Children of Van Helsing

Chapter Forty-one - No Choice

Susanna

When I woke up all the muscles in my body ached. I had been training more than I had trained in the last two months and I felt very stressed out about many things, like Sacha (who was doing very well), saving Regina (we were going to leave in what, six days?) and the family (we were getting along a bit better but I wasn't sure how long that was going to last). Thank God Ian and Jessica were with me. Jessica was a great support, as always, and Ian, well... Things between us were just amazing. He made me laugh more often, and he also knew when to give me my space when I needed that - I tried to open up more. We hadn't talked about... Well, my self-harm yet, but we both felt we weren't ready for that.

I managed to get up and get dressed, but then immediately fell down on my bed again. I wanted to save my sister, really, more than anything - but I was so tired. Sleeping had been difficult. Relaxing had been difficult. Everything had been difficult.

But today I had decided to stop training for a while and just relax, try to enjoy my day, have lunch with Ian, maybe even watch a movie, though I usually never did that. My sisters loved movies, so there had to be something good about them, right?

Unfortunately my days (my life, for that matter) never really go as planned. Yeah, that sucks - feel free to feel sorry for me.

The day started out nice. I had breakfast with aunt Jennifer, who kept talking about how much she liked Ian while smoking at top speed - she had kind of claimed the right to smoke inside the house as well as long as we were at crisis/war - and spilled her ashes onto her untouched cheese sandwich. She also told me how happy she was that Sacha was doing so well.

"She seems like a nice girl." Aunt Jennifer had said. "Sweet, and way too good for this world."

I didn't know if she meant the world in general or just our crazy, fucked-up world full of vampires and witches and death. I didn't ask.

"She is." I just said. "Where is she anyway?"

Aunt Jennifer shrugged and blew out some smoke. "Outside, I think, with Ian and Greg. Those boys both are crazy about her."

Yeah, well, one better not be too crazy about her or he was going to be in trouble.

So the breakfast had been nice, and had just sat down to play a game of Monopoly with the triplets - and no, I wasn't going to let them win just because they were children, by the way - when I heard a loud scream from outside, along with growling and hissing.

"What the...?" I mumbled. The triplets immediately seemed scared. "Stay inside." I told them, and ran towards the sounds myself.

Backyard. Backyard. What was happening there? The yelling was coming from two men, and I started to realise who, so I kept running faster and faster.

When I arrived outside I immediately saw what was wrong. There, by the angel statue, were Ian, Greg and Sacha - they had been talking there. But now, Ian lying on the ground, screaming at Sacha but unable to do something because he seemed weak and dizzy, and Sacha was sitting on top of Greg, clawing his throat open, her mouth covered with blood, her eyes crazy and monstrous. Greg was shaking and tried to defend himself, but she was too strong. His eyes were rolling back and I could see him getting weaker quickly. The puddle of blood in the snow around them was getting bigger faster and faster.

For a minute, I just stood there, unable to comprehend what was happening, unsure what to do. Of course, I had to save Greg, but at what cost? Regina wasn't here to knock her unconscious. So I had to attack Sacha - for everybody's sake.

I mumbled 'I'm sorry' and got out my knife - long, sharp, silver and lethal if used in the right way. But I wasn't going to kill her.

My hunter-instinct took over and I ran forwards, towards her. She noticed me and stopped drinking and licking up the blood streaming from Greg's gaping wounds. I dodged her wild and uncontrolled attack and with great regret, stabbed her in the shoulder. She fell back, screaming like an animal, and Greg crawled away as far as he could, then fell down unconscious.