Hunter's Log Episode 001 - The White Wolf

 

THE HUNTER’S LOG – EPISODE 001 -“The White Wolf”

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Hunter’s Log, Entry 001.

There are two kinds of hunters in this world: those who accept that some things cannot be saved… and those who spend eternity trying anyway. I have fought beside both. I have buried both. Tonight, one of each sits across the same table—and the dead are not the only ones being judged.

—Abraham Van Helsing

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Scene – Ravenshold Lodge, Home of the Hunters’ Enclave

Location: Van Helsing’s private study.

Ravenshold is quiet in the late hours—too quiet for a headquarters that has seen so many wars. The stone halls are dim, lit by the occasional ward-lantern and the silver glow of moonlight knifing through narrow windows.

Bootsteps echo—measured, tired, unmistakable.

Van Helsing walks the corridor, coat still dusted with arena glitter and snow, a faint smear of someone else’s blood on one cuff. Polar Power is over, the roar of the NPCW crowd replaced by the old, familiar hush of the Lodge. In one hand, he carries a worn leather satchel; in the other, a ring of keys older than the federation itself.

He stops at a heavy oak door reinforced with iron—his office.
Slides the key into the lock.
Turns it.
Pushes.

The door opens onto complete darkness.

No candlelight. No ward-glow from the rune-etched shelves. Just black.

Van Helsing’s brow furrows. His lips thin into a line.

VAN HELSING (quiet, resigned)
“…Hello, Garnet.”

There’s a beat of silence, then a low, humorless chuckle from somewhere inside the dark.

A match strikes.

For a heartbeat, that tiny flame illuminates a weathered face with wolf-grey hair and a short beard streaked white. Garnet Hood, the White Wolf, sits in one of the guest chairs—like a king who broke into someone else’s throne room.

He lights a lantern on the side table. The glow spills across the room: shelves lined with occult tomes, glass cases holding relics from a hundred hunts, a framed old photograph of a young woman in a red hood standing beside a much younger Abraham Van Helsing.

Garnet doesn’t look at it.

GARNET HOOD (voice dry as old bark)
“Enjoy your playtime, Abraham?”

Van Helsing closes the door behind him, the click echoing. He doesn’t rise to the jab.

VAN HELSING (even, removing his gloves)
“Wrestling is hardly play. But you didn’t break into my office in the dark to critique my schedule. What do you want, Garnet?”

Garnet leans back in the chair, the crimson lining of his long coat catching the lamplight. The white wolf’s head sigil is stitched over his heart—same as the banner in his den, same as the symbol on the bullets he favors.

GARNET
“We need to talk about Mina.”

Van Helsing’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly.

VAN HELSING
“What about her?”

Garnet’s eyes are cold, hunter’s eyes that have watched too many things die to flinch easily.

GARNET
“She has regressed fully.”

Van Helsing’s reply is instant, sharp.

VAN HELSING
“No.”

Garnet’s gaze doesn’t waver.

GARNET (harder)
“Yes, Abraham. She has. I saw her at Convergence. My daughters in one corner. Your precious Crimson Bride in the other. I saw her eyes when she looked at them. That… wasn’t a woman holding back the darkness. That was the darkness enjoying the show.”

A flash: Mina in the Convergence ring, eyes burning vampiric crimson, moving with regal cruelty beside Korbi and Grizelda. Scarlett and Ruby fighting like their lives depended on it. Garnet watching from the crowd, fists clenched.

Back in the office, Van Helsing removes his hat, sets it gently on the desk. The movement is calm, but his shoulders are tight.

VAN HELSING
“Mina is struggling. The bond to Dracula was never entirely severed. But she is not ‘regressed fully.’ She is… pulled. Tested. There’s a difference.”

Garnet snorts.

GARNET
“You playing with words now? Since when did the great Abraham Van Helsing start splitting hairs instead of heads?”

Van Helsing steps further into the room, lighting a second lamp, banishing more of the shadows. He circles behind his desk, resting his fingertips on the wood.

VAN HELSING
“My sources say he has not returned. The seal holds. Dracula is still dormant.”

Garnet’s lip curls.

GARNET
“Your ‘source’ being that fool Harker sitting in some ruined castle calling himself a Watcher? I wouldn’t trust Jonathan Harker to mind my coat, let alone the Eternal One’s prison.”

Van Helsing’s eyes flash, but his tone stays level.

VAN HELSING
“No. I have other confirmations. Independent of Jonathan. The castle is quiet. The old wards still hum. The Eternal One is contained.”

Garnet leans forward now, forearms on his knees, fingers interlaced like a man about to pronounce sentence.

GARNET
“Contained… and yet he still has reach enough to wake his little bride. To twist her. To sic her on my children. I warned you years ago, Abraham: if she ever slid back under his shadow, she would need to be put down.”

Van Helsing’s voice hardens.

VAN HELSING
“She can be saved.”

GARNET (barking a humorless laugh)
“You bloody eternals. You live long enough, you all start talking like everyone’s just… a project. A story you can rewrite if you throw enough centuries at it.”

Van Helsing’s gaze flicks, briefly, to the old photograph of himself and Red Riding Hood—young, deadly, defiant.

VAN HELSING (quiet, dangerous)
“Your grandmother was an eternal. And one of the founders of this Enclave.”

Garnet’s eyes flare with something raw.

GARNET
“Yes. She was. Red Riding Hood. The Scarlet Huntress. She built this place brick by brick with you. And do you remember who slit her throat while under the thrall of the Eternal One?”

The air in the room feels colder.

GARNET (voice low)
“Mina. Harker. Your miracle of reform. She killed my grandmother, Abraham. She should have paid for that then. But you said you could ‘save’ her.”

Van Helsing’s knuckles whiten on the desk edge—but he doesn’t look away.

VAN HELSING
“And I did. She came back to herself. She joined the Enclave. She hunted in Red’s memory. She bled beside us. She protected your bloodline as much as her own.”

Garnet jabs a finger toward him.

GARNET
“Look at her now, then. Draped in Dracula’s shadow like a wedding veil. Swanning around HCW at Vlad’s side, calling herself bride, biting at the throats of the innocent, turning on Scarlett in front of the world.”

Van Helsing exhales slowly through his nose, forcing calm back over old guilt.

VAN HELSING
“Count Vlad and his Dominion have her wrapped in chains she can’t see. Psychic, ritual, emotional. The Blood Heart pendant. Velkan Thorne’s schemes. The Crimson Hand. That’s not a clean relapse—it’s an engineered fall. And I will drag her back from it.”

Garnet stands, the chair creaking as he straightens to his full, imposing height. The lantern light throws his shadow tall on the wall, wolf’s head sigil centered like a white maw.

GARNET
“I will not lose my daughters to your pet project.”

VAN HELSING (firm)
“Your daughters are safe. Scarlett, Ruby, Crimson—they are capable hunters. They chose the Enclave. And the full weight of Ravenshold stands behind them.”

Garnet slowly sits back down, but this time he folds his hands into a triangle beneath his chin—thinking, calculating.

GARNET
“I am not convinced he is contained. Dormant things still dream. And their dreams leak.”

He holds Van Helsing’s gaze.

GARNET (decisive)
“I’m heading to Transylvania myself. To the castle. To the tomb. I will see with my own eyes that Dracula still lies in chains… or I will put him in them again.”

Van Helsing shakes his head once, sharply.

VAN HELSING
“You’re a fool if you think you can just walk into that valley now. The Watchers have the area locked down tighter than it’s been in a century. Veils, decoys, guardians. They don’t tolerate lone wolves.”

Garnet smirks faintly.

GARNET
“Watchers don’t know wolves. I hunted in those woods before half of them were born. I’ll get in. one way or another. And if the Eternal One has truly stirred—”

He rises again, eyes burning.

GARNET (quiet, deadly)
“—then the White Wolf will prey on him. For good.”

He turns toward the door, pausing only once more.

GARNET
“Jasper will remain in HCW. Keep an eye on Scarlett and Ruby. If Mina or Vlad so much as breathe wrong around them… my son will mark it.”

Van Helsing stands as well.

VAN HELSING
“You’re wrong about Mina.”

Garnet opens the door. The corridor beyond yawns dark.

GARNET (without looking back)
“We’ll see.”

He steps out and is gone, footsteps fading down the stone hall.

The office feels heavier for his absence.

Van Helsing stands alone for a long moment, listening to the echoes of old arguments and older ghosts. Then he exhales, shoulders dropping a fraction, and reaches for the phone on his desk—a sleek, black secure line, wired through wards and wards again.

He dials.

The line clicks.

VAN HELSING (measured, all business now)
“Robbie. It’s Van Helsing.”

He moves to the window as he speaks, looking out over the snow-choked courtyard of Ravenshold, the flags of the Enclave barely stirring in the wind.

VAN HELSING
“Get Cam and Gene on a plane to Romania. Tonight. I need them to keep an eye on an old friend before he does something… irrevocable.”

He listens, nods once.

VAN HELSING (adding, dry)
“Tell them it’s a ‘quiet observation mission.’ Which means they’ll absolutely find a way to set something on fire. Have them call me as soon as they land.”

Another pause. A gruff chuckle escapes him despite himself.

VAN HELSING
“Yes, I know it’s them. That’s why I chose them.”

He hangs up, the receiver settling with a soft clack.

For a moment, he just stands there, hand resting on the phone. Then his eyes drift back to the photograph on the wall: Red Riding Hood, cloak bright as fresh blood, smirking at the camera like the world was a wolf she’d already beaten.

Van Helsing’s expression softens—just a fraction.

VAN HELSING (quietly, to the photo)
“He gets that stubbornness from you, Red.”

He picks up the phone again, dialing a different sequence. This line routes through older protections, different oaths.

It rings once.

Twice.

Then: a tired, familiar voice answers on the other end.

VAN HELSING (low, urgent but controlled)
“Hello, Kris. Yes. I know what time it is.”

He moves back behind the desk, fingers drumming once on the wood.

VAN HELSING
“Garnet Hood is on his way to Castle Dracula. He’s hellbent on seeing the tomb himself. I thought the Watchers should hear that from me, before they feel a wolf at their door.”

A beat.

VAN HELSING (nods, listening)
“Yes. The White Wolf. And he’s not in the mood for diplomacy.”

He glances at the map pinned to the wall—Romania circled, the Vale of Shadows marked with sigils.

VAN HELSING
“I’m sending Cam and Gene as well. Wrenchesters. They’ll shadow him, try to keep him from doing anything that breaks the wrong seal. Or starts the wrong war.”

Another silence, then the faintest wry smile cracks his features.

VAN HELSING
“Yes, I know you’re stretched thin. Yes, I know Dracula’s still contained—for now. But the Cult of Resurrection is moving, Mina is in play, and now Garnet wants blood.”

His voice drops, all the weariness of centuries settling into it.

VAN HELSING
“Just… let the Watchers know. Tell them this is not a breach. Yet. It’s a warning. And if all else fails—remember Red. She trusted us to keep this from happening again.”

He closes his eyes a moment, listening.

VAN HELSING (soft)
“Thank you, old friend. I’ll update you as soon as I hear from Romania.”

He ends the call.

The office is quiet again. The only sounds are the faint ticking of the clock, the whisper of wind beyond the stone, and the steady beat of a heart that has outlived its right to be tired.

Van Helsing reaches into a drawer and pulls out a leather-bound journal embossed with the Enclave crest. He opens it. The page is blank, waiting.

He dips a pen in ink and begins to write.

Hunter’s Log, Entry 001: The White Wolf has moved. Mina’s chains tighten. The Watchers will be tested. And somewhere, in a castle that should never wake, an old darkness stirs when it hears a hunter’s name spoken in the snow.

If Garnet finds what he’s looking for… it may not be Dracula I have to save Mina from.

He closes the journal.

Fade out on the framed photo of Red and Abraham, lantern light flickering across their younger faces.

Wolf’s howl in the distance. Cut to black.