Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Six - The Full Prophecy

Regina

I was sitting on the couch with a massive headache and a cup of lemon balm tea, with my sisters next to me. Lily just came out of the kitchen with a few cans of diet Coke and the strange man who apparently was called Ian just casually sat on the coffee table. They had just explained everything and my head was spinning. I could hardly believe it – all I remembered was a bright flash of light after the old woman had touched my forehead. I hadn’t been able to move. After that it was all a blur. It had been like falling through multiple galaxies, I hadn’t been able to breath – there was black smoke in my eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

Flashes of faces. People I didn’t know. Strange, see-through faces with hollow eyes evaporating in front of me. Life ghosts – their skin white, pale, glowing, black liquid dripping from their eyes, nose and mouth and turning into smoke.

Darkness.

And then I woke up at home, not knowing what had happened. There was a strangely attractive man called Ian in our house. Susanna was covered in blood, and not just her own, and Lily was almost crying. Then the whole confusing story about uprisings and prophecies and necromantic abilities.

A necromancer? Me? The fuck out of here.

But I felt different. There was a strange pressure at the back of my head which wasn’t a headache. Like something was there and I didn’t know what. I looked in the mirror which Jessica had handed me again. The veins in my eyes were slowly turning red again and I had stopped crying blood. It still hurt, though.

“How are you feeling?” Susanna asked.

“Like I’ve been to hell.” I said. “Are you absolutely sure the prophecy is true?”

She hesitated. “No…”

“But I am.” Ian interrupted her. “You are the Chosen One. You know, as in the Matrix, and Harry Potter, and…”

“Yes, thank you.” Jessica said quickly, before he could continue naming movies and impress us with his geek knowledge.

So I had power in me now. Power which had been obtained by sacrificing humans… No. No, I didn’t want this. Why did it have to be me? I wasn’t ready for this, not at all. I wanted to nail my exams and get a nice job, maybe, and then just find a cute guy and lead a life. This ruined everything.

Then I suddenly remembered something.

“I heard a voice in my head, right before we went inside the underground city.” I said.

“What?

“What?”

“What?!”

Ian was the only one who didn’t say ‘what’, he just seemed interested.

“Did you recognize the voice?” He asked.

I shook my head. “No. But it said I shouldn’t go in, to stop what I was going to do and go back.”

“Hm.” He said. “Interesting. The story doesn’t say anything about a voice. It does say you’ll be able to see ghosts, by the way – the ones who still haunt the earth. The restless ones. But only if you allow yourself to.”

“And how should she do that?” Jessica asked.

He shrugged. “No idea. The story doesn’t say.”

I took a sip of my tea and burned my tongue. “How did you get all of this information?”

“Books.”