Chapter 10: Approaching the End

Anna awoke. It was very dark. Too dark for night. And it was difficult to breath. Immediately her hands went to her throat. No bit marks. Orlok hadn't bitten her. But where was she?

She tried to sit up, only to hit her head. She tried to stretch out, but was trapped on all sides. It was like she was trapped in a box... or a coffin.

Anna began to panic. She kicked and punched at her wooden prison. Some dirt fell from above her. She was already under ground.

"GABRIEL!" she shouted.

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Van Helsing and Carl immediately sprang into action, searching for any graves that looked fresh. But there were so many, and the ground was frozen and covered with snow. It would be impossible to find any fresh graves.

"GABRIEL!"

Van Helsing didn't really hear the scream; sensed it would be a better word.

"Carl, this way!" Van Helsing cried.

"Which way? Oh, right. Coming."

Van Helsing's instincts were telling him to head in this direction. He couldn't explain why, perhaps it was his sixth sense, but somehow he knew this was the right way.

Soon he came across an unmarked grave. It was just a blank tombstone. Van Helsing immediately knew this was the grave he was searching for. Dropping to his knees, he began digging with his bare hands.

"Carl help me!" he demanded.

Carl looked at Van Helsing strangely. "How do you know that's the right one?" he asked.

"Trust me, I know!" said Van Helsing.

"Oh… alright then. I'll go find a shovel."

"Hurry!"

It was hard to dig in the frozen snow. Van Helsing's hands were already numb. His fingers might snap off from frostbite before he reached Anna. But he didn't care. Nothing would stop him from saving Anna.

Fortunately, he didn't need to dig with his hands for longer than a few minutes. Carl arrived with 2 shovels. V an Helsing grabbed one of the shovels from Carl and resumed digging.

The grave was deep. At least 10 feet deep. But finally Van Helsing struck the wooden lid of the coffin.

"Anna!" he cried.

"Gabriel, get me out of here!" came a muffled reply.

Van Helsing tore the lid off the coffin. Anna sat up, sucking down the cool air. She coughed repeatedly as she climbed out of the coffin and fell into Van Helsing's embrace.

"Anna, are you alright?" he asked. He felt her nod against him. "I'm so sorry. I let him get you. I swear I'll stop him."

But Anna wasn't worried about her own safety. She knew what the deal had been. And if Van Helsing had saved her, that could only mean one thing.

"Did he get the book?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Van Helsing sighed. "Yes. Who knows what evil he's planning."

"Well we're not going to give him a chance to plan anything." Anna said determinedly. "We're going to stop him. Come on."

She pulled out of Van Helsing's embrace and crawled out of the grave. Van Helsing and Carl with Anna's sudden determination, but still they climbed from the grave and went after her.

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"No, that piece goes here!" said Carl impatiently. "Honestly Van Helsing, you just don't appreciate fine art."

Van Helsing rolled his eyes. The map of Transylvania was almost complete. Apparently Carl thought of the painting as an amazing work of art. Van Helsing appreciated the art work just fine, but to him it was just the path to another battle.

"My final battle." thought Van Helsing. He was tired of hunting. Tired of fighting. Tired of killing. He didn't want to be a Knight of the Holy Order anymore. He didn't want to be a wanted man. And he especially didn't want to be called a murderer anymore. No, he had found the secrets to his past, and now he wished he never did. He had been a pawn to vanquish one evil to help another. That was his forgotten past. He didn't care about his past anymore. Now he was focusing on his future. A future he planned to spend with Anna when, and if, they defeated Orlok.

"That should do it." Carl announced, putting the last piece of the painting back together.

"Then this is it." said Van Helsing.

"In the name of God, open this door." Anna demanded.

The map froze over in ice. The color faded to a silvery color. Finally the ice melted away, revealing a large mirror.

The three friends stared at their reflections. Each of them had been hoping never to step foot through this door again. But there was no turning back.

"Here we go again." Van Helsing sighed before walking through the cold hard door.

He came out on the other side. Castle Dracula, which was really Castle Orlok, stood before, just as it was the last time he had been here. Anna and Carl came up behind him.

Carl gulped. "Now I remember why I wanted to leave last time."

A thought suddenly occurred to Anna. "How did you get back last time?"

"The same way we got came through the first time." Van Helsing explained. "In the name of God, we opened the door."

"Wish I knew that last time." said Carl. "But here's another question. How do we get in there this time?"

Van Helsing pulled out his grapple gun. He fired up towards the open window above the giant door. The grapple hooked onto something. Anna and Carl grabbed onto Van Helsing as the grapple gun wound up, bringing the three of them up.

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Orlok stroked the Necronomicon. He held it as if it were his firstborn child. He couldn't believe that after all these years he finally had the Book of the Dead. And it was given to him by the greatest monster hunter of all time. The very one that he had made sure would kill Dracula. He loved it when a plan went through.

No, he didn't love it. Love was something a vampire couldn't feel. They were hollow emotionless creatures. Dracula had put it very nicely. No fear, no joy, no sorrow. Nothing. The love that Dracula and his brides felt for each other was fake. Artificial love created by Dracula's hypnotic power. How had his brides felt about their so called husband after they were freed from the vampire's curse. The thought made Orlok smile.

Then he thought of Van Helsing and the Valerious girl. Their love was real. It was something Orlok could never experience. He was damned from birth. He envied the living and their emotions. And it was for this reason he hated them.

But now he had the Necronomicon. He would use it to create a creature possibly worse than a vampire. A true immortal being. Unlike a vampire's so called immortality, that could still be killed. But what Orlok was about to create was something entirely different.

Slowly he opened the book and began searching for the right passage.

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Carl thought going up was bad, but going down was even worse. Perhaps it was that feeling of falling. But by the time his feet were on the ground again, he couldn't stop them from shaking.

"Do you think Orlok's done whatever he's planning to do yet?" Anna asked.

Van Helsing shrugged. "Don't know. I don't sense anything."

Several Dwergi walked by and the three of them took cover.

"What are those?" asked Carl.

"Dwergi." Anna whispered. "If you get a chance to kill one do it, cause they'll do worse to you."

Van Helsing remembered her saying that in Frankenstein's castle when they were hunting Dracula. "What do they do to you?" he asked curiously.

Anna made a disgusted face. "They suck the life from you, causing you to age until you die."

Van Helsing felt sick. No wonder Dracula and Orlok used these creatures to do their dirty work, they were like little vampires themselves.

Not wanting to know what it feels like to have the life drained out of him, Van Helsing pulled out his guns and jumped out from his hiding place. The Dwergi cried out in surprise as Van Helsing fired at the little monsters. All six Dwergi lay dead on the cold stone floor in three seconds flat.

"Nice shot." said Carl.

"We have to move." said Van Helsing. "Someone would have heard that."

As the three of them ran off, Erik watched them from the shadows. So they thought they could stop the master's plans, did they? Well they were mistaken. And he would see to it personally.