Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Twenty-six - Practice

Regina

I silently stared through the window and watched Jessica leave. She had told us it was just for a few days, but it felt like it was going to be forever. As if she left us with the mess and chose Lily. I knew she would never do that - family was the priority for all of us. Though, sometimes, that sucked.

I wanted to choose for myself sometimes.

"Are you alright, Reggie?"

Helen stood behind me, looking worried. Somehow I didn't mind her using the horrible nickname, but I didn't know why. It sounded better when she said it.

"Everybody is leaving." I said.

And not just leaving as in going away, but leaving as in dying. Dying and leaving to another world.

A world I now had contact with.

"Can you distract me?" I asked.

Helen shrugged and put her arm around me. "Sure! Why not?" She smiled. "How should I distract you?"

"I want to learn more about my powers."

She had taught me some things already, like how to concentrate to hear the voices of the spirits - though I still couldn't do that - and how to block my mind. That last thing had been less difficult than I had thought. Of course I always had to keep the bracelet she had given me on, just to be sure, but afterwards she had told me I just had to literally order the spirits to keep the fuck away. When I wanted to see them, I had to tell them. But I never saw then anyway. The bracelet would keep the spirits from attacking me as long as I kept control, Helen had said.

So I had to be more confident.

Easier said than done, of course. Helen knew so much about all of this and I knew so little, I just felt impressed and was afraid to make a fool out of myself. I didn't want to disappoint her. I guess I'm a people pleaser - I wanted other to feel happy to be around me, I wanted them to like me.

Helen took me to the garden. We had passed the unpacked suitcases in the great hall, surrounding the angel statue. Everybody was gone. Nancy's suitcase was white as the snow outside and had her name written on it in ugly red crayon. Her taste had always been horrible. To be honest I was glad she wasn't here. She always made me nervous, and she crept me out, with her weird obsession with my grandmother. Nancy somehow saw it as her duty to take care of granny's every need, even if it meant putting her own aside.

I guess making wrong decisions is in the family.

Helen sat down on the bench and I did the same. She looked at me for a while, as if she was estimating if I was ready for whatever she wanted me to learn.

"Let's start with what we have done before." She said. "Can you hear the voices? Tell me what they say."

I nodded and tried to look as if I knew what I was doing. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I want to hear what you say, I thought. Let me hear it. According to Helen, a necromancer always had to be in control. I had the power here, the spirits just had to listen to me.

I didn't hear anything, so I frowned and concentrated harder. I shut all the noises around me out, the wind through the trees, the distant sound of cars, Helen's soft breathing, all of it until the world around me was silent. I was floating in silence. That had taken me a while to do, especially since I was distracted so easily. But now I tried not to think of the book I was reading, I tried not to sing the Game of Thrones theme song in my head, and ignored the fact that Sacha was still in our basement, wanting to kill us, probably. The reality didn't exist to me.