Categories > Movies > Van Helsing > Elixir of Life
Drip. Drip. Drip...drip.
The pounding in the back of her head seemed louder with every drop of water. The room was dark. Her hands were held up over her head by cold, heavy shackles. Her back was to a damp wall, the moisture seeping into the thin T-shirt and shorts she had been wearing while hiking in the hills. Every once in a while she would hear voices in the distance, but her mouth was dry from dehydration and she could only whisper for help. She didn't even know if her eyes were open or closed, the world looked the same either way. Her head rolled forward as she passed out again.
She heard the sound of the door opening, her eyes hurt from the bright light streaming into the dark, circular room she was in. The door closed, but the man who entered seemed to produce his own light. He walked across the room and stood in front of her.
"Well we can't have you dying on us. We need you alive." He held up a ladle from a bucket he was carrying. "It is water, you can drink it. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead." He took a sip from the ladle and offered her the opposite side. She sipped, tentatively, tasting for anything that seemed unusual. It tasted like water, so she took a little more.
"Who are you?" she asked her voice raspy from the damp and lack of use.
"That isn't your concern." He said as he checked her wrists for deep cuts, and stepped back. "You will live until we no longer need you. That is all you need to know."
He held the ladle up one more time, and she took more to drink. Her head rolled forward as he walked across the room. She winced as the door opened and bright light once again flooded her prison. The door slammed shut, and the sound of the lock grinding into place accompanied her into unconsciousness.
He looked at the mouth of the cave, his heavy leather coat collecting the morning dew. He had been here since midnight, hoping for a sign that this was the right spot. He could feel the evil emanating from the cave, but had seen no sign of his foe.
He was alone again. After the Dracula incident, the Order had decided that he and Carl had made a good team, and they had worked together until Carl's death last year. After all of his adventures, Carl had died quietly, in his bed, surrounded by those who had loved him, his family and friends. Gabriel had been hunting a witch in England at the time. He hadn't even made it for Carl's interment; but he had visited his grave on the way to Greece.
Gabriel watched as a man slipped quietly out of the mouth of the cave and began to gather the morning dew. He carefully used his gloved hands to push dewdrops off of the leaves and poured it from the petals of flowers that grew near the mouth of the cave. He only gathered the dew from those plants; he worked until he filled a small bottle, and looking around to see if anyone was watching, slipped back into the cave.
"What are you up to, Meph?" Gabriel asked the air. He shifted a bit, his trusty crossbow digging into his side. Carl had modified it a few years ago to shoot a special bolt with a holy water canister inside that burst when it hit. It made a good defense against demons, and it was demons he was hunting this time. One in particular; Satan's deal maker, Mephistopheles, had been causing problems in the hills of Greece. The Order sent him to find out what Meph was up to, and stop him.
Gabriel started as he heard rocks tumbling down the path. Below him a man cursed in English. A few seconds later, he appeared. He was dressed in an expensive Italian cotton suit, carrying a briefcase. Before he entered the cave, the man paused, looked at his watch, looked back over his shoulder, pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and started into the cave.
Gabriel slipped down from his hiding place, and followed the man into the cave. He paused a few feet into the cave to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then followed the beam of the light. He moved quietly, his long coat held close to his body, his leather hat pulled low on his face, his boots leaving hardly a print in the dust on the ground. As he moved through the cave he noticed that the rough wall at his back gave way to carved stone. Columns lined the corridor, the beam of the light highlighting them. Between the columns, friezes and statues of ancient gods looked on. Suddenly the light turned.
Gabriel rushed to where the light disappeared, to find it gone entirely. He looked down the new corridor to see light coming from the end of the tunnel and the sound of men's voices drifting up to him. He slipped slowly toward the light, noticing in passing that the walls had changed again to a rougher stone with hand carvings of strange female figures, rotund bellies, large breasts and hips with no face or feet.
"...lab. Ancient rites and rituals have no purpose in modern pharmaceutical production." Gabriel stopped to listen.
"If the ritual works, and you get a working amount of the elixir to analyze, does it matter how we got the elixir." A voce Gabriel recognized from his long forgotten past, Mephistopheles.
"The deal was for a workable dose of the elixir plus test subjects. This could be the cure for all the sexual dysfunctional disorders in the world, and I want to cash in on it." The man said, angrily.
"Not to mention the illegal sales on the street." Meph's smooth voice interjected.
"That is not my concern." The man stated.
"Well, one of your test subjects is cooling her heels in a cell, and unless my ears deceive me, the other one is listening right now." Mephistopheles moved like lightning and Gabriel found himself pressed against the wall with the demon's arm across his throat.
"Hello, Gabriel." Meph's jovial rosy face belied the strength of the arm cutting off the air to his lungs. "It has been too long."
Gabriel brought his knee up into Meph's chest to push him off balance, but the demon wouldn't budge.
"So human of you. I expected you to beat me with your wings, or do you still have them?" A grin split his face. "I forgot. You are one of us now. Cast out, but still you do his dirty work."
Gabriel grabbed one of Carl's bolts and shoved it into Meph's chest. Meph backed up in agony as the holy water chamber burst and seared his flesh. Gabriel collapsed on the floor, coughing as he drew air into his lungs. Two more demons came out of the darkness and grabbed his arms.
"Take him to a cell, and make sure he is secure. I am looking forward to his reactions to the elixir." The two lesser demons dragged him down another corridor, with more of the ancient female figures lining the walls. Behind him he heard chanting in joined male and female voices praising Dona and Aphrodite. "He has to be alive and functional, other than that, have fun." drifted down the corridor from Meph.
Drip....drip....drip....CLANG!
She started awake. The locks on the cell door were opening. She opened her eyes slowly against the glare of the light from outside. Framed by the door was an ominous black figure in a long coat or cloak with a dark hat pulled down over its face, its arms outstretched, and in the glare it looked as if white wings spread out behind it. Suddenly it was catapulted into the cell, landing face first on the floor, and two red figures, somehow exuding a pulsing red light from them, entered the room. They lifted the figure from the floor and shackled him to a wall near where she hung. The red figures placed a torch in a holder across the room from where they were confined and left, cackling. The door slammed shut and the locks ground into place.
She looked at the figure hanging suspended by it's wrists from the wall. Long black hair hung in loose curls, obscuring its face. It wore a long leather coat, leather boots she could see the toes from under the coat. Blood dripped down onto the floor from somewhere under the coat and began to pool from the tip of its left boot. Suddenly it moaned and lifted its head.
Even cut and bruised, his face was beautiful. Sculpted, chiseled, features reminded her of the Zeus statue she had found just last week, was it last week? She didn't have any idea of how long she had been here. His golden brown eyes opened and focused on her.
"Who are you?" He demanded, glaring at her through his hair.
"Who the hell are you?" She croaked out.
"I don't have time for this." He said as he started straining at the shackles that held him to the wall. As his body arched forward in his struggles the coat opened and she saw four long gashes across his chest, the blood ran from them and down his left pants leg.
"If you don't stop you are going to bleed to death." She said.
"No I am not." He replied, and somehow one of the shackles came loose from the wall. She stared amazed as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a set of lock picks and started working on the other one. "Now if you want to get out of here, who are you?"
"Dr. Christine Demolay, professor of Archeology, University of Huston." She said as he dropped to the floor, leaning back against the wall. He looked up at her. "And who the hell are you?"
"Gabriel Van Helsing." He said as he struggled across to her. He was taller than she was she noticed as he worked on her right shackle. He needed a shave, too.
As her right arm came down and feeling returned, she bit her lip against the pins and needles and asked "No relation to Dr. Van Helsing I hope?" He glared at her as her left arm dropped and all her weight returned to her feet. She fell forward unable to support her own weight. He caught her in his arms and eased her down to sit on the ground. "
"No, no relation. Are you any relation to Pelagius Demolay?"
She looked up at him in shock. Most people don't even know who Pelagius Demolay was; much less ask if she is related. "Distantly."
"Shit"
She was looking at his chest. "We really need to bandage that." She said looking around the room for something to use. Other than the torch the room was bare. Just then there were noises outside the room.
The door opened and in walked her benefactor from earlier.
"Well, that took less time than I thought. You have learned a few things from these mortals, Gabriel." He said. He walked over and looked at the cuts on Gabriel's chest. "Minor wounds, they won't effect the outcome of the test; although I am surprised you didn't just heal them. Oh yes I FORGOT again, you can't do that anymore since you were cast out. I am grateful my master is not so....unforgiving. See not even a scar from your earlier trick." He opened his shirt. His skin was a dark burnt red, with out a mar.
Christine looked at the two men. Gabriel reached under his coat. "Sorry, old friend, but we had to disarm you; I have to admit I was impressed. I didn't know there were that many weapons for killing demons."
Mephistopheles looked at Christine sitting on the floor. "That can't be comfortable, my dear." And reached out a hand to her; she ignored it. Gabriel stepped between them.
"Leave her alone, Mephistopheles. This is between us."
"Oh, no Gabriel, she is very much an integral part of this, as you will see." Behind him the door opened again and two men wearing some sort of ceremonial robes walked in, followed by seven women carrying food and drink. Behind them came five more men carrying tables and chairs. The table was set up in the middle of the room with three chairs; the food and drink were placed on the table.
"Won't you both join me?" Meph asked, indicating the table.
"No" Gabriel said.
"No" Christine started to say, but found herself standing against her will and walking to the table and sitting down in a chair. Mephistopheles laughed.
"Humans are so amusing, aren't they, Gabriel. This one honestly thought she could disobey me." He sat in the chair opposite where Christine was sitting.
Gabriel walked over to the table and sat down. He looked at Christine who seemed to be in a drugged state, under the demon's control.
"That's better. Why don't you tell us about your research, Christine?" Meph asked as he unfolded a napkin and placed it on his lap. One of the five men who had carried in the table and chairs started to serve plates of roasted lamb, figs, dates, grapes, olives and fresh bread.
Christine fought hard against the compulsion, but heard herself chatting quite amiably about her research into the worship of Dona in this part of Greece, about looking for the ancient temple of Dona and Aphrodite where the mother and daughter were worshiped as one deity with fertility rites. About how she was hoping to prove that Dona was the same mother goddess as the Neolithic Venus figures and prove a connection to the ancient mother worship.
"Stop it." Gabriel hissed. "She isn't a toy for you to play with, Meph."
"No, you are right, she isn't"
Suddenly, Christine regained control over herself. She was holding an empty goblet in her hand. She didn't even remember drinking it.
The seven women suddenly grabbed her and dragged her from the room, singing and chanting ancient fertility songs.
Gabriel stood up to try to stop them but the men grabbed him and held him in place.
"No, Gabriel, we still need to talk, and the ladies are only going to make sure she has a nice hot bath and is quite comfortable. Well as comfortable as she can be under the circumstances."
"What have you done?"
"I found this temple several years ago, and inside was the most wonderful store of ancient scrolls and treasures, including a recipe for something called the 'Elixir of Life.' I recruited these kind people to start trying to recreate it, and have had some modest success. You see, our friend, Dr. Demolay was onto something. This is the home of an ancient fertility cult. Older than the Greek civilizations, and this recipe is supposed to create an elixir that creates life from the reluctant or unable." Meph smiled into his wine goblet. "Of course, my master was thrilled with the discovery. We finished the elixir this morning and are ready to test it. Who better to test it on than the woman who has spent most of her career looking for this place, and a fallen angel, forbidden by God to know a human woman? My master will be so pleased to have you in Hell; he is even saving you a special place."
Mephistopheles laughed as he vanished into a cloud of sulfurous smoke. His voice drifted out of the cloud. "One more thing I forgot to mention. The elixir is deadly, unless properly worked out of the body. My priests and priestesses will explain it all to you." His voice faded away.
The pounding in the back of her head seemed louder with every drop of water. The room was dark. Her hands were held up over her head by cold, heavy shackles. Her back was to a damp wall, the moisture seeping into the thin T-shirt and shorts she had been wearing while hiking in the hills. Every once in a while she would hear voices in the distance, but her mouth was dry from dehydration and she could only whisper for help. She didn't even know if her eyes were open or closed, the world looked the same either way. Her head rolled forward as she passed out again.
She heard the sound of the door opening, her eyes hurt from the bright light streaming into the dark, circular room she was in. The door closed, but the man who entered seemed to produce his own light. He walked across the room and stood in front of her.
"Well we can't have you dying on us. We need you alive." He held up a ladle from a bucket he was carrying. "It is water, you can drink it. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead." He took a sip from the ladle and offered her the opposite side. She sipped, tentatively, tasting for anything that seemed unusual. It tasted like water, so she took a little more.
"Who are you?" she asked her voice raspy from the damp and lack of use.
"That isn't your concern." He said as he checked her wrists for deep cuts, and stepped back. "You will live until we no longer need you. That is all you need to know."
He held the ladle up one more time, and she took more to drink. Her head rolled forward as he walked across the room. She winced as the door opened and bright light once again flooded her prison. The door slammed shut, and the sound of the lock grinding into place accompanied her into unconsciousness.
He looked at the mouth of the cave, his heavy leather coat collecting the morning dew. He had been here since midnight, hoping for a sign that this was the right spot. He could feel the evil emanating from the cave, but had seen no sign of his foe.
He was alone again. After the Dracula incident, the Order had decided that he and Carl had made a good team, and they had worked together until Carl's death last year. After all of his adventures, Carl had died quietly, in his bed, surrounded by those who had loved him, his family and friends. Gabriel had been hunting a witch in England at the time. He hadn't even made it for Carl's interment; but he had visited his grave on the way to Greece.
Gabriel watched as a man slipped quietly out of the mouth of the cave and began to gather the morning dew. He carefully used his gloved hands to push dewdrops off of the leaves and poured it from the petals of flowers that grew near the mouth of the cave. He only gathered the dew from those plants; he worked until he filled a small bottle, and looking around to see if anyone was watching, slipped back into the cave.
"What are you up to, Meph?" Gabriel asked the air. He shifted a bit, his trusty crossbow digging into his side. Carl had modified it a few years ago to shoot a special bolt with a holy water canister inside that burst when it hit. It made a good defense against demons, and it was demons he was hunting this time. One in particular; Satan's deal maker, Mephistopheles, had been causing problems in the hills of Greece. The Order sent him to find out what Meph was up to, and stop him.
Gabriel started as he heard rocks tumbling down the path. Below him a man cursed in English. A few seconds later, he appeared. He was dressed in an expensive Italian cotton suit, carrying a briefcase. Before he entered the cave, the man paused, looked at his watch, looked back over his shoulder, pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and started into the cave.
Gabriel slipped down from his hiding place, and followed the man into the cave. He paused a few feet into the cave to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then followed the beam of the light. He moved quietly, his long coat held close to his body, his leather hat pulled low on his face, his boots leaving hardly a print in the dust on the ground. As he moved through the cave he noticed that the rough wall at his back gave way to carved stone. Columns lined the corridor, the beam of the light highlighting them. Between the columns, friezes and statues of ancient gods looked on. Suddenly the light turned.
Gabriel rushed to where the light disappeared, to find it gone entirely. He looked down the new corridor to see light coming from the end of the tunnel and the sound of men's voices drifting up to him. He slipped slowly toward the light, noticing in passing that the walls had changed again to a rougher stone with hand carvings of strange female figures, rotund bellies, large breasts and hips with no face or feet.
"...lab. Ancient rites and rituals have no purpose in modern pharmaceutical production." Gabriel stopped to listen.
"If the ritual works, and you get a working amount of the elixir to analyze, does it matter how we got the elixir." A voce Gabriel recognized from his long forgotten past, Mephistopheles.
"The deal was for a workable dose of the elixir plus test subjects. This could be the cure for all the sexual dysfunctional disorders in the world, and I want to cash in on it." The man said, angrily.
"Not to mention the illegal sales on the street." Meph's smooth voice interjected.
"That is not my concern." The man stated.
"Well, one of your test subjects is cooling her heels in a cell, and unless my ears deceive me, the other one is listening right now." Mephistopheles moved like lightning and Gabriel found himself pressed against the wall with the demon's arm across his throat.
"Hello, Gabriel." Meph's jovial rosy face belied the strength of the arm cutting off the air to his lungs. "It has been too long."
Gabriel brought his knee up into Meph's chest to push him off balance, but the demon wouldn't budge.
"So human of you. I expected you to beat me with your wings, or do you still have them?" A grin split his face. "I forgot. You are one of us now. Cast out, but still you do his dirty work."
Gabriel grabbed one of Carl's bolts and shoved it into Meph's chest. Meph backed up in agony as the holy water chamber burst and seared his flesh. Gabriel collapsed on the floor, coughing as he drew air into his lungs. Two more demons came out of the darkness and grabbed his arms.
"Take him to a cell, and make sure he is secure. I am looking forward to his reactions to the elixir." The two lesser demons dragged him down another corridor, with more of the ancient female figures lining the walls. Behind him he heard chanting in joined male and female voices praising Dona and Aphrodite. "He has to be alive and functional, other than that, have fun." drifted down the corridor from Meph.
Drip....drip....drip....CLANG!
She started awake. The locks on the cell door were opening. She opened her eyes slowly against the glare of the light from outside. Framed by the door was an ominous black figure in a long coat or cloak with a dark hat pulled down over its face, its arms outstretched, and in the glare it looked as if white wings spread out behind it. Suddenly it was catapulted into the cell, landing face first on the floor, and two red figures, somehow exuding a pulsing red light from them, entered the room. They lifted the figure from the floor and shackled him to a wall near where she hung. The red figures placed a torch in a holder across the room from where they were confined and left, cackling. The door slammed shut and the locks ground into place.
She looked at the figure hanging suspended by it's wrists from the wall. Long black hair hung in loose curls, obscuring its face. It wore a long leather coat, leather boots she could see the toes from under the coat. Blood dripped down onto the floor from somewhere under the coat and began to pool from the tip of its left boot. Suddenly it moaned and lifted its head.
Even cut and bruised, his face was beautiful. Sculpted, chiseled, features reminded her of the Zeus statue she had found just last week, was it last week? She didn't have any idea of how long she had been here. His golden brown eyes opened and focused on her.
"Who are you?" He demanded, glaring at her through his hair.
"Who the hell are you?" She croaked out.
"I don't have time for this." He said as he started straining at the shackles that held him to the wall. As his body arched forward in his struggles the coat opened and she saw four long gashes across his chest, the blood ran from them and down his left pants leg.
"If you don't stop you are going to bleed to death." She said.
"No I am not." He replied, and somehow one of the shackles came loose from the wall. She stared amazed as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a set of lock picks and started working on the other one. "Now if you want to get out of here, who are you?"
"Dr. Christine Demolay, professor of Archeology, University of Huston." She said as he dropped to the floor, leaning back against the wall. He looked up at her. "And who the hell are you?"
"Gabriel Van Helsing." He said as he struggled across to her. He was taller than she was she noticed as he worked on her right shackle. He needed a shave, too.
As her right arm came down and feeling returned, she bit her lip against the pins and needles and asked "No relation to Dr. Van Helsing I hope?" He glared at her as her left arm dropped and all her weight returned to her feet. She fell forward unable to support her own weight. He caught her in his arms and eased her down to sit on the ground. "
"No, no relation. Are you any relation to Pelagius Demolay?"
She looked up at him in shock. Most people don't even know who Pelagius Demolay was; much less ask if she is related. "Distantly."
"Shit"
She was looking at his chest. "We really need to bandage that." She said looking around the room for something to use. Other than the torch the room was bare. Just then there were noises outside the room.
The door opened and in walked her benefactor from earlier.
"Well, that took less time than I thought. You have learned a few things from these mortals, Gabriel." He said. He walked over and looked at the cuts on Gabriel's chest. "Minor wounds, they won't effect the outcome of the test; although I am surprised you didn't just heal them. Oh yes I FORGOT again, you can't do that anymore since you were cast out. I am grateful my master is not so....unforgiving. See not even a scar from your earlier trick." He opened his shirt. His skin was a dark burnt red, with out a mar.
Christine looked at the two men. Gabriel reached under his coat. "Sorry, old friend, but we had to disarm you; I have to admit I was impressed. I didn't know there were that many weapons for killing demons."
Mephistopheles looked at Christine sitting on the floor. "That can't be comfortable, my dear." And reached out a hand to her; she ignored it. Gabriel stepped between them.
"Leave her alone, Mephistopheles. This is between us."
"Oh, no Gabriel, she is very much an integral part of this, as you will see." Behind him the door opened again and two men wearing some sort of ceremonial robes walked in, followed by seven women carrying food and drink. Behind them came five more men carrying tables and chairs. The table was set up in the middle of the room with three chairs; the food and drink were placed on the table.
"Won't you both join me?" Meph asked, indicating the table.
"No" Gabriel said.
"No" Christine started to say, but found herself standing against her will and walking to the table and sitting down in a chair. Mephistopheles laughed.
"Humans are so amusing, aren't they, Gabriel. This one honestly thought she could disobey me." He sat in the chair opposite where Christine was sitting.
Gabriel walked over to the table and sat down. He looked at Christine who seemed to be in a drugged state, under the demon's control.
"That's better. Why don't you tell us about your research, Christine?" Meph asked as he unfolded a napkin and placed it on his lap. One of the five men who had carried in the table and chairs started to serve plates of roasted lamb, figs, dates, grapes, olives and fresh bread.
Christine fought hard against the compulsion, but heard herself chatting quite amiably about her research into the worship of Dona in this part of Greece, about looking for the ancient temple of Dona and Aphrodite where the mother and daughter were worshiped as one deity with fertility rites. About how she was hoping to prove that Dona was the same mother goddess as the Neolithic Venus figures and prove a connection to the ancient mother worship.
"Stop it." Gabriel hissed. "She isn't a toy for you to play with, Meph."
"No, you are right, she isn't"
Suddenly, Christine regained control over herself. She was holding an empty goblet in her hand. She didn't even remember drinking it.
The seven women suddenly grabbed her and dragged her from the room, singing and chanting ancient fertility songs.
Gabriel stood up to try to stop them but the men grabbed him and held him in place.
"No, Gabriel, we still need to talk, and the ladies are only going to make sure she has a nice hot bath and is quite comfortable. Well as comfortable as she can be under the circumstances."
"What have you done?"
"I found this temple several years ago, and inside was the most wonderful store of ancient scrolls and treasures, including a recipe for something called the 'Elixir of Life.' I recruited these kind people to start trying to recreate it, and have had some modest success. You see, our friend, Dr. Demolay was onto something. This is the home of an ancient fertility cult. Older than the Greek civilizations, and this recipe is supposed to create an elixir that creates life from the reluctant or unable." Meph smiled into his wine goblet. "Of course, my master was thrilled with the discovery. We finished the elixir this morning and are ready to test it. Who better to test it on than the woman who has spent most of her career looking for this place, and a fallen angel, forbidden by God to know a human woman? My master will be so pleased to have you in Hell; he is even saving you a special place."
Mephistopheles laughed as he vanished into a cloud of sulfurous smoke. His voice drifted out of the cloud. "One more thing I forgot to mention. The elixir is deadly, unless properly worked out of the body. My priests and priestesses will explain it all to you." His voice faded away.
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