Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Eighteen - Family Affairs

Regina

I enjoyed all the flabbergasted faces, the surprise, the shock. I enjoyed every single second of it. Oh, the confusion! I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly and lean back to see all the reactions. I didn’t pay attention to my sisters, who were no doubt very cross with me now, but they would have to admit – this was amazing!

“Regina!” Susanna said angrily.

I ignored her and looked Nancy straight in the eye. She raised her eyebrows and a half-smile appeared on her face. She didn’t believe me.

“And what’s your proof?” She asked. “Come on, do you really believe this brat? Let’s be honest, everybody – she has always been an attention-seeker.”

I gasped and clenched my fists.

“That is not true!”

Stephen laughed mockingly. “Oh, really? What’s your proof?”

Oh, I hated my family! I hated them! But what was my proof?

“Susanna and Jessica and Lily can confirm it.” I said, and turned to them. Lily was panicking, Jessica and Susanna just looked incredibly angry.

“Is it true, what she’s saying?” Mary asked.

They looked each other in the eye and I saw them hesitating. Weren’t they going to help me? I was their sister! I was Lily’s friend! Didn’t I deserve this, this one chance to put my family into their place, would they really take that from me? They were so selfish!

“Come on, tell them!” I called out. “Tell them it’s true! You saw it! You all saw it!”

Aunt Jennifer put her hand on my shoulder and with her eyes, she warned me to stop talking. Then she turned to Susanna. They always turned to her, just because she was the oldest. It wasn’t fair!
“Susanna, is it true what she’s saying?”

I wanted to yell, to scream, to shout she had to speak the truth. The seconds seemed like hours and I was just about to open my mouth again when Susanna started talking.

“Yes, it’s true.” She said softly.

I laughed. “See? I told you so!”

“Regina, please shut your mouth.” Jessica snarled.

Gregory leaned forwards so he could face Susanna. “What happened exactly?”

Why weren’t they asking me? I was the one with the powers. I was the victim, I was the chosen one, why didn’t they ask me what had happened? I was there!

I sat back angrily while Susanna explained what had happened – the attack, the old woman, the prophecy, Elizabeth, Ian, Sacha, Mickael, Greg and Helen, what we were planning to do, and how, and when. Silence fell afterwards when everybody reflected on it.

“I’ve heard about this. I just thought it wasn’t true.”

We all looked up in surprise to see who had said that. My grandmother. What? She never talked, and if she did, it was to swear and curse and insult.

“Christine, what are you saying?” Stephen asked her.

My old grandmother sat up straighter. The chair she was in creaked, the pillows moved. She lay her wrinkly old hands on the table, folded. I saw her wedding ring. Big and ugly, gold with a gigantic red stone. It hardly fit her fingers anymore. It wouldn’t be long now until she would have to wear it around her neck as a necklace, just as she did with the pictures of the dear family members she had lost. They were in a big medallion. Ugly, that thing, but my grandmother had never had taste.