#also the idea that Bram Stoker wasn't an actual author but a pen name is both very funny and very interesting

[cry-ptidd]

Okay! Thank you so much! And I might ramble and shit gets sad and dark real quick.

To me, Abraham Van Helsing has/had a bleeding heart. Abraham cares deeply about not just about his loved ones, but everyone. He symbolizes agape - the love for your fellow man - in my story. Yes he is morally ambiguous, and later turned cruel, but he always believed it was for the greater good. He does have a bit of a savior and martyr complex though, and he lies and tells ‘half-truths’ and keeps people in the dark about certain things to ‘protect them.’ Abraham is Christian - Protestant- but he has some witchcraft in his veins, he knows this and honors both his lineage and his Christian beliefs, you could technically classify him as a ‘Christian witch.’

In my story, the Hellsing family has been close friends with two other families; Blacklocks and the Youngbloods. The Blacklocks and Youngblood were similar to House Hellsing, but the magic in their blood has been heavily diluted, barely existent.

Abraham was life-long friends with Arlo and Diora Blacklock, he is the uncle/godfather to their children; Twins (19) Lydia and Killian, and Jaime (9). In comes Katherina ‘Kathy’ Youngblood, whose parents died when she was little and Abraham and the Blacklocks took her in and she was raised along side the twins. Even before Arlo’s death, Abraham personally attended to the sickly and bedridden Diora, especially when she had Jaime months after Arlo’s death. Abraham would also later personally attend to Kathy as she got older and developed unexplainable chronic pain.

Abraham loved those kids. At the time, they were the closest thing he had to children of his own. Lydia was joy and loveliness incarnate, Killian was broody but grounded, Jaime with his youthfulness was a calming balm on everyone’s soul, and Kathy was as quick as a whip and extremely intelligent. With Kathy, when she was 18 and expressed a desire to become a physician- proper Victorian etiquette be damned - Abraham leaped and hollered for joy and picked her up and spun her, exclaiming that god has gifted him another prodigy. And so, he began to teach her what he knew, even took her to the night classes he lectured at the local university.

She showed great promise, she was talented and driven and compassionate.

Then came Dracula, who they knew as ‘Vlad’ at the time. Through time and unforeseen circumstances that would force them all to work together, and Kathy, ‘Vlad’ soon became ingrained into their sudden, odd, mismatched family.

Abraham blames himself greatly for what would happen 15 months later. Her knew something was wrong, he felt it in his gut.

Killian had been sent away for a series of assignments over seas months ago, they all knew he would be gone for a long while but each of the letters he sent back felt wrong even though in them he claimed he was fine and that he was just very busy. (Dracula had left Killian for dead and at the mercy of his Brides a year ago, all that time Killian was suffering and everyone back home was ignorant to it. Abraham never forgave himself for that).

Kathy was becoming close to ‘Vlad,’ the two exchanging looks when they thought he and the others weren’t looking or shared cryptic sentences between each other when he thought he or the others wouldn’t catch on. He turned a blind eye to it because ‘Vlad’ made Kathy happy. Abraham knew what ‘Vlad’ was - a vampire - but at the time, Abraham didn’t know who ‘Vlad’ was. (‘Vlad’ did make Kathy happy, but at what cost to Kathy and the others? That bastard. That fucking bastard!).

Lydia was getting sick and acting strange slowly as the year went by. The signs were there, but Abraham didn’t or couldn’t see it. The naively thought it was Lydia coming into what little abilities were left in the Blacklock bloodline (which turns out he wasn’t wrong about. But that less-than-a-man abomination was feeding off of her and using her as a vassal the entire time. And when that day came and reports of a woman in white feeding off of children started coming in and it turned out to be Lydia, undead and blood staining her wedding dress, it was Kathy who had to dispatch the person she’s called sister and best friend their entire lives).

Diora was still sickly but wasn’t bed-bound, she could get around with a cane. She shared his same questions and concerns about ‘Vlad’ and Kathy but also shared the same belief that ‘Vlad’ made Kathy happy. And at the time, Arthur was happy as well, as selfish as it was. (He loved Diora. Lord above, he loved her. That night, when he found her throat ripped open and Lydia’s corpse empty of blood near by, the first time in years Abraham broke down in such a way since the death of his first wife and son, that he - always strong and composed - had to be taken away from them both by Lord Dominick Sweet and Dr. Aubrey Davies who were also in their own state of disbelief and shock).

After poor, innocent Lydia was finally put to rest. The hunt for Dracula was on. All of them - Lord Dominick Sweet, Dr. Aubrey Davies, Rafael Arroyo/Chimalli, Kathy, and himself were so deep in grief and anger it fueled them, kept the hunt alive.

Abraham would never get the image of Raf being eviscerated in front of him, not Kathy’s scream from witnessing it. Abraham loved Raf like a son, and how does that love tied to Abraham present itself? A brutal death just like Lydia and Diora at the hands of a singular monster.

It was Kathy who delivered the final blow to Dracula, killing him. After Kathy cut off his head, there were several moments of unforgettable silence before Kathy began to shriek and cry and scream. He held her tightly as she sobbed into his coat, seeing as the humanity returned to her and as the reality of what Kathy had gone through and unintentionally invited into their lives, that the ‘man’ she loved was a monster who took everything from them.

Abraham handed her catatonic-self to Killian and Dominick as Abraham found and carefully wrapped Raf’s body to be sent back to America for a proper funeral. And later, Abraham found and secretly took custody of Dracula’s body.

By the time they all returned to England, Abraham knew what he would do. After everything, Dracula still had much to pay and answer for, and he would by Abraham’s will and skills in the occult alone.

He told Kathy and Killian to take Jaime and to leave England, to start their lives over somewhere far and safe from the horrors that occurred in England. They did, taking Raf’s body and promising to return him to his family when they arrived in America so that he could be laid to rest.

He told Dominick to move on and live as well, and he would some time later.

Meanwhile, Abraham - knowing that his remaining loved ones are far away and safe and ignorance about was to happen next - began his work. He brought Dracula back, and broke him. Over and over and over and over again. He branded him with forbidden slave crests, binding him to Abraham and his family forever. Abraham knew that revenge would not bring Lydia or Diora or Raf back, but damn did it feel good.

Abraham kept in contact with Kathy and Killian and Jaime and Dominick through letters throughout the years but never saw them in person, not wanting to put them at risk again even through his ‘pet’ had long since replaced his arrogance with obedience.

Abraham never told any of them what he did and was still doing.

Abraham never told or spoke about any of them - especially Kathy - to it. And when it had the nerve to speak or ask about her, Abraham let it be known through torturous means that it would her see her again and it wasn’t worthy to say her name.

And Abraham sure as hell didn’t tell it that months after Kathy moved to America with Killian and Jaime, he received a letter from Kathy, informing him that she was pregnant. In fact, he burned the letter after reading and re-reading it a dozen times over and it lead to a particularly brutal session of experimentation for it.

In 1897, a year after the events and when everyone left, when ‘Dracula’ by ‘Bram Stoker’ was published, Abraham scoffed but smiled a small and proud smile, knowing exactly who wrote it. Only Kathy could be so gutsy.

A handful of years later, Abraham would attend the funeral of Lord Dominick Sweet and encounter Kathy and Killina and Jaime there, along with the purple-eyed young child - a girl - who was perched on Kathy’s hip the entire time.

Abraham never spoke the truth about anything to either them or it. And even in death, Abraham protected/protects Killian and Jaime and Kathy and her daughter from it.

HELL YEAH!!! I love this!! Amazing!!