Synopsis: My heart began to race as I met his gaze. My breath came faster, and somehow I could feel him goading me. Daring me. Urging me to do what I knew I had to do. It was as if he was screaming at me, the same words, over and over.
Do it.
DO IT.
DO IT.
You and I were not meant to be lovers. You and I were not meant to be friends. You and I were not meant to be anything more than master and slave. You and I were simply meant to be.
((A/N: This fanfiction is based on the canon story of Hellsing. It includes some elaborations of scenes from the series as well as original scenes from the 'gap years' between events. It explores the unspoken relationship between Alucard and Integra, starting with the day of their meeting and progressing through the years they spent as master and servant. Each chapter is based on a song by Nightwish, which is used as inspiration for each of the scenes. I highly encourage my readers to look up the lyrics and/or listen to the songs, as I believe they compliment the emotionality of this bit of fanfiction. I used various scenes from the series to delve into the deepest thoughts and desires experienced by one of the most lustful, deeply attached and unrequited couples of anime. In order to keep the story as canon as possible, I used direct quotes from the series. I DO NOT OWN HELLSING or the songs from Nightwish on which the chapters are based. I will reference the episodes I use at the end of each chapter. Now that the disclaimers are done, please enjoy, and R&R!))
Dark Chest of Wonders
How could this be happening?
How could he do this?
Why isn't Walter here?
What am I going to do?
Am I going to die?
I don't want to die.
My feet beat the marble beneath me. My breath came in ragged gasps. My blood raced through my veins, and my heart pounded so loudly I could hear it ringing in my ears.
I'm going to die.
"There's no use running, my lovely little niece." My uncle's voice echoed down the hall, the sound of his hollow, remorseless baritone chilling me to the bone. "My men have this place surrounded. There is no way out." I could hear him draw the slide of his prized Colt 1911 .45 ACP. It was a gift from my father, given to him with love on his fortieth birthday. I could still picture the winning smile on my father's face as he watched his brother unwrap the package. He was ecstatic to give my uncle the crowning jewel of his collection.
What a monster.
My thoughts blurred together as I desperately tried to formulate a plan. The armory was on the other side of the mansion; I would have to get past my uncle if I was to reach it. My father's office held a small gun-cabinet with several firearms and a compartment full of ammunition, but the key was left in the drawer of his bedside table upon his passing. My only hope was to retrieve the small handgun from my bedroom down the hall, and I prayed that he hadn't already sent someone there to head me off.
I rounded the corner at top speed. The toe of my boot caught the edge of the oriental rug, and I barely managed to catch myself on the small, mahogany table next to the wall, sending the expensive Tiffany lamp crashing to the ground. I bit back the despairing cry that threatened to escape my dry, chafing lips, scrambling to throw myself back into a sprint as I heard my pursuers hasten their pace.
"You're making this so easy, little fräulein," I heard him chuckle. "I would have thought your father would have taught you a little stealth when fleeing your enemies."
I felt my teeth grind together, the muscle in my jaw working against the tears stinging the backs of my eyes. Where was Walter? Why wasn't he there, standing between me and my murderous coward of an uncle? Had he not sworn to my father's face that he would protect me from evil?
My hand found the handle of the door to my room, nearly ripping it from its screws as I flung open the door and rushed inside. I quickly threw the bolt, then rushed to my vanity, yanking open the drawer and grabbing my gun with trembling hands. I pulled the clip, praying I had remembered to reload it after my last bout at the firing range.
Three bullets left.
My heart sank. Even if I managed to kill my uncle, there was no way I would be able to rid myself of his entourage. I shoved the clip back into the gun and collapsed into the chair in front of the mirror, briefly allowing the panic to overwhelm me.
I'm going to die.
"Get a grip," I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself to try to quell the wave of nausea rising from the pit of my stomach. "There may still be a way to get out of this, but not if you just sit here and weep like a child." I drew a couple of deep breaths, then began running through my options once more. My fourth story window was too high to jump. Even if I survived, I would be so badly injured that I would simply have to wait for my uncle to find me and put a bullet in my head. If I opened the door, I risked drawing even more attention to myself.
"What the hell am I going to do?" I wondered aloud, tossing back my head and running my hands across my sweaty face, knocking my glasses askew. I opened my eyes and frowned at the fuzzy ceiling, reaching back up to right my glasses on the bridge of my nose. The grate of the vent stared back at me, and for a moment, I imagined the screws to be eyes, and the metal bars to be the teeth of a wide, leering mouth…
Suddenly, my heart leapt into my throat. The air ducts! Of course! In moments I was clambering up onto my chair, stuffing my pistol into the waistband of my skirt as I fumbled in my pocket for a coin to use as a screwdriver. My panicked hands nearly dropped the 1 euro coin several times as I attempted to force it into the head of the screw, but eventually managed to remove the plate, tossing it onto my bed to keep it from clattering to the tile. Realizing that I wasn't tall enough to get myself into the duct with only the chair, I jumped back to the floor, kicking the seat aside as I rushed over to shove my vanity under the hole.
I jumped up onto the polished wood, planting my foot on the stack of schoolbooks for an extra boost as I pulled myself into the air duct. I was instantly accosted by centuries of dust. My eyes watered and my throat seized, and I couldn't keep myself from coughing violently into my sleeve. The ventilation shaft loomed eerily before me, dust and cobwebs illuminated every thirty feet or so through the small windows into the rooms.
I forced myself forward, bleary eyes struggling to focus as I pulled my shirt up over my face. The makeshift mask helped a bit, but I still found myself unable to resist the urge to cough as I scooted myself down the metal duct. Eventually I found myself above the vent in the hallway, and I stopped short, holding my breath as I saw my uncle getting ready to pass beneath my feet.
"I wish I could help you understand." He flicked the gun in his hand, readying it for the killing shot. "Twenty years. Twenty years I spent waiting for my brother, your father to die, and then mere hours before his death, he chooses you to succeed him as the head of the family. This insult against me I cannot accept. I will NEVER accept…what an unforgivable act of betrayal." He drew the slide once more, having fired a warning shot down the hall when he heard me crash into the table. "Hellsing is mine!"
I felt the dust begin to tickle the back of my throat once more. I squeezed my eyes shut, sending tears from dust and fear cascading down my cheeks as I tried not to breathe. Was this man…this monster…really the same person I had known since my birth?
I watched him until he was out of sight, then rushed forward as quietly as I could, still resisting the unrelenting urge to cough until my lungs were sore until I reached the end of the shaft. When I could bear it no longer, I covered my mouth with my sleeve, nearly banging my head off the bottom of the shaft with the spasms of coughing that wracked my body. Once I was finally able to breathe again, I opened my watering eyes to see the seemingly bottomless dropoff that led to the central air duct. I bit my lip, wondering if I could manage the sheer drop without losing a limb.
A dull, hopeless laugh tickled my throat. What choice did I have?
I swung my legs over the side of the metal precipice, placing my palms against the walls of the shaft as I eased my weight into the yawning void. Pressing the soles of my boots against the smooth, aluminum surface, I used the friction between my shoes and the wall to lower myself slowly down the chute.
Two flights passed uneventfully. However, once I reached the main floor, a rusted panel gave way under my foot, sending me tumbling through the remainder of the shaft in a tangle of arms and legs. I eventually hit the bottom; my fall was broken by the carcasses of dead animals that had become trapped in the ventilation system. I could vaguely make out the grinning skeleton of a bat in the dim light from the shaft above me, and I couldn't suppress a small grimace.
Now what? I thought to myself, casting my eyes down the dark air duct before me. I fell so far… I have to be in the sublevels. I felt the fear begin to rise once more. The only way out of the sublevels was through the hidden door behind the mirror in the main hall, which was surely crawling with my uncle's men.
Integra.
My eyes went wide. I could hear my father's voice as clearly as if he was sitting in the muck beside me. My mind flashed the day of his death before my eyes. I could see his harrowed face, his wasted body, his thinning hair…
If the time should ever come, when all other hope is lost…if you should find yourself surrounded with your enemies closing in…go to the last cell of the deepest dungeon of the estate. There lies one of the Hellsing family's darkest legacies. It will be the instrument of your salvation.
I licked my lips as I stared off down the air shaft, then instantly regretted it when I tasted the bitter flavor of dust. What on earth could he have hidden in the dungeons that could possibly save me from my uncle's greed?
Whatever it is, it's my only chance.
Steeling myself against the unknown, I made sure my gun was secured at my side, then picked my way through the debris, feeling along the corpse-littered floor of the air duct for the first grate. When my fingertips connected with the ridges of the plate, I paused long enough to shift my legs out in front of me, praying the screws had rusted through as I began slamming the heel of my boot into the grate. I winced each time my foot connected with the ancient bit of steel, knowing that the sound of my frantic kicks would reverberate through every air duct in the manor. Eventually the plate gave way, clattering to the stone below with a hollow clang.
Without giving myself time to panic, I quickly lowered myself through the hole, dangling by my fingers for just a moment before dropping unceremoniously to the ground.
The stale scent of earth and mildew mingled with the faint odor of death in the nearly pitch black hallway. I could hear the rats scurry away from me, and I felt the hair-raising touch of their matted fur as they brushed against my boots. I found myself agonizing over forgetting to grab a flashlight.
This thought was short lived. I heard the bolt being thrown from the secret door at the top of the stairs down the hall, and soon the windowless corridor was flooded with flickering light as my uncle threw the ancient switch.
I was instantly in motion. Once again my feet pounded the floor as I sprinted toward the end of the hall, barely managing to avoid catching the toe of my boot on the uneven stonework. I could hear my uncle and his entourage descending the stairs. Whatever my father had in the last cell of this dungeon had become my only hope.
Finally reaching the end of the hall, I turned to the old iron door, grasping the handle and giving it the hardest shove I could muster. The simple mechanism groaned and creaked, but eventually gave beneath my hand in a shower of rust. Ancient hinges protested loudly as I swung open the door, revealing the instrument of my salvation.
A corpse.
I stared in disbelief at the desiccated figure before me. Dry black hair cascaded across an eyeless skull. Cracked black leather bound the bony frame from head to toe. Spiders had formed an intricate cocoon around the lifeless body, which stared at me through soulless black sockets.
"How could this…corpse…be my salvation?" I asked the otherwise empty room, feeling my heart sink into my boots.
The sound of a safety being released was my only answer.
"There you are, my fräulein," my uncle crowed, sneering down at me with a triumphant grin. His finger tightened on the trigger, and the loud thunderclap of the gun echoed through the dungeons.
I screamed. My arm was suddenly on fire. The bullet had passed clean through the flesh of my shoulder, narrowly missing the bone as it sent a spatter of blood cascading across the tiny cell. The force of the blast sent me tumbling to the floor, and I barely managed to catch myself on my elbows.
"U-uncle!" I protested, hating myself for the pain I could hear in my own voice as I watched him approach, weapon raised.
"Something on your mind, my little fräulein?" he taunted, knowing he had won.
The mocking tone of his voice grated in my ears, momentarily shoving my fear to the back of my mind as rage bubbled up in its place.
"Are you really so desperate to claim the family title that you'd actually be willing to…"
"What an astute observation, Integra." The muzzle of the gun nosed its way into my face, and he cocked the hammer as he prepared to fire.
I'm going to die.
Though these panicked words echoed through my mind, I managed to hold his gaze. Maybe it was my stubbornness. Maybe it was the bit of my father in me. Maybe both. Whatever it was, it prevented me from cowering or begging for my life, and I stood firm before him, prepared to meet my death spitting in the face of my attacker.
What happened next changed my life forever.
I saw my uncle's eyes go wide. The sickening, slurping sound of a tongue being dragged across the floor reached my ears. The reflection of a dull red glow appeared in my uncle's wide, unblinking eyes.
"Oh God…" he choked out. "The corpse…!"
I forced myself to turn around. The body against the far wall had risen to its feet, the muscles of its bound arms straining ominously against the leather bonds until they burst at the seams. Red eyes were fixated on the man who sought to kill me, and from its fangs dripped the remnants of crimson blood.
My blood.
My uncle stumbled back, raising his weapon to take aim at the creature who had risen from the dead. "Sh-shoot it!" he howled. His men managed to pull themselves together, quickly drawing their weapons and unloading round after round into the thing before them. The reanimated corpse shot forward at lightning speed, throwing me against the wall behind it as it planted its arm in front of me. A shower of bullets littered the outside of its arm, embedding themselves in its flesh mere centimeters from my face.
"Dogs," it hissed, its voice deep and mocking as it turned to look over its shoulder at its attackers. "Do you really believe cowards such as yourself could possibly command the forces of Hellsing?" Spears of shadow flooded across the floor, impaling my uncle's two guards before driving their writhing corpses into the wall.
"Wh—what are you?!" my uncle cried. His finger continued to pull the trigger, despite the fact that all of his rounds were now firmly embedded in the creature's arm.
The thing that had become my shield paid him no mind. Instead, it turned its burning red eyes on me.
In that brief, terror-stricken moment, I saw something I would never forget. I saw…
…nothing.
My heart began to race as I met his gaze. My breath came faster, and somehow I could feel him goading me. Daring me. Urging me to do what I knew I had to do. It was as if he was screaming at me, the same words, over and over.
Do it.
DO IT.
DO IT.
The hand I hadn't realized was on the handle of my gun tightened around the weapon. I held the creature's gaze as I raised the pistol over his arm, breaking eye contact only when it came time to aim my sights. My finger wrapped around the trigger, and before I knew it, I had put a bullet through my uncle's head.
A tendril of smoke filtered from the muzzle of my gun. I kept my gaze fixated on the place my uncle had fallen, unwilling to look back into the void in the center of those cold red eyes.
"…what's your name?" I asked quietly, though somehow I felt I already knew the answer.
"My master." His words shot through me like a jolt of electricity, burning themselves into my heart with a blade of red-hot steel. "Your father called me…"
I watched him bow his head, his powerful body slumped before me in the visage of utter and total submission. My thoughts whirled through my head, thinking back to everything my father had ever told me about the vampires whose fates my family commanded. How could this thing…this monster…call me master? Who was this beautiful, hideous guardian angel of death who had saved me? What had I unleashed?
What power do I have, that I could command a creature such as this?
I waited with bated breath for his response, repulsed yet fascinated by the creature who bowed at my feet.
"…Alucard."
((Quotes taken from Hellsing Ultimate: OVA 1))
R&R!