Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Nineteen - the Aftermath

Susanna

I felt the blow against my chest, as if something had exploded. Something had exploded, in fact; my sister. Well, not literally, of course, but she had gotten so angry…

For a minute, all I could see was black smoke. It was everywhere, it filled my lungs and brain, I couldn’t think. I had fallen over. The couch had moved backwards because of the aggressive explosion. I heard somebody scream, the triplets started to cry. The smoke – was it even smoke? It was almost liquid – made it hard to see, breath, think. Still I managed to pull up my sweater so that it covered my mouth and nose and got up slowly, leaning on the couch.

For a few seconds, the smoke cleared up a bit where I was standing, and I saw her. I saw her and I screamed.

She was floating. Literally floating, above the place she had been sitting – the armchair had fallen over and seemed burned. The black smoke/liquid came out of her eyes, mouth, ears, nose and the palms of her hands, moved around her, as if it was an affectionate pet. It played with her hair and crawled across her skin. The smoke or liquid made her float somehow. Her feet were about ten to fifteen centimetres away from the floor. The expression on her face was a mixture of anger and pure fear.

I pulled my sweater down again and screamed her name.

“Regina!”

She didn’t react, as if she didn’t hear me, as if she was in a different world, miles and miles away. People were screaming around her – I saw Mary crawling around on the floor, completely panicked, covering her face with one hand. Was she bleeding? I couldn’t see. Somebody bumped into me and that brought me back to reality. I yelled my sister’s name once more, but she didn’t hear me.

I ran up to her and grabbed her wrist.

Suddenly she fell down, almost into my arms, and together we collapsed on the floor. She smoke disappeared around her and stopped coming out of her body. Slowly the smoke which had already been in the room started to evaporate. She was panting, lying on her belly, trying to get up. I helped her.

“Regina…?” I asked softly.

She waited a few seconds and then looked me in the eye. My heart missed a beat. Her eyes were pitch black. I couldn’t see the white of her eyes, her pupil, nothing – all I saw was darkness.

“Regina, darling, say something.” I begged.

She clenched her hands around my arms until it hurt and blinked a few times. The darkness slowly started to fade and her eyes were turning back to normal, but she was so pale and trembled so badly, that it didn’t comfort me.

“Wh…” She started. Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she had been screaming for hours and hours. “What…”

“It’s alright, sweetheart, it’s okay, I’m here.” I said, and took her in my arms. She gasped and started crying. My heart broke.

“You’re safe. It’s okay.” I mumbled.

For a minute or so, everything was silent. We were locked in our own little world. But then, sounds started to return. I heard somebody crying even harder, I heard somebody scream, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Susanna!” A voice said. “Susanna, please!”

I realised Jessica was talking to me. I blinked a few times, and, while still holding my little sister, turned around.

“What?”

Jessica stood there, her face covered in tears, pale as ever. “Susanna… It’s Mary.”