So, this is most definitely an AU fic. It's Seras/Alucard-centric, but also meant as a horror fic. This story is loosely inspired by the 2015 release of The Witch, although I am staying true to the vampires, because it's, well, Hellsing. So not following the witchcraft trend, so to speak. The time period is also ambiguous, but I am aiming for 17th century. That being said, I don't have them speaking entirely true to form for that period, because sentences riddled with 'thou' and 'thine' would get pretty old pretty fast and make my brain bleed. That being said, enjoy if you can. If not, please don't sue. I don't own anything. At all.
Disclaimer: References to Christianity abound. But again, it's Hellsing.
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Part I.
The forest disturbed her.
She could never quite place why the dense trees stirred waves of nausea within her gut, but Seras supposed it was a subtle warning to cease staring and finish her chores. After all, she was expected to look after the little ones while the harvest ensued, and idleness was intolerable, according to her cousin.
"Seras! Se-have you not finished with your scrubbing, yet?"
Speak of the devil and he doth appear.
Seras cringed, upturning the pot she had just finished scouring into the small stream before her. Wiping her hands haphazardly on her apron, she turned to face her irate kinswoman.
"Forgive me, Everild," she answered, gathering the pots and standing abruptly. "I lost myself in thought and-,"
"Be lucky I have found you, then! Such idleness could soon be called sin. And you have needed enough time this season to be asking the Lord's forgiveness!" Everild scolded, taking in the state of the girl with a fierce scowl. "Gather yourself and fetch the children. I must help Calvert and Osmond tend the oxen."
The older woman began to stalk away, but not before adding, "Bring the children here, if you must. I want those pots finished by the eve, if we're to have anything to cook in!"
She stomped up the path leading to the stable and out of Seras' sight.
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"But have you ever actually seen a wraith, Rowley?"
"Bite your tongue," Seras admonished lightly.
The children took no heed, however. "I have! At the edge of the trees! Do you call me a liar?"
The small girl shook her head furiously, sandy pigtails flicking dangerously about her face. "I simply say that only men close to their deaths can see a wraith, and you look healthy as Old Charlotte to me!"
Seras stopped scrubbing her pots just in time to see Rowley's small face whiten. "That's enough out of you, child! Frightening your brother in such a way-is there such cruelness in you that you would speak to him so maliciously?"
When she saw the little girl's face crumple, she sighed and set her work aside. The baby beside her stirred slightly in his rest, but did not wake. "Come here, now." Her arms were soon laden with two young children who wept into her chest as if the end of days were upon them.
"I did not mean to speak so punitively," Seras murmured.
Rowley turned a trembling lip her way. She tried to wipe the tears streaming down his face, but found herself rendered immobile as the young girl clasped her tightly. Resigning herself to hellfire for her idleness, Seras rocked the boy and girl until their cries subsided. When only sniffles came forth and she was sure they were wiping their noses onto her dress, Seras pushed them back, ruffling their hair fondly.
"Was mother harsh with you?" Rowley asked tentatively, still clutching her arm.
"No, her rebukes were well-earned. I have been slothful and she only sought to help me repent."
The small girl scrunched her face. "I haven't done my chores in two days. Does that mean I have sinned?"
Rowley threw a black look in her direction. "I am not certain, Aldercy. I had to finish them for you, lest mother and father find out."
Aldercy giggled. "Then you have saved me, brother!" She threw herself at Rowley, and they began to tousle in the dirt. Seras rolled her eyes at the display, but returned to her washing, determined to finish before the sun descended further. Absently, she glanced at the babe asleep close by, nestled on a blanket made by Everild upon his birth.
Hopefully they do not wake the baby. As if I do not have enough to contend with.
As if to spite her, the merry shrieks of the children rose in volume, and Seras had to fight to keep her tongue in check.
"Children, hush now. Your brother sleeps."
Aldercy made a face at her that would have had her whipped by her mother. "All he ever does is sleep! Me and Rowley aren't doing anything wrong!" Rowley continued chasing his sister away from the edge of the trees, running circles around the path to the house.
"You are testing my patience, and your mother left you in my keep-," however grudgingly, "Leave your sister be!"
She rose and began to stalk after them, nearly tripping in her haste. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves, carrying on as you do-!"
A shriek cut the air. Tiny, yet strong, and definitely in pain.
The siblings stopped in their tracks, eyes wide with shock as they turned to Seras, who whipped around to determine the cause of the disturbance.
Her eyes met red.
She nearly missed it, standing against the near blackness of the woods before her. As it was, she was only able to see the demon because of the contrast of its dark muzzle against the pale yellow of the blanket. A great black beast stumbled away from her, eyes narrowed on her form as it dragged the cloth away with baby in tow. The child was bawling from being hauled in such a way over rocks and pointed sticks, kicking furiously at the air.
The red eyes, however, never left hers.
"A wraith! A wraith!" Aldercy screamed. "A wraith got Bromley!"
Rowley grabbed his sister and sprinted as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Father! Father, help!"
They disappeared out of sight on the dirt pathway leading to the house, stumbling every few steps in their panic. Seras could only hear their chaotic ascent to safety, as she could not tear her eyes from the beast, who almost seemed mocking in its gaze. She started when she realized that it would soon have Bromley past the tree line, where only a few steps further could render one invisible in the darkness.
She screwed up her courage with a prayer and ran after the beast.
"Stop!" she cried. "Release him!"
As she tore wildly into the woods, she could hear the loud calls of Osmund and Calvert behind her. Seras prayed they at least had the sound mind to bring a gun with them, for she could not think of anything else that would be capable of slaying such a large animal. The beast in question quickened its pace, still frightfully swift for an animal forced to run backward with something in its teeth.
In fact, it looked downright unnatural.
"Cousins! Cousins, this way!" She shouted into the air as she ran, hopeful that they would follow her voice. The beast was almost beyond her vision, so dark was the forest this time of day. Seras could hardly make out the pale yellow of Bromley's blanket, and his pitiful cries pierced her heart. To Seras' dismay, they disappeared under a small gap created by a fallen tree. Her lungs stung horribly from running, but with a burst of strength, she hopped over the tree to continue on, only to find-
Nothing.
There was nothing. She whipped her head around madly, trying to make out any sign of her little cousin or the beast who stole him. Instead, the darkness enveloped her and she found she could scarcely breathe as the air began closing in.
"He was right there!" she gasped. "But he was-!" She skirted around the downed wood to take stock of the tracks behind her. There were three sets: the prints of her boots, a narrow gouge in the dirt that appeared distinctly like the drag-marks that would be created by a small sack, and a large animal's footprints. She ran around to the other side again. The dirt around her looked as if a stampede had just occurred, but Seras could only make out shapes that fit the sole and size of her shoe. Her thoughts fragmented, and she found she couldn't have strung a sentence together to save her life. She stared at the ground hollowly, listening for the cries of a babe that would horrifically relieve her, but she received nothing.
"Seras!" It was Osmund. "Seras! Where are you?"
She could hear him close in on her, nearly as breathless, but looking twice as haggard.
"Are you hurt? Where is the beast? Bromley, is he-?" Osmund looked into his younger cousin's face and fell silent. He dropped his sickle onto the forest floor and began to turn helplessly about. "Seras, where did it go? Did you see it?"
Tears came forth, and she found herself gasping, "It ran under this tree and disappeared like an apparition!"
"That is impossible," Osmund wheezed. "It had to have gone somewhere!"
"I do not know!" she buried her face in her hands. "I do not know!"
Osmund grabbed her by the shoulders desperately and shook. "It will be dark soon! You must have seen it move, Seras! Have you any idea? Any at all?"
But Seras only cried harder at the sight of his face, and he dropped her to the ground, tearing at his hair and breathing furiously.
So wrapped up were they that they didn't hear another set of footsteps approach. "Father! Seras! Where is it? Are you alright?"
Osmund clutched his son's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "We must find Bromley before dusk. Take Seras back to your mother and tell her to keep the children inside."
"But which way did the wraith go?" Calvert asked. "Rowley said there was a wraith."
Seras shook her head. "It was no wraith! It snatched Bromley by the creek and it left no tracks like a devil in the night!"
Calvert looked panicked and lost. "What do you mean it left no tracks?"
"Beyond this tree, see!" Seras stood and pointed at the downed wood as if it were to blame. With a shaking voice, she explained, "Heading back toward the farm, you can see the tracks it left while I chased it." She pulled Calvert around the wood and pointed. "Look!"
Calvert squinted into the darkness while Osmund hovered frantically over his shoulder. Taking in the large paw-prints interspersed with footprints and a soul-wrenching drag-mark, the two men glanced at one another in confusion. Coming back around to where they had found Seras, they analyzed the prints and noticed only those of a woman's shoe.
Both men stared at her blankly, unable to speak. Seras continued to shake, unable to think of anything but the beast that now had her little cousin in its jaw. Calvert was the first to break the uncomfortable gaze, electing to look at the ground instead. After a few moments, Osmund drew himself up, squaring his shoulders and stepping away toward his sickle. He snatched it up and held it loosely at his side.
"Come, we must go back to your mother."
Seras quaked at the flatness in his voice. "But we have to find-,"
"You will search no more." He leveled a stern expression at her. "You will keep Everild calm while Calvert and I comb the woods-,"
"Father."
"-We must go back and prepare torches if we are to search in the dark-,"
"Father."
"-cannot have anybody else getting lost-,"
"Father!"
Osmund turned sharply to his son. "What is it, Calvert!"
"Look!" He pointed at the dirt near Seras' feet, who immediately shuffled backward. The three drew around the spot indicated by Calvert and squinted at the ground. Seras struggled to see what could possibly be in the dirt as her eyes attempted to adjust.
She almost wished they hadn't.
"What devilry is this?" Osmund cried, glancing between the two of them as if they somehow knew better than he.
In the dirt before them lay the perfect imprint of a boot, obscured slightly by the lack of light but distinguishable by its sheer size and deepness. Too large to belong to any man or woman among the three, it stood out starkly against the trampled ground around them. Seras gasped as her eyes moved ahead. "But look! There is another!"
They followed its intended path forward, only to find another print to mirror it, and another after that. With grim determination, they charted the would-be stranger's path until the light dissipated and they could no longer see the ground. But they could already guess at the creature's destination.
The woods stood black before them.
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As they stumbled out of the forest, Everild released Rowley and Aldercy, who had quieted for hours while she led them in frightful prayer.
"Are you alright? Osmund, did you kill the beast?"
She glanced between each of her faces helplessly, wringing her hands before her.
"Where is Bromley?"
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***Well, I hope you made it through that. I got on a horror movie kick, and The Witch is one of my new favorites. A fair warning to those who seek it out: it is easily the most disturbing movie I have ever watched, the 2003 CGI Scooby Doo movie notwithstanding.
I haven't written in this fandom before, but I will try to stay true to form. This chapter could not contain as much character-building for Seras as I would have liked, as a lot of stuff had to go down. She'll be more normal and spunky later. We'll surely see that in the future when a certain shadowy bro shows up. I swear this is a romance fic too, I swear.
Cheers!