The Van Helsing Conjecture – Excerpt No. 149

6 February 2025

Now!

Clara hopped onto the gateway. She would have expected to fall through, or even just transition from one point to the other. Instead, there came the sound of steel toed boots slamming onto wood.

“What the—”

The flash of light enveloped her, and Clara wondered if she was herself made up of light. But it was the sudden sensation of falling that shifted the contents of her stomach that got her attention.

Clara fell through the solid hatch cover…

a cinematic, high-contrast, photo-realistic image of a woman with porcelain skin, shoulder-length curly brown hair, and piercing green eyes, dressed in worn, earth-toned hiking gear, her facial expression a mix of shock and fear as she falls through a solid, ornate hatch cover, surrounded by the crumbling, overgrown ruins of a once-majestic Gothic cathedral, with intricate stone carvings, stained glass shards, and toppled statues, set against a backdrop of a turbulent, gray-clouded sky, with warm, golden lighting streaming through the broken windows, illuminating the scene in a dramatic, cinematic style.

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.