Hellsing belongs to Hirano Kouta.

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Prologue

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Come, come! Let me spin you a story.

Once upon a time, and what a time it was!

In the middle of winter, a queen sat embroidering under an ebony window. She pricked her finger on her needle and, wanting to stanch the bleeding, pressed her wound on the pile of snow outside. Together the glistening red blood, virgin white snow, and sturdy ebony frame made such a pleasing picture that she wished, without thinking, for a child who was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony.

An innocent wish it was, that she forgot soon after.

A forgotten wish it was, that the Devil granted!

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There had been a royal birth.

Or had there? The people were not sure. A steward confirmed a while later that the queen had given birth to a prince, but that only increased the suspicions of the populace. Where, then, were the fanfares? Where were the cheers? Where was the joyous celebration that normally marked such good news? The king was nowhere to be seen. The air around the palace was thick with tension.

It was unsettling. Rumors spread. "Perhaps the baby was stillborn," fretted a woman.

"Nay, I bet he is deformed somehow," a man asserted.

A grocer shook his head. "It could be that he is simply in bad health."

"Could it be the queen who is in danger?" another whispered anxiously.

And one distinct voice spoke the truth. "Or perhaps, the child is cursed."

Everybody turned to the speaker. He was quite an intimidating man in a cassock, with deep creases on his forehead and a scar on his left cheek. His eyes were guarded by the gleam of light reflecting off his glasses. A cross bounced off his chest.

"The child is cursed," the man repeated. "There be an evil in the castle."

"Now, Father," someone laughed nervously, "That's quite a statement to make!"

"I only say what I know," the priest growled. "Calamity will befall this land."

The citizens twittered amongst themselves. "Aren't you going to do anything?" someone else beseeched.

They gaped in astonishment when the priest merely cackled. "No, I don't think so. Not yet. It won't be fun to dispose of just yet…I like a challenge, see."

He lumbered away intoning the Holy Scripture under his breath. The crowd moved hurriedly out of his way. They saw him go as far as the bell tower, when suddenly he was not there at all. There was no trace of him save for the loose leaves of the Bible flying in the wind.

There had been no wind that day.

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There had been no wind that day.

The queen, the poor thing, she was inconsolable. No one could calm her, not her doctors or nurses or maids. She was still weak from the delivery, but was sitting up in bed with the covers drawn to her chin, shuddering and gasping and pupils erratic. Cowering, she was, from a bundle of blankets at her feet. She refused to touch it. Oh, how she loathed to touch it!

Enter the king. He saw the state of his wife and rushed to her side. "What is it, love? What has happened?"

She dissolved into tears again. "The child…the child…"

The king inquired, "What of the child?"

She pointed a shaking finger at the bundle. It wriggled and disclosed itself. A maid shrieked, a physician sucked in his breath, the king dropped his jaw and all watched with transfixed horror the sight unfolding before them.

First came out arms that would have been like any other baby's arms had the skin not been as white as snow. Next peeked out a tuft of hair that was as black as ebony. Finally, his face, and a charming face it would have been, a lovable face, if not for the eyes! Oh, you have never seen anything more terrible than those eyes, those eyes as red as blood. They were a demon's eyes, a monster's eyes, holding malice, speaking of death, whispering of chaos.

He wailed. His audience was struck dumb with shock. The queen sobbed harder.

Ah, don't be feeling sorry for the queen.

It's her fault she wasn't careful with what she wished for.

"Oh, dear God in Heaven…I have given birth to the son of the Devil!"

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Take some Hellsing and Snow White and some of my darkly romantic fantasies, and what do we have? A story in the making. I hope you all will enjoy the things to come. Chapter one will be out soon, or so I dearly hope. Thank you for reading, and please review!

Minor edits March 12, 2016.

Minor edits May 21, 2016.