Author's Notes: On top because they are important *Grins. Either way, this is something my friend has dubbed a 'Writers Block ex-lax fic' because it really is. I have such a short attention span that its really no wonder I would wander around (Mentally) while trying to write the next chapter of my other fic. I've honestly been a huge Hellsing fan for years, but never really posted anything. I should also mention that this was written some time ago, and has been floating around for some time now. Unfinished like everything else, but I daren't let it rot and fester.

Summary: Vampires, the scourge of the night and the thing of nightmares. But not all monsters started out as something entirely inhuman. OC-centric, with a twinge of Alucard and Integra. Just a little introduction of my character to the realm of Hellsing- Most definitely AU.

Rating: T For gore/blood, ghoul and/or Zombie funliness.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever owned Hellsing. But god do I ever wish? Sorry, just had the mental image of me on a beach with Young-Walter or something.

Keeping Faith

By: Tamuril A.K.A Bamvivirie

Chapter 1: Howl

A rosary.

Silver metal, and black beads.

That was the first thing she remembered.

Darkness.

Deep, sheathing nothingness. The void, a pit below even hell itself. water seeping down, eroding stone and earth. Trailing down pale frigged skin, chilling enough to pierce the soul. A wrongness so deep that her heart twisted with the thought of it. Her. Yes, she was female. She knew this. How did she know this? How could she not know, she was herself wasn't she? Wasn't she? Who was she?

'Herself.' Said a dark voice in the back of her mind.

That was all fine and great, but WHO was she?

'HERSELF.'No more, and no less than herself. 'Why need she ask?'

To know. To know herself.

How can one not know themselves? That did not make sense.

Neither did not knowing her name.

Her Name? Why did she need one? She was more than a name, more than a simple label. She was boundless, endless, beyond that of any simple mortal "name".

Then the cold unfeeling metal pressed against her wrists, as grey harsh stone filled her vision. Only contrasted by the one thing that they had no ability to take away from her, the moonlight glinted off of its blessed surface almost unmarred by the events that had transpired.

Events? Better not to ask, or the pain would come back. Pain?

A sharp stab in her mind, and she hissed as if to ward it off.

Hissed... A simple and easy as breathing, throat producing an unnaturally loud and cruel sound that reverberated off of the walls around her. The sound of a caged tiger ready to pounce.

She looked up, moving stiff joints in an attempt to ease them. Bars marred her vision, not a few feet from her, but not within reach. Or at least, not with these shackles. A stone wall beyond them, a moonlit window illuminating the area.

She slumped back against the wall, easing the strain off of her poor abuse arms, and looked down. Cotton, a dreary grey color that was indistinguishable from the stone around it. It had been red once, this piece of fabric she wore. A dress, yes. It had been a red dress, and she had worn this dress for a particular occasion. Dark hair fell down past her shoulders and down to her waist, matted and dingy. Uncomfortable shoes clad her feet, pinching at the toe.

Why hadn't she lost those? She couldn't remember.

A sound reverberated through the building, an echo within an echo. A maddened howl, shaking the structure around her, as she closed her eyes against the pain and sorrow in the sound. After a moment the stopped, but for minuets afterward she kept her eyes closed.

Then the scream of metal on metal, and she opened her eyes to see the door to her cell open.

She didn't question. Perhaps it had always been unlocked and she just hadn't noticed. A sigh left her lips and she looked at her shackles, wishing for them to open as easily. A noise filled her ears, and with a *chink* they had opened. To strange to dismiss as easily.

'Don't question.'

She stood shaking her head.

'Don't question, just do.'

Do what?

'GO!'

She stood, unsteady legs leaden from days of disuse and awkward arrangement. She took a and immediately regretted her action, as she pitched forward. She grasped the cell door for support, before kicking off the horrible toe pinching monstrosity's that she'd worn for far too long.

A heartbeat echoed through her ears at the thought, as her mind took her back to a sunlight day when she and her best friend had skipped school to run around in the bright spring morning, a rare contentment filled her heart. A memory half lost in the darkness of this place, and she was once more in the cell staring at the depressing grey stone around her.

She sighed, taking a moment to pull what comfort she could from this half memory. Storing it in her heart for a time when she would need it. She grasped the small silver symbol and stepped forward; oddly reluctant to leave the one place she had become familiar with.

A dark hallway, and even darker steps leading up and way.

A slurping wet sound met her ears as she crept forward, a crunching accompanying it from time to time. The horrible wet noise filling her ears and mind with dread. It drowned out her footsteps as she made her way forward, wishing for it to stop but knowing that the moment it did the thing making said noise would be free to notice her.

Her socked feet felt the cold stone beneath them, step after step taking her closer to this dreadful thing. Fear, and horror eating away at her once calm facade.

And then a wet tackiness, as her foot stepped into a thick congealed liquid on the stair, only a few steps from the top. Another step, and her other foot met the same slippery condition as its partner. Her eyes looked toward the top of the stairs, on level with the ground above.

She stopped dead, wide eyes meeting wide eyes.

A man, sprawled backwards at the top of the stairs, eyes glazed over blue in death. Throat gaping, so deeply torn that his head was almost severed. Her knees gave way beneath her, as she turned away vomiting. Only now realizing what the tacky wetness and smell meant. A flash of memory struck her then, blond hair, blue eyes and a smiling face.

Irony and pungent, the smell of blood and death mixed with her own vomit making her heave again. Old death, decay as sickly sweet and pungent as pain fluttered a crossed her senses oddly tantalizing, her mind trying to deny even as it began to accept. Meanwhile the crunching wet slick noise continued, undisturbed by her inner turmoil.

Another crunch, closer this time, then the body in front of her moved. Sliding slowly upward, jowls nattering at her like a cruel puppet mimicry of the person it had once been, and she froze in fear, mind racing, childish mantra running over and over in her head as she begged this not to be. If she didn't see it, it wasn't real. If she didn't look up, she couldn't see it.

Like the boggy-man in her closet when she was a child, waiting to pull her away and devour her soul. The half memory of prayers flitted through her mind, one sticking out in particular for its propriety in her situation.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."

A movement. A shudder, and she could deny the truth no longer. Eyes moving slowly, she looked up.

End Note: And that is chapter one. Stay tuned for chapter two.