It was a hot summer day in Transylvania. What was supposed to be a day of celebration became one of mourning as a small group stood on a cliff near a funeral pyre. The five boys were young, the oldest two being nineteen. They were twins, followed by a fifteen-year-old, a fourteen-year-old and an eleven-year-old.
Stefan Helsing was a handsome young man of nineteen, the eldest of the two twins. He had black hair and green eyes as green as jade. He was muscular and wore a trench coat despite the blazing heat. His brothers stood solemn with him as he lit the fire underneath the body laying there, the body of their mother.
Their father was too much in mourning to attend the small funeral service.
Stefan's twin brother, Gabriel, stood stoic nearby. He was holding a newborn baby in his arms, a baby who wasn't named just yet. It was their first sister, and they were already dedicated to the small infant. It was during her birth that their mother died, but not from childbirth. It was no secret that their father was a werewolf, and before Stefan could stop him, he attacked at a crucial moment.
The once thought cure that he once had had proved to be useless.
But it did suppress the wolf somewhat.
Stefan turned to his brothers and looked at his newborn sister, who slept in Gabriel's arms. He knew it was up to him to name her now. As he studied her, he noticed how much she looked like their mother, Anna. Hell, he was surprised she wasn't another brother, as luck would have it. He noticed his twin studying him a moment.
"What will we name her?" Gabe asked in the German language they all spoke. They knew Romanian, but they spoke more German than that of their native language.
"She looks like Mom," Stefan responded. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "My travels in Russia, they had a name for Anna. But it was Anya."
"What does Anya mean?" Hunter asked. Hunter wasn't a brother by birth, he was Anna's nephew adopted by her and Van as one of their sons.
"It means favor and grace," Stefan said. "It's a favor to us she's alive and our first sister, so her name will be Anya, in memory of our mother." He leaned down and kissed her head as the others followed suit.
As Anya grew up, she did resemble Anna in ways, her black hair full and curly, like corkscrews. She had crystal blue eyes that seemed clear sometimes, sometimes showed the blue within them. Yet she was very close to her brothers, mostly Gabriel and Andrew, who she was closer to age with since he was the youngest boy. Stefan showed soon that he was becoming more involved in the family business of putting down unnatural creatures.
Slaying the damned was a more appropriate term.
And he was the pride of his father.
Gabriel however, could see this was getting to Stefan's head, making his attitude more sinister and demanding. He hated how his brother was becoming more and more sadistic. Then there was the matter of Van, who trained all his children in the arts of being slayers, demon hunters, and vampire hunters especially. Little Anya, who was now barely four, was having to learn torture techniques that scared her so badly, she'd run to him in fear.
It was then Van was beginning to assign the brothers missions. On one of these, Hunter never returned. No one bothered to look for him. It was unknown if he was alive or dead. For Andrew, it worried him why Stefan didn't send a search party to find their lost brother. But Stefan wouldn't be bothered with the waste of time, as he referred to it.
"If he's lost, he's lost. That's just how it is," he had said sternly and dismissed it.
The next to disappear was Tai. Gabriel and Andrew now feared for each other and the safety of their sister.
Late one night, Gabriel and Andrew traveled to Budapest to meet with some people in the capital city. Gabriel had with him a trunk of papers. The men with them were accountants, lawyers, landowners, whatever the two brothers could think of. It was an endless night signing paperwork. The two had to return in secret to place the papers back in the safe while Stefan and Van were away. They said nothing to Anya on where they had been, but now had to protect her.
Now Gabriel had a mission to handle. Unfortunately for him, his lasted until the full moon, which meant danger. Werewolves were about and he still doubted that his father was in complete control as he claimed. By this time, Anya was about to turn ten. He was thinking of what to get her for her birthday as he wiped his face from the summer heat as he walked back to the castle. He paused however, hearing a low growl as he looked around a moment.
Wolves were out at this time of night? No, it wasn't a wolf…it was a werewolf.
And his father.
Andrew sat by the window watching Anya sleeping. As dawn came and no sign of Gabriel, he shut his eyes, his hands clenched to fists. He was now realizing his father was doing something to his brothers, but what?
Anya's tenth year was full of hardships. She had learned to fire guns and was pretty good for her age. She was agile and fast, very accurate in her aim and seemed to know what she was doing. But when Andrew disappeared, Anya began to fall into a depression. She was now left with the one brother she feared. She also didn't feel much love from Van, both of them were more wanting to make her into something she didn't want to be. She distanced herself from the two as much as possible, usually hiding out in the woods to do her own training and to find her own clues to her brothers' disappearances.
Now eleven, Anya stayed out later and later, not wanting to even be home with the two. It was now October, the fall harvest moon high in the skies as she made her way through the forests she loved so much as she pulled her coat around her. She was now standing in the same spot her brother Gabriel was when he was attacked. Yet she had no idea what was to happen that night.
The force Anya felt sent her flying into a tree nearby as she could taste blood in her mouth and gasped staring straight into the gray eyes of a vicious beast. The wolf man bit hard into her left shoulder as she screamed out in pain struggling and kicked hard as she reached for her gun managing to shoot him in one arm as he jumped back in pain. She hit the ground wincing as she held her bloody shoulder the gun in her hand as she limped to the beast to finish him off.
And found herself staring at the semi nude body of her father.
"Anya…" he panted as he stared at her. "Don't…don't go in the light…" She was standing close to the moonlight as he looked at her. "Kill me…finish me…"
"Father, I can't," Anya protested as pain shot through her while trying to get to him. She cried out as she curled in a ball, her body almost in a seizure like state. Her screams became an anguished howl as her body became covered with black fur and her hands became paws, the bones in her body popping and snapping to accommodate the new change. She was in a semi changed state as her breath came in growling pants glaring toward her father in anger as she lunged, the two now fighting each other.
Anya felt Van's claws slash through her chest, which made her back up into the shadows slightly with him following falling against her panting her. Fury shot through her in a moment of madness as she slammed her hand through his chest hearing bone and flesh snap between her fingers as her hand came out the other end. He slumped against her as he chuckled weakly. "You…make me proud," he whispered.
Tears slid down her cheeks as she looked at him as her hand slid out of him holding his heart in her clutches. She stared at the organ as his body fell to the ground as her tears dried just as fast as they came. She stared down at the corpse of Van Helsing as she looked at his heart a loud howl tearing through her throat that summoned a pack of wolves. She looked at them and threw the heart at them before making her way in the castle in silence.
She stared at her reflection in a mirror in the bathroom staring at the blood. Her eyes now were void of emotion as she felt rage and anger within her heart. She stared at her blood soaked hand and frowned as she moved for the shower to clean up. She bandaged the wounds she sustained and moved to her room as she grabbed a backpack putting clothes and her guns within and grabbed the trunk Andrew had given her placing it inside with a picture of her brothers.
She paused at her father's room and walked in as she picked up his duster and his hat. She put them on and emptied the safe of money heading to Budapest. She didn't look back, her mission was clear to leave Romania. Whatever emotion she had left died that night. She was now among the very creatures she had hunted, a werewolf, a damned.
That didn't settle too well with her at all. In fact, it made her so sick, she threw up twice before reaching the city limits. She wiped her mouth and sighed. She would have to get used to this new change before she totally could mingle once again among the humans of society. She studied the money in her pocket counting it to see she had enough for an airplane ticket out of the country. She had a passport so she could leave to wherever her heart desired.
She just wanted away, so she mumbled the first place that popped into her head: Japan.
She thought Stefan had been sleeping during the entire ordeal, but she didn't count on the fact he had witnessed it all, but didn't hear Van beg Anya to kill him. Like her, hate was now in his heart as was revenge. She had no idea she now was a marked target for her brother's vengeance. She sat in first class of the plane trying to think of her brothers. Gabriel, Andrew, Tai, Hunter…what would they do if they found out? Where were they? Were they even alive?
It was the final questions she thought before she fell asleep, exhaustion finally getting the best of her wracked mind.
It was raining in Japan as she stepped off the plane looking around at the windows of the airport holding her backpack. It was also late at night, which back home, it was mid-afternoon. She couldn't remember when she was grateful for rain like she was then, a thunderstorm forming as she walked down the sidewalk hands stuffed in the duster as she kept her shoulders hunched and head down, the rain dripping off the hat like off the edge of a rooftop.
She occasionally saw headlights illuminate the place, but ignored them as she walked to find a safe area to stay in, be it in the rain or not. She didn't stop until she arrived at a place in Japan famous for suicides. But she chose it because it was the forest, and it seemed to be an area she could feel safer in. She found a cave that didn't smell of death and sat down inside as she sighed removing the hat a moment to squeeze out her long hair.
"It seems you've traveled a long way," a voice said.
Anya's head snapped up as she looked around one hand moving for her pistol. She felt something coil around her arm and yank her hand away. It took her a moment to realize that something was a tongue…a very long one. It uncoiled and returned to it's owner, a man with pale skin and long black hair. His eyes were amber in color and looked like a snake's eyes, with some purple underneath.
Her own changed eyes studied him a moment.
The man walked to her and extended a hand to her head as she gasped, suddenly able to understand Japanese. "There, that's better," he said as he smirked.
She stared at him as she licked her dry lips. "Who are you?" she asked speaking Japanese for the first time.
"My name is Orochimaru," he said bowing a moment. "I hail from the village known as Oto. Or rather I am building the village. It was through certain means I learned of you, young Anya Helsing. I've come to you with a proposition, if you'd like to hear."
"I'm not interested in any propositions," Anya said as she frowned.
"This one, I'm sure you will be," he said as he stared down at the child. He extended his hand touching her face. "You need to train yourself to learn control. And I need an assassin to aide me in certain things. Plus I can teach you more than your little heart desires. All I ask for in return is one simple thing."
"And what's that?" she asked curiously.
She felt his breath against her neck suddenly as his tongue licked a spot. "You to survive," he whispered as he suddenly bit her, his hand over her mouth.
She had no time to scream or even fight him off. She suddenly slumped in his arms as he caught her. He pushed back a wisp of a black curl from her face. "Finally a child I can mold," he whispered as Manda appeared and took them away.