Chapter Text
They had been picked up in a brand new black limousine. Surprised, when they arrived at the airport, she had seen a perfectly uniformed driver carrying a sign with her name, it was not that she expected someone to pick them up or welcome them, but at least her great-grandfather had given some attention to them.
The sky was overcast and that thick fog made everything even more complicated and slow for their arrival the state, to the Van Helsing residence that was a few kilometers outside of Amsterdam. There was little visibility.
Abraham had ordered to bring Ericka and Drac in to give them a very important notice, it was the first time she would go to where she was born and did not know what to feel and how to take the words he had said before hanging up the phone.
They moved slowly. Uneasily, she lashed out against the driver.
"Excuse me if you want, I can drive" Drac had taken her by the shoulder to reassure her.
The driver, with his eyes to the front and with all professionalism did not said anything to respond to that provocation.
Ericka, feeling that she was advancing as if she were a turtle, could not help feeling frustrated and seeing her husband with his face apparently full of tranquility, she could not contain himself.
"I have sailed in worse climates, this is nothing". Crossing and uncrossing her legs.
“Relax dear, I could tell you that we fly but the weather is not ideal, the rain has not stopped or decreased its intensity since we got off the plane" Seeing how the blonde was restless, and occasionally behaved like a girl.
She was about to consider that suggestion, she did not mind getting a little wet if that implied that they would arrive faster. Several minutes ago she had realized that there was not a single house or car, she had only seen trees and trees through the glass.
“Are you sure we’re not lost?”
"We are already in the state, madam, there are approximately 15,000 acres and we are heading to the main entrance" The driver only limited to point his hand out the forest.
Minutes later the limo stopped before a huge wrought iron gate, honking the horn, one of the guards went down to check the plates and he let them pass almost instantly.
Going through that immense forest for a few more minutes, she began to see a complex, consisting of several residences in Gothic style, she remembered seeing them in some photos of her great-grandfather.
Arriving at the main entrance and being received by two servants who carried umbrellas, they were escorted inside and they took off their coats.
“No, thank you very much " said Drac gesturing with his hand, “if I leave my cape here it can become very rebellious.”
That servant only limited himself to making a look of surprise at that comment.
Drac, who was used to majestic things, could not deny that the Van Helsings' lobby was amazing, the crystal chandelier could compete with those he had in his hotel and in the middle of the hall there was the remnant of a Viking ship, almost intact, the place looked more like a museum.
The walls had a gray-blue wallpaper and were filled with paintings of famous artists that he perfectly identified, each of them illuminated perfectly to highlight their strokes.
Ericka who saw all that with reserve, could not deny that it caused her some impression to be in the place where her parents lived, she turned to see both walls to see if she could identify them reflected in any of the many paintings that were there.
A few steps interrupted those thoughts.
"The Lord will attend you in a few hours, he is resting for the moment Mr. and Mrs. Dracula, but I will take care of guiding you to your rooms. Welcome."
The butler led them through those corridors skillfully with a fascinated Drac observing all of that, he did not want to miss any details of the place where his wife had been born.
Furniture from different eras and even also Greco-Roman armors and sculptures could be seen. It was a gallery in the strictest sense of the word.
For her it was only a rather cold residence, where there weren’t any kind of memories, she suddenly felt a great nostalgia for the hotel, for her real home.
The butler stopped and opened one of the doors indicating the entrance.
It was a very large room with a dining room and a private room and even a grand piano in white. The fireplace was lit, giving a dim light and providing a feeling a little cozier than the cold corridors that they have just walked.
In the room were two double doors, one at each end, closed, she wondered what would be behind them, one should be the room, but the other one?
The butler as if reading her thoughts opened the first one. They entered a cream-colored room with golden details and floor-to-ceiling windows, with a desk, a small living room and a four-poster bed, all surrounded by exquisite details, she supposed this had to to be the room that had been hers, but obviously there was no longer a cradle there.
He was also showing them the large dressing room and their respective bathrooms that were joined through a corridor that had a jacuzzi in common, made of a fine Italian marble, he led them back to the room to open the second door, there was a much smaller room with a wallpaper with floral motifs and children's decorations and set next to the window were stuffed dolls that were aligned, they looked from a very long time ago along with a rocking chair. She also noticed that there was a small wooden doll house and saw an old-looking cradle.
This was her room and in the one they had been was her parents' , now she understood everything.
"The Lord asked me to leave everything as it was when you lived here, he indicated the exact position of all the things."
She was surprised and moved to see all that, she would have liked that her childhood to be different and being able to know her parents. The room seemed to be very carefully decorated. Drac, seeing her excited, could not help but feel the same.
Approaching those stuffed animals, she sat in the middle of them feeling the old smell and in some of them was the natural wear of time.
“Are you ok darling?“ he went to where the crib was while running a hand on it and imagining how adorable Ericka must have been. He did not deny that it had been a good idea to come here, but the he did not comfortable with the intentions for which the old man had brought them here.
"I lived with my grandfather, the two of us alone for over 34 years and he never told me anything about all this" she said with a slightly trembling voice. Getting up and approaching him and hugging him tightly. "He was always very hard with me and now I understand why, it must have been very difficult to be alone for a long time and he wanted to prepare me for whatever I had to face" Looking at that environment, with things that had belonged to her and that maybe her parents had chosen.
Her great-grandfather deep down had to be a sentimental person to not have thrown all those things, it hurt that he had not been more expressive to her, she knew that he adored her but seeing all that she realized that her great-grandfather had been silent on many things and she would have liked it if he had shared them with her.
Returning to the bedroom, sitting down and touching those sheets, she wanted to imagine what it would have been like to live there with her parents.