The Hearts Desire - Chapter 2
When Van Helsing feels he should help a young girl who stood upon a bridge in the dead of night, he signs himself up for one hell of a ride. Can these two help each other heal from the emotional damages inflicted upon them from their past?
Blue colored ceiling, like the sky but clear of all clouds, nothing to ruin such a perfect day. The first time she felt peaceful, in her life? Maybe, maybe not, at least from what she can remember.
"Agh.." She took a deep breath, groaning from the pain that filled her chest. Her thoughts were a mix of 'where am I?' And 'am I dead?' She'd imagine death would he peaceful, not this painful... She turned her head, sleepy eyes meeting a man sitting on a chair. His arms were crossed infront of his chest but despite that fact he looked peaceful and at rest. Who... where..?
She tried to move up in the bed but started coughing, that's when Van sat up, looking towards the bed where the coughing continued.
"Hey, easy." He laid her head up against a pillow so she was sitting up. She looked up to him with confused eyes, Van thought she looked like a sad puppy.
"Who?" She asked sleepily. Van sat down gently on the edge of the bed,
"I apologize if I startled you, my name is Abraham Van Helsing." She looked at him, still confused.
"It's uh nice to meet you.." She managed to say back.
"I know you're probably confused, I am aswell. Do you remember anything?"
Thinking for no more than a second her eyes teared up and she started to panic,
"Oh, I have to leave!" She tried to get out of thr bed but tumbled as she started to her feet.
"Woah!" Van grabbed ahold of her,
"No, you need to rest." He sat her on the bed,
She struggled "You dont understand!"
Just then, the door opened quickly,
"Are you guys alright, I heard a bang- Oh she's awake." Lupin realized.
"Yeah, help me settle her down please!" Van asked, in what Lupin would describe as the most calm panic he'd ever seen.
"Alright." Lupin walked over to her and laid a hand on her back, "Just sit and talk to us for a minute, please?" She looked at Lupin endearingly, she felt like she had too listen, he seemed very convincing.
"Okay" She put her head down, Van loosened his grip on her shoulders and helped her back into an upright lying position.
He stood back up and looked down to her on the bed, she looked so distraught and upset.
"Truly, I'm grateful to you for saving my life, but I should have just died on that bridge..." Lupin and Van looked at eachother with concerned faces
"Don't say such a thing." Lupin replied. Her face was one of sorrow and fear, there was plenty she wasn't telling them and Van was certain she had a good reason. He laid his hand on her shoulder,
"Lupin is right, you shouldn't say such things." His brows knit together with concern.
She wiped the tears from her face, even though they kept falling into her lap.
"No, really! I'm nothing but a nuisance. You're all in danger just with me being here." She sobbed harder the more she spoke. Van Helsing sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed,
"If you can explain to us your situation, we may be able to help." She lifted her tear filled eyes and looked at him, full of fear.
"You don't understand..." the action he took was bold, too bold for him and far from what could be expected out of the "cold hearted, war hero."
He took her hand and looked directly into her eyes,
"Help me understand." Her eyes lit up with a spark of comfort, like no one had ever showed her such a kind gesture before in her life. Lupin sat idly by, secretly shocked, but hopeful he'd get through to her.
She took a deep breath, looking down to her lap.
"Well... since as long as I can remember, I belonged to a family in the Mafia." The room got reasonably uncomfortable at the mention of the Mafia. While London specifically had mostly pleasant Mafia activity, the bad always hid out in the shadows to not be seen.
"I don't mean I have a mom and a dad, I mean since as long as I remember, I lived in a Mafia family." Her body slightly shook, he could see it on her face, how rough her life must have been.
"My whole life, all I've known was that I was set to be with a certain someone. He was the son of the current Mafia leader while we were little. Recently, though, he took over the family. His father died sooner than expected." She looked up towards them,
"I'm sure you know where this is going. It was an arranged marriage. Of course I knew it would happen one day, but I hated it. I'm simply a slave to him, to do whatever he wishes whenever he wishes." She swallowed hard, nearing closer to tears again. Her voices broke as she spoke up once more.
"The reason we were at that bridge... It was my fault, I upset him. He decided he didn't need me anymore, he sent me along with those men. They figured no one else would be out, given it was so late." Van gripped her hand tightly, hearing this made his heart ache, he was thanking God he was made to stay out late at work.
"Of course, you scared them off." She smiled softly, maybe the first smile they saw from her. "But the thing is... If he ever finds out I'm still alive, nothing will stop him from killing anyone in his path to make sure I'm his or no one's." Her smile faded away. Here sat a girl doomed to never be free from the chains of what she was born into.
"And so it's dangerous for me to be here, its not safe for you guys!" She pleaded. "I don't want to hurt anyone else.." Her voice quivered.
"Miss, this the safest place possible" Lupin started,
"We aren't in any danger, I know you don't know us, but if you could trust in us right now we can help you." He smiled, again she felt compelled to believe anything and everything this man said.
“I just don’t think your guys understa-“ Van Helsing held his hand up and shushed her,
“Certainly, miss, you underestimate us.” He looked at her and she looked down.
“If anyone gets hurt I don’t think I could forgive myself.”
“You aren’t the problem here, miss. Just stay here for awhile, recover, we’ll figure everything out soon enough.” Van replied, standing up from the chair.
“Indeed, get some sleep for awhile, we’ll leave you be.” Lupin turned to exit the room, Van following behind. She felt herself relax, still feeling sleepy.
“Thank you!” She exclaimed to them, even after the door was shut. She felt so thankful to whoever was watching over her, to send such wonderful people into her life just before it was almost lost. She prayed deeply that they would be okay.
<-------------------------- ♧ ------------------------->
Van helping let out a rather loud sigh behind the now shut door, Lupin feeling the same way.
“We ought to stop bringing home lost girls or Saint will kick us out” Lupin joked, nervously laughing hoping it didn’t have any truth to it.
“Maybe he wont mind if we bring one back for him, heh.”
“Well, it seems this one is yours, hm?”
Van Helsing hastily tried to brush him off, he didn’t really think through his actions when he was trying to get through to her. After all he’d been through, he saw himself in her and knew how to help. This didn’t mean he was in love with her though, which is what Lupin surely was implying. No, he just met her, he’s simply helping her out, giving out a little hope to a lost soul.
“What- don’t just ignore me and walk away!” Lupin exclaimed following Van as he walked away.
“Why are you so good at ignoring me…”
Lupin smiled, pretending to not be annoyed. His mind was quickly again occupied with the girl in the room they has just left, they have already had a run in with the mafia once before. To put it simply, it wasn’t pretty. His now wife, Cardia had been kidnapped along side the daughter of another mafia boss, Shirley. The Gordon Family was a very kind, fair, mafia family and in the end everyone had worked together to get back the ones they loved. But everyone now knows how horrifying the mafia can be, neither of them wanted to think about this poor girls life growing up.
“we probably should have asked things such as her name, age, the name of the mafia… But i really wanted her to get some rest first, and shell be safe here. Im gonna go back up and watch out for anything.” Van spoke up as they made their way down the stairs. “I’ll let you deal with everyone’s questions, I’m going to grab more water and food for her.”
“Alright, always giving me the shit job, aye? You were the one who brought her home- oh bloody hell stop walking away from me!” Lupin cursed him as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Give me a break” Van yelled.
After collecting a pitcher of water along with some snack’s he placed them on a tray and headed again upstairs, turning the corner and landing back at the room where the girl stayed. He creaked the door open ever so slightly, to make sure not to wake her. But turning to set the items on the bedside table he realized she wasn’t sleeping at all, she was sobbing. Her face was turned away from him, she probably hadn’t even heard him enter. Van Helsing was never good at comfort, everyone regards him as “cold” and “emotionless” and would never expect him to care enough for anyone to offer emotional comfort. He himself, hardly thought he cared. Or maybe he tried to pretend not to care, but his heart had a dull ache for this young girl, and he didn’t know why, he had only just met her. Whether he was emotionless or just held them back, she made him want to comfort her and he didn’t know how to deal with that.
“Hey..” he spoke up, she visibly jumped and turned her head around.
“Oh! Im sorry I.. I thought you guys had left…” she hastily wiped the tears from her eyes and worked herself back onto the other side of the bed, to face him.
“I had, but I came back up to watch out for you. The mafia isn’t a joke for certain.” When he said that her face filled with worry, noticing he quickly too back his words,
“I mean, if someone was sent, not that they could know where we are, you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself in this state. But truly, don’t worry too much about it, that’s why I’m here.”
She relaxed, but still held the frown that she’d came with, yet to let go of it.
“Please don’t cry, everything will be okay.” Van let out, surprising himself. He didn’t look unsure of himself however, and she bursted into tears. He panicked,
“Wait I um!” He placed his hand on her arm and she grabbed ahold of him, bringing him into a hug. He gasped and fell into leaning on the bed. Sitting there in shock for a moment, he slowly and gently placed his arms around her. His expression relaxed into a soft, sad smile.
“I know…” He did know, he was under control once, too.
“God sent me such an angel.” She choked out into his shoulder. An angel? That’s the last thing he would expect to hear from anyone about him. He was more of a monster than an angel.
Slowly, she regained her composure and when she pulled away Van could see on her face that she needed that, she was the most relaxed she had been since she got there. She laid back down, Van lifted himself from the bed and pulled the blanket back up to her.
“Miss, may I ask your name?” He asked, sitting down in the chair beside the bed.
“Mhm, its Evelyn.” She sighed, still worked up from crying.
“It’s nice to have met you, Evelyn. If you aren’t up to it, tell me, but if you could give me more information I’d id like to ask a few questions? I’d like to know as much as possible, to keep you out of harms way.” He asked tenderly, in all honesty she has felt the best shes felt in a very long time, talking to him about all of this felt like a calming idea.
“I’m up for it.” She replied. Van smiled, very slightly. She noticed how his happy expression is always so light, like he doesn’t think he should be happy.
“First… Tell me about yourself, do you have any hobbies? How old are you?” Van smirked, she started laughing slightly.
“Hehe, hobbies? I wonder how that will help you keep me out of harms way.” She smiled, smiled, he liked that. When she smiled, it made him wanna smile. This is what Lupin would call love at first sight, but that doesn’t happen to Abraham Van Helsing. Not that he would believe in such a thing anyway.
“Well, I don’t want to run at you with all these difficult, hurtful questions to start you off, miss.”
“I really appreciate that. Um, what did you say your name was again? I apologize I’m terrible with names.” She asked him, with curious eyes.
“It’s Abraham Van Helsing.” He told her, expecting her to know the name. Hesitating because of it.
“That’s such a lovely name, your parent chose well.” She smiled. A name that people associate only with war, she saw it as lovely.
“I’m 18, by the way. I also enjoy baking and gardening. Before everything occurred, I would tend to the garden and work with herbs.”
“An herbalist, hm?” He inquired, impressed.
“Well, I’m not sure about that…” She looked away shyly “Thats a pretty formal title, for what I did.”
“Still, impressive.” She smiled, no one even appreciated her work when she did it. Van shifted, worried to ask the next question.
“Miss, might I ask the name of the mafia family who you were apart of?” He looked at her, praying this wouldn’t upset her too much.
Van Helsing stared at her, confusion filled his features.”
“That… Are you sure? I don’t think that’s possible..” He asked, even if he heard it correctly the first time.
“Avido Crudele. He died recently, but he was the only leader who I have known. I don’t know any history, but its now led by his son, Percy Crudele.” She explained thoroughly, worried she said something wrong.
“Miss, Avido Crudele isn’t dead.” He stated firmly. She looked at him confused, that can’t be? He is dead, or else Percy would have never took his spot, he never came back from that ship so where could he be? Van Helsing sat back in the chair.
“This just got complicated…”