This one's short. It's like the dwarf of chapters.
Oh, you lovely people you, I just want to give you all quick and non-homosexual kisses. Thank you for reviewing. That's right, I'm talking to you—Yes, you.
And you over there—The one who hasn't reviewed but is thinking about it. I see you. Review and I'll give you quick, non-homosexual kisses too.
Cricket slid across the polished wooden floor on mismatched socks, a colorful blur humming a nonsensical song about the first ever paycheck in her career at the Hellsing Organization. "First paaaaycheck, got my first paaaaaaycheck—Two hundred dollas fo' my college fu-uuund…" It would have been more than two hundred dollars, but she had been distracted by a dog chewing its own tail while washing the windows and tripped, breaking what turned out to be a very expensive vase.
Now Cricket was half dancing, half skating down the halls of the Hellsing manor towards the supply closet, where she had dumped her shoes beforehand. As Walter had learned earlier in the week, Cricket was not fond of shoes, and whenever he wasn't looking they were immediately stowed away inside the closet so she could run around in her socks. Her defense was that shoes would only track more dirt and other weird things from the train on the floor, but the butler suspected that she just liked sliding around on the polished wood. In truth, he was absolutely right.
Tonight was a cloudy night, and the hallways were just as dark as the sky. For some reason, there weren't any lights in any of the halls; it was as though Integra preferred it as black as possible. Cricket didn't care, though. The moon was full and bright, as it had been for several days, and it gave off just enough of a glow that she could see down the window-lined passages. It was by this moonlight that when she was pulling on her shoes in the closet she was able to see that the door to the basement had been left ajar.
She really should have been suspicious. After that little fiasco involving Walter and Seras, she had been given a strict chewing-out from Sir Integra, and the vault had remained tightly locked without exception. Therefore, it should have been strange that tonight it was simply left open. But Cricket was on a financial high, and feeling especially daring decided that it would be quite an adventure to explore the forbidden basement. After all, the protagonist never dies doing something adventurous, and she figured that she was rightly the protagonist of her own life.
So, without any further thought, she slipped between the door and the wall and strolled down into the unknown.
Now, had she been in a more rational state, Cricket might have noted the many problems involved with this plan beforehand. For example, she had no means of light, and neither did the basement. She also had to be at the bus stop in just a few minutes, or else she'd be stuck there in the dark for another quarter of an hour.
But, thanks to the brain-numbing effects of combined boldness and money, Cricket rather stupidly assumed that everything would just work itself out.
And, truth be told, everything might have just worked itself out perfectly, though not for Cricket. Lounging in a throne-like chair at the end of the winding corridor, a monster sat brooding stormily. It was pitch black outside; his turn to awaken. But here he sat, waiting for Walter to return with the blood bags, not even aloud to feed himself anymore. He was hungry, and it made his already aggressive demeanor all the more threatening. He thrummed his gloved fingers on the arm of the chair, the other hand propping up his head as a rumble of irritation escaped from within his chest. He could hear Walter tromping all over the mansion upstairs, and the old butler seemed to be purposefully taking as long as possible to finally approach the basement door. If only that damned maid wouldn't work so late, he could roam freely and at the very least retrieve his own blood.
Yes… everything might have worked out. Alucard might have had the pleasure of tasting hot, pumping blood fresh from the source for the first time in months. Cricket might have discovered Hellsing's most lethal weapon, then embarked on a grand romantic adventure with the vampire hunting organization. And Integra might not have been further disturbed for the rest of the evening.
If only Cricket had watched where she was going, and not tripped when she missed a stair, thundering down their remaining brethren to land at the bottom with an audible flop, anything might have happened.
If only.
Even with all his supernatural talents and dark powers, Alucard was still as surprised as anyone else would've been when instead of the crisp butler, bearing blood bags, he saw a teenage girl come crashing down the steps to land sprawled out in a rather acrobatic position before him. She looked straight at him with raised eyebrows from her new post, appearing only mildly surprised.
After many long moments of silent staring from both parties, the girl said plainly, "Ouch."
Slowly picking herself up off the floor without so much as a groan, she dusted off her jeans. Straightening she glanced again at the vampire, whose genuine surprise kept him as silent as a dead man should've been. She was not seeing a vampire, or a dead man. As her feeble human sight adjusted to the dark, all she made out were long, inky tendrils that fell freely into sharp scarlet eyes that burned with something she couldn't quite place. They reminded her of two stoplights glowing in the night.
The girl squinted, staring for just a moment longer before turning and trotting back up the stairs, as casually as if she had just come down to pick up something from storage.
Alucard watched as she disappeared, experiencing more surprise than he'd felt in a long, long time.
/
Integra was sitting contentedly in her office, puffing on a cigar as usual. The only sound in the large, library-like study was the refined tick-tock of a majestic antique clock that rested above the doorway. She closed her weary eyes for just a brief moment, enjoying the rare tranquility of silence. It felt wonderful to rest her mind and simply appreciate the quiet.
Naturally, this was the perfect time for Cricket to burst through the door as noisily as she possibly could, which was quite loud. Halfway towards the front entry, the adrenaline of crashing down a flight of stairs suddenly kicked into overtime. Her face was as white as a sheet, her eyes wide and wild like a panicked animal's as she sprang to smack her hands down on the desk, effectively winning her employer's full attention.
She leaned in close; her voice was a frenzied whisper. "Did you know that the grudge is living in your basement?"
Integra's cigar dropped from her lips.
The maid had found Alucard. God help that sneaky bastard vampire, she was going to make sure he tasted more lead than blood tonight.