Greetings to you all! It's been a while since I've been here in the Castlevania session.
This time I come here to bring this new one-shot I wrote about Mathias and Adrian and it's also a side story of It's Never Late for Forgiveness. Unlike Iris of Blue, Green and Gold and The Midnight Rose, Sunt Aici takes place within the chronology of It's Never Late for Forgiveness, more precisely at the beginning of Chapter 15: Adrian, just before Soma's awakening. This is a project that can be read as a standard piece alone, but it will make more sense if you have already read my old project, for it will be mentioned scenes that were described in previous chapters.
If you haven't read any of my other projects of this collection and would like to read them, the chronological order is:
1- It's Never Late for Forgiveness
2- Sunt Aici
3- Iris of Blue, Green and Gold
4- The Midnight Rose.
This one-shot is also dedicated to my friend TheFreeLancerSeal, who in our conversations about 'What ifs' gave me inspiration for this project.
Finally, as usual, Castlevania or any of its characters doesn't belong to me, this is for my own and others fans entertainment.
I hope you enjoy!
Lyon Heitor ~ Altheryon
...
Romanian - English translations
Sunt Aici - I am here.
Tată - Father
Sunt Aici
†
When Alucard opened his eyes, feeling himself slowly awake from a heavy sleep, he blinked dazedly, not immediately recognizing where he was.
Without moving the dhampir stared at the vaulted ceiling of red colorations and observed the curves that the stone made to give an elegant finish to the structure, which also had the most prominent carvings pinned in gold. It was familiar; he had certainly seen it before, but he could tell that he no longer was in the Belnades mansion.
Frowning Alucard sat on the bed, and when he saw himself wearing a dark cloak of fine fabric of the fifteenth century he widened his eyes with surprise, and also immediately realized that there was something different with his body.
Suddenly he rose to his feet and in deep perplexity he stared at the great bed covered with thick blankets made of animal skin, the carpet of gold carvings with silver lines that spiraled on its surface, stretching across the stone floor in the center of the room, the columns that rose to the vaulted ceiling and which on their surfaces sustained torches of fire that gently burned a small and timid flame that spread a pleasant light through the place, though it was the farthest fireplace that made the heat flow into the room. And beyond, through a balcony partially enclosed by thick layers of blue velvet curtains, it was possible to see the dark night and the constant ice flakes falling steadily from the intense snowstorm.
He recognized that room immediately through memories so distant in time from a place he believed he would never see again, especially after the castle had been sealed inside the solar eclipse.
He was back in his old room at Castlevania.
Without being able to initially believe what he was seeing before his eyes, the dhampir walked a few paces and bumped into an object lying on the ground. Alucard bent down and picked up the little wolf-shaped toy made of dark stone, and his fingers slid over the notches on the bottom where his real name was written.
I thought I had lost it in the forest that day... Alucard frowned; holding the object tightly, he felt the weight of those memories that for so many centuries he had kept silent in a distant part within him.
This must be a dream. He thought, and when he questioned its significance, the dhampir raised his face and met his own reflection on the smooth surface of the oval gold piece resting above the fireplace, and his golden eyes widened in shock.
"This... surely is a dream..." He muttered in disbelief, staring at himself with the appearance of a child.
Looking at the room where he was, the wolf-shaped toy and the severe snowstorm falling on the outside of the ancestral castle, after partially recovering from his stupor, the dhampir inquired himself when exactly he was.
Placing the object on a nearby table, he quickly donned a pair of leather boots and as he was, wearing only the dark cloak, he easily opened the door and left the room.
The long noble corridors of elegant and sumptuous construction continued the same as in his memories, with torches hung ten feet away from each other and in the center of the hall a royal blue-tone rugs covered part of the clear marble floor that shone reflecting the light of the flames and the pale touch of the full moon penetrating through the large stained glass windows.
It was cold and as he breathed the warm air from his lungs caused a faint white smoke after encountering the outside's low temperature, and adjusting the cloak better on his body, the dhampir went ahead without finding anyone in his way; there was not a single living soul, either human or the magical creatures that lived in the castle, and the silence reigned almost absolutely, being broken only by his footsteps echoing softly on the velvet carpet.
Frowning, Alucard took his time to observe the vivid and real details that this strange dream gave him; after the events that had succeeded in the village he still dreamed a few times in the later years of the castle, of his parents and of the magical creatures that were his friends and with whom he had passed the his childhood years, but in time those dreams started to become scarce, and when realization of the harsh reality of the curse he carried in his blood fell completely upon him, becoming aware of his father's terrible atrocities, the dreams stopped completely and the dhampir has never dreamed of Castlevania or his family ever since.
The familiar passages took him to the great opening that gave way to the long external staircase that preceded the Throne Room; as he climbed the carpeted steps, now in crimson red, the snow falling around didn't reach him or the stone structure, for the magic that protected the castle also enveloped the staircase and turned away the white flakes and the cold , making that part of the scenery an extension of the indoor environments protected from the open, although it was totally discovered.
The dhampir stopped in front of the large double stone door; the carvings that shaped the face of a great skull of malevolent features would surely shake the heart even of the bravest men if they didn't knew the secrets that that castle hid, but for him that so many years had become familiar with the scene, he knew that it had always been a proud demonstration of the power and sovereignty of the Lord of the Eternal Night.
Without hesitation Alucard reached out and with a single movement he easily separated the faces of the door and the golden-haired boy stepped inside the new scenario.
The Throne Room was partially immersed in the darkness and the little light that existed in the place also came from the stained glass windows scattered on the side walls of the hall, because the torches of the columns were all out. Alucard looked up and immediately recognized his father.
Lying on the small staircase before the throne, the Lord of Castlevania was apparently unconscious. His long black hair was scattered around, his black cloak made of noble fabric was torn and dirty by broad bloodstains, as was his pale face that rested on the floor, closed eyes with evident traces of tears that after so many hours had finally dried.
Alucard's eyes widened at the current state of his father, finally realizing exactly when he was.
It was the night he had fled Castlevania in the past.
Initially unspeakable, the dhampir remained standing at the entrance of the room, staring at the vampire who remained unconscious in front of the throne, without showing any sign of awakening or noticing the boy's presence in the hall, and Alucard watched his father for a long time.
Paralyzed, just as he had in the past, his mind reminded him of the cold words the vampire had declared to Death by claiming that he had killed everyone in the village while, empowered by his knowledge of the later centuries, his memories also assailed him with the images of the monster that Dracula had become in the future after that night.
Closing his eyes and resting one hand on one of the supporting columns, his consciousness also brought him the memories of his past, his family, his mother, and his father as the good man he had been, the last words of love that his mother had told him, believing in the goodness that existed in the heart of her husband and the guilt that he had secretly carried with him for so many centuries, for not being able to stay in the castle after that to try to help the vampire not to succumb to hatred and madness.
He had met his father that way before, at that very moment, and in horror he hadn't hesitated in running away from the Throne Room and leave Castlevania completely...
Alucard opened his eyes and looked back at his father, his golden irises gleamed with a strong emotion and this time there were no shadows of fear, only the sober reason of the events that had already passed.
And even though he didn't know if it was indeed a dream or not, he realized within himself that he would not be able to turn his back on his father a second time.
Slowly the boy moved away from the column and walked towards the man, approaching him.
"Father...?" Alucard called him; his voice echoing clear and solitary through the room, but the vampire remained lying on the staircase, motionless.
Stopping beside the man, the dhampir knelt down and touched his shoulder.
"Father?" He called again and when the Lord of Castlevania remained without any reaction, the boy shoved him hard. "Father, wake up!"
Slowly the man shifted, grunted and opened his eyes, frowning. Mathias woke confused, disoriented, and the first thing he noticed was his son's presence beside him.
"Adrian...?" He inquired in a whisper. "What...?"
Alucard watched him for a moment; it had been a long time since he'd last heard the man call him by that name.
"We're in the castle, Father, in the Throne Room." The dhampir told him softly. "You've been unconscious for hours."
Mathias sat up, his golden eyes staring at the room and then back to the boy. He reached out to touch his son's face, but the man froze when he realized that his fingers, arm and body were completely covered with blood. The vampire's eyes widened and the last events returned to his mind with the force of a black storm, which completely enveloped his spirit, again plunging him into an ocean of darkness.
Lisa's death... The destruction of the village by his own hands...
Alucard watched him in silence, seeing the torment fall upon the countenance of the black-haired man as he remembered his wife, and intimately the dhampir felt pity, for as he too clearly remembered the pain of that loss.
Mathias, realizing that the boy was still there, seeing him like that, was immediately filled with horror and harshly ordered him.
"You shouldn't be here, go back to your room."
"I'm not going anywhere." The dhampir retorted, and the vampire glared at him.
"Do not disobey me, Adrian!" Mathias said dryly, but the boy didn't move.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I told you to leave!"
The Lord of Castlevania raged, his voice rumbling like thunder that could drive off even the bravest of men, but the calm, unshakable look on the boy's face disarmed Mathias completely. Ashamed of his condition, not wanting his son to see him like that, before that evenly look the black-haired man suddenly felt weak, exhausted, and unable to continue the contact the vampire turned away.
Alucard leaned forward and took his father's hand tightly; not caring about the blood that also stained his skin.
"Talk to me." He asked.
Mathias closed his eyes, and with a circumspect countenance he shook his head.
"Do as I commanded you: there are things that you cannot understand yet."
"Then talk to me so I may understand them." The boy insisted.
Mathias laughed wryly; how to tell a child the atrocities he had committed? How could he explain to him that he would never see his mother again, for she was now dead, burned at the stake by witchcraft?
The vampire suddenly disentangled himself from his son and covered his face with his hands, feeling the fury against the village folk diminish and be replaced by bitterness at the remembrance of his wife, and the pain of the memory was so strong that he felt himself being ripped apart inside once more.
"You are suffering, father..." The dhampir broke the silence. "I know... I miss her too..."
Mathias looked at him again and only then did his rational mind comprehend the boy's words; he whispered in horror.
"You saw it..."
Alucard nodded.
"One of the times we left the castle, mother helped a man who was sick... This man was healed and told the others in the village what she did, and when they saw us the following week they captured us and took us to the village. They said that it was a work of witchcraft, for no human hand could be able to heal someone with that kind disease only by the use of plants. They forced me to watch everything ... I saw them dragging her through the central square and when they arrested her on the stake..."
The dhampir closed his eyes; even though it was only a memory that was now so distant, to him it was something that still weight sadly in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he proceeded.
"I was able to escape shortly after they had done it..."
Mathias listened in silence; as the words were spoken his heart was filled with hatred, and though his countenance remained unchanged the gleam of his golden eyes became deadly.
Realizing the change in the man immediately, Alucard paused briefly, remembering the bitter words that he and the vampire had exchanged when they met again for the first time after that very night. Shaking his head, the dhampir added gently.
"Forgive, father... Hatred just destroy ... Do not cultivate it in your heart, I beg you. Hating will not change what they did... It will not bring her back."
The Lord of Castlevania stared incredulous at his son, unable to believe the impartial acceptance the other showed for his own mother's death.
"There's no way to forgive or forget something like that, Adrian! We did nothing to them, we didn't interfere in the mediocre life they had!"
"It cannot be erased from memories." The boy nodded. "And it hurts me deeply ... Do not think that I am not feeling the same pain you feel now for her loss..."
Still being able to find in the vampire the same man who had been with him and his mother in those seven years, in a gentle plea he went on, his golden eyes pleaded for the other to hear him this time.
"I lost my mother; I do not want to lose my father too because of the hatred you are harboring in your heart, poisoning it with evil plans of revenge."
Alucard held up the vampire's hand in front of them; their entwined fingers were dirty by the blood of the people who were murdered in the village and that also covered the man's body.
"Look at you now, what was the use of shedding this blood? The people in the village were human, yes, but they were people like me, you and mother. You may have laid your revenge on them and punished the few really guilty ones, but the innocent people who lived there? People who liked mother and were against this kind of attitude from the church? How many fathers, mothers and children who paid dearly for the errors of a few? Unleashing your fury and shedding an ocean of blood to cover the Earth to quench your thirst for revenge will not change the past..." Alucard spoke harshly, but then proceeded softly, thought there was a certain desperation in his voice, trying to make the other understand. "It will only serve to plunge you into a deep abyss where, in time, even I won't even be able to reach you anymore."
Mathias flinched. Those words were like a slap in his face, and the vampire widened his eyes at the boy's unexpected maturity.
"How can you say these things ... How can a child be able to understand and measure the weight of choices and consequences that we carry out in life? You are just a child, Adrian... A child as innocent as those who were in the village..."
Mathias closed his eyes, overcome with great torment as he realized his own words.
"My hands are covered with blood and my soul has already been corrupted since centuries past... I am already lost in the dark for a long time and the only light I had as a hope of salvation was your mother... And she went to the heaven to serve the God in whom she so believed. "
"You knew her better than anyone, Father..." Alucard told him. "You knew that she would never agree with such an attitude or with those dark feelings."
The dhampir paused in thought, remembering a far-off conversation he decided to share with the black-haired man.
"She once told me that people's hearts are as fragile as crystal glass and that because of this it hurts easily, but that unlike glass it can be treated with love and thus return to being the same as before, because love is strong and genuine, capable of crossing the barriers of time and even of death."
Alucard watched him with a soft gaze.
"She thought of you until the end..."
Mathias stared at him with great emotion, and in a choked voice he inquired.
"What she said...?"
The boy sighed softly and repeated those same words that had been forever marked in his heart.
"She said 'Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm. For their's is already a hard lot.' She also said to tell you that she would love you for all of eternity."
The vampire closed his eyes and the tears that seemed to have dried started to slid back down his face once more.
"Lisa..." He whispered. "My beloved Lisa ..."
Lifting his head to the heavens, leaning against Castlevania's throne, his golden eyes staring at nothingness filled with sadness, shadows and emptiness, the Lord of the castle inquired to the beyond in a whisper that tried to reach the soul of his wife.
"What will I do now... without you by my side?"
The boy held his hand tightly.
"You're not alone. We can go through this together."
Mathias looked at his son and thought about the boy. Although hatred still existed in a part of his heart and seemed to scream in an insistent voice for him to succumb to that will, he decided to not think of anything at that moment and focus his attention only on his child. Though aware of the deplorable state he was in, the vampire still opened his arms and beckoned.
"Come here, son."
The dhampir agreed; he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the man's neck and the vampire embraced him tightly. Feeling his father's tears wet his shoulder, the golden-haired boy whispered.
"I'm here, Father... I'm here."
...
The dhampir awoke to see again the guest-room's walls of the Belnades mansion and to the sound rain falling smooth and steady outside the old building.
Sitting on the bed, the black-haired man realized that he had fallen asleep in the same clothes with which he had arrived earlier at the mansion and that the white silk shirt, formerly impeccably ironing, was now completely crumpled. Covering lower half of his body was a brown blanket that probably must have been Yoko that should've brought to him at dawn.
The dhampir ran his hand over his face and stood; he had recently arrived from the United States after the completion of an exhaustive case, and as soon as he had greeted his friends he had retired to his quarters.
It had been a long time since he had blacked out like that in exhaustion.
He wondered what might have left him like this, and soon realized that it wasn't just the physical weariness of the last days, but also the mountain of thoughts that swelled in his mind with the weight of five hundred years.
When he left the room to walk through the deserted and silent corridors, Alucard remembered the lived dream he had had; unlike most dreams in which the events were usually seen distantly, at that meeting with his father he had been fully aware of the setting around him, the situation and himself, his words, and his choice not to run away of the castle, but to go towards the vampire to talk to him.
He frowned; that meeting seemed so real... His father's reactions, the words spoken, the feeling of the embrace and the tears he had felt on his shoulder...
Was it an illusion from his mind, a hidden desire of his subconscious? Although aware of his memories and all those sad events, he didn't hesitate to try to convince his father to not follow the path that would completely destroy him in the future, and the dark-haired man inquired himself why he did that?
Alucard stopped in front of a door and after a brief moment of hesitation he took hold of the handle and opened it without knocking. Closing it behind him, his eyes rested on the sleeping figure in the bed in the center of the room.
Pale and utterly still, Soma remained unconscious to the real world; the wounds he had acquired in the battle against Graham had been partially healed and now appeared as dark patches on his bare chest that was slowly growing brighter. The vampire's face was serene, eyes closed, the strands of silver hair scattered across the pillow.
The dhampir approached slowly, remembering the past and thinking about the present and the future.
Forgive ... His own dream words came back to him.
Centuries of sadness and suffering separated him and his father through the choices that each had made. His mother's death had crumbled his heart while it had destroyed his father's, corrupted by hatred and vengeful thirst.
The vampire's attitudes that led his son to ally with the Belmont family to stop him, the confrontation they had... The slap that his father had given him on the face had hurt him with the same bitterness that he had hurt the vampire when Mathias realized that the sword that pierced his heart was being wielded by his own son.
Drought and cold words merged with pain, hatred and regrets that with time turned into indifference.
Remembering his family as it was during those seven years, no one could ever have guessed the future scenario where the lord of Castlevania would have become completely unrecognizable compared to the man he had once called father with true words coming from his heart.
His escape from Castlevania, his betrayal for the good of mankind, had hurt his father intimately as deeply as the vampire had hurt him with his hatred, coldness and contempt.
Forgive ... He heard his own voice again, imploring in a request, and at that moment all his bitter memories of the past became the most recent ones as his gaze fixed completely on the face of the silver-haired man.
He had never imagined the possibilities of the present circumstances... The prophecy, his father reincarnation as a person totally exempt from the memories of hatred of his past life with an opportunity to start again from the beginning that the dark-haired man already considered in a certain way a miracle, if he could even call it that way, but... To remember everything and still remain with the same good heart of when he had been with him and his mother in the past, without being corrupted again by the pain of those memories ... It seemed to be something completely impossible...
But it had happened.
The dhampir remembered the last few weeks he had spent with the other in the old Belmont mansion; the conversations they had, Soma's insistence on him to tell more about the past and about Castlevania, the silver-haired man's sudden interest in knowing more about his life, the strange reaction of surprise he showed when they meet each other again for first time after the ritual, his ability to know how to play the piano perfectly without ever having seen him demonstrate any interest in the instrument before, the music he had chosen and his understanding of the conversation in forgetting the past in order to look to the future, as well as the bitter words that Soma had told him about not having forgiveness for the things he had done...
He had thought at the time that he wasn't speaking directly to his father, though he had used their past relationship for example to tell the silver-haired man that same advice again... But those little signs now clearly showed him the vampire's presence and consciousness, and only then did Alucard realize that in all those moments his father had been already awake.
The dhampir sat in the armchair beside the bed just as the soft golden light of the lamp that shone on the unconscious vampire's face reminded him of the fireplace's flames that had also lit the other man's face on the night he had found him in the snow, just as he remembered his own turbulent thoughts that had disturbed his mind that night.
Are you mad?!
Why... do you care?
Alucard closed his eyes and ran his hand over his face as the whole conversation returned to him.
I do care... more than you imagine... more than I allow myself to show...
When did he allow himself to believe in such feelings again? He could not tell... He only noticed it when he was completely immersed in them again.
Forgive... He remembered one more time and at once the dhampir found himself thinking of the same excuses his father had told him in his dream. There is no way to forget such a thing... Centuries of resentment were not easy to forgive. Taking the first step to start anew was very difficult.
I lost my mother; I do not want to lose my father too...
Alucard opened his eyes to watch the vampire, completely inert and pale without even breathing and seeming to be dead, though he knew better.
In that last look that Soma had thrown at him before investing against Graham for the last time, the dhampir had found a silent farewell and for a moment he really believed he would lose him again. When he had reached him before the silver-haired man fell on the abyss he had feared while holding his father's body in his arms that he would not find him alive anymore.
It was not easy to start over, but remembering that dream again he reached out and took the vampire's hand in his.
You are not alone. We can go through this together.
They could try... The dhampir nodded slowly. In that new world, they could try again.
Feeling Soma's cold hand in his and the vampire's weak and vague essence of life walking on a thin, fragile line, Adrian softly repeated those words of his dream in the same language as he, his father and his mother used to speak during those years that were so dear to his heart.
"Sunt aici, Tată... Sunt aici."
~ END ~