I wish FF would change its layout a little bit. I like the simplicity of how it looks now but…I dunno – it seems very sterile and impersonal. Perhaps I've been on dA for too long (I get a lot of my ideas for OC characters and original plot lines through art; rarely anything for Fanfiction though).
Disclaimer: saying I own Hellsing is like saying I'm blue. And since I'm neither a smurf nor a nightelf I don't own it.
My family has a lovely HD television in the living room. My parents don't know why I enjoy it when they leave the house, and they don't know that it's because when they leave, I can watch Hellsing OVAs on that screen. With the volume REAL loud. It's bliss. Bloody, Nazi, oh-dear-god-that's-damn-sexy bliss. Plus its funny when my little brother comes in and screams 'THERE'S BRITISH PEOPLE EVERYWHERE'.
Too bad Geneon hasn't come out with a dubbed Hellsing OVA since 2008. (sigh) It was one of the decent dubs out there…
xxx
Winter Will Come
Chapter Two: In the Land of Bloody Beach Grass
xxx
Dressed in a fresh pair of tan Dockers and a light blue shirt, Seras was rubbing the dead from her eye with the heel of her hand as she knocked on her master's dorm room door. She had not slept well, with the taste of pizza and chicken wings still in her mouth, and her body still lagged. Her blood pumped sluggishly through her veins, and she knew she had a bad case of coffin-hair, but she really didn't care. Her master would get murderous if he didn't have a thermos of blood.
After a few seconds, plenty of time for Alucard to crawl out of his coffin and answer the door, Seras wondered what was taking him. So she jiggled the doorknob a little until the push-lock popped out, then strolled inside, the thermos tucked to her side.
The dorm room looked as if it was still unoccupied. The only sign that Alucard had ever been there were the three empty thermoses under the bed and the coffin standing upright in the closet. Seras tapped it to see if Alucard was in it, but she only received a hollow sound from that experiment.
"Hey!"
At the sound of the voice, Seras slammed the closet door shut and whipped around. Logan was peeping into the room, his green Mohawk a little droopy from a lack of styling. He was beaming, so Seras tried to smile back. Her face muscles weren't fully awake yet, so it was more of a one-sided smirk that belonged on a stroke victim.
"Hello," Seras ground out, hoping he didn't notice the bare bed or the red liquid dripping from the mouth of one visible thermos.
"Are you looking for Vlad?" Logan asked, beaming. Seras wondered for a split second who the hell Vlad was, until she remembered that Alucard had changed his name.
"Oh, of course." Seras nudged the thermos under the bed. "Do you know where he is?" And if he's on the upper floor eating a blond premed student…
"He's in the lobby," Logan chirped, shifting the weight of the massive backpack hanging off one shoulder. "He told me to come up and get you and to tell you to 'bring a thermos'." He added finger quotes around the last phrase, telling Seras that Alucard had said it too seriously.
Her master, like her, was still recovering from last night's outing. He had downed three thermoses last night, after upchucking a brilliant combination of chicken wings and pizza behind a dumpster outside the dormitory. As elegantly as possible, of course.
"Thanks, tell him I'll be down soon." Seras nodded to Logan, and he bounded off towards the stairs, actually determined. "Oh well – at least he's optimistic," she said to herself once he was gone.
Seras emptied her carryon and took a swig of blood to take the edge off her thirst. She then tucked her master's breakfast under her arm and set off down the hallway.
Alucard was curled up in his college student form in the lobby, reading a book about trains. He had changed his hair slightly, giving himself longer fringes that framed his face, and a white forelock just for kicks.
"Master…?" Seras walked up to Alucard slowly, seeing that he was thoroughly ensconced in his locomotive book.
The nosferatu grunted, not looking up. He held out an expectant hand, gloveless with black nails and another ring. He was really getting into his guise, and the tap-tap-taping of his tongue ring against his right canine was already getting old. "Food."
Seras put the full thermos into his hand, and Alucard mournfully put his train book down on the little table next to his chair. He unscrewed the blue lid of the thermos and sipped at it.
"The vrăjitoare's assistant should be here soon," he said, taking a big gulp and dripping blood on his black shirt. There was that word again. "Fix your bed head." Seras squawked shrilly and patted at her hair, trying not to point out to her master that his hair had been known to act of its own accord.
At that moment, Logan appeared, beaming.
"Sup, vampires," he said, chewing a mouthful of what Seras guessed to be bread and some kind of salty meat. He offered the sandwich to Alucard. "Want some? It's salami."
Alucard stared at the sandwich and turned red with rage.
xxx
"So you knew we were vampires and you still made us eat pizza?" Seras asked as they waited in the foyer of the Salem Institute.
It was surprisingly fancy, more fitting for a five star hotel than a business that specialized with bloody fights to the death with vampires (but then again, the Hellsing estate was worth a few million pounds). The floor was pearl, seamless tile, edged with shiny lacquered cherry wood. The clerk was not sitting at a drab desk but behind a cherry wood counter with veins of purplish magic running through it. A chandelier with tinkling, fake diamonds hung from a surprisingly tall ceiling, casting a friendly, bright glow across the foyer. Olive colored chairs were scattered around round, dainty tables with vases of flowers in the middle.
Alucard was a big black shadow in a fancy olive chair, chewing angrily on the straw he was using to drink a glass of warm, fresh blood. This had been a peace offering from the Institute - virgin blood in exchange for forgiving Logan for being a moron. It hadn't placated Alucard in the slightest.
"I'm really sorry," Logan said for the twelfth time, his blue eyes pleading. That should have tipped them off, really. "But my friends expect me to do that with the newbies, since I really am the RA for that floor. They aren't witches, and they're wicked paranoid." He looked at Alucard. "You can have that book about trains if you want."
That did not please the vampire king. He stared at the marble between his feet, draining the glass rapidly. Even though he had been around for the turn of the century (both centuries), Sir Integra had once whispered to Seras that Alucard had a mysterious fascination with trains and planes and other machinery. But whenever someone brought it up, he fiercely denied it, and the accuser usually went away with a limp.
Seras hoped Logan dropped that subject before Alucard broke his kneecaps. She put a hand on the witch's shoulder and gave him a look that said 'shut up before he flattens you with that book'.
Logan caught on quickly and changed the subject.
"I'm supposed to brief you guys on the situation here," Logan said sheepishly, fiddling with the cuff of his shirt. "Do you want to look around first or -."
"Tell us," Alucard grunted, running a finger along the inside of the empty glass and finding it covered with dust. He glared at Logan while he cleaned his finger by scrubbing it on the arm of his chair spitefully. "Now."
The college student/witch-in-training squeaked and almost popped the button off his shirt cuff. "Well, you see – we've recently had to deal with a number of humans coming into contact with vampires and living, so the secret is kind of out…"
"What do you mean?" Seras asked before Alucard could blow his top. He had lived in a time where vampires had been mere fairy tales, and had developed a stubborn ideal that vampires and humans should never coexist (not couldn't, but shouldn't), but Seras had an inkling that the cat would be out of the bag in the next decade or so. "How many people know?"
"Well, our researchers think that out of the six billion people in the word, at least thirty percent know about vampires and werewolves and stuff." Logan was growing more comfortable, brushing off Alucard's gruffness with the resiliency of a university student. "But most of them are apart of organizations like ourselves or are…you know, in Britain."
"But that's not the problem. Keeping these people quiet is really easy. However, some of them have taken to forming little groups of their own and going off and staking vampires themselves, including peaceful covens who we have made truces with. And they've also injured innocents during their escapades, such as when they burned down a coven's house in Back Bay and the fire spread to neighboring apartment buildings.
"And now the vampires are growing angry. They've struck back numerous times, and this week they left a body hanging from the Hancock Tower with a note for the rest of them. It was only with the help of the police that we made up a story to keep the public quiet."
Logan finished explaining the Salem Institute's predicament weary and pale, as if the realization of the seriousness of a human and vampire skirmish was upon him. He looked at Alucard, his now haggard voice clashing with his flamboyant hair.
"We were kind of hoping that you would be able to talk to the vampires while we deal with the Edgar Brigade."
Alucard's scowl softened. He loved it when people stroked his ego. "I will see what I can do, but I can't guarantee that it won't become a slaughter. Most yearlings are too stupid for their own good."
A small voice spoke to Seras; you were almost one of the stupid ones. She cocked her head, pondering its familiar accent.
xxx
When most people think of the land around lakes or the sea they think of lush, green vegetation, with acres of green grass and beautiful palm trees. They imagine people playing in the warm surf, children laughing, families sitting under brilliant umbrellas that dotted a crowded coast like specks of paint. Hot sand, warm wind.
Seras stared at the barren beach with slight homesickness. There were no palm trees, no families; just miles and miles of sand and iron grey seawater. The wind was biting this late at night, and it screamed shrilly around them, stinging their eyes and leaving them with the lingering scent of salt. It was just like home.
There was a half-moon tonight, and it was high in the sky, casting dim light across the faces of the witches gathered on the beach. They were pale and their faces where pinched, and Logan's hair shone like a neon sign. Everything was in black and white under the moon, except for Alucard's bright red clothing and Sera's sweater. The irony was unbearable.
Alucard sniffed the air, the moonlight glinting off of the fake piercings in his ears. Like Seras, he only caught the overpowering smell of salt. "Are you sure the hostile coven is here?"
"You can't smell them?" Morgan's hair was tied back so that it didn't tickle her face when the wind blew it around. "Then the answer's obvious. They're completely hidden here. There is always constant noise, and always a constant smell to cover-up their meals. They attack lone pedestrians when they come out here alone. It is the perfect spot."
Alucard's eyes narrowed, and Seras knew it was a sign he was thinking deeply. He was probably comparing the beach to his old castle, which was far less inconspicuous. But not as sandy.
"The running water –," Alucard began, but he knew the answer to his own question. Powerful vampires felt the tug less, and their childe would grow accustomed to it. This was the perfect hiding place.
They were all silent for a while, listening to the waves as if they would be able to hear the whisper of vampires hiding. Finally Seras spoke up; "Is there a way to lure them out?"
Everyone turned towards Alucard in complete unison. Logan said, "We were hoping he would know what to do."
For a moment Alucard got a horribly whimsical look on his face. And the last time he had a whimsy, Seras was born into darkness.
xxx
"Are you sure this will work?"
Sometimes Alucard had no patience for those with a weak stomach. Half of Morgan's witches were pale in the face, three were gagging ineffectively, and one had already vomited spectacularly into the crook of a scraggly tree. Really now, weren't all these modern Americans supposed to be desensitized?
The vampire scoffed and ripped the head off another of the seagulls he had snatched from the air. "Almost positive. All of this bird blood will disguise Seras's blood's scent, but one of them will be bound to be drawn to it." The blood spurted from the gull's neck, spraying onto the beach. The sand in a five foot radius had turned to dark red mud.
Said Police Girl was sitting in a nearby sand dune, looking dazed and a little loopy from blood loss.
Once the gull population of the beach was significantly decreased, Alucard gave the signal for silence and dragged his fledgling to a hiding spot. All around, witches murmured words and vanished into the dunes, and even Logan's hair was nothing more than some sand and a bit of mermaids' purses.
There was silence all around. The waves reached toward the shore, white froth almost hitting the giant bloody stain in the sand, and the faintest sound of rustling was heard by those who were hiding. Seras and Alucard hid in the darkness cast by the scraggy trees that dotted the field of beach grass just beyond the dunes. Seras could feel the tension in her gut, and her fangs bit into her bottom lip in anticipation.
Suddenly there was a bloodcurdling scream. A male witch came into view as his spell failed, shrieking in pain as a pale figure raked sharp nails into his chest. More blood flew as all the other witches around the dying one became visible and began chanting spells. The vampire flung these aside with a sweep of its arm and ran for the field of grass.
Seras felt Alucard's fingers digging into her upper arm as she fought to go and help the witches. The dying witch was letting out a horrible rattle just as the vampire rushed past their hiding spot, with four or five shrieking witches on its heels. When the vampire rushed by, Alucard struck. The nosferatu leapt out from the shadows, bearing down on the fleeing vampire like a bird of prey. The vampire let out a terrified squeal as Alucard tore off one of its arms, spraying blood over the tops of the beach grass.
Something odd happened. Seras had an inkling that Alucard did it on purpose to test the witches, but for whatever reason he suddenly 'lost' his grip on the struggling vampire, letting it flee farther into the field.
Covered in blood and smirking, Alucard cast a glance over at Morgan, who looked like she was about to explode; a vein in her forehead was swelling. But she was the only one who thought Alucard was up to something shifty (aside from Seras), and all the other witches were sending their familiars out into the field to search for the vampire. A badger went waddling in front of Seras, sniffed her ankles, and decided she wasn't the right vampire before heading out into the beach grass.
"What the hell are you doing?" Morgan hissed, storming up to Alucard and glaring up at him. Her head had to tilt back to a near forty degree angle, but she still looked intimidating – to everyone except Alucard, who was finding everything hilarious. "Your organization sends you to us to help and all you can do is - stop that! You stop that right now, you giant infant!"
Her voice had gradually risen as Alucard chuckled at her distress, and by the time she bit out the last of her insult the witches were turning their heads towards them and Alucard had stopped laughing.
But Alucard did not look angry. In fact, he was leering in a most unpleasant way, making Seras look abruptly away because she knew he was about to point out some significant fact that would bring Morgan to her knees.
Which he did.
"I was merely letting the vampire flee towards his brothers, so that I could destroy them all together," Alucard drawled without looking his loathsome smile. "And though you and you're company have ruined it, I believe I can scrap it."
Morgan's face had become a pathetic mix of pink and pasty white, and her lips had thinned to almost nonexistence. A lesser woman would have been brought to tears, but she looked determined to either right the situation or beat Alucard until he had to crawl around with his elbows and sheer willpower. She decided to combine the two.
"Alright then," she said, scowling. Her face began to return to its normal paleness, and Seras felt a little glad. "Show us your brilliance," she made a motion to the witches searching the field, and they returned, "Find the vampire coven."
Seras nodded in acknowledgement, knowing Alucard wouldn't do the same, and trotted after her master. The beach grass seemed to part before him, the tan threads of grass flinching away from the touch of his dead skin. A trail of blood had been left by the injured vampire, but she knew Alucard didn't need to follow the path that the bloody beach grass made. He sailed through like a shadow, a predatory grin slowly moving across his face as he moved in for the kill.
Aren't we supposed to be reasoning with them? Seras thought distantly as she trailed her hand over a strand of grass where the blood had already dried and begun to flake. Specks of blood remained on her fingertips, so she wiped it off on her pants, which in retrospect wasn't a good idea. Now she had dry bits of blood on her tan slacks.
Alucard suddenly dove to his left, and she saw a wave of beach grass rippling and shuddering as he went for whatever had caught his attention. A moment later Seras heard the hard snap of breaking wood, and then –
KABLAM.
A sharp wail combined with the gun's retort, and everything echoed in the silence that followed. Including the screams of the other vampires that Alucard began restraining.
He had released to level two (another formality he had yet to let go), and was using tentacles of materialized shadow to cocoon no less than a half dozen wriggling, shrieking vampires. The one he had shot was also the one he had torn an arm off of, and it was slowly bleeding out of a hole where its face had once been.
"You killed him!" one of the black cocoons was shrieking. "You killed him you killed him!"
His leather suit making the scene all the more disturbing, Alucard peered curiously at the restrained vampires, allowing the shadows to recede from their faces. "Do you know these?" he asked, as if the vampires were objects.
Morgan was running up to them, out of breath and more than a little disturbed at Alucard's sudden power and form. The witches behind her were worse off, and a few of them were covering their eyes with their arms – one of them was holding his marten familiar over his face. Blood spurting from seagulls was one thing – watching a crazed nosferatu melt into shadows was another.
"No," Morgan panted, doubling over with her hands on her bent knees. He gulped down a few mouthfuls of air before speaking again, and Seras wondered how fast she and her master had been walking. "I don't know any of them. The only coven we know around here is up near the town."
"So these have no ties to you?" Alucard asked over the cries of 'you killed him'.
"No…" Morgan trailed off when Alucard raised his gun. "Wait! Don't –!"
KABLAM.
The sound was so loud that it made Seras's teeth rattle, and she looked at the ground. This brought no comfort, as she could still smell the blood and hear the rustle of a body falling into beach grass.
"Hey!" Morgan was screaming now, and Alucard was killing off the restrained vampires one by one, each with their own unique bang from the Casull (two point oh). "Hey! Stop that!"
"You killed them!" The one screaming vampire had turned tragic, and he seemed crucified in Alucard's shadows. "You coward! Fight us! Stop killing them and fight us you son of a -!"
Alucard shot him in the throat and let him choke to death on silver and blood.
xxx
There is this stack of books next to my bed about Victorian England/London. OH GOD I HATE ENGLISH MONEY. They have normal shit like SHILLINGS and PENNIES (pence?) and POUNDS, but then there was the Guinea, which was worth ONE pound and ONE shilling. Why not a pound and a half? WHY NOT TWO POUNDS? MOMMY MAKE THE SHENANIGANS STOP.
Ahem…no offense. I'm usually an anglophile, I swear.
I don't know why idiots run in fields of beach grass. Ticks thrive in there. Then again, Alucard is kind of like a giant tick. Never mind.
Review Responses:
TaikeruSohma: Erm…well, I don't really allow other people's characters into my stories, but I guess if you sent me a quick description in a PM I could have them be a random person who's killed in a later chapter. If that's okay XD (I do it all the time with any of the characters I put into any of the twenty books I write – Alucard's killed one of my main characters at least three times).
Thess: I always think my characterization of Alucard sucks. He's never creepy enough D: I write him in, but all I can think of is 'he could totally be creepier'. I try to channel Bela Lugosi but it never works.
Master of the Boot: BOOTY! :3 Baw, you sure know how to make a girl feel special. Some people can draw, some can play sports – I can write bloody, sarcastic stories about Dracula and his love affair with his guns. BOOYA. And I TOTALLY forgot about my other nickname for Alucard; now I will never be able to get through US History tomorrow (who cares if we're in the Cold War period – I'll be thinking of George Washington).
Parrots are the best :D When I get a place of my own I'm going to get a cockatiel and work myself up to a macaw. Then I will have seventeen parrots and no money. I've no idea how I came up with Logan. I was just writing and suddenly I had the idea to have a comic-relief derp who finds Alucard hilarious. Though this'll fade with time D: Meh!? College!? I want to be in college! FFFF – I'm still a junior ;-; I want to live in a dorm and have bat lighting and to be in a town where the people aren't (expletive) and fund my school. FUUUUUUUUUUUND MEEEEEEE.
Damn that was a long response.
Keaydee: :D Thanks. That's saying something about my derp-y personality. I'm actually not that funny in real life – or at least, no one laughs most of the time XD. I'm not even the funniest person in my group of friends, who usually pat me on the shoulder and go 'that wasn't funny, you dingbat'.
Queen Adelia: EEEEVIL. We watched that movie in French the next day! (why we watched it when it was French I will never know). AND ALL I COULD THINK OF WAS THAT. I giggled at the most RANDOM moments. "Kana why are you laughing?" "Because I don't think Bette Midler would win against DRACULA." (Crickets cheeping).
You haven't seen the cutest kitties until you see my friend's (seven) cats chase after a red penlight. The crippled one's the best – doing ninja-cripple-Assassin's Creed moves off the wall.
Random Romantasist 999: 999 equals fifty percent more evil? Hey, I actually DID learn something in Algebra! Anyway, I guess I don't do AxS because its…icky. It's all paternal and ewwwww. I'll read anything if its good (I have a few AxS in my favorites), but I can't write it. I can barely write AxI. But at least you keep yourself busy XD.
End Responses
I CAUGHT THE UPS MAN. And then I was so relieved I slept for twelve hours cause my insomnia let me :3 Thank you, insomnia.
Oh god, get Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire OUT OF MY HEAD. (Somebody gives her AC/DC's Thunderstruck.) THIS DOESN'T HELP AHG SHIIIT – ahhahhahhahaaa.
Well shit. THUNDER.
Let's all review so I get my sanity back. Ahhahhahaaaa. BELGIANS IN THE CONGO! OH GOD NOOOO.