Chapter 1: Dreams
I have been alone most of my life. I knew what to be alone was, but never in a hundred years would I have thought that I could meet some one who knew it better than I did. All my life up until now I was alone, many of those who had been around me called me an animal; they feared me for what I was capable of.
It's not that I scared them on purpose; it's just that I'm not normal, period. Since I can remember, I've had strange dreams about a tall man with dark black ebony hair and blood red eyes that burned with bloodlust and something else, something that didn't seem so harsh sometimes.
However, that was on the good nights. On the bad nights, I would see those beautiful red eyes glow with nothing but the bloodlust within their depths as his evil laugh filled the air. A laugh that sounded so familiar before I would wake up in a cold sweat and everything would be covered in blood causing me to scream. My parents were really freaked out when it first started happening and took me to a therapist who would have me draw pictures of the things I saw to try and help it get out of my system.
What the woman saw shocked her as she looked over the dark hues and the only bright color of red. When she showed them to my father at the end of the session, his face went expressionless. After the last session was paid for, my mom and dad took me to stay with my great grandfather Jonathan Harker in Romania for the summer.
After they dropped me off and rode back to the air port to head back to America, they got into a car accident that resulted in the car blowing up with them inside. I was forced to stay with Grandpa Harker, seeing as he was the only family I had left.
As the summer ended and I went to the local school, I had many people mock and pick on me because my last name was Harker. They called me a blood sucking demon, some of them even called me a vampire's whore like my great grandmother Mina Harker was after I had another hallucination of blood covering everything while at school.
At first I thought it was just harmless name calling and I ignored it. Then the incident happened in my last year of middle school. There was a guy who should have been in his second year of high school and wasn't because of how many times he failed. The vampire's whore thing had reached his ears and he wanted to test me out for himself and he kidnapped me and tried to rape me on the school grounds after school hours.
While struggling to get away from him, I fell and hit my face over a sharp rock at the place he had dragged me to cutting my skin above my eye and through my eyebrow. Thankfully at my cry of pain and fear, someone heard me and came to see what was going on.
I managed to escape that night with my virginity intact as that boy was arrested and my grandfather pulled me out of that school and brought tutors in to finish my education. Eventually the day hallucinations subsided and I no longer woke up screaming, but the dreams only got more and more complicated. Instead of quick images, I started hearing whispered words like Un pic or whatever that meant.
Then it was like watching memories that belonged to someone else, but in those red eyes of that man I saw my own reflection. I tried everything I could to try and sort them out, to even get them out. Learning the piano actually helped to calm my nerves when I woke up in the middle of the night afraid. I felt my life become dark as the dreams wore on and on even though I left no clues of it still going on to my grandfather. That was the normal of my life, until today, my graduation day…
"Juliann…" Called a familiar voice, "it's time for you to wake my dear."
Opening my eyes I saw the woman who looked after me whenever Grandpa Harker couldn't be around looking down at me with a smile on her face.
"Elaine? What time is it?" I asked sleep still thick in my voice.
"Its 7 am Draga. We need to have you in the Rose Garden by 9 sharp for the graduation party. Come now, we must get you ready!" she squealed with excitement.
Groaning in dread I rolled over onto my stomach and waited for Elaine to go away and I could get more sleep. The only problem being that Elaine was having none of that…
"Oh no you don't Juliann Marie Harker, up I say!" Elaine said going strict as she gathered up the sheets and yanked them right off of me leaving me exposed to the slight chill of my room.
"Hey! What the hell!?" I screeched. How dare she take my covers this early in the morning?
"Watch your tongue Miss. Juliann." She scolded.
"Shit, damn, bitch, ass, FUCK I'VE GOTTA GET READY!" I shouted when I finally noticed the time. Normally I would keep taunting her just to watch her face go as red as a tomato, but as it was, I was starting to run late. My teacher was really peculiar about his student being late to the graduation party he loved to hold in Grandpa Harker's Rose Garden.
As Elaine helped me get into a floor length formal red dress with black hems and stitching I couldn't help but wonder about my strange dreams again. Within the last couple of years they have gotten wilder and wilder. Before I was just images that turned into words and now it was actions.
Actions that would make any girl's toes curl and Grandpa Harker send her to live with nuns the rest of her life if he ever found out.
"Been having those dreams again?" Elaine asked me, bringing me out of my thoughts as she curled my straight black hair.
"Why would you say that?" I asked, getting nervous.
"Juliann I can see the dark places beneath your beautiful hazel eyes Draga. You've been having those dreams again." She said, seeing right though her.
"Please don't tell Grandpa Harker!" I begged, accepting defeat. There was no hiding anything from Elaine; she was too smart of a house keeper and Nanny.
Seeing her inner turmoil over what to do, I gave her my best puppy dog eyes. Seeing my face, Elaine sighed.
"I should say something to him I tell you. If they get any worse or you start back screaming in your sleep I will tell him Juliann. I'll keep quite for now, but if it starts back then no longer." She gave in.
"Thanks, Elaine." I said relieved.
When she was all done, I got up to leave but I hesitated in the doorway of my room.
"Hey Elaine, can I ask you something?" I asked.
At her nod, I continued.
"What does Un pic mean? "
Hearing this, Elaine looked over at me in shock. She definitely knew what it was, but it shocked her. Looking a bit closer I could see that it also scared her.
"Elaine? Does it mean something bad?" I asked. If it was offensive, I wanted to know so that I wouldn't say it again. Elaine was the only Nanny that didn't look down on me and I didn't want to ruin it and push her away from me.
"No Draga, it isn't something bad. It means Little One in Old Romanian. I'm sorry if I worried you Draga, you just startle me with that question." She said trying to cover something up.
That was the thing when you were around people long enough. You got to know them…
…
Dismissing my grand daughter's old Nanny I sat back in my chair behind my desk and picked up the phone, dialing that number I received long ago should this happen.
After a few rings the person he wanted to speak with picked up the line.
"Who is it?" the woman asked.
"Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing, I am in need to speak of you where your pet cannot overhear. Mentioning my name over the phone lines is dangerous, especially if he hears it." I said with a bit of malice mentioning that damnable monster who tried stealing my wife, my Mina about a century ago. There was a long silence on the other end of the line before Sir Hellsing spoke again.
"If you are who I believe, then answer one question to prove it." She demanded.
I smiled. I was happy to see that that trait passed down from Abraham…
"The answer to your unspoken question is Arthur Hellsing." I said.
"There are very few people who can answer that question, and only one who can answer it before it is asked. Where would you like to meet then?"
"At the place it all began Sir Hellsing. The place your pet held dear for a long time."