VAN HELSING - A Short Story

Part Four, Chapter Nineteen: The Black Fairy's Legacy

IMOGEN 

That was... No it could not be! But I would never mistake those locks and those beautiful eyes for someone else's...

"Imogen is something the matter?"

Tina asked, looking at me with a scrunched together forehead. I had not realized the face I was making. I shook away the thoughts that were flooding into my head right now.

"Yeah, no. I just thought that I saw someone I knew. The light playing tricks on me, that's all..."

I assured her while still focusing on the dark wood of the closed the door as if Ambra would burst through it again. And that was Ambra. And she is in danger so it seems.

"...Well then I'm going to retreat again. If there are any more guests tonight, make sure to give me and especially Vettle a call. The old man is itching for some work to be done."

With that I bid them a good night. I had to talk to my uncle. There were survivors after all! Perhaps even more than we originally had assumed. It was more than a relief to think that Lisa's and the Black Fairy's sacrifices were not in vain and that there was at least something left of the Downworld.

"Vettle!"

I shouted for him, finding him in his own room as I followed the sound of his now aging voice. We had discovered that he had begun aging after all. We tried to guess whether it was the seclusion from the family or something else. A lot of our family legend has been lost through generations and what we knew of our curse could just as well be completely false.

As I entered his room, he was just standing up from his bed.

"Did I wake you?"

He only waved my question away.

"Could not sleep anyway. The back is hurting more and more each day. If only Lisa were here..."

He gave out a loud sigh and finally propped himself up to stand with me on eye-level. I could tell by the lack of firmness in his voice that he usually had that he truly missed Lisa. And I was certain that the genocide on the Downworld was yet another determining factor.

"...What is it?"

He snapped back to reality, darting his head upwards to look me in the eyes.

"It has actually something to do with the Downworld..."

I immediately saw his eyes getting big and he returned to his seat on the bedside. I crossed the small room and took a seat beside him.

"...Ambra was here right now."

Vettle's head snapped in my direction. A moment ago, I must have been looking just in the same way that he was doing so at me now. Mouth wide open and eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.

"Your friend the... turned...?"

Trying to clarify, all I could do was nod. Vettle slapped his hand against his mouth, sliding it down his chin and making his entire face pull down along the movement.

"...So that means-"

"There could be more survivors than that."

I cut through his word, knowing exactly that we were thinking entirely alike.

"But why did she leave?"

In a similar fashion, he did not let me finish my thought now.

"She seemed in danger. She was accompanied by two men. A hooded one and the other having white hair streaked with grey and black. And a weird-looking cane that matched his clunky amulet."