"Trevor!"

The anger and hurt that Trevor had felt was dying down, and now that his mind was clear, he knew he went too far. Alucard was crying, for god's sake! Regret slowly seeped through the cracks of his mind.

"You went too far!"

Now Sypha was angry at him.

"Don't you think I know that?!" The Belmont snapped.

"Then why did you say those things?" Her voice broke. In a whisper, she continued, "You really hurt him..."

"I was angry," was his response. "Still am, just not as much. He still betrayed us, and it hurt." His eyes were on his filthy boots. "I didn't think he would ever do that to us."

"Maybe he didn't do it on purpose!" Sypha was quick to defend.

Trevor's head snapped up. "Are you kidding me?! How do you help a MONSTER on accident? That thing was insane!"

"You're right. But then, what if it didn't look like that when Alucard found it? It must've sensed him and preyed on the fact that he would help."

The Belmont didn't want to think about it. Because if he thought about it, he would start feeling worse, knowing that Sypha had a point. Knowing that he had just chased off one of his friends. Knowing that he made him cry. It hurt Trevor just thinking about it.

His heart felt heavy as Sypha went on.

"Think," I don't want to... "It looked like a child at first, right?" Stop it... "Maybe it disguised itself as an orphan of one of the dead families. Knowing that Alucard would protect an orphaned vampire child who was starving on the streets after a massacre."

"Then why didn't he tell us?" Trevor ground out.

The Speaker's eyes were downcast, sadness etched clearly into her face.

"Maybe...he didn't want us to be mad and take it away to kill it, not knowing what it was."

Trevor's rage had passed by this point, now only feeling overwhelming regret and guilt.

"I really went too far, didn't I...?"

"You did."

"Would he ever forgive me?"

"I bet he's thinking the exact same thing."

A sad, determined smile tugged his lips.

"That means I have a chance to get him back."

Sypha matched his smile. "I'm glad you came to that conclusion yourself. Now," she took a step to the forest. His tone and face were firm as she beckoned him along. "Let's go get our friend back!"

"Yeah!"

Trevor learned something new. Besides the fact that he should be more considerate.

He hated forests.

They were swarming with bugs, tree roots kept trying to trip him, mosquitos kept biting his arms, it was dark and damp, and he had no idea where he was going.

Now, you'd think, why can't he figure out where he was going? Didn't he live on his own for years traveling? Shouldn't he know where to go?

Nope. Most times Trevor went through forests, he was drunk, so he didn't care where he ended up and just walked right through. But this time was different. He was searching for somebody. His friend to be exact. The friend he had just yelled, insulted, and accused and made cry.

So he felt like a real ass, and that took away what little direction powers he had and turned him into a guilt-ridden, tripping, swearing mess.

Sypha thought they had heard running water, most likely a streak a while back. Ten minutes later, they were still walking towards it. Trevor didn't think that Sypha knew where to go any more than he did. Which was frightning in all honesty. They could get lost in this forest for life at this rate!

But...there. Straight and a bit to the right... Running water. Trevor could hear it. Finally, they could either take a break after finding Alucard not there, or find him and not have to worry any more, clearing everything up right then and there.

"See?! Told you I wasn't crazy!" Sypha exclaimed. "You can hear the water now, right?"

"Yeah..."

A fresh wave of hope filled there veins as they ran through the last stretches of bushes and trees. Only to have that hope shattered when they finally got there.

Alucard was there alright. But...he wasn't there...

The first thing they saw was crimson; such a beautiful red that shouldn't be used in such a terrifying way. It stretched over the green blades of grass in perfect dew drop splatters. The dirt had now turned into mud, darker than it should be and rotten with the smell of death. It tinted the water pink, slowly deepening into a more vibrant color. The moon was directly above them, giving the already morbidly stunning color a more haunting glow. It stained smooth gold, and tainted pure black. A flower of the color bloomed on a pale surface, with silver highlighting it like a cross.

Neither could breathe. It hurt their hearts to even look at this and continue to function as normal. The sight of Trevor's dagger was like a punch to the gut. Or in this case, a stab in the heart.

The sight of blood soaked gold hair framing a tear-streaked face was enough to send Sypha to her knees in a fit of her own tears.

Even the animals and insects were quite, seeming to mourn as well.

It hurt...it hurt so bad...

Trevor dropped to his knees, still with a look of disbelief on his face as he couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight. From his friend. From the corpse. From the dagger.

"No..." he whispered as Sypha's sobs echoed in his ears. "No...this can't be...this can't be true!"

It hurt even more once the thought came to mind:

It was his fault.

It was Trevor's fault. He had turned against his friend and comrade without letting him explain. He should have stopped. He should have talked resonably. He should've realized that something was wrong when he started crying. Alucard never cried. Not from the worst battle injuries, not from having to do things he didn't want. And certainly not from his friends scolding him.

No. He cried because we made him think that we hated him. That he shouldn't be alive. That he had made one too many mistakes...And it was my fault.

Trevor wanted to cry. Could feel it building up in his chest. Yet his body didn't let him.

By now Sypha had folded herself against the ground, hugging herself, sobbing freely.

Trevor couldn't do that. Something kept nagging at him. Telling him that he was missing something. Something important. He couldn't figure it out.

Until he looked at the body.

The body...It's still there. It's not dust yet!

Something akin to hope serged up in his chest, pushing aside the sorrow and guilt for the time being to shake Sypha out of her sobbing fit and stagger towards the bloody body of his friend.

"He must've missed..." he murmured.

"Why *hic* do you think *hic* that?" Sypha blubbered out. She was drying her tears as she went and joined Trevor at the body.

"The body's not dust yet." A surprising firmness was in his voice and Sypha seemed to just notice that as he mentioned it. The tears stopped so suddenly, Trevor thought they might have evaporated.

"Then let's save him!"

"Agreed."

Hi! Sorry for the depressing chapters, but you read the last one, so you must know by now what you're getting into. This chapter surprisingly went fluidly into actual words. It didn't take as long as it usually did, or if it did, time passed quickly. I wasn't really sure where to go from the end of the last chapter, but my hands started writing and this was the finished result. I felt as though I did good on getting the emotion there, and that might be because I'm currently listening to sad anime music on youtube, but that's irrelevant [or is it?]. But whatever. At the end of the day, I made a chapter and I'm proud of it. Enjoy, and if you have any criticism feel free to share! I'll try to update this quick, but no promises. For readers of Stairway of Sorrow might know, I'm working on an extra long chapter of that to make up for the wait. I might do that with this but I doubt it. Anyway, I'm rambling. Hope you enjoyed and see you next time!

Majesty~