Chapter 17

The haunted past and birth of the vampire king...

"All right, Carl, what does it tell us?" Van Helsing asked. "Well, according to this Dracula was once a knight of the Holy Order until his last assignment he took which was four hundred years ago," Carl answered as he found the specific entry. 'Explains why the cardinal was uncomfortable mentioning him,' Van Helsing thought as he remembered the Cardinal's reaction before.

"He had traveled along with his mentor and another knight that Dracula had called his 'brother' since they knew each other as boys," Carl went on. "They were sent to investigate a gypsy camp in search for the descendant of an innocent man who was a Grand master of the Knights of Templar, wrongfully hanged for being a werewolf," he said before he looked up at them. "Which involved the two deaths of the king and the pope that were in charge of that particular case at the time," Carl explained before he looked down at the diary. "One day, as he was traveling through the Transylvanian woods to find the gypsies that he discovered to be living near his home village during a thunderstorm, his horse got spooked by a black wolf that came out of nowhere," Carl went on translating and reading more from the diary. "Making him fall off his horse as it bucked in fear," Carl added before Van Helsing sat on the couch with Anna suspecting that this was going to be a long while.

"So he fell off his horse and hit his head?" Van Helsing guessed. "Yes, he did," Carl replied nodding his head at Van Helsing before looking at the diary. "When he woke up, he found himself in the very gypsy camp being cared for by a young and gorgeous woman named, believe it or not, ANASTASIA," Carl said before looking at both Anna and Van Helsing who looked at each other shocked before looking back at the diary. "Whom she is the very descendant of the innocent man that was wrongfully hanged," Carl added. "Soon Dracula falls in love with her and after he fully recovers, he promised that he would return for her and plans on making her become his wife and meet his father," Carl said as he looked up at them.

'Why am I getting the feeling this is going to go bad?' Van Helsing asked himself feeling strangely sad and guilty. "When Dracula returned to his village, his mentor was convinced that Anastasia wasn't innocent as Dracula claimed her to be," Carl went on as he turned the page. "Of course there is always one priest that had to go bad," he added as if ashamed of this factor.

"A week later Valerious the Elder meets Anastasia and he approves over Dracula choosing her as a bride, giving not only the blessing but also plans to have the wedding take place in the home village, Dracula's mentor was still against the marriage and Dracula had his 'brother' keep her guarded in fear that the mentor will try to do her harm," Carl said before he took a breath and shut the diary gently. "That is where he writes that it is the day before the wedding, and he was having a daily ride with his father and plans on asking his 'brother' to be the best man for his wedding, that is the lat entry on the very date Dracula was murdered," he said before he set the diary on the desk and went to the portrait of Valerious the Elder. "The son of Valerious the Elder, the son of your ancestor," Carl said as he pointed at Anna who got up with Van Helsing following her. "Everybody knows that, what else?" Anna said to Carl, acting like she was not impressed. "Oh, all right," Carl said as he went to a stain glass window that was in the room. "According to this rubbing, it all started when Dracula was murdered," Carl said showing them the rubbing. "Do you know who murdered him?" Van Helsing asked. "No, this has some vague reference to the 'Left hand of God,' " Carl answered before he went to the desk and picked up a piece of paper that had a Devil, three people and a kneeling man. "In 1462, when Dracula died, he made a convent with the devil," he said as he folded the paper so that the kneeling man and the Devil's fingers touched. "And was given a new life," Van Helsing said as he took the paper from Carl to look at it better.

"But the only way he could sustain that lie was by drinking the blood of others," Anna added as Carl went to the other side of the desk. "Excuse me, are you going to let me tell the story?" Carl asked them both getting annoyed with them interrupting. "Sorry," they both said as they looked back at him. Carl then looked at Anna pointing a finger at her. "Your Ancestor, having sired this evil creature," he said before he lifted a painting of a man kneeling to an alter of crosses.

"Went to Rome to seek forgiveness," he said as he showed the painting before he walked around the desk to them. "That's when the bargain was made," Carl said as he walked to them. "He was to kill Dracula in return for eternal salvation," he said as he handed the painting to them before walking to another part of the room and lifted up the family tree scroll.

"Of his entire family right down the line all the way to you," Carl said as he moved a finger down the family tree pointing down to Anna's place in it. "But he couldn't do it," Anna said as if she understood clearly. "As evil as Dracula was, my ancestor couldn't kill his own son," Anna added as she looked at the tree before looking at Van Helsing. "So he banished him to an icy fortress," Carl said showing them a book with the picture of the icy mountains. "Sending him through a door from which there was no return," Carl said as Van Helsing took the book to look at the picture. "And then the devil gave him wings," Anna said knowing what must've came next. "Yes," Carl said in agreement. "All right, so where is this door?" Van Helsing asked.

"I don't know," Carl answered honestly which Anna and Van Helsing both looked at him surprised. "But when your ancestor couldn't kill his own son, he left clues," Carl said before he went an pushed the switch that activated to showing the picture of the knights and the burning woman. "So that future generations might do it for him," he said to Anna as she looked at the painting behind him. "That must be what my father was looking for in here-Clues to the doors location," Anna said as she looked at Van Helsing. "The door," Van Helsing softly muttered aloud which both Carl and Anna looked at him puzzled.

"The door...Of course!" he said again before he then handed the stuff he was holding to Carl before he ran out of the room with Anna and Carl chasing after him...

Author's note:

Here is my seventeenth chapter of my newest fan fiction inspired by the Van Helsing movie and also a little written piece by a friend on DA , Seduction of time!

Here in this chapter we get to hear from Dracula's own Diary of the events that lead him to becoming the Vampire King we know him to be!

The case that he was Investigating about did actually happen according to the Werewolf book: the encyclopedia of Shape-shifting beings;

'1313- As he is being burned to death on a scaffold erected for the occasion in front of Notre Dame, the Knights Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, recants the confession produced by torture and proclaims his innocence to the Pope and the King- and he invites them to meet him at Heaven's gate. When both dignitaries die soon after de Molay's execution, it seems to the public at large that the Grand Master had been innocent of the charges of heresy. ' At this point the Knights of Templar were being trialed and tortured then for being accused of herital acts, such as invoking satan, having intercourse with succubi and worshiping demons that appeared as large black cats in 1305.

And soon after in 1390 Gypsies began to appear in Europe. (which then most people I think suspected them of being werewolves too...or at least people got suspicious of them. As you can see with Dracula's mentor being so against Dracula's bride choice.)

Here is the sound track for this chapter to help you with some of the bits in here:

43.) Rumpelstiltskin in love from the Once Upon a time tv soundtrack (when Carl starts to tell Anna and Van Helsing what is in Dracula's diary.) [link]

Anastasia Ircus belongs to

Van Helsing belongs to Stephen Sommers and universal pictures/Studios

And all of the songs I place here for the sound track all belong to their movies, bands and composers that composed them.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter!