The Van Helsing Conjecture – Excerpt No. 244

As a precaution, Clara inserted a fresh magazine while keeping her backup weapon holstered. She did not feel particularly well, and did not wish to fumble away both weapons at a critical time… sliding across a long marble hallway with a wax finish…

They went up another three flights. Clara realised that more were waiting for them above… Enough to slow us down…

“Through here,” Evelyn said.

Julia complied and found this floor was empty. Evelyn left Clara by Julia, followed closely by several doors splintering in sequence. The angel had seen the footage of controlled detonations of buildings and it looked very much like this… Evelyn’s not fucking around…

“Over here!” Evelyn said.

a cinematic photograph of a long, dimly lit, and eerily abandoned luxury hotel hallway, with splintered wood fragments and debris scattered across the worn, velvet-covered floor, blown out from the gaping, wide-open hotel room doors, their rusted hinges twisted and broken, revealing hints of the once-opulent, now- decaying rooms behind, the walls cracked and peeling, with faded gold accents and intricate moldings, the air thick with the atmosphere of neglect and decay, lit by a faint, eerie glow seeping through the grimy, ornate chandeliers above, casting long shadows across the walls, and illuminating the haze of dust motes suspended in the stagnant air.

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.