Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Thirty-four - Goodbye

Jessica

I had woken up that morning with the feeling something bad was going to happen. And what do you know - I was right. Jesus. I had had a nice day with Lily, I hadn't thought about my family and what was going on there. We had made pizza together and played in the snow. It had been a warm day and some snow was finally starting to melt, but according to the weather forecast it was going to freeze and snow in two days, so it was kind of pointless.

And then Susanna called. Well, she had called twice already at that point, but I hadn't noticed because I was in the bathtub with my girlfriend.

"Hey, sorry, I was..."

She immediately interrupted me. "Regina is gone."

Huh.

"What?" I asked stunned.

She sighed. "Everybody was mad at her, she screwed up and ran away."

"You're not making sense. What do you mean she screwed up?"

Silence on the other side. That was never good - silence meant something bad, something too difficult to tell, a crisis, a disaster.

"Regina tried to break me and Ian up and she was pissed when it didn't work. Then the entire family came in and accused her of murder and they kind of cornered her. She got scared and ran away with Helen - now they're both gone."

Wow. Okay. I did not see that coming.

"She tried to break you up?"

"Yeah."

My sister, my Regina, her? She couldn't have. Can't be. She would never do something like that. Or at least... Not before she met Helen. That woman! She had changed our sister for the worse. I had thought Regina was smarter... Why was she listening to Helen so much?

Well, her family was falling apart. She had gone through a lot, I had to give her that - she had been practically raped, she had been given powers she knew nothing about, people around her kept dying. I was gone. Susanna was too busy trying to keep everything together. And Helen had given her the attention she longed for. Helen had talked to her, supported her, been loving towards her, and naturally Regina turned to her for everything because she knew Helen would be nice. Caring.

"And everybody accused her of murder?" I asked.

"Yup."
"And now she's gone."

"Exactly."

"Wow. That is..." I couldn't think of a word. Horrible? Strange? Difficult? A problem?

"I know." Susanna just said.

We both didn't say anything. What was there to say? The family was at a crisis again, but a big one this time. Our grandmother was dead, Mary was blind, I was gone, Regina was gone, everybody was angry, Sacha was still in our basement, and the uprising was getting close. There were warnings in the newspaper now not to go out at night and to stay away from dark alleys.

What a mess.

"Does she pick up her phone?" I asked Susanna.

"No."

I sighed. "Do we know where she went?"

"No. Only that Helen is with her - and I don't like that at all."

I laughed bitterly. "Same."

Lily walked in, carrying a basket of laundry. I was in our room and there were clothes all over the floor. She was collecting them.