Children of Van Helsing

Chapter One - Meet the Family

Susanna

London is a city secretly gone bad. I mean, it was bad already, but in reality it is worse than most people think. Criminality numbers are larger than the police knows, murder lurks in every corner. And not just any murder - a kind of murder nobody thinks even exists. People disappear and are never found again. And I know who does that, or actually, what does that. It's my daily job.

My name is Susanna, by the way. I'm 25 years old, I have straight black hair which never looks decent and clear green eyes. I used to live in Liverpool, but things got... Bad there and I kind of ran away.

And now I live in a big house with my two sisters. The house is amazing. It's situated just outside of London. It's old, almost entirely made out of wood and it has hundreds of secret doors and rooms. Even I don't know them all, I think, because the house is huge. The wood is dark and creaks like hell during storms, but I think it sounds nice. It's the sound of home. The roof is black and pointy, so it kind of looks like some old castle or something, especially since there are a few small 'towers' on the sides. There is also a enormous library filled with old, mysterious books and dust. I made it into my office and moved in a desk with a laptop and a coffee machine. There are about eight bedrooms in total in the house, which is way too much, of course, and some are even meant for two people. We've got space for thirteen people, I think, not counting the couches and sofas everywhere. Four families could live in our house, but now, it's just the three of us. We do have guests over sometimes but that's about it. I guess we could run a bed and breakfast, but I hate strangers in my house. The kitchen is huge. The living room is huge. The dining room (yes, we have a dining room) is huge. Everything is huge. Some rooms, we just never use, because we wouldn't know when or what for.

The garden is amazing. I mean, Jesus, we have a swimming pool. There are nice garden paths, flowerbeds with the most beautiful flowers like roses and lilies, the grass is always green (because it is fake, not because any of us is passionate about grass), there are a few stone benches and a garden house with tools and such. A gardener comes by once a week , other than that we maintain the house ourselves. It's a lot of work, since the house is so old. The only reason me and my sisters can afford it is because our parents left us a shit ton of money.

Yeah, they are dead. Tragic story, actually - both murdered when I was fourteen. Our aunt Jennifer raised us, and she was incredibly nice, but we missed our parents, of course.

Right. My sisters.

I am the oldest. Jessica is the oldest after me, she is 23 and very artistic. She finished art academy and earns some money by selling paintings and designing patterns for pillows and such. She's really good. She has short hair which was once blonde, but she dyed it blue about a week ago. It suits her, actually. She has the same eyes as I do, our father's eyes, but she looks a bit paler. I got my mother's caramel coloured skin. Her room is a mess, filled with art tools, even though she has a special room for painting and drawing and such. Her paintings are everywhere. She loves action movies - even though her cute, innocent looks may suggest differently - and reading bad romance pockets. Her girlfriend, Lily, is amazing. She looks just as cute as Jessica, but her hair is long, brown and curly and her eyes are dark blue. They shine like stars when she laughs. And she laughs a lot. Lily stays over once in a while (she's practically part of the family) and she loves cats.

The youngest is Regina ('Reggie') and she is 22. She is close to finishing her study. She wants to become a doctor and she's got the brains for it, so I don't worry about that. She does, by the way. She's completely stressed out. It's quite funny, actually, but please don't let her know I said that. Her room is even messier than Jessica's, yes, that's possible, and filled with books, action figures and movie posters. She often has boyfriends, although they never last very long, which of course results in drama. It's not like she's slutty, she is just very enthusiastic and sometimes makes decisions without thinking it over well. I love her anyway - she is adorable and always manages to make me laugh, no matter how rough my day. Her hair is black like mine, but she has curls and sometimes red highlights. Her eyes are the same as mine - our eyes are a good way to tell we are actually sisters.