The Van Helsing Conjecture – Excerpt No. 139

27 January 2025

Clara last walked these lands during the Roaring Twenties. She had been on her way here when the Terminus was attacked resulting in a complete loss of their gate network. The memory of a ball of fire approaching her as she was shunted to an alternate exit point was seared in her mind.

“The fire scorched my dress too,” Clara quipped.With no other choice, Clara travelled overland by train and ended up walking along the same dusty road. The difference a century made was significant. Back the scars from the conflict were fresh… the scent of cordite lingered in the air…

A cinematic, high-contrast photograph of a 1920s flapper girl with dark brown, bobbed hair and steel grey eyes, standing majestically in the middle of a dimly lit, eerie cemetery, surrounded by crumbling headstones and twisted tree branches, with a faint mist hovering above the damp, dewy grass. The flapper's exquisite, beaded fringe dress, with its delicate silk fabrics, billows around her legs, revealing a subtle hint of sheer stockings and dark Mary Jane heels. The back of her dress is singed, charred, and torn, with smoldering embers and blackened lace, as if she had narrowly escaped a fiery inferno, with the scorched earth and smoldering ashes behind her serving as a haunting testament to her close call. The flapper's pale, porcelain skin appears almost luminescent against the dark, muted colors of the cemetery, while her full, crimson lips curve into a mysterious, enigmatic smile, inviting the viewer to unravel the secrets of her intriguing, troubled past.

Disclaimer: This novel is an work in progress and readers may encounter grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Please view this a draft and not a published work.