MEMORY OF RED

The cottage was small and seemingly handmade with careful consideration to where every brick went. The outside was surrounded by rose vines and honeysuckle plants but the inside had a strong smell of burning Ceder that came from the fireplace. All around, the small details surrounding the home gave it a very warm and gentle touch, balancing in perfectly with the woman who made it herself.

The Witch of Marron Forest is what she was called, a beautiful young woman with moon-drop silver eyes, shoulder-length silky blonde hair, and ivory skin. It appeared like she wasn't even real, like a fantasy, gliding around the small space with her long blue and white dress swaying around her as she walked.

The unknown woman stopped her prep work and glided back to her chair, sitting down in front of an obviously ill man in his mid 30's. "You came for my aid because you weren't feeling well?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

The pale man sheepishly nodded his head and looked around the room suspiciously. "That's right. There were always rumors that a witch lived in Maroon Forest, but I took my chances in coming here anyway...seeing that I had nowhere else to go."

Needless to say, he was surprised to see a young woman instead of a wrinkly old hag who would have spiderwebs for hair and claws for nails and teeth. This woman in front of him though was nothing like that. The complete opposite of what he initially imagined before making the journey.

A curious glimmer reflected in her silver eyes, contemplating his words when a sad expression suddenly befell to her face. "I see...but to correct you, I am not a witch. I just prefer to live in this forest for its vast resources of herbs and medicinal plants," she said, words as gentle as stark white feathers falling from the sky.

The pale man blinked and stuttered his words out. "But..people say..."

The woman saw the hesitation on his face when her words collided with what the rumors have always been for years. She knew her own reputation was shaky but only because people like to bend the truth. She never liked the term 'witch' because it was way too harsh of a word to use, but she also can't argue that it wasn't entirely incorrect. "Come now, let's not make this about me. You said you needed help, did you not?" Preferably not making this whole visit about her, she would rather get back to the matter at hand. "Is there anything out of the ordinary? Do you feel faint, sick, lack of an appetite? Anything like that?"

"Something along those lines, I guess. I think I, uh, got a fever, and...bad headaches," he managed to think of.

"How long have things been going on?"

He thought it over for a moment. His mind spiraled to think how far back it started. "Like 2 days ago, maybe. It's not only me though. A lot of people in my village have been getting ill too. Their faces became swollen and they've been vomiting a lot."

The woman swallowed hard and stared down at her lap, fiddling with her white fingers and twisting them into the fabric of her dress. "That sounds grim," she said in a dry and rough voice.

She got up from her chair and walked to the back of her small cottage, passing herbs that dangled from the ceiling, shelves full of small bottles with various things inside, and up to a lit fireplace that already had a pot boiling over a fire.

She pulled out small scraps of cloth, a glass cup and a couple of small bottles from her shelves that had various crushed herbs inside. Pouring the ground herbs into the pot, she watched as the brownish-red liquid simmered, stirring it every so often as she waited for all the juices to mix properly. It had a strange smell to it, jumping between the scent of ginger and peppermint. It was so strong that it practically overwhelmed the usual smell of roasting wood the small cottage normally had.

Still sitting in the back of the room, the man shifted around uncomfortably in his seat before speaking up. "And, uh...there is one more thing I need to show you."

The unknown woman looked over her shoulder, eyes dimming with worry. "What is it?"

The man reached for the front of his shirt and slowly lifted it up above his head, revealing his pale skin that was strangely discolored. He raised his arm up and showed what looked to be these two small boils under his armpit. They both were a bright shade of red that had whiteheads, oozing out this odd fluid that was mixed with blood and pus.

The woman's eyes widen, bewildered and troubled. She made sure to keep her voice calm while speaking, grabbing a rag from off her counter to tie around her nose and mouth. "When did this appear?" she said, voice muffled by the cloth but obviously more serious.

"Two days ago," he answered her, looking up with a disturbed and pleating expression.

"I see..." Sorrow held her eyes, but also kind and compassionate and not at all outraged despite how things looked. She went over to her shelves once more and grabbed a couple more things. One specifically for pain relief. "Do you have a family? Are their anymore that have boils like that?" she asked while pouring more herbs into the mixture.

He nodded. "My mother does. She has them worse than me though. Her's have turned black and she's completely bedridden now." He suddenly rushed up from his chair and grabbed the woman by her shoulder, spinning her around and holding her down with so much unnecessary force. "Please, you have to help us!" he urged, desperate and scared of the unknown.

The woman was collected and kept everything around her under control, using her soothing voice and gentle touch to ease his worry. "Calm down. Please, just sit." She gestured back to the chair and eased him down. She noticed that he was shaking now, growing paler because of his rising anxiety. "Unfortunately, I can't stop what has already happened but I can ease the pain," she said.

She used a piece of cloth to grab the boiling pot from out of the fire's red hands and over to the table, setting it down on the aged wood that sizzled as soon as the hot cast iron touched it. The liquid inside had finally dulled out to a burgundy color that had pieces of ginger still swimming around. It was ready if it had turned that shade, pouring it all in the awaiting glass and tying it up with a strip of cloth and a rubber band.

"This is good for drinking and pressing against the boils. It can ease your mother's pain too and stop yours before it can get any worse," she said, handing the wicked-looking concoction over.

The glass was hot in his hands but he held onto it like it was the most precious thing he had ever laid eyes on. "Thank...thank you so very much!" he thanked her profusely. "I...I don't have any money on me but-"

The woman stopped him, offering a kind smile in return. "If you don't have any money then don't worry about it. Money has never been an issue for me. Now go."

She saw him to the door and watched with fleeting joy while he left her sight, disappearing into the darkened woods with only a couple hours of daylight left. Only when he was long gone did her smile finally fall, sighing with this kind of depression that made her heart ache for him.

"Plague..." her voice croaked. "It's only going to get worse for him, here on out."

In this day and age, illness was more common than a healthy body. She herself had been able to avoid such epidemics because she lives far away from civilization, just the way she liked it.

It wasn't as though she hated people, really only going into the medical field just for their sake. It was because of her profession though that people have portrayed her to be a witch. In the past, multiple people had come forth and proclaimed her as such when in reality, her witchcraft was only plants and basic medical knowledge. They didn't know that though, thus forcing her to leave her village a long time ago.

Afterward, she found herself having a new outlook on people, actually finding them to be very fickled beings. They're scared of her but then turn around asking for help the next minute since they're so desperate.

Refusing had always been hard for her to do since it was like going against her nature. All she ever wanted to do was help people. But most of the time, people didn't want anything to do with her.

She breathed in deeply and patted her hands against her dress. "Might as well go and get more herbs..." She turned around to walk back into her home, grabbing a basket to put things in.

The sky had quite the beautiful lavender color to it, rippling clouds with a burning sun that bled light, showering the lands in a golden but fleeting glow. There were at least two hours left of daylight before the darkness truly did come, but she was sure it was more than enough time to gather supplies and head back home.

There were a number of gardens behind her house that she had taken a great deal of care into tending too, but recently it appeared that most of her herb gardens and normal flower beds haven't been doing well these last couple months.

The soil was dry, the roots were rotten and the leaves were brown. The dreaded signs of death had taken ahold. The worse though was her roses, her beloved garden that she had taken care of longer than any. It didn't even look like roses anymore, just an awful scraggily pile of weeds.

"Oh, God..." The woman's basket slipped from her fingers and she stumbled over to her garden, walking over the dead roses that crunched under the soles of her shoes. She shuffled through the ugly piles of death for a while, searching for something that was still green. Something. Anything, and then she found it.

Within the death was a small unbloomed rose.

Gasping slightly with a silver of hope returning to her eyes, she peeled away the remains of the lifeless until she was finally able to touch it. Her fingers gently caressed the fragile petals until, before her eyes...the whole thing withered away to that unwanted brown color, totally disintegrating in the palm of her hand. Dead in seconds.

The woman sat down within the ruins of her garden, now knowing that it was truly gone. Something struck her like lightning in that very moment, feeling the dead flakes fall through her fingers. It was an odd sense of dread, mixed with the isolation that made her body grow cold all of a sudden.

"How foolish I am... I should never have meddled with things outside my knowledge." The sweetness in her voice had disappeared, replaced with this helpless whimper that just drained all the life from her. Nothing but despair filled her eyes now.

Her voice carried like a ghostly whisper through the sea of trees, wind howling like mad and blowing her golden locks across her parted lips. The song she sang was sweet but held grief and sorrow that ate away at all living things until nothing remained. A piercing melody the came straight from her very soul, drowning in this overflowing feeling of loss.

Like a flower soon to wilt away...

Like love soon to die again and again...

Like hours soon to stop with a single cry...

Like hope soon to run out of time...

She was unaware of how much time has passed since silence took her, unable to sing anymore without her voice cracking. Darkness had finally come but instead was brought upon by something, the sound of distant horses that were coming up fast.

The swarm of horses was finally upon her, stomping in place with human voices mixed in with them. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that it was a group of at least five men. They were all dressed in armor and most of them, if not all, were injured one way or another.

There was one man among the group though that stood out to her the most. He was dressed in black and silver armor, a tall suspicious man that made her heart shiver. His hair looked like it was made of shadows, his clothes and cape stained with old blood, and his voice had the power to make the heavens shake. It, sure enough, made her stand up though to address him.

What did he want of her?

Was he here to kill her?

Why would he bring so many men if not for that?

Something was amiss though. Through the shadows of his hair, she could see his eyes. Death followed close like a shroud, but what was behind them told her a different story. She could see that there were multiple sides. A silvery blue that had the makings of a lonely child, one of cruelty that was oddly beautiful, and another that was just so...longing.

This man. This tyrant had a yearning. For what? That is still unknown to even him.

The Count stared down at the unknown woman, seeing her look right into his eyes without the slightest bit of terror in them. He scoffed at her fearlessness and dismounted his horse, his tall intimidating frame towering over her. "You...are you the healer of Maroon Forest? I have a request for you."

A thumping resonated from the core of her body and made Anna's eyes snap wide open, fully awake from her dead-like slumber. She laid still within the confined darkness of her coffin and just breathed in these shallow breaths of air as her skin ran cold. It took a couple more seconds for her to fully calm down, a bit panicked from what transpired.

It was a faint sensation but the feeling wasn't entirely unknown to her just yet. 500 years have passed since her heart worked, but just now...she swore there was a heartbeat within her chest. It was so sudden and out of nowhere that it truly did frighten her for a moment. The fear didn't last near as long though before the feeling of happiness followed. Whether it was real or not, it briefly gave her the fantasy that she was human once more. A beautiful dream, yet an ugly and cruel illusion.

There was no such life left within her chest...

Anna figured that it must've been her old memories to trigger the sensation once more, despite it not actually happening. She could still remember it though, the feeling of her heart beating inside her body. It would throb, it would speed up, and it would flutter for time to time. A heartbeat was such a fickled and mysterious thing. You could fool yourself about your own emotions but your heart would always tell the truth in the end.

She pushed her hands up against the top of the coffin and pulled it right off. The inside of her room wasn't completely dark, saved by the few candle lights that she had lit around the empty space. Aside from that though she was completely alone...by the looks of it though.

Anna called gently out into the air. "You can come out now, Alucard. I know you're there. And I thought I said never to linger in my shadow without my knowledge first."

Darkness began to bleed through the ceiling of her room and spread out to the four walls, blocking out the candlelight and delivering her into darkness. As everything was consumed, Anna looked up and saw eyes peering down at her. Blood red and spiraling with various types of emotions. There was hardly any humanity left within those eyes, only fragments now. All in which solely belong to her.

His voice was deep, deeper than the pits of hell, resonating throughout her whole body and made her muscles tense up. "I'm sorry. That was never my intention. You were sleeping so peacefully that I just didn't want to wake you yet." The darkness dripped from the ceiling like murky black water and formed into the man she knew and loved.

"Did something come up? she asked, rubbing the sleep from her glassy red eyes.

"It appears something has." He held his hands out for her to take and helped her out of the coffin. It automatically slammed shut behind her.

Anna flinched a bit when she felt her head flashing with fragments of her dream. Gliding her hands up his arm, she felt no heat from his body, making her eyes grow sad with this bitter reality she had faced. Just like him, there was no warmth either. Two entirely cold beings whose hearts no longer beat constant truths. For once Anna was glad she was a vampire, knowing her lover wouldn't be able to pick out the truth from her trouble natured heart.

Her eyes flickered over to the box of letters under the table, longingly before looking away.

Integra lit the end of her cigarette and gazed out the window. The glassy pale moon was bright that twilight night, making the two extra shadows inside her office stretch longways.

"I truly don't know why you would pick up such a hobby, Anna. Have you grown tired of the companion you're with and require new company?" Her voice was dry and lax, smoke burning off the end of her cigarette as it sat between her lips.

Anna and Alucard's tall figures bled through the darkness on either side of their Master.

"Aside from a couple of scratches and scrapes in the road, we do share over 500 years worth of unquestionable loyalty towards each other." Anna crossed her arms over her chest and leaned over Integra's desk to see the scattered pieces of paperwork. An unfinished case? "What this?" she asked, picking it up to get a better look. Anna's stomach plunged all the way to the gates of hell to meet the Devil himself when she gazed upon a gruesome picture of a message written in blood. "Oh my God..."

"A new job," Integra answered her. "On Route 17 in Birmingham, someone is murdering families as they travel north. We found vampire bite marks on the victims' necks, leaving behind blasphemous messages in blood in their rooms," her voice grew with disgust. "How attentive." Integra glanced over at Anna. "What do you think?"

"Well..." Anna quickly pulled herself together to look closer at all the pictures to see if she can find any detail that might help. "This level of damage may be because of more than one suspect, but this style though...seems rather rebellious. Probably vampires who stopped aging while in the late teens?"

Alucard's dark voice worn over her like a thick heavy blanket, arms wrapped around her thin body and pulling her close. "These cheap vampires are cropping up more and more," he said in her ear and pulled the pictures from her hands.

Anna's smile was small, reaching her hand back to gently touch the side of his face. She felt static through her fingertips when he leaned into her hand.

"I don't recall asking anyone else's opinion aside from Anna's." Integra reminded him.

Alucard picked Anna off her feet and slank backwards. "Then...tomorrow night," he said while melting back into the walls like they were made of rippling water.

It was the very next day when they got word of the two family murderers, a young Bonnie and Clyde like duo who were being chased down the highway. Reports said they had firearms with them and have been using such things to keep the ordinary police off their trail this whole time. Hellsing was ready for them and went on ahead with blocking the end of the road with armed troops.

Seras was on standby upon a rooftop and was just waiting in agonizing silence for the duo to cross her line of sight. Fingers twitching over the trigger, mind panicked with the thought that she might mess up again like last time.

She heard Anna's soft voice within her head, gently calling with her beautiful words. "Relax, Seras. I can hear your pumping and panicked blood from all the way out here. There is no need for that, keep it in mind that these people have left a trail of bodies in their wake up till now."

Her stomach was turning all over the place. "I know that Miss Anna, but..." She stopped herself and bit down hard on her lips. "I promise that I won't disappoint you." Seras held on tight to those words and drilled them into her mind, thinking that if she promised Anna of all people, then she will have no other choice but to succeed. She will, no doubt about it anymore.

"I know you won't..." Anna's voice dripped away from her mind and silence returned.

Alucard and Anna stood by the highway and watched with their sharp red eyes as the Bonnie and Clyde duo came into view for them, riding on the back of a motorcycle. It was obvious they were a young and rebellious couple judging from their age, probably only having a couple of months of immortality under their belt.

A wave of irony blood made Anna's throat become instantly dry, bitterly because the smell was so revolting, but also reminding her that she hasn't had anything to drink for a while herself. It was an odd sensation of need and disgust. Her humanity and vampirism clashing against each other.

Anna used the white fabric of her sleeve to cover her nose. "I see them." She took in a deep breath and expanded her lungs before exhaling black smoke, eyes shimmering like millions of gems. "Barrier Control: Gate unlock system...level 5."

She held out her hands as smoke began to radiate off them, sparks of crimson following by brilliant flames of scarlet. Flames as lovely as hers gave Anna a dazzling appearance, flickers of gold mixed in with the fire that didn't leave a single burn on her ivory skin.

Stretching her hands all the way out, Anna slammed them together with a great deal of force and created a ruby ring of fire rushing out from the focus point of her hands. It cascaded down the road at a high velocity towards Bonnie and Clyde, running down both sides until the only place to go was forwards.

"Woah, what the fuck!" Clyde exclaimed and felt the harsh heat lick the side of his face. "Ow! That's hot!"

"Babe, what is this? What's going on?" Bonnie was pale with fright and held on to her love. She looked right over his shoulders and down the ring of fire they were surrounded by, seeing a white-dressed person standing right in front of them. "Who's that?"

The ground was scorched under Anna's feet while she walked down the streets towards them, the end of her golden hair aflame with fire dripping from her hands like it was made of water. She looked at them with these mad demonic eyes that glowed the worse kind of red. An evil red, pure and honest that could only come from blood.

Clyde clenched his jaw and sped up, planning on just ramming right into her. "Damn! I'll fucking run you down too!"

Out from behind Anna appeared Alucard's tall figure, swiftly turning around and pointing his pistol right at the bike. He shot a single round right into the tire and blew the two right off.

Alucard's pleased smile never fell from his face as he walked past his burning beloved. "No conviction and no control... You can't shape change into a spider or bat, and you can't even put out the flames that keep you where you are."

Flecks of fire fell as Anna moved her hands around, manipulating the flames into totally circling around the four of them. There was now nowhere else to run.

Clyde armed himself with his automatic and huddled close together away from the fires. "Who are you two?"

"You carelessly murdered women and children and you weren't even thirsty. Did you have fun? Is that how you satisfy yourselves? You cheap, filthy, Bonnie and Clyde!"

"What's with you and that freak of a woman?!" Clyde barked at them.

"A freak you say?" Alucard's deep voice suddenly appeared at their back like a waiting reaper. "You're not only trash but you also carry no respect either.

Clyde snapped his head around but he wasn't there.

"Vampires who live forever?" Alucard's voice echoed out.

Once again, he was gone when he turned around.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves."

Clyde didn't turn around this time but instead, lifted his gun over his shoulder and pulled the trigger, shooting Alucard in the shoulder and putting him down. Laughing when he believed he done it, only to shutter in fear when another deep chuckle overwhelmed his.

"Who the hell is this?" Clyde quivered on the ground.

Alucard sat up and reached into his coat to pull out his pistol while Clyde duel wielded an extra gun. They both fired off at the same time but the massive round of the Casull won the fight and went right through the boy, reducing him to ash.

"NO!" Bonnie ran off towards the fire...that dissipated the instant she got close to it, giving the girl the chance to escape from them.

Alucard got up from the ground, flexing his fingers as his arm repaired itself back to normal. "Oh? You really do want your little servant to succeed, do you," he said, watching as the flames surrounding her vanished.

Anna smiled sheepishly. "I would like her to have the chance to prove herself. So I'll let her have it this time."

A smirk edged to his face. "You really are a nice girl."

Back at the block-off point, they just got a radio update that one target was approaching Seras's position. Bonnie was at least 500 yards away. The humans shouldn't be able to see her yet but Seras could.

"Seras, you should see her by now," Anna called out within her head once more.

Seras stared down the seemingly pitch-black road that appeared as if it was glowing, and in the distance, she could see the fleeing Bonnie.

"I...I can," Seras answered back but actually got a better look at her. "But, Miss Anna...she looks like a normal girl."

"And so do you and I. Appearances are not everything and don't paint a picture of everyone's lives. Appearances are deceiving. Vampires like her...are deceiving."

Seras's eyes grew wide. "She's a vampire?"

It almost seemed unreal, like it was a trick of the mind. She would imagine vampires to have a more demonic appearance, but neither Alucard nor Anna appeared that way. Appearances don't paint a picture of one's lives. She couldn't go off looks anymore.

Seras tightened her jaw and pulled the trigger. A single gunshot silence the whole night as Bonnie collapsed to the floor, seconds later her body grayed and turned into ash.

"Well done, Seras Victoria."

Fargason stood up and radioed back to headquarters. "Target sweep completed. Alucard took out target A. And senior officer, Seras Victoria, took out target B."

Seras was on her way back to the trucks when a voice called out from behind her, a voice so very gentle and soothing. "Welcome to the Hellsing Organization."

She turned around and saw Anna standing there, smiling widely like a child. "Thank you, Miss Anna."

The smile on Anna's face then retreated, sadly. "But with this, you have finally become like me, a being who can no longer feel the sun upon their skin." She walked towards her and placed a kind hand on Seras's shoulder. "I know you've been avoiding drinking blood."

Seras froze. "I, uh..." she looked down, quiet as Anna ran her hand up to her head, ruffling her hair. "I'm sorry."

"For vampires, blood is a luxury yet also a curse. You desire it, yet are disgusted by it. You need it to survive though or else your body will only grow weak."

Not even Anna's smooth words could save Seras from the harsh reality that she was having to face. Thinking about it though, Alucard doesn't seem to have that same mindset as Anna does. Actually, neither of them seem to have anything in common, but still, carrying this kind unbreakable and unquestionable bond?

It made Seras wonder how their story came to be. What was their first encounter like? What was Anna like for Alucard to fall for her, and how could such an overly pleasant woman be in love with a man who saw things entirely different from her?

The small cottage wasn't big enough for the two of them. The Count, if standing would have to duck his head low to avoid the ceiling, while also being in close proximity to the witch woman standing beside him, patiently waiting with arms crossed over her chest.

This is what he found odd about her whole demeanor. Time and time again he had caused people to be overly intimidated by him. This girl wasn't though, just curious. He could tell that by the flickers of questions across her silver eyes. She didn't say anything though and just waited patiently for him to sit down. In which he did.

The woman turned her back to the Count and went on to mix a couple of herbs together in the big pot, now clean from last time and ready to use. "You must be quite desperate to come to my small home with such little men here with you," she said while stirring the ever-color changing liquid. It boiled up nicely and gave off a relaxing aroma of lavender.

The Count leaned his arm against the counter and cocked a brow. "Do you intend to put a curse on us with your magic?" He saw no danger in the woman, as skinny as she was. Something shifted though with her posture. Her shoulders stiffened and she seemed to shrink down into herself. Her 5'7 frame collapsing into a 5'0 one.

She stopped her stirring motion and pulled the large spoon from the pot, brown liquid dripping off. Her voice was soft but in a way it was weak. There was no confidence nor power and she just sounded like a helpless young child. "The only curse I ever cast...was upon myself. You've seen my roses outside, haven't you?" She gestured out the window to his right.

The Count turned his head to where she was pointing and saw the depressing rose garden right outside her home, Brown and shamelessly dead. He pondered on her words for a bit before realizing...that wasn't a joke. "So you're saying you cursed yourself? And here I thought the rumors about you being a witch were blown out of proportion." He was slightly taken back when she looked over her shoulder at him, a smile on her face. It may be weak but it counted for something.

"Count, I'll have you know that greed is a dangerous feeling to possess." Her voice felt like velvet upon his rough and scarred skin, making it burn though with this deep and brutal understanding of life from her experience through it.

"Oh?" He blinked and met her round, moon-like eyes that appeared as though they knew more than him. "So was it greed that turned you into a witch?"

"Greed is a bottomless cavern and I foolishly believed I could find a nonexistent bottom." She sighed deeply. "I dove too far and look where it got me."

The Count glanced around at all the small bottles on her shelves and back to the window where the gardens were. The woman might've understood that it will soon become hard to continue doing what she did. She was running out of time but didn't know what to do. "You drowned..."

"It was an irreversible mistake that causes death to follow me. Though I'm not sure if it was by God's wrathful hand or by my own foolish ones. Either way...I don't think he listens to my pleas anymore. He hasn't for a long time." She fell silent once again but this time it seemed to stain the air with this dreadful vibe, stirring the pot cause she had nothing else to do now.

This sudden deep chuckle caught her attention before it broke out into a full-fledged laugh. He was laughing. The Count was laughing at her.

Never had she had to turn around so fast, face flushed bright red with embarrassment and anger. "It's rude to laugh at another person's misfortune." She raised her voice but it only pitched like a small mouse.

"I can't help it though. You wish to help people, but they reject you. You wish to do God's work, but he rejects you too. I never thought I would come face to face with such a creature...someone who doesn't belong anywhere." His laugh bellowed out deep from his stomach and made the whole room shake. He soon calmed himself though and held her trembling eyes with his own. "I pity you."

His words sat deep in her soul and her eyes narrowed, still speaking rather softly with the utmost sincerity. "Don't. I don't need pity. I've understood what I did and I'm trying to move past that. I'm just going to do what I've always done, no matter the person who comes knocking at my door. My hands are cursed, but even though...I still want to help people."

There were multiple words to describe this woman before him. Some good, others bad, but one thought crossed his mind that seemed to be a mix. This woman was in a morally gray situation where her intentions were good but her actions were not. She was more aware of her situation than anyone and his words to her were not new, thoughts like that crossing her mind on a daily bases.

It was generally amazing though that she can carry on as she does. Her words were fair and well-spoken and her voice appeared stronger than his. It really did make him believe that she was standing on equal grounds against him. She knew it too...and it was all so very beautiful.

She was a beautiful black sun.

The woman went back to diligently working, boiling everything until it was ready. She took the long strips of cloth and dipping them into the pot for a couple of seconds until pulling them out. The Count peeled the silver armor pieces off his arm and rolled up his chainmail to show a large, red and black wound that was already covered by soaked bandages.

Being extra careful to not agitate it, the woman pulled the old bandages off and wrapped the wet strip of cloth around it instead, grabbing new bandages and wrapping it back up a second time to be extra sure no dirt or grime will get in.

The Count hardly even flinched when he felt his arm began to burned by the medicine soaked bandages, his full attention solely on the woman. He studied her attentive eyes, the feel of her rough hands that had seen hard work, slightly parted red lips, and her hair that was a pale golden color.

The woman finally noticed his impassioned gaze and lifted her head, faces inches away but long-drawn silence blocking their path. She cleared her throat quickly and backed off. "This will kill any kind of potential infection and will give your wounds time to heal properly. I've made enough for your men too, so take that with you when you depart from here," she said.

He looked down at his arm, time passing by before the burning sensation faded away to this soothing coolness. It didn't hurt anymore. "I'm beginning to understand why people feared you for being a witch." he suddenly said and took the woman by surprise.

"Pardon?"

"You are more skilled than any other medical doctor I've seen till now. Be it witchcraft or not. Your natural gift is knowledge, and knowledge is power," he declared confidently which made the woman's heart speed up.

Her eyes settled to this serious stare. "People are afraid of me because they don't comprehend what it is I truly devote myself too." she scoffed by accident, which made the Count smirk.

"It's funny how humans think that way," he trailed off.

That statement made her chest tighten up. "You say it like you yourself...are not human."

"It's because I'm not." His eyes suddenly became heavy, clouded with his weariness. "People who take things from others are not human, only a demon, a monster without a place."

The lady cocked her head to the side and sat down in front of him. "Such as myself. A creature without a place. What's funny is that it sounded like you've got hurt by your own words."

He laughed again but this time it was weak."You're right. At least the small human part of me is able to admit it though."

It was her turn to pity the man, but this time offering him one of her kind smiles. She reached over to him and very playfully tapped her knuckle against the side of his face so he could look at her properly, wishing to have his eyes burn into hers once more. In which they did. "Perhaps that's one thing we have in common."

Darkness had not only swallowed the sky but the stars as well. Nothing but the moon remained when the witch walked the Count back to his men who were loading up, getting ready to make the hour-long track back home. During the time, she had gone over their injuries and even gave them extra pain relievers and disinfectants for their troubles. It was a wonderful gift despite how low on supplies she actually was.

She stood beside the Count as he walked over to his equally pitch-black horse. He was about to mount it but stopped to look at her one last time, her appearance moonstruck by the light and glowing.

"Your name. What is it?" he asked.

The woman chuckled a bit, tilting her head to the side and smiling. "Knowing my name comes with the promise to come back, doesn't it." She closed her eyes for a brief moment before offering her hand to shake. "My name is-"