Disclaimer- I own nothing!!! Just the plot and my OC's (which I'm going to try not to kill this time.) I also own Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog, but that's kinda questionable too cuz he's my muse and I think he might actually own me.... EEP!

A/N-- Yayness! New chappie!!!! I just saw the Notebook so now I'm all hyper off of starbursts.... M&M's to all my reviewers:

Irish Anor-
Verona: Hehehe, like I said I love to mess with my reviewers minds....
Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog: You only like that so much cuz you don't have a mind of your own.
Verona: SHUT UP!!! THEY DON'T KNOW THAT!!!!!
CSPD:.......
Verona: Know this.... you are not alone.... LOL. Funny review, you crack me up!! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
KillerKitty16- here's the update! I hope it continues to get better and better!
marrokinhas- LOL, Carl was a bit of a twist, wasn't it? Ahh, I love messing with all your minds....
The dream and the beginning were about all that came out right!!! I'm glad you liked them... the dream will be important later!
Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog is doing pretty good. he's sitting next to my computer, eyeing me... demanding that I type...... and telling me what to type..... it's actually kinda unnerving....
1 o'clock in the morning?! Dude, you really need to go to sleep!! (it's 5:30 pm here in California as I type this)
Hollysgirl- Okay!! --trades M&M's-- I do so love M&M's...
Like I said, I love messing with my reviewers minds... everyone completely freaked out over the ending of that last chapter. It was too much fun! Thankee for your review!
Anthem82- Mayyybbee they'll get married and maayybbeee not... we shall see, my precious..... hehehe.... yea, the dream was fun to write!
HyperCaz- Yes, Carl as a ghost is very amusing to write!I'm glad to have changed your perspective on character death... LOL.

Enjoy it if you can! The title is a nod to Phantom of the Opera, the most amazing musical I've ever seen!
Chapter 4:
Stranger Than You Dreamt It

They rode long and hard, fervently thankful for their Transylvanian horses. The boy's horse wasn't meant for such speed, but he forced it to go beyond its limits. Even at the breakneck pace they flew by at, they did not reach the village until nightfall.

Ribbons of gold tangled themselves in the satiny red of sunset. They uncoiled themselves from the sky when they saw the travelers riding in, prodding jealously at their already jaded eyes, determined to make seeing hard. Van Helsing swore and tipped his hat lower so that he could at least see the ground when they slowed to a canter and then to a trot. The village was just as the young man had said; desolate, still smoldering. The wails of the mourning rose up to meet the dying sky, marring its beauty with their lackadays. Anna felt their pain all too well. She knew how tightly knit these tiny communities were. Everyone had lost at least one or two friends, lovers or family members.

When they dismounted by the well at the center of the wrecked place, villagers sprinted over to them, begging and shouting and sobbing all around them. 'Have you seen my husband?' 'My daughter, my daughter have you seen her?' 'Will they return to take the rest of us?' 'I hope to God they do! I have nothing left!'

"Don't say those things!" Anna shouted. Everyone grew silent and turned to face her. She stood on top of the well, hands on her hips. "You still have hope, don't you? You still have your lives!"

"What's left of them." Muttered one sullenly.

"You have no right to say that! Whatever little you have left it is certainly more than those that died have. Life is too short... live for them, though they cannot. Live for the mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and wives and husbands that you can't find. You may not be able to find them, but can't you at least find some small shred of fight left in your souls?" Anna's voice swelled and fell away like the tides of the sea her eyes loved so much. And just as the Adriatic left her breathless, she held her audience captive. And in that moment, when she stepped slowly, regally, down off the well and that fire was still burning fiercely in her eyes, Gabriel fell in love with her all over again.

"What do you think we should do?" She asked him.

"We need to find that woman." Van Helsing replied. "You say she lured the vampires away?" The crowd mumbled their acquiescence. "Then chances are she killed them. If not, then we should at least leave in the direction she went in and see if we can't find either her or the vampires."

"Will you come back and protect our village?" asked one small girl in the front.

"We're going to try and make sure that you never even have to see those creatures near it again." Gabriel assured her with a smile, dropping to one knee and resting his hand on her shoulder.

Anna smiled inwardly at him. For all his toughness, he was usually very good around kids. They seemed to like him a lot too; without all the complications of adulthood, they saw him for the hero he was. In fact, she thought that he got a little nervous around them only because they saw so deeply and purely into him and chose to worship him.

"Everyone is to stay inside tonight, no matter what. In fact, it would be better if you could get into cellars and lock them shut. Stay away from windows and doors, lock and shutter them if you can, and wait until the sunlight is strong and bright before you open them again. Keep some sort of weapon close too. We will return once we've found this woman and questioned her about the vampires." Gabriel ordered.

The gentle, kind man she knew was gone and the Monster Hunter was back. The villagers listened to him unquestioningly, rounding up what was left of their families and scurrying for the indoors. They waited for a few minutes, and were satisfied when they heard and saw the windows and doors shutting and heard them being bolted.

"What's going on?" As the moon crested the horizon, Carl appeared in its beams. He looked much stronger and much more solid at this time, so real you could almost touch him.

"Carl, can you stay here with the villagers and protect them?" Van Helsing asked.

"Well, yes. I mean, all I can do is throw things at the vampires if I come, I can't hurt them any other way." The Friar said, a little muddled.

"But they can't hurt you either. And make sure the villagers stay inside. If one wanders out, don't hesitate to scare them back inside." He continued.

"Alright then. You two be careful. You promised me a wedding." Carl warned them. Anna and Gabriel rolled their eyes at him and tied their horses up.

"Keep an eye on our horses as well!" Anna called over her shoulder as they headed out the side opposite the one they had entered in. The young man who had come and gotten them indicated that this was the direction the woman left in earlier.

"Oh fine then. Just leave me here." Carl grumbled, plopping his ghostly butt down on the well next to the horses. It looked like a long night of more waiting.
The night was exceptionally beautiful. Crisp, cool, clean, with a shroud like a black velvet evening dress bedecked with millions of diamonds. The keen air bit into their lungs as they drew their careful breaths, eyes peeled for anything. The land was mostly flat, with a few undulations and some scattered shrubs, but a huge black forest loomed in the distance ahead of them. Van Helsing gritted his teeth when he saw it; his hand sought out Anna's and squeezed it tightly for a moment before dropping it again. When their eyes met, his were pleading and hers reassuring. They had had a whole conversation without words, as was their way. Van Helsing looked back up to the sky, she to their right. All he could see was the endless, glittering multitude of stars and the shining moon, but she evidently saw something much better.

"Look, Gabriel!" She cried, pointing to something on their right. There were three shapes there; one on the ground and two standing close by. Without warning, she took off in their direction.

Van Helsing began to run after her, then stopped. CHOOSE WISELY, HUNTER. The words echoed through his mind. He was at the hinging point, with two choices: save this woman or let her die. He wanted to yell at Anna to return to his side, keep her from harm.... but then the image of her being sucked into the vortex of light and her petrified scream blasted through his head.

He began to sprint. He threw caution to the wind and himself into the hands of Fate.
"Hold still now." Snarled the vampiress, pinning the squirming figure of the woman to the ground while her fellow vampire stood nearby. That woman was small, but she was strong. "I waited all day for this moment, don't spoil the fun."

"And why would I listen to you?" She snapped back. She heaved herself to her feet, arm cocked back for an almighty punch. But as her fist nearly connected with the face of her captor, the vampiress seized her by the wrist and wrenched her arm around. She yelled and sank to her knees, unable to push herself back up because of the pressure on her wrist.

"Teach her of her place!" The vampiress holding her spat.

The other moved forward, hissing, and kicked her hard in the ribs. The woman cried out and tried to struggle again, but couldn't get out of the way of a second and third kick. Crimson dots swam before her eyes. Had she endured so much only to die here, away from home...? She screamed as the fourth kick connected and curled in on herself, ceasing to fight. There was a greedy snarling as her enemies closed in.

Just like she wanted them to.

As the first one took hold of her shoulder and prepared to jerk her onto her back and leave her vulnerable once more, she struck out again, this time hitting her mark. The well-aimed punch connected with her attacker's nose, sending blood flying across them both.

"You little bitch!" She shrieked. She grabbed her wrist and twisted it hard; before the woman could react, the vampiress was upon her, her fangs stabbing down into her neck like twin sabers...

Her feed was cut short abruptly.

"Her blood..." She moaned, clutching at her throat. "Her blood..."

The second the woman's blood touched her tongue, she had screamed awfully and jerked her fangs out of her neck, then backed away. Her eyes were wide with terror, and even... horrified recognition? She began to sputter and cough, throwing up finally. The woman had never thought it possible for a vampire to throw up, and hoped she never saw it happen again. The vampiress doubled over herself, continuing to retch violently, and sank to the ground. She had no notion of what was coming. But her companion did.

"Hunters!" The other cried shrilly, transforming and taking off just as two more figures rushed up.

One, a woman, held a sword, while the man held a crossbow. He aimed and fired at the fleeing vampire, but missed. The woman struck down at the other vampire, who was still coughing up bile, and severed her head. The last thing the wounded girl heard was the sound of the vampire exploding into dust. The woman immediately rushed over to her, forcing her out of her fetal position and examining her.

"She's been bitten!" She cried. Her Transylvanian accent was thick. The man soon appeared beside her. Vaguely, she thought she recognized them...

"Great. More people. Just join the party." She slurred feebly, trying to sit up but failing. Sight and sound were fleeing from her, faster than she could keep up. She slid into darkness with a soft groan.

"She's out." Anna cursed, turning to Van Helsing for some bandages. The petite woman was covered in bruises and cuts, and her neck still bled profusely from two puncture wounds on her neck. The vampiress had been messy about pulling her fangs out, so the skin was also torn a little. She attended to this first, and then to the claw marks on her back and ribs.

"We need to get her back to the village." Van Helsing muttered, lifting her into his arms.

"Right." Anna agreed. They set off at a run, both knowing how deadly being late could be in their case.
The innkeeper let them in a little reluctantly, but quickly gave them use of a room when she saw who they were and who they had with them. Thanking her profusely and asking for some wine to give her, carried the still unconscious woman to the nearest room.

Before laying her on the bed, they removed the coat she wore. It was a long black trench coat, worn and torn from many years of wear. Underneath that she wore a black shirt with very skinny straps and strange black pants that had many pockets. Her boots were black and in a state similar to her coat.

"She obviously knew what she was doing." Anna murmured, gesturing to the belt she wore.

Hung from it was a scabbard and a self-made loop that was home to a well-worn stake. One of the inside pockets of her trench coat had a fair-sized wooden cross with leather strips wrapped around the bottom part, like a grip. There were numerous other pockets in the thing, all of which she didn't look into. But the thing was very heavy for someone who was so small...

"She doesn't seem to need much saving." Van Helsing replied. "The worst wound is the bite and those holes in her back and stomach from the claws." Anna rested her hand on the woman's forehead.

"Gabriel, she's ice cold! And look, she's hardly breathing! There must be something we aren't seeing." She cried

"Check her stomach." Carl had appeared suddenly, and was now bending over her too.

They didn't stop to ask him what he was doing here, they did as he said, lifting up her thin, soft shirt. All three couldn't help but wince- Carl, actually, made a sound like he'd be sick- when they saw her stomach. It was nearly white and well toned, (now it was safe to say that she was a Hunter just like them) but just above her belly button there was a vicious cut from hip to hip. It was roughly stitched up, as though she hadn't had the time to properly care for it and just didn't want her insides spilling out.

"She didn't do this right. Carl, go and get a needle from the innkeeper. Anna, I'm going to take her stitches out, get ready to control the bleeding and... whatever else happens to come out." Van Helsing ordered.

It was a bloody, gruesome ordeal, but they at last patched up the wound. All three wondered silently how she had survived it in the first place, but were glad nonetheless. They waited at her side for almost an hour before Anna and Carl decided to go outside and watch for any attackers. True to the dream, Gabriel waited alone by her side for another hour. Then she began to stir, if only very faintly. He watched and waited patiently at her side for several more minutes, and then grew very pale with anxiety when she stopped moving entirely. His own heart pounding, he reached out with two fingers, preparing to test for a pulse...

Her hand, surprisingly cold and very strong, wrapped around his wrist when he got within an inch of touching her. She began to sit up, her fist tensed for a punch, but fell back with a cry of pain.

"Ah, shit." She hissed, releasing his wrist to wrap her arms around her throbbing midsection. "Bloody hell those stupid vampires!"

"Nice to meet you." Van Helsing said dryly. "Do you always greet people who save your life by attempting to incapacitate them?"

"Ugh, don't make fun of how far I've fallen. Normally you'd have a knife to your throat before you'd twitched a muscle." The woman grumbled, still rubbing her stomach.

"Well, that's not how I want to start this off." He remarked, an eyebrow quirked.

"Me neither." She winced, lifting up her shirt to check on her wound. "Damn. They got me good."

"Gabriel? We came to check up on-" Anna paused midsentence when she saw Cathy sitting up, inspecting her wound. Carl trouped in behind her. "Oh good, you're awake."

"Wa-ait a second..." She said slowly, eyeing them very closely as Anna and Carl came to stand directly behind Van Helsing. "I recognize you guys from somewhere... What're you're names?" She asked.

"I'm Gabriel Van Helsing."

"Anna Valerious."

"And I'm-"

"Get out!" She squealed before Carl could finish. "The Van Helsing? Dude, I loved that movie!" Her enthusiasm was met with three deadpanned looks. "Oh, sorry, I forgot, you guys don't have those yet. But wait, in the movie, you died-" She pointed to Anna. "And you were alive!" She pointed to Carl. "Wow, that's just a bit confusing. I musta missed the sequel." She gave them a lopsided grin.

"What do you mean yet? What's a movie?" Carl sniffed, clearly unhappy that once more no one cared who he was.

"Who are you? How do you know so much about us?" Van Helsing interrogated suspiciously.

"No time for lengthy explanations or anything now." She said quickly, trying to get up. "I'm assuming you know what vampires are.... and there's a whole nest out there that needs taking care of."

"And you are going to do that all by yourself while you're still recovering from major wounds?" Anna asked with crossed arms.

"Such is the life of a vampire hunter." She grinned again.

"I like her." Anna smiled to Van Helsing. "Can we keep her for a pet?"

"'ey, I dislike that kind of talk!" She whined, giving up on getting to her feet and leaning against the headboard. "I belong to no one!"

"Well we can't adopt her if we don't know anything about her." Gabriel said dryly. "What's your name?"

"Call me Cathy." 'Cathy' said, shaking hands with each of them in turn. She even made a valiant attempt to shake Carl's hand, and seemed entirely unfazed by his... particular state.

"Ah, named after St. Catherine, I suppose?" Carl asked amicably. She looked away, her hair shading her face.

"Yes." Cathy said quietly.

"That still doesn't explain how you know so much about us." Van Helsing pressed.

"And why you wear such strange clothes." Anna added.

"Look, this is gonna sound crazy..." She grunted as she at last hefted herself to her feet, leaning against the wall for support. "And don't trip on me, okay? But I'm from the future. A little place in California called Sunnydale."

"You're from the future?" Gabriel asked, stunned.

"Don't look so shocked, you and I traveled four hundred years in the past to defeat Dracula." Carl scolded lightly.

"Was there like a whole freaking trilogy I missed?" Cathy cried.

"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about." Van Helsing said slowly.

"It doesn't matter." She dismissed. "Look... I'm real grateful to you guys for saving my life, but I have to get back out there. There's some heavy stuff going on and I need to stop it. I can manage my wounds, I've dealt with stuff like this before."

"Then I hope you can manage walking and talking at the same time." Gabriel said.

"Huh?" Cathy asked, confused.

"We're coming with you." Anna insisted.

"Alright then. But I'm warnin' you now... where I go, the corpses pile high. Oh, wait, that's right, you've got that whole 'Most Wanted Man in all Europe' gig going on, and you're family has sworn to kill Dracula. And you..." She skipped over Carl. "Anyways, this should be a walk in the park for you guys." Limping slightly, she began to make her way out of the room. Halfway out, she ran into the door. "Woa! Oh, heh, I knew that was there..." She called over her shoulder as she kept walking. Anna, Gabriel and Carl gave each other questioning glances, and then followed her out into the town.

Her walking had improved, although it was easy to see she was a bit unsteady on her feet still. But Cathy managed to walk very tall, holding herself like people who don't know how small they are generally do. She had put her trench coat back on just before she left the room, and it billowed slightly behind her as she walked, her hands in her pockets, singing some song they'd never heard before. Watching her, Gabriel couldn't help but know that this whole ordeal would turn out to be a lot stranger than he had ever dreamed.

"Do you know where the nest is?" Anna asked Cathy. She had taken an immediate liking to this girl. She had spunk, and wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind. There was a bit of a devilish streak in her too, as she could see from the glint in her eyes.

"Yup. Tailed those sorry bastards last night all the way to their hideout. That's when I got my gut cut open... so I couldn't go after them. I could hardly get myself back here." She replied nonchalantly, with no more emotion then we put into talking about the weather.

"Is it far?" Carl asked.

"For some." She shrugged.

"Do you want us to bring horses?" Anna asked. Cathy stopped where she was and turned to face the other three.

"Let me tell you somethin' about me. I don't know how to drive a car- don't ask- I don't know how to swim, I don't know how to ride a bike, airplanes- don't ask- make me sick, and I don't know how to ride a horse. I walk." With a firm nod, as though that settled the whole thing, she continued on.

This was definitely going to be a strange adventure.
A/N-- Oh, and so you know, Cathy is wearing a spaghetti strap tank and cargo pants. But I figured they wouldn't know what those were, so ya know... When you review, please be gentle on her, cuz she's my baby. She's got a helluva backstory too; she's from a 994 page roleplay based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (hence why she said she was from Sunnydale) and I'm not gonna have time to go into every little detail about her. But you'll find out what you need to know in due time! I'll describe her in the next chapter... so REVIEW!