And my take on why the novel turned out differently than Van Helsing (the movie)...

Ten years later

"Van Helsing! Van Helsing!"

The monster hunter looked up as a slightly pudgy monk came flying toward him, waving something frantically in his hand.

"What is it, Carl?" Van Helsing laughed at the look on the friar-turned-monk-at-last's face. Carl had remained short, but over ten years he had grown rounder. Van Helsing looked the same as he always had; it was one of the facts of his existence that, as an immortal, he would never age. And one day, he would have to leave his best friend behind. He shook the thought away. Better to live in the moment. For him, it was essential.

Carl stopped where Van Helsing sat polishing his weapons, panting. "I ran all the way from the lab," he explained between breaths. "Look at this!" He thrust something into Van Helsing's hands.

Van Helsing looked down and gave a startled jerk as he found himself holding a book, entitled: Dracula, or A Tale of the Night by Bram Stoker.

He opened it and began reading. After the first few chapters, during which Carl hovered over his shoulder, drinking in every word, Van Helsing began to flip through the pages. "He has certainly portrayed Dracula differently than he was," he remarked, almost smiling. The papers the pair had given Stoker had, after all, not contained any physical/personality descriptions of the dark, handsome, seductive—and fearless—Son of the Devil.

He stopped flipping through the pages and grinned. "Look, Carl." Carl squinted at the page and burst out laughing. "He just had to include you, didn't he?" Carl said jestingly. Written on the page was a description of one of the main characters ("…he had an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command and toleration."), who was named Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

"A little hero-worship?" Carl added, grinning at his friend. Van Helsing raised an eyebrow, and the two started laughing, then quickly sobered as they realized the importance of this novel.

"Odd that Stoker did not tell the story as it truly was," remarked Carl.

"Perhaps he knew that society would not accept such a fantastical story," Van Helsing replied. "Or…perhaps he did not understand it. I have, evidently, been a hunter of evil since the dawn of man, and I did not, not completely anyway."

"Perhaps it is better that society never know of the true Dracula," the monk said.

Van Helsing nodded slowly as the other reached out and closed the book.


That's it! Please review! I really appreciate all your comments. :D