She stood by the window, looking out to the dark wilderness beyond it

AN: This is a bit of a dark oneshot. It came to me after reading a fic where Alucard told Seras about his wife, and the time of his life he was happiest. Basically it's the idea of the competiton between the two dead women…


His Wife

She stood by the high window, looking out to the dark wilderness beyond it. She was far above it all, almost as high as the moon, she felt. Removed from it all, and yet she could feel the life down there. The forest was teeming with it. Life of all sorts, from rats to humans. She could feel the very life force of them from here.

The window had long since lost its glass, if indeed it had ever had any, and she hugged herself against the chill wind. Even though she no longer really felt hot or cold, some human traits remained, even after so long. Her hair, long and loose fluttered slightly in the breeze, a pale compliment to the dark material of her skirts that also fluttered around her.

This room was old, so old, and tired. It had seen much over its many years. One event was the reason she was here. Just one, out of the many. And it was a profoundly sad one.

Her sensitive ears picked up a noise, seemingly from far, far away, it was the barest echo of memory. A woman screaming in fear, crying out a mans name in a desperate plea.

She shuddered. She could feel her, the woman, here in this room that had once belonged to the ghostly presence surrounding her.

A wave of grief washed over the figure by the window. Last night she had dreamed, dreamed of a lone man wandering in the aftermath of a great battle, his features ravaged with grief and a profound sorrow. She had spoken to him, in the dream, asked him what was wrong, had he killed all these people?

He had answered; yes, he had. They had taken his wife from him, and he had avenged her.

It wasn't until she had woken that the woman in black knew of whom she had dreamt.

"Seras."

He was behind her, almost as if her thoughts about him had called him into being. He stood at the door, refusing silently to enter the room.

She didn't react to his presence, or his voice, but continued to stare out the window. She could still hear her, the woman that had died here, hear her laughter, feel her life, as if somehow she had left an imprint of herself in the room. She could hear memories, feel the shock and joy as the dead woman realised she was with child.

"Seras." His voice was more insistent, a note of something strange hidden deep in it. But still she ignored him.

"Seras!" his voice was a bark now, "Come away from that window!"

She was silent and still for so long he opened his mouth to order her again, but was forestalled.

"Did you know she was pregnant?"

She turned in time to catch his face pale, and go slack with shock. "Your wife," she elaborated, though it was not needed. "She was pregnant when they threw her out this window."

He stared into the room, seeing nothing for the longest of times, and maybe remembering things that had faded with time.

Seras looked out the window, swallowing tears. Then she turned and went to him, wrapping her arms around his middle, and burying her face in his coat.

And she left him, hurrying away from that barren tower room and back into the castle proper. She walked swiftly, dashing away pink tears and not paying any heed to where she was headed.

And then she stopped, and turned to stare at an old, old portrait that still hung on the wall. The man she knew, knew every single curve of his face. The woman she didn't know, and yet, did. She had heard her laughter, felt her fear and her joy in that room upstairs. Seras studied the woman. A gently angled face, rosy lips, golden hair… but it was her eyes that arrested Seras. Those eyes were so full of laughter, but at the same time serious and knowing.

All at once Seras felt a burst of anger towards the woman. The vampire had felt the presence of the lady ever since she had entered the castle a month ago. Had felt her everywhere she went, in the garden that had once been hers, the rooms that she had once furnished, the halls she had once walked. Her ghost was everywhere, always reminding Seras of what she was not.

"I can't compete with you." She told Dracula's wife softly. "I can't compete with everything you gave him. I am supposed to be his wife now, I am a True Vampire, and rightfully his queen, it is the bond of the fledgling after they drink the masters blood, and yet, he will not accept me, nor will I accept myself as such… not while you are remembered."

She let the pain show in her voice then, "and you will never be forgotten."


AN: Tell me what you think. It's a bit dreary, isn't it? I was going to continue it, but I like it as is I think.