Chapter Text
Cold spiders of panic crawled down Gabriel Van Helsing's spine.
He sat up, bathed in sweat. The room was completely dark save for the light of a few distant stars, and the glimmering of candles in the dark windows of surrounding Rome. Gabriel's heart was hammering violently and his mouth was dry. He scrambled from the bed, almost upending the little chair and table which were the only other furniture in his sparse room beside the bed. He opened the window to his small room. Slowly, he took a deep intake of the warm night air, releasing it in a single, shaky breath. He continued to breathe, listening to the whirr of crickets and the tinkling of water in the fountain as the hard beating of his heart gradually subsided... then gently, he laid his tousled head against the cool stone of the window sill.
'How can this be?' he whispered to himself. 'Why now?'
There came a rapid, albeit tentative knocking on the bedroom door.
'Van Helsing?' came Carl's timorous voice from behind the oak. 'Are you alright?'
The doorknob twisted and rattled. Carl knocked again. Gabriel heaved a sigh. He wiped his forehead with the back of his arm and went to open the door.
Carl stood as he always did, slightly stooped. He was dressed in his night-cap and gown, his unmanageable blonde hair stuck out in tufts from beneath his cap and he was holding a burning tallow candle. From the candle's soft light, Gabriel could see Carl's blue eyes were full of concern beneath his long pale lashes.
'What is it, Carl?'
'Whatever do you mean, 'what is it'?' said Carl, looking offended. 'I heard you crying out from my room down the hall, practically screaming, I'd be surprised if you haven't woken the whole Vatican.'
'It was just a nightmare,' said Gabriel. 'It was nothing.'
Gabriel turned to go back into the room and sat beneath the wooden crucifix hanging on the wall above the bed. Carl followed him, closing the door behind him and perching on the chair opposite Gabriel, placing the candle down on the table.
'You haven't had a nightmare for almost a year,' said Carl. 'Not since we left Transylvania... and it certainly didn't sound like nothing. As a matter of fact, I have never heard you scream like that in the whole time I have known you. What was it?'
'Now's not the time, Carl.'
'Oh well, suit yourself then,' Carl promptly stood up again. 'I know I can't force it out of you, but I shall be informing Cardinal Jinette in the morning. I know you, Van Helsing. You haven't been yourself recently.'
Carl went to leave, his hand fell on the doorknob once more and pulled it ajar.
'I remember it, Carl...' Gabriel said quietly. Carl paused, his hand still on the door.
“Remember what?” asked Carl, turning, the light from the candle falling in a slant across Gabriel's face. Gabriel's russet eyes flickered upward to Carl's face.
'I remembering murdering him.'