Deep Sky - A 'Van Helsing' Fan Fiction - Ch.19

Now it's time for goodbye
He said,
As he faded away.

Don't put your life in someone's hands,
they're bound to steal it away.

Don't hide your mistakes,
'cause they'll find you,
burn you.

And he said...

Get Out Alive – Three Days Grace

X

Where was his Gabriel?

Where had he gone?

This was not the man he wanted, the one he cared for.

The one he took into his arms, whispered his name countless times in a razzing manner that drove them both to play a little game on each other. The Gabriel he had kissed so passionately once... he was effaced, gone without saying goodbye, ripped away from his hands like a broken photograph with a jagged remnant of a picture that had once been stuck together as one piece. It had happened so fast and cruelly.

The man he held now, the one he thought had cared back, even without a memory, was an enigma... a shell of the knight he once was. He acted like Gabriel, talked like him, even thought like him but it was just an illusion. This new soul inhabiting his lover's body was another creature altogether, a newborn that should not have been the one to take anybody's place.

But it had happened.

And he... he should have been more careful.

X

Oh god... What have I done?

Van Helsing felt his eyes widening slowly with the cold thought. He was in a state of shock, but the horror was quickly pumping through his body, making his heart feel as if it was splitting in crackling fear.

In milliseconds, Van Helsing imaged the future he may have to face...

.. The murder on Dracula's chiseled face, as he enters Velkan's poisoned cell.

... The blood of the Prince, pouring through milky colored fingers, like a snake coiling over its victim.

... The blank, empty face that would stare back at him when Van Helsing, breathless, finds too late the body of his beloved.

“No.. NO... NO!!!”

Van Helsing felt his whole body convulse in shivers, felt each part of him die just by foreseeing this possible outcome. Guilt that he could usually bear so well was no longer something he can easily tuck away in his chest. No, this was the feeling of a control lost in the hands of hysteria. His calm betrayed him, instead bringing about unease.

He ran down the hallways, running downwards towards the cell that he knew where Velkan dwelled, his body slowly being broken down. He had left him there, all alone. Van Helsing felt tears pour down his eyes, leaving his skin in blind flight. He could feel his back being pressured by the sudden movements he made, but the pain was nothing more than an itch now. His body did not agree otherwise, making it harder for Van Helsing to breath... for him to run closer to Velkan.

I left him... All ALONE.. With no one to care for... The worst nightmare that I had flung at him... the fear of loneliness... When I should have taken in him in his arms... Held him tight... And told him that I will be with him no matter what happens... Oh GOD.

Stumbling like a fool, Van Helsing ran, determined once again to save Velkan from a danger that this time, was far more closer to death than ever.

X

The Count stood in front of the thick iron doors of the cell without entering. He stared at the iron, its twisted design and its original strokes made from Mother's Earth's brush. It left a pointed edge, like an undefined mountain with its natural bumps and sharpness.

Dracula had countless ways and means to torture a victim in the most excruciating and unforgettable manner. He could make them do things one cannot even wish to dream. And right now, he did not know which possible way of agony would suit the Prince more. But he knew... that only one would be most appropriate for the last of the Valerious. He will make the werewolf die by the flames that the Prince himself would breath life to. It would certainly be beneficial to him.

With closed eyes, he willed all the vulnerable, human emotions to boil and fester deep within the other side, where Velkan Valerious lay, trying to breath...

X

The Gabriel that was here now may not be the one he was yearning to hold, to kiss, to touch... but it could always be changed. The tables could be turned against the enemy that had forced his beloved to forget who he was. His Gabriel was there, within the layers of deceit and naiveness... he will pull him out, break apart the shields.

Make him see that they were both, truly, meant to be together...

X

Velkan opened his eyes with a horrible gasp, a rough cough produced from his throat. It ached to stay awake. It hurt to know that he was left behind. He also knew that Van Helsing had not meant to leave him alone. The hunter had no choice, and the Prince understood that. However it did not lessen the agony he felt inside out. He was the only one here now to deal with the pain.

The curse was one thing. But what worried him more was Van Helsing. He did not want anything to happen to him because of him. And yet...

Suddenly an image of Anna appeared in his mind. Then the faces of his family. The Valerious, the protectors against evil. Anna... Mother... Father... He could see them all. The ache turned into a burn. He had forgotten them. He should never have done that! Never.

They were all dead because of him. The cursed son of the Valerious family. Dracula. It was because of him that they were not here with him, alive and well. They were trapped in Purgatory until he saved them from their prison. Velkan gritted his teeth in fury, in spite of the pain traveling through every inch of his body. The curse was growing stronger, and so was his anger. It was almost inhuman, and yet... so human.

The emotions overwhelmed him, taking control of him, lessening his pain and bringing forth a darkness that Velkan did not hold back now. He will control it, inflict it on his enemy. Nothing else mattered.

X

When Van Helsing made it to the cell that imprisoned Velkan inside, he found to his surprise and relief that there was nobody there. But his heart still beat. Fear still clung persistently. Dracula may be inside, waiting, just as he had imagined it before. If that was what lay behind those doors, he knew he wouldn't be able to bear it.

However the truth was there, just a step away. And Van Helsing had promised... he hadpromised he will be with Velkan no matter what happens.

His body moved in urgency, in spite of the fact that his heart was screaming, terrified by what he will see inside. The door was, unusually, unlocked, but Van Helsing's didn't care anymore.

What he saw was not what he had expected.

His tears stopped abruptly and his stiff shoulders loosened.

Van Helsing grinned wildly.

Nothing had happened...

Velkan sat in the middle of his cell, his back against the wall. He looked at Van Helsing, took in the situation with furrowed eyebrows and a confused frown.

“Velkan, Velkan, Velkan...” Van Helsing repeated his name, rushing to his side, carelessly squeezing his way through the silver bars enclosing the last of the Valerious. Hands grabbed Velkan into a sudden, tight hug, which made the Prince gasp in surprise. He could smell the moist tears that had previously been flowing from Van Helsing's eyes and the distinct odor of the dead, clasping onto his skin. It made him flinch, but the hunter didn't notice. All he could do was hold onto Velkan as if his very existence was about to bleed and disappear. And he would have faded if anything had happened.

With a weak hand, Velkan touched Van Helsing's cheek as they slowly parted from their hug. Van Helsing closed his eyes, trying to soak up the warmth and care he felt from that one, single stroke.

“Van Helsing...” Velkan began slowly. It was painful to speak, but he forced himself to do so. “What... happened...?”

Van Helsing looked into his eyes, saw the life in them. The image of those bare eyes, the naked blankness that he had previously imagined in his mind made him grow cold. But when he blinked again, he could see Velkan, alive... not well, but alive.

“I-” the hunter began and the name that he was about to say caught in his throat. “-I was going to get you the cure, Velkan. And I almost succeeded. However I had said something that angered... him. I thought I had lost you...”

Velkan had an expression of mixed emotions on his face, replaying and overlapping like a film that had been cut and then pieced together again by an amateur artist. Something between ire and sorrow crossed over his face. He did not speak. He simply gazed at Van Helsing with an unreadable stare that made Van Helsing look back, fixated by his arresting eyes.

The Prince reached out and this time he touched Van Helsing's shoulder. It was so simple, a sense of contact that most people usually took for granted. But here he was, trying to understand and feel what Van Helsing now felt in the palm of his hand, with a thriving will to stand in equal grounds.

“Velkan...” Van Helsing began. He felt an awe at the connection they had, the red line shooting into each other, tying them both together. He could never betray it... and he would not ever want to hurt it. It was sacred and precious.

Velkan cut the hunter off in mid-sentence. “I'm sorry.”

Van Helsing's eyes widened, “What..?”

“I'm sorry to burden you... to make you suffer because of me.”

“Burden? Velkan, you are not a burden. Because of you I have changed. My world is now glittering with the light you have shown me. The darkness that creeps will wither... I had only been half-alive before you came. But now... I am now among the living. I am truly alive. And it is all...” Van Helsing paused and this time he reached out to touch Velkan's shoulder. “...because of you.”

Velkan smiled faintly. He grimaced after however, leaning towards Van Helsing's chest. The hunter embraced his fall like the wings of an angel, concern tearing away the smile that had been growing on his face.

“Velkan...”

Velkan pulled his arm outwards, so that he was lying on Van Helsing's lap, caressing the hunter's neckline. Van Helsing's arms crossed inwards, one hand touching Velkan's forehead, the other on his chest.

“Van Helsing... speak to me.”

“What would you like to hear?”

“Anything. Talk to me. The pain will fade quicker if I had something else to concentrate on.”

“Alright.” Van Helsing leaned his head, his nose touching Velkan's unkept curls of chocolate brown hair. “But I think you will have to ask me a question for me to do that.”

Velkan seemed to think for a bit. Wavering particles of a golden ocean began to show over his brown eyes. Van Helsing's anxiety deepened, but he did not say anything. He knew Velkan was fighting his own battle within himself right now.

“Why did you choose to become a hunter...?” Velkan questioned with a hushed voice. “For me... this is all about honor. But you are able to choose a path... You... you could have lived as a peasant. Or a father to a child of your own...”

Van Helsing felt his heart skip. He had never thought about it this way. His life had always seemed to revolve around assignments, of defeating evil to redeem his penance for past sins. He had never thought of being a peasant... and even if he had, he would not have been able to do so. He couldn't have lived a life where he knew he could do so much more good for the world. But when Velkan spoke of a child... that hit an emotional note in Van Helsing.

Children...

Of little boys and girls, rushing to meet their father. Of him taking their small hands, outstretched before him. Of them, bringing sunlight in their eyes and sharing laughter to all those around them. Something ached inside... it hurt. This reminded Van Helsing of his own childhood... the one he could not remember... his lost memories. What kind of boy might he have been? What were his parents like? Who did he care and who might he have despised? What gave him purpose in life?

“Van Helsing?” the familiar voice brought the hunter back to reality.

Van Helsing let out a sigh of what might, or could have, been.

“I thought by doing God's work, I would be able to find out who I really was in the past. When I was first found by the Vatican, nearly bleeding to death, I had only my name to know that I existed. I could not remember anything else other than that. My past... it was what motivated me. And now... it has become a curse.”

Velkan watched Van Helsing intently, but he did not interrupt him.

Breathing deeply, Van Helsing continued, “If I can, I would retrieve what has been lost to me. My history... I would pursue it...”

Both pair of eyes turned to look at each other. Van Helsing stared back with striking eyes.

“But not at the cost of an innocent's life.”

Velkan released a breath, although of what Van Helsing could not fathom. But judging from the pain on the Prince's face, he knew that something was wrong.

“Are you alright, Velkan?” Van Helsing asked. He could feel the rising heat radiating out of Velkan. Quickly his breathing was starting to fray. “Velkan?”

And then Van Helsing felt it. Moisture. It splashed onto his skin, finally making it apparent. Velkan was in pain, but not physically. No, he was hurting.

The last of the Valerious... was crying.

What he spoke next was a barely a whisper.

“But if history is returned... what will you... become...?”

Velkan weakly pulled Van Helsing to him, dragging the hunter down, causing a gasp of surprise to escape.

“Velkan, what-” Van Helsing felt Velkan's arms engulf his throat, like waves over an ocean sand. It should have relaxed him, but instead it made him uneasy.

Velkan's tears dropped, an imitation of a stone splashing into a river, beaten and then reshaped again. His lips kissed Van Helsing's neck as those salty tears slipped onto his skin.

“I'm sorry...”

Van Helsing suddenly felt something ominous. A foreboding. It tapped on his shoulder like an old friend, reminding him of something he could not remember. Pointing to a wrong door, where the right one stood beside it. A resistance, a friction, grew in him.

“No, Velkan-”

Tear.

“Velkan, stop-”

TEAR.

“Please-”

“I'm sorry.”

Time flashed by slowly for Van Helsing. He could feel his heart beat in a slow pace, as if he were dying. Velkan was moving with each bit of time that was being chewed away by fate. When it finally quickened again, he was falling, digits of numbers, relaying the hours, crashing and breaking.

This time a new horror arose inside. His eyes flicked towards the right side of his neck. His hand touched the source of agony and when he raised it, he saw the blood on his fingertips, flowing downwards. Van Helsing turned to look at the man who afflicted this pain on him. His mouth opened to form one word.

“W...h...y...?”

Velkan sobbed, clutching Van Helsing weakly. “I had.. no choice!”

Van Helsing lips trembled.

“We always... have a... choice.”

Velkan's face turned aghast.

“I'm sorry!”

Van Helsing turned away. He gazed at his blood again.

It was a rich crimson, the color of rage. He thought it odd that it did not already blacken.

Then...

Velkan was no longer beside him.

He.. he was standing alone, his hair strewn over his shoulders.

A voice was speaking.

Van Helsing could hear it, through the racing heartbeats and harsh breathing slipping from his lips.

Now it was no longer something he could faintly hear. This time it sounded like the painful throes of drums, washing away deathly melodies. It was the voice that carried cataclysm into his world, echoing richly carved notes of laughter booming through the cell.

And It did not cease to stop.

X

A/N: You can only guess who it might be, right? I'm evil, really, lol. I've been planning this forquite a long time! But I'm not really the OMGNO!THERE'SNOHOPE sorta writer, so this is not over! ;D I'll give you a glimpse of Carl in the next chapter! Van Helsing's past is hinted in this chapter, if you can figure out the misplaced pieces of the puzzles!

P.S.- I know this has got nothing with the story, but woh! There was an earthquake! lol It wasn't that strong though, good thing it wasn't. (: And what's more fitting is that I'm listening to a song by Your Favorite Enemies called 'No Time Left for Confusion'. I guess there's no such things as coincidences, eh?