I've got beef with Half-Moon. They're like the cockroaches to my Fat Boy; every time I push in their shit, they scurry back out of the shadows, usually with a few more members than last time, and beg me to be their leader. Now, having an entire cult based around me would be pretty awesome, but these assholes have a passion for stealing children in order to sacrifice them to their vampire god, that being me. And after what the Turks did to me... well, the dude does not abide.
-excerpt from the Vampire Journals
Chapter 20: Blood Moon
With their allotted two days at an end, Anderson kicked the group of impromptu vampire hunters out of the church, and into the great, wide world to be on their own. Since Seras had made a startling recovery, already being able to walk, run, climb and punch the living daylights out of an Iscariot who had startled her, Alucard suggested she rest for only a day longer before they begin their final stages of the mission. That "rest" involved pitching a stolen tent on the top of an IHop in the dead of night, so Seras instead insisted that she was fine.
"Can we still go to IHop, though", she asked him. "I'm starving!"
"Well, sure", Alucard told her. "It's not like that human food has any nutritional value for you, though, so maybe on the way there, we can pick up a pedophile or two and chow down."
"Thanks, I'll stick to the human food."
"Suit yourself."
Seras had heard of IHop before, but she had never been to one. In fact, while she had been working as a police officer, more than a handful of her coworkers had taken vacations overseas, and had come back, recounting tales of fat people and artery-clogging food, that both sounded utterly revolting and yet oddly enticing. One such mystical place that had stuck with her was IHop, because a cop that she had been on particularly friendly terms with had told her that the place had been robbed while he was eating his breakfast. Apparently, three customers had turned on the robber, pulled out guns, and taken the robber hostage in return for ruining their breakfast. She didn't expect anything quite that wild to happen, but it never hurt to dream.
The one remaining American seemed to have been here before, and as soon as they were through the door, he pointed to the menu hanging on the wall, and began telling them about the best combos.
"So anyway, if you want the best bang for your buck-"
"Fuck off", Pip interjected, "I'm ordering crepes."
Seras hadn't had any particular thing in mind, so she just got what the American got; eggs, bacon, hash browns, and buttermilk pancakes. She hadn't exactly had "Grandma's cookin'" at any point in her life, so she had no comparison there, but as far as restaurant food went, all in all, she had had worse. As soon as everyone had finished eating, Pip began scratching something down on a napkin. Out of curiosity, Seras asked what he was writing.
"A brilliant idea", Pip told her.
And when they nail my pimpled ass to the cross... I'll tell them I found Jesus, that should throw them off...
"Gotta take this", Alucard said, and stood up, walking out of the restaurant, with his new phone up to his ear.
"Um", Seras piped up, trying to redirect the energy of the place, "so... what was this 'brilliant idea' of yours, Pip?"
"Well", Pip began, "my idea was that we all draw up a bunch of ideas for how we're going to assault this dumb base of theirs-"
"You mean those Half-Moon dickweeds", Six Gun clarified.
"Yes, those dickweeds. I was thinking; since they're using an old cold storage facility as their hideout, they've got to have big air conditioning units around there, right? So, we just pour some chlorine gas in them, and then the mission's basically over!"
"Good plan", Six Gun interjected, "but what about us? If something goes wrong, we don't have any masks or gas protection."
"And what if there are hostages in there", Seras added. "They would die, and they don't deserve that!"
"And that's where you two come in", Pip explained. "I've laid down a plan, now it's your turns. This is how the best plans are made; when many minds come together!"
"Does he always do this", Seras asked Six Gun in a whisper.
"Only when he doesn't know what else to do", he whispered back.
"Should we humor him", Seras asked.
"No", Six Gun replied, "we should fuck with him."
"So", Pip told them, "I'm going outside to smoke. When I come back, I want two fresh, new ideas for how we're going to tackle this problem!"
True to his word, Pip stood up, and walked out the front door, withdrawing his pack of cigarettes and lighter. Six Gun put the tip of his pen down to his napkin, and immediately began scratching something out. Seras thought about it for just a moment. Slowly, an evil grin spread across her face, and she grabbed her own pen, setting about a drawing that would have made Socrates cry for the layers of irony.
When Pip returned from his smoke break, he was greeted by two eager-looking impromptu vampire hunters, and their two scribbled-on napkins.
"Excellent", Pip rejoiced. "Carver, would you mind showing yours first?"
Six Gun flipped his napkin around. On it was a crudely drawn several panel comic of two stick figures: one with a hat, and on without one. The stick figure without a hat shot the stick figure with the hat, and then reached into his pocket, and pulled out a check. The last panel was of him flying to Mexico.
Seras flipped her napkin around to reveal a beautifully crafted picture of Pip French-kissing a baguette which sported a beret.
Pip slapped his forehead audibly.
"How are we supposed to storm this bunker if we don't have a plan?"
"First of all", Six Gun informed with a grin, "you're the boss. Plannin's your job."
"Second of all", Alucard interjected, having snuck back in and approached the table without anyone noticing, "you don't need to think of a plan, because I already have one."
Pip was not amused by this new information.
"I was hoping I could think of a tactically sound plan before you came back."
Six Gun cleared his throat. Pip inhaled and nodded.
"With some help. Because anything is undoubtedly better than the clusterfuck that you have planned."
"Indeed", Alucard admitted with a wide grin, "but when I think of synonyms to the word 'clusterfuck', the first that comes to mind is 'glorious'. What you nerds were going to cook up was undoubtedly going to be boring, which, I am not loath to inform you, is not a word synonymous with 'glorious'."
"Alright, then", Pip said with a sigh. "What 'glorious' clusterfuck are you shoving us into this time?"
Alucard grinned, asking the group, "Do you guys like... ice cream?"
"Well", one of the waitresses approaching them asked with a smile. "Do you? Because we've got dessert options, or I could pass you all the bill and you could-"
"BAIL", Alucard shouted.
He sprinted out of the door, followed closely by Six Gun.
Pip stayed behind with the shake of his head, saying, "Go on, Ma Chere, I'll take care of this."
Seras nodded, giving a sheepish shrug to the waitress. As she made her way to the exit, she chanced a glance over her shoulder to see Pip swiping the napkin she had wrote on, and putting it in his jacket pocket. She turned back towards the door, a bit confused, but with a small smile spreading across her face nonetheless.
...
The ringing sounds of Dixie played over a scratchy speaker. It was just loud enough to get the two men's attention. They shared a quick glance, looking at the other expectantly. Both of them knew that the sweet sounds heralded a sweet taste, but they also knew that leaving their posts was a death sentence.
They both thought it a bit odd when the sound continued to get closer, and both dreaded the sound being close enough to reach out and touch. Their fears were realized as the truck rolled into sight. Their curiosity, morbid as it was, was triggered as the truck rolled to a stop in front of them.
The door on the side of the truck lifted open, and a man in a white apron and red glasses grinned at them from the inside.
"Would you gentlemen care for some... ice cream?"
The two men stared at the still-grinning man before them. They glanced at each other. They both had the same idea.
Fuck it; ice cream.
The two men approached the truck, reaching into their pockets for their wallets. The man behind the counter gave a wide grin, and ushered them in closer. The two men withdrew their crumpled bills, holding them in their hands as they surveyed their options.
"Do you have crunch cones", the first one asked.
"We do", Alucard said, handing him a chocolate-covered cone.
"What about hot fudge", the other asked.
"Unfortunately", the man told him, maintaining that wicked grin, "we are out of hot fudge. However, we do have a substitute flavor of hot lead."
As the man withdrew two handcannons from under the counter, the two men's minds crashed at the amount of "whats" they were attempting to process. As the two guns rang out, their minds crashed permanently. With the dinner bell rung, the heavy metal doors on the loading dock of the cold storage facility shrugged open, and dozens of men in black body armor, sporting M4's, came charging out of the door with their rifles raised.
Six Gun cranked the wheel around, and punched the accelerator. The truck spun until the back faced the loading dock. The sheet-metal door rolled up, revealing a very angry Pip behind a fully loaded DShK. Pip depressed the butterfly triggers, and let loose a hailstorm of 12.7mm. The black-armored combatants didn't stand a chance.
"Oh, wait", Alucard said suddenly through it all, as he bent down below the counter, "we do have hot fudge. Shit, does that mean I have to refund those assholes?"
When the belt ran out, Six Gun jumped out of the driver's seat, leveling an M4. He put a few rounds into some of the corpses that were twitching a little too much, then shouted, "Clear!"
"Keep that gun trained on the door, frog", Alucard told Pip. At the sight of Pip rolling his eyes, he added, "The Police Girl is coming with me, so don't try and shoot me in the back or you'll hit your crush."
Pip's eyes bugged out, but he didn't have a retort.
Alucard tapped Seras, sitting in the passenger's seat, on her shoulder. She stood up to follow him, still silently questioning why she had to come along. They exited the ice cream truck from the rear, Alucard ripping off his apron as he left, tossing it aside without a second glance.
"You're going to see some of the shit that squeezes through the cracks of humanity", Alucard asked Seras. "Be warned; there's quite a lot of it."
She had already seen a decent amount of that shit since she had joined Helsing, so she just nodded. Alucard led the way inside, with Seras following close behind him. He had put his pistols back into their holsters, and he hadn't brought along any weapons for her, so she assumed that he didn't expect to be attacked... kind of an odd thing, considering he had just assaulted this groups' supposed base, and had slaughtered almost twenty guards.
Alucard walked straight into the facility like he owned the place. Waiting for him by the entrance was a large group of men and women, most of them quite elderly, all of them dressed in white robes. Some of them had brown, black and crimson stains on the robes. A lot of them had red stains around their mouths. They all had smiles on their faces.
"Welcome, Master", one of them began.
Under his breath, Alucard breathed out an annoyed, "Fuck off."
Out loud, he gave a boisterous, "'Sup, fuckers?"
The robed people lit up, their smiles seemingly becoming larger.
"Oh, Master", one of the robed people cried out, "I must apologize profusely for the guards! They are... well, were... a bit overly protective..."
"And now they're dealing with a bit of lead poisoning. Makes no difference at this point."
"W-well, that's a relief... a-and who is this?"
"Oh, that's my Apprentice. Everyone say 'hi'."
The robed figures all turned to Seras and exchanged their hello's. After they had finished, both parties stood in awkward silence. A couple people began shifting around.
"So, should we show you around?"
"Sure, whatever."
They walked along in silence for a few minutes. Occasionally, the cultists throw give nervous, excited, even lustful glances towards Alucard. They never once looked at Seras. Passing by a maintenance room, Alucard perked up, and glared in its direction. He returned his focus to the group just as quickly. One of them noticed him do this, and began to visibly sweat.
At some point in time, the walls of this facility had to have been a stark white, given that Seras could almost see it behind the copious blood and fecal stains coating the walls. She had seen some disgusting places in her time as an officer, but this easily topped them all. These people lived like they existed in a zoo... no, even animals kept their enclosures cleaner than this. It stank, too, and she constantly had to keep from gagging. Occasionally, they would pass by an especially atrocious spot, and Alucard would roll his eyes.
"My own fucking unwanted bastard child cult", he muttered once, "and this is the best they can do to keep the place clean? In my heyday, I publicly humiliated men for not cleaning up their living quarters. I would have done some fucked up stuff to them if they had smeared their shit all over the walls like a dumbass Caillou-lookin' chode-ass..."
Seras wasn't entirely sure she was meant to hear that, considering he essentially tapered off into muttering after that, but she nonetheless kept it in mind.
Making their way to a set of incredibly tall, powered sliding doors, the small greeting group of cultists stopped, and turned back towards Alucard and his apprentice.
"This is the best part", one of them said gleefully. "In here is where we keep the sacrifices!"
"Oh, is that what they're calling them, now", Alucard said sarcastically.
"I can tell you haven't been very impressed with our temple", one of the others piped up, "but I guarantee that this next area will change your mind right around!"
"Fuck me", Alucard began in a downtrodden tone, "this is supposed to be a temple?"
One of the cultists nodded to a particularly young-looking man, and he quickly turned and power walked off towards a small door near the end of the warehouse. He quickly opened the door, slipped inside, and closed it behind him. Within a few seconds, a whirring sound started, and the giant double doors began struggling open.
Despite the fact that the room was incredibly massive, perhaps just as large as the room they were in, there was not a single square inch of it... floor, walls, even ceiling... that was not covered in dried or wet blood. Most of the area was composed of giant metal racks, but one area of these racks were hollowed out underneath, until about twice the height of a normal human, the supports being thicker as a result. It reminded Seras of the picked skeleton of a beached whale, a large ribcage of sorts. Lights burned over each rib, suspended from the rack itself by thick metal wires and cords.
Tied to each of these ribs was a naked, bloody human.
To Seras, these people seemed incredibly underaged. The oldest looked like they were barely scraping the middle of their teens. Every single one of them were covered in wounds that would make them bleed without making them bleed out. The blood dripping from their bodies traveled down a clear tarp to a small drain in the floor, and disappeared down into the great unknown.
Seras felt like a maelstrom. On one hand, she felt like vomiting. She hated seeing the aftermath of torture, and she hated seeing children, sweet, innocent children having pain unjustly pushed on them. She had seen it before in the force, although never on this scale. Yet, on the other hand, all of that blood... something was stirring in her, something that started as a weak throb, but was quickly rising into a crashing wave... hunger.
"So", Alucard spoke first, "this is what you think I want?"
"Beautiful, isn't it", one of the older ones said, with so much pride in his voice it was almost pathetic.
Alucard sighed and shook his head, asking, "Where the hell do you even get this many kids, anyway? Most of the kids I know aren't even stupid enough to fall for the 'free candy and van rides' shit these days."
"Well, we mostly pull the unwanted children from orphanages."
The way that particular line was said, a few nerve endings began connecting in Seras' mind, and they began seeping the barest amount of adrenaline into her bloodstream.
"Pope taught us that one", another one piped up. "Hell, you'd be surprised how easy it is. You can practically walk out with a child the same day so long as you give them an address that looks like it might have a house on it."
That line began dumping more adrenaline into Seras' blood, as a picture her logical brain was denying formed in her mind.
"You said the Pope taught you that? Typical Pope."
"Not 'the' Pope, one of the vampires that we keep fed. He was a bishop or some such, so we call him Pope. He has heralded your return since he met us."
"Wait, did you say 'one of'?"
"I'm sorry", Seras interjected, "but exactly which orphanages do you get them from?"
If there was ever a time to apply cognitive dissonance to a thought, it was now. Guilt was flowing over her like a tsunami over a coastal city. That little boy, her first, most innocent love...
"Well, everywhere, I suppose", one of the older ones piped up. "We normally get them local, but occasionally we go overseas. We do have to find a way to make money, and some of us are pretty good businessmen."
As the man chuckled, Seras' hands balled so tightly into fists that her knuckles cracked.
"You wouldn't happen to have taken any children from an orphanage in Lieds, England, have you?"
A silence befell them.
"Timothy", one of them called out.
"Ah, yes, the withered one", one of them called back. "Timothy would bring us wine if we shouted loud enough!"
"Why, he was still with us not but a year ago, when he bashed his own head in!"
"Gah, poor boy. He was such a great wine pourer!"
Uproarious laughter came from the group. By now, Seras' vision was tunneling. Even Alucard was beginning to take note of the fact that she looked like she was about to explode, taking a solid step back as one of the cultists took a step forward.
"You wouldn't happen to know where we could find any better Liedite wine-pourers, woul-"
The man's chest caved in as a fist connected with it. He went flying backwards, followed by a trail of blood that gushed from his mouth. When he connected with the ground again, his limp form squeaked across the floor. He came to a graceless stop, splayed out, unmoving. The room became as silent as a tomb as the group of cultists looked from their friend back over to Seras.
Seras stood there, not twitching, not moving, with no remorse in her complexion. She stared at the man made corpse, her eyes narrowed, her teeth clenched. She looked back up at the men and women that stood before her, their robes covered in dried blood, and her irises filled in red, and even the whites in her eyes tinting a deep reddish hue, filling up with blood and hatred.
Alucard's lips tightened into a smile.
She lunged forward, throwing a right hook into the face of a woman that shattered her skull. She threw an elbow into the neck of an old man that snapped his spinal cord, crushed his disks to dust and whipped his head around. She grabbed and elderly woman by the shoulders, pushed her up against a rack, and smashed her face in, punching her with the force of a speeding truck ramming into her full tilt.
Suddenly, lighting coursed through her body, and she seized, falling to the ground in crumpled agony. She looked up, having just enough time to see one of the robed men jabbing her with what appeared to be a cattle prod. It sure felt like a taser, though, and as he pressed it to her again, it hurt so bad that her back arched, and her face contorted like she was going to scream.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alucard approaching, a look of concern on his face, and his hand reaching into the inside of his duster, probably reaching for one of his handguns. She wanted to tell him to fuck off, that she was going to kill them all, damn the consequences. She had to kill them all.
For that sweet little boy.
A wave of energy rushed over her, expelling out of her body at random points. She had never felt anything quite like it before; even as it lashed out all around her, it energized her in a way that made her feel immensely powerful, more powerful than she had ever felt. She could lift twenty tonnes with ease, she could jump straight into the air and fly like a dragon, she could hit a man so hard her fist would instantly liquify him. She could take on the whole world.
Behind her, out of the corner of her eye, a look of genuine surprise mixed with shock adorned Alucard's face. It was the first time she had ever seen him with such a look, and she hoped to see it again in the future. Next to her, a bloodstain was all that remained of the man who had used that cattle prod on her.
She stood up to her full height, taking a deep breath. The power that extended beyond her returned to her body, though it didn't dissipate, it made her feel even more powerful. She stared down the terrified cultists, her own lips curling into a demented smile.
She sucked in air, and shouted, in an earsplitting, warped version of her own voice, "I WILL KILL YOU!"
The terrified cultists tried to run, but she was on them so fast it felt like she was moving faster than space and time was supposed to allow. She threw punches, kicks, broke backs, wrung necks, hung a man by a loose wire hanging from the ceiling. She felt like she was doing it all in a matter of seconds, like the people she was chasing were running in slow motion. There was no stopping her.
She stomped on a woman's chest, and blood shot out of her mouth. She repeated the action, and blood shot out of her mouth again. In an odd way it was fascinating, and she did it again. This time, when the blood shot from her mouth, it made Seras feel focused. The neurons in her logical brain began firing again, telling her that something was seriously wrong.
A streak of movement caught her attention, and she lunged after it, her foot crushing the old lady's neck in the process. She caught up to the movement in under a second, and, seeing that it was a man, threw a punch directly into its back. He went down hard, but immediately scrambled to try and get back up.
Seras threw a knee straight into the man's prone back, causing his arms to shoot out from him. She grabbed onto those arms and pulled, ripping them straight out of their sockets. She gave a primal warcry at her victory, until she saw yet another man before her.
The man was a little shorter than Alucard, wearing a black business suit, a black undershirt and no tie, and she instantly recognized him.
"You've been sleepwalking, Seras", he told her in a kindly voice. He raised his hand, pursing his fingers like he was going to snap them. "Time to wake up."
When he snapped his fingers, he vanished, and suddenly, Seras felt normal again. She held something in her arms, and when she saw that what she held was someone else's arms, she dropped them immediately. She looked down to see that she was straddled across a man's back, blood pouring from where his arms used to be. She fell backwards at the sight, and scooted away as fast as she could, her breathing coming in too fast. She felt like she might vomit. In fact, she began heaving, holding on to the nearest pillar for support as she did so.
She could hear uproarious, boisterous laughter from behind her, and her eyes scanned over towards its source. Her eyes stopped halfway there, as her brain began to register the carnage of the room. Bloody pools and broken people, some of them in several pieces, lay just about everywhere. On most of them, she could recognize the robes of the cultists. Some of them she flat-out couldn't recognize.
An odd thought crossed her mind, not a question, but a statement; I did this.
And some part of her was proud of that.
She hugged the pillar even tighter.
"Wow", Alucard said, in a way that sounded like he actually meant it. He made his way towards her, and extended his hand, saying, "I knew you were promising when I first met you, but..."
He left those words hanging in the air, as Seras continued to stare at his hand, like it was a venomous snake about to bite her. Hesitantly, she took it in her own, and Alucard hauled her to her feet. Grabbing her shoulders, he wheeled her around to further survey the carnage she had wrought.
"Never in my life have I ever seen a vampire use... much less use properly, so much power before ever consuming a living soul! Even I couldn't do that, and if you haven't guessed by now, that's fucking saying something!"
He turned her around to face him, a large, toothy grin spread across his entire face, and declared, "Finally, a successor!"
But the longer he looked at her, the more that grin faded, until it became nothing more than a thin line across his face.
"Fine", he concluded, "there's still work to be done."
From the ribs of steal, a weak, miserable cry of "kill me" sounded sadly into the crisp air. Alucard turned towards it and sighed.
"Speaking of which", he said, letting go of Seras and withdrawing one of his guns.
At first, Seras didn't quite register what he was doing. While her mind was trying to draw conclusions, he walked up towards the first child on the ribs. He raised his gun up to the child's head, and pulled the trigger.
The sound of that gunshot was especially deafening, and the blood that splashed on her face was especially warm. Yet, even as she heard, felt, and saw what was happening, the very thought of it even happening baffled her completely.
Then he raised his gun again.
"STOP", she cried out.
BANG
She jumped up, racing towards him. He moved swiftly to the next child, raising his pistol. She threw herself in front of the child, hoping to shield the poor boy.
Alucard lowered his pistol.
"Move", he said sternly. All hint of humor was gone from both his voice and his disposition.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS", she screamed in his face.
"Move", he said again, a little softer.
"YOU'RE A MONSTER", she screamed.
"Move", this time said so softly, it could have been mistaken for a whisper.
"WHO DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!"
"Oh, you think I want to, is that it?"
She stared him down, a sneer crawling up her face, and she said, "Yes."
He looked down at her, with a face of... envy?
"I don't know how many more ways I can reiterate this", he told her. "When I was eight, I was stolen from my home, locked in a dungeon, raped, tortured, brainwashed, and separated from my brother. When the conditioning got to him, I did the only thing I could think to do; I ran. I ran, and ran, and ran, and I stopped running when I found a monastery on the Armenian border. I was there for all of three days before they found me. They burned the place to the ground, slaughtered everyone, and took me back. What did that accomplish? Don't bother answering, I'll tell you; absolutely fucking nothing."
"Who cares what happened to you", Seras said, without really meaning to.
"What happened to me", Alucard told her, in the same level tone he had been using, "is what will inevitably happen to them."
He leaned in just slightly, saying, "I know you've been through a lot Seras, and I know you've seen things that no normal person ever does. What happens to those people who escape these farms?"
Seras didn't relent, but she had nothing to say.
"I know you don't know", he continued. "When the police do get involved, they never bring in grunts like you. They bring in that special person, or persons, who get incredibly large bonuses, or agree with their sentiment, and then those people who escape, the unlucky ones anyway, get brought right back. The lucky ones commit suicide before they're caught."
"Integra-"
"Doesn't have the resources to supplant every single person in these farms, much less in foreign countries, or she already would have done it. She's just as passionate about this as I am."
"We'll", Seras stuttered, "we'll put them into witness protection-"
"Did you not just hear what I said about the police?"
Seras still refused to yield, shielding the hanging child to the best of her ability.
"I know you want to do the right thing", Alucard told her, even more softly than he had been speaking. "That's why I'm doing it for you."
"No", she said firmly.
"Do you know what I wanted", Alucard asked.
She didn't relent.
"After I was brought back, do you know what I wanted?"
She held firm, her arms still spread in a protective manner.
"All I wanted was for no one else on this planet to ever feel like I did."
She didn't answer, but tears began brimming in her eyes.
"The best I can do", he began, but changed his mind, revising, "the best anyone can do, is make sure this never happens to them again."
Seras broke down crying.
Alucard took this chance, raising his gun, and firing, partially splashing Seras with fresh blood. Alucard moved down the line, quickly dispatching all of the captives, as Seras sobbed. Soon, the gunfire stopped, and Seras curled up, tucking her head into her knees, refusing to look up. She felt a hand gently touch her shoulder, and she shied away from it.
He stood quietly while she sobbed. He waited for what felt like hours. When she finally stopped, simply falling silent, he touched her shoulder once more.
"Go wait out in the truck", he told her. "What happens next is on me."
Seras didn't like that implication. She stood up, shaking herself as if to rid her body of the disgust she felt, and walked quietly towards the doors.
Just leaving the first set, morbid curiosity overtook her. She turned around to find Alucard holding a handkerchief. He put it over the drainage pipe, soaking up the blood flowing towards it.
Suddenly, an ominous voice sounded throughout the facility.
"The blood... has stopped? Who stopped the blood?!"