood "If not you are more than welcome to stay here." She announced.
"Thank you" the group said sincerely. Van Helsing smiled at her warmly admiring her generosity. She shrugged "This is a big house it'll be nice to have someone around to fill it." She said simply. The far away look in her eyes reflected a deep loneliness that saddened the Hunter, not for the first time he wished he could make her happy.
Note: Wow didn't realize how long this one was!! Hope I didn't bore you too much with my sci-fi babble. As always reviews and flames welcome!