Sam was casually eating a bowl of strawberries, raspberries, and other assorted fruits that were turning his mouth increasingly red with every berry.
His voice seemed to be grating on Integra today. It was an odd feeling. It vibrated starting at her lungs and ending at her stomach, every time he spoke.
"Hey," he said, popping one last strawberry into his mouth. He wiped his face on his sleeve, leaving a large crimson smear on his beige shirt. He examined Integra with cold eyes. She could clearly see his hate for her in his eyes.
Sam appeared to have glided over to Integra, because in the next moment his face was right next to hers and he was furiously whispering in her ear, bowl of fruit forgotten.
"Do you even think anyone's looking for you?" he asked but seemed unconcerned. Integra gritted her teeth as the grating feeling that followed his voice worsened. "I mean, if anyone really cared, don't you think they would have found you by now? This might just be the break you needed to open your eyes and see that nobody likes you."
Sam chuckled and stepped away from her.
"Of course, this is all because of your 'Round Table' people. Yes that's right, I know. I just kind of suggested that they say something just to piss you off! Then you could go sulk in your office like a bitch and I could come and kidnap you."
"Why would they listen to you?" Integra asked. Would they betray her?
"Little known fact: I am very persuasive. If I spent the rest of the day in here, I could convince you that you enjoy being here by tomorrow. But I like watching you struggle. I can see the sanity leaking out of your eyes day by day. One day soon you're gonna snap. And I will be there to see the whole thing." Sam grinned a hateful grin, but Integra knew that the hate she was seeing today wasn't a fraction of how much Sam really hated her.
Sam grabbed his fruit bowl and cradled it while popping more berries into his mouth.
"Stop eating," Integra growled.
"Why? Because you don't get to have any?"
Integra didn't answer for a moment, and that was what Sam expected, but then she replied, "Yes. That is exactly why."
"Why should I even listen to you, dahh-ling?"
"Don't call me that!" She shouted. If what Sam said about her 'snapping' one day soon, she wanted to put as much fight in as possible.
"Or you'll do what? Bore me to death?" Sam cackled in laughter. "Why are you so feisty all of a sudden? I can tell you're not gonna be easy to get rid of. Great. I need you for as long as I can have you." Sam turned to leave and Integra wanted to get the last word in, but couldn't think of anything to say to his turned back.
Sam slammed her door, but that didn't muffle his voice at all when he shouted, "Stan! STAN! I'm going out to eat! I'll be back soon with my meal!"
Integra bit her lip. He was going to kill someone. But that was very far from her mind. She attempted to devise plans to outsmart Sam, be one step ahead of him all the way, but he was so unpredictable that it was highly unlikely that she could do it in her state. She had been feeling constantly dizzy, tired, and empty. Integra knew that the latter had nothing to do with losing blood.
She was distressed that if anybody was making any efforts whatsoever to find her, nobody had come close. It pained her to know that Sam was right. Nobody seemed to be trying very hard to find her.
Integra looked to her left and examined the rusted hand-cuff. It didn't seem to be any weaker than it was when she was first locked up. Integra tried it, but there was no success there. Now, she looked past the hand-cuff and at what it was chained to. It was a pipe of some sort, that might have pumped water through the building, but Integra didn't know for sure and didn't care. Her eyes followed the pipe across the room, where it stretched towards her door and then disappeared into the wall.
Looking at her gold hand-cuffs that had gotten considerably dusty since Integra had been first held here, she tried to see what they were attached to, but was dismayed when she couldn't see. That corner of the room seemed too dark even though it was right beside her head.
Integra looked at the ground, knowing she wouldn't see anything except for the long-past moulded tiles there.
You need to get stronger, and then perhaps escape would be possible, some rational part of her mind thought and she agreed. Integra couldn't think of a way to become stronger though. Every time Sam drank from her it left her exhausted for days.
Stanley lightly knocked on her door, and then came in.
"Hello, Miss Hellsing. Just a fair warning, Sam is back with his next-" Stanley choked on his words then continued, "with his next victim. She's quite a disturbing thing, so if you see her… just…" Stanley couldn't continue, and instead just bowed to her and left. As her door was swinging shut, she saw Sam stroll by with his arm around a poorly clothed woman.
A few minutes later, Integra heard giggling and shrieks of anticipated pleasure, but those shrieks died off into shrieks of anguish.
Moments after that, Sam dragged a dead prostitute into Integra's room. He propped her up against the door, stood beside Integra and examined the dead woman like a work of art.
"What do you think?" he asked nonchalantly. "Found her on the side of the road. I think she was one of those people that just needed killing, you know?"
Sam picked up her body and sat in a chair with her in his lap. He took out his blood crusted blade and cut her neck open, adding to the other bleeding cuts on her body. He drank from this incision until no more blood exited the wound, and did the same with all the others. He didn't spend long on this, but it disturbed Integra greatly.
"And that is how," Sam proudly said, "I kill a person!"
Sam left the room for a minute and came back with a few wet cloths and one dry towel. He cleaned her body of all blood so that she could have passed for a living human on the street (besides the pasty white skin). Sam stared at her body again and strode over to Integra. His face looked joyful, and he cocked his head sideways while smiling like a madman.
He extended his forefinger and held it in front of Integra's face while he was reaching for something in his pocket. He brought out his blade and slashed it down on Integra's arm in the same place as always. This seemed deeper and more painful than usual though, and a larger amount of blood spilled out.
Sam collected her blood in a cup, and when the last drops had fallen he went over to the dead woman, still silent, and smeared it all over her. On her face, on her stomach and back, and on her arms and legs. Sam straitened, extended his arms as if to say, ta da!
Integra opened her mouth to say something, but Sam cut her off.
"Your blood on this dead whore has nothing to do with what I think of you dahh-ling. Blood is just blood. I mean, even to me blood still tastes steely and salty, but with a kind of zest to it now, something it never had when I was completely human. I just want your organization to know that I would kill you just like I would kill any other person. And I hope this," Sam gestured towards the dead woman slumped on the floor, "shows them my intentions clearly."
Sam turned to walk away. Integra was itching to get the last word in this time. But again she was lost for words.
"They will find me," She said coldly. Sam turned with a smug expression on his face.
"I'm counting on it," he said in a gravelly tone and left the room.
Alucard and Walter were examining the prostitute's body.
"That's my master's blood," Alucard said slowly in a low voice.
"Are you sure Alucard?" Walter asked. Alucard nodded in confirmation.
This all seemed too much. It was as if Integra's kidnapper was sending calling cards of dead bodies. It was like they wanted to be caught.
Alucard assumed that they were overlooking some important small detail. He had a significant feeling that Integra was closer than any of them knew. She probably didn't know how close she was, herself.
"We have to find her soon." Alucard tried to sound casual while saying this, but only sounded more worried. Walter nodded. Both of them wore grim expressions, but neither said anything.
Alucard left the room and Walter followed shortly after. Walter went to every measure to try and find Integra. He even went and filed a missing person case with the local police. But they didn't seem to be trying very hard. That infuriated everyone, but nobody could do a thing to speed up their search.
Everybody seemed to be failing at finding her. But in the end, everyone knew that nobody was going to find Integra, but somehow she was going to find her way to one of them. Somehow.
Thank you for giving me the month off to study! Exams are finally over, and I have the next two months to write, so you can probably expect a lot from me now. I tried to make this chapter as long as I could just so it wasn't as much of a disappointment. Again, keep up with the reviews everyone!