The Van Helsing Conjecture – Excerpt No. 291

“See these?” Clara asked. “What creature has wings?”

There came another pause which meant Clara was closing the space between them too fast. To give them a chance to adjust to her presence, she slowed down.

“Harpy?”

In the background Julia chuckled, but Clara maintained a razor sharp focus. This man must have been briefed, which meant he was playing with her. They are sussing out other potential reasons for my existence.

“A creature that is more bird than woman, renowned for being unbelievably ugly? You might want to get your eyes checked.”

The men facing her gulped, and she was pretty sure that several women in the audience snickered. That might play in my favour.

A dramatic, high-contrast photograph of a harpy, with accentuated hag-like features, including wrinkled, pale skin, a crooked nose, and sunken eyes, situated in a grand, opulent marble hall with towering columns and vaulted ceilings, surrounded by a semicircle of mysterious, hooded figures, their faces obscured by the shadows of their hoods, with an atmosphere of foreboding and mystique, captured in a cinematic style with warm, golden lighting and deep, rich shadows, evoking a sense of ancient, mystical power and forgotten knowledge, with the harpy's wings and feathers a deep, iridescent blue, and the hooded figures' robes a dark, muted brown, with intricate, ornate details on the marble hall's architecture.

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.