Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Twenty-three - Contact

Regina

This time I didn’t faint. But I wish I had. I was sitting on the ground, my cheek hurt like crazy, my heart was racing. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn’t come. Sacha… She was dead? Oh my god, she was actually dead! They had killed her! They had killed her and it was my fault. I had acted so stupid, angering Mickael on purpose, just to show that I could be confident like Helen. What a fool I had been.

I couldn’t stand up properly so I crawled towards her. Her neck lay in a creepy angle, her eyes wide open, big and scared and empty. She was gone.

“Sacha, Sacha, Sacha…” I sobbed.

The girl I had saved. The girl who had been through so much, just to be killed just when she was safe. No. No. No. Not her.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Regina…” I heard Susanna say. I could hear she was trying to keep in her tears. “Darling, please get up. We have to get her somewhere safe.”

I was immediately confused. “What?” I asked.

“She’s been bitten and killed within twenty-four hours afterwards.” Jessica said, in a monotone voice.

“Oh… No.” I managed to bring out.

She was going to turn. Most vampires who attacked humans didn’t kill them or erased their memory, or completely drained them to make sure their body wouldn’t turn. But she had been bitten and killed. She was going to turn.

She was going to be a vampire. The rest of her life, living in darkness, longing for blood, and it was my fault.

Was it my fault? I thought so, I had angered him. But on the other hand, he didn’t have the right to kill somebody just because he was annoyed, or just bust in and tell everybody what to do. I hated him! I hated him so much! More then ever I regretted that I had slept with him.

“Come on, Reggie.” Susanna said. She helped me up and together, we walked outside, into the cold.

It had started snowing again. Normally I liked the snow. I liked the fact that every single snowflake was unique, just like people were each unique. Snowflakes were like tiny galaxies falling around you. But now, it just saddened me. The flakes melted on my skin and stuck in my hair.

Inside the house, Ian and Jessica were carrying Sacha to a room where she could safely wake up. We would have to lock her first. We all knew newborn vampires could be violent, angry, frustrated, dangerous. Their bloodlust was incredible. We would have to make sure she didn’t attack anybody.

And if she didn’t change her ways, if she kept being a danger to her surroundings… I didn’t even want to think about what we would have to do then.

“You shouldn’t have angered him.” Susanna said. It sounded so simple. She wasn’t accusing me, she was just stating a fact. And still, it annoyed me.

“I know.” I snarled.

She sighed and put her arm around me. “I’m not accusing you.”

“I know.” I repeated, in a soft voice.

We walked through the garden aimlessly. As we passed the angel statue in the garden (one of the many), I looked up to its sad, cold, stone face. Why didn’t you protect us? I thought.

My head was still hurting and I felt sick. Those short burst of energy, the spirit dust coming out of my hands, those stars and planets flashing in front of my eyes, the hollow faces staring at me – it drained me.