SUBJECT: RED PART 2

Her quill pen moved swiftly across the stark white sheet of paper, staining it red with blood draining off the tip. Her handwriting was quite lovely looking at first sight, being written in elegant cursive. It was easy to tell that she took great care into thinking up her words and making them extra small so she could fit her entire heart on the paper. After some time though, Anna's hand suddenly stopped during her smooth strokes. Her finger stiffened and began to shake uncontrollably. She grabbed her wrist tightly and pulled her hand back, taking in short and ragged gasps of air to try and calm herself down.

Staring at the words she wrote haunted her. They pained her. They mocked her. She hated what she wrote. She hated the words she forced out of her heart that should've never been exposed to paper in the first place. Every day she curses herself for writing these things but she knew no other way to get her emotions out. Anna didn't know how to speak truthfully without feeling like her world was going to crumble under her, just how all living things do when she touches them for too long. Plants and people alike.

"This...is way too difficult," she muttered and pulled her hand over her eyes and sighed, falling silent as the room remained like that too. Anna pulled her hand away and looked around at all the dark corners of her room. Even peering down at her shadow. She took a breath with relief and leaned back in her chair. "Alucard's not here. That's good..." She was always thankful that he respected her boundaries and didn't slip into her shadow without her knowledge first. She loves him dearly, yes, but she still took her alone time seriously and prefers to use it wisely, such as writing her letters.

Anna folded up her letter and grabbed the hot wax from off the candle flame. She poured it over the flap and pressed it down with a rose seal, and with that, this would make 83 letters she had wrote for him. She doesn't know when she'll give him the chance to read them but that's neither here nor there. The time will come eventually, and when it does...it will truly be an interesting experience.

Anna heard what sounded like a small and hesitant knocking coming from her door, soon following by the slow creaking of it opening up. "Mistress?" Seras's small voice called into the room before sticking her head through the door.

"Seras? What is it?" Anna paused and looked over at the glass of blood. She immediately snapped her fingers and ignited it so it wouldn't bother her. "You look troubled."

Seras stepped fully into the room and gently closed it behind her. "It's about the mission we had the night before." Her voice was meek and it really sounded like she was hesitating to even talk to her.

Anna raised a brow. "Is it still bothering you?" She gestured her hand over to her coffin and signaled for her to sit down, in which the young vampire did.

"Does it not bother you either? You saw the mole and his equipment. Do you...do you think it was a setup?" Seras asked eagerly.

Anna blinked and stared at Seras's eyes that had the signs of stress building up in them. "Perhaps," she muttered while putting her hands into her laps, closing her eyes briefly to think it over. "Stranger things have happened."

"What...what do you mean?" Seras blinked.

She opened her eyes back up. "If you ask me...this setup could most likely be the work of humans. Normal, everyday people who have very little knowledge of our world."

"Why would they want to know about this?"

"Ah...that on the other hand is an easy question to answer," she explained calmly, yet her face looked serious all of a sudden. "It's greed, Seras. Stronger than love and hate. It infects the mind like a parasite and comes in many different forms. The want for love. The craving for attention. The desire for power. The need for knowledge. People don't need a strong reason to do the things that they do. They just have to be greedy enough to do it."

Seras fumbled a bit on her words since she wasn't expecting that sort of answer from her mistress, though she could understand it perfectly. "Well...if you put it that way...I guess it makes sense. Miss Anna, if you don't mind me asking...have you, uh, ever experience such strong emotions like greed before." Curiosity got the better of her and she spoke without thinking or even considering Anna's feelings.

"Yes. I have," she answered back almost immediately and didn't even hesitate, much to Seras's surprise. "And I have been made the biggest fool on the face of the planet because of it."

"What?" Seras had always been curious about Anna's old life but had been too afraid to ask each time. Right now though, was the most open Anna had ever been. "What happened?" she pushed for more.

Anna smiled fondly at her little servant's eagerness. "Did you know that I was once a herbalist? When I was human. I guess you can say I was a doctor of some sort."

Seras gasped sharply and choked on the air. "Really? I never would have thought."

"I don't look the type, do I?" A melody-like laugh escaped from her parted lips. "Ah, but practicing that sort of medicine painted quite an ugly picture on me in the age I was born in. Even though I was human, they saw me as a witch." Her smile waned a bit even though she was trying her hardest not to let it fall. "Pinning crimes on me that I never committed. They even blamed me when the plague started to spread."

"That's awful..." Sears felt her body grow colder than usual. She could even see the hurt behind Anna's scarlet gaze when she spoke

"People become awful when they get scared. It's not entirely their fault." She dropped her head and wrapped her fingers up in a ball. "Simply because they don't understand me. Funny enough, they still came for my help and I still gave it to them." Her words were just as weak as her fading smile.

"After everything they had done to you?" Seras was baffled at why Anna would go so far for people who gave back so little.

"Of course. I devoted everything to help people, no matter the reputation I was stained with. I indulged myself in my studies and did everything possible to grasp ahold of knowledge. And in the end, I discovered some...rather dark stuff." Anna cleared her throat and bit down on her lips.

"What do you mean by dark?" Seras blinked and noticed a slight shift in her behavior.

"Seras. Have you noticed that I don't have any plants in my room?"Anna looked uncomfortable and gazed around the quite empty room that had no other earthy possessions, aside from her letters and coffin. It was quite gloomy but also unnerving.

"Well...now that you mention it." Seras looked around before becoming worried all of a sudden. She felt like her head was about to expose with all this cryptic information. "Did you perhaps...stop being a doctor?"

Anna locked her eyes with Seras and didn't even blink when she spoke. "I didn't stop, Seras. I just had no choice anymore to continue," she said, her voice dangerously low and solemn.

Seras felt like she couldn't breathe with Anna's paralyzing eyes practically turning her to stone. She could definitely see something inside them though. Something old and filled with so much regret, it was enough to drown in. In an instant, she realized that Anna had pretty much told her nothing about her life. No details or anything. It was like she was purposely holding back information. Seras wanted to ask more but was too nervous to even speak anymore, afraid of what she might find out.

"Anyways. Don't you think it's about time for us to head back to that building?" Anna said and got up from her seat, her smile and present voice returning almost as if nothing happened.

"Wait, wait. Miss Anna, do you want to go with me?" Seras shot up quickly and stared baffled, forgetting about the intense conversation they had only moments ago.

"Of course. It sounds interesting and it gives me something to do. Besides, I wanna meet the people behind this."

"That's alright, but..." Seras said nervously and looked Anna up and down, biting on her tongue to stop herself from saying anything disrespectful.

"Is there something wrong?" Anna noticed her acting strange.

"No, no. It's just...this is an undercover mission of some sort and you...kinda stick out. Not to be rude," she said shyly and looked away.

Anna seemed perplexed by what she meant by that and looked down at her appearance, grabbing locks of her bright blonde hair and studying it. Her lips curled up and she sighed with a chuckle buried beneath. Her dress began to weep with what looked to be white shadows that fell to the ground around her. She lifted her hands up and leaned her head back, running her fingers through her hair that gradually started to darken as her fingers passed through. It had become the shade of night and wasn't nearly as long as it was when blonde, while her dress had morphed into a fluffy white shirt that was tucked in a long blue skirt. She pulled her hands away from her newly colored hair and held these unfamiliar sunglasses in them now. Dark-tinted ones that looked similar to Alucard's.

"Is this alright?" Anna said with a wide smile on her face, just as giddy as a child that was about to get into mischief. She noticed that Seras had become quiet though and completely drained of color. "Is it not good?"

The building had a different atmosphere during the day but the smell of mold and dried up blood hadn't lessened since then. The rooms were dark and decrepit and every floorboard in the place seemed to squeak and groan under Anna and Seras's feet while wandering through the halls on the third floor. Steadler cleared this level himself but never once told anyone prior that there were ghouls upstairs. How he knew about that definitely raised some suspicion with Seras.

Anna pushed open the half-broken off door and walked into a room with a giant hole in the floor. The windows were boarded up with old pieces of plywood and it looks like they been there for a while. Aside from that, there was also a single bed pushed up against the wall.

"Steadler was in here?" she asked and looked back at Seras.

She shook her head. "Yes, ma'am. He never told anyone either. If I didn't know any better...than I would believe he knew they were here to begin with."

"You may be right about that," Anna mumbled and walked around the large hole and peered down, noticing that it dropped into the second floor. Her eyes narrowed and she glanced off to the right towards the bed and saw something odd underneath it. It looked like a camera that faced her direction. "Seras, under the bed." She raised her hand and pointed.

"What?" She walked over to the bed and got a better look. It was clear to her that the camera was deliberately placed there, taped to the bottom of the mattress to stay out of sight from wandering eyes. No one would have noticed it unless they were at eye level with the bed like Anna was.

The floor creaked behind them and the girls swiftly turned around and spotted two unknown men standing in the doorway. They were dressed sharply in suits and it was obvious to them that they were there on official business.

Anna quickly gestured Seras to get up while she smiled politely at the two, taking her glasses off as well. "Afternoon," she said in her usual gentle voice that was as smooth as water over rocks.

"So the Hellsing Organization has an investigations division now," one of the men said while cocking a brow at Anna's odd voice.

Anna's smile morphed down into a smirk. "It seems that we're at a bit of a disadvantage."

"Look miss, your lot handles infiltration while we handle investigation. Now lets all just stick to what we're good at." he offered with an uneasy smirk that didn't collide well with Anna's menacing one.

Seras pointed to the bed. "You know, there's a hidden camera in here, so the informant must've already known about the vampire."

"Young miss, it's also our job to evaluate any evidence."

"You've got to be joking." Seras was about to protest until Anna held her hand up as a signal to stop.

"It appears that we overstepped our boundaries. We will leave if you wish it." Her smile didn't waver and it wasn't entirely certain if it was real or not. Her voice was too sickly sweet to tell them otherwise.

The man narrowed his eyes and stared right into Anna's scarlet gaze that spoke a thousand words and had lived a thousand lives. Despite her somewhat normal appearance at the moment, he could tell just by those eyes alone that she was basically a titan in a small room. "Yes. I would highly appreciate it," he spoke cautiously

"We shall take our leave then. Have a pleasant day." Anna bowed her head and hurried Seras out of the room by her shoulder.

The girls wandered back outside just when the sun was beginning to set, immersing the emptying streets with gold and orange lights. Anna stopped briefly on the last steps and look up towards the building. Suspicion was beginning to surge up in her eyes but she quickly covered them up with her glasses.

"Miss Anna, why did we just leave like that? Weren't we on to something?" Seras was frantic but Anna was calm, even smiling.

"I believe we have all the answers we need. Don't you think?"

Steadler's eyes were glazed at the TV screen mounted on the wall. He didn't even take so much as a sip from his drink and remained motionless since stepping into the nearly empty bar. Seras felt a bit stumped on what to do next while Anna stayed quiet, silently watching him through the tinted lens of her glasses.

The bartender came up to the girls and laid his hand against the table, making Seras stumble out an order since they were just sitting there doing nothing. "Ah, uh..we'll just have some tomato juice, please." she laughed awkwardly until he walked away. "Now what are we support to do?" she grumbled under her breath.

Anna snickered a bit and looked away from Steadler. She reached her hand out and took a glass of tomato juice that was given to her and Seras. "Why did you order tomato juice?" she asked while swirling it with a straw.

"I don't know. It was a bloody stupid drink to order." Seras sighed and sucked the drink down.

Anna was about to do the same when she heard the front door open. A woman walked in and it immediately grabbed her attention when she went over to Steadler and began talking to him in hushed tones. The girls can't tell what they were talking about since their tone was so low, but it was clear that they were trying to be inconspicuous and not draw attention to themselves.

Anna cocked a brow and watched the woman, having an awful feeling rise up in her stomach when she recognized her. It was the same girl that was attacked by a vampire a couple of months back, shortly after Seras joined Hellsing. It was easy for Anna to remember her face since the woman looked so frightened at the time, but it wasn't about the attack though. Her terrified eyes were clearly meant for her, gawking at Anna like she was the monster who attacked her and not the other vampire she had put down.

Anna suddenly became alert when Steadler got up and left the bar with the woman. "Something's happening. Come on," she said urgently to Seras and rushed up from her seat to follow.

"What? Miss Anna." Seras got up but paused. She swiftly turned back to the bartender. "Excuse me. How much was the juice?"

The red film light was on and the lights in the room were dimmed to obscure faces and the environment. A vampire was in front of the camera with a dazed and confused human beside him, too drunk or high to even realize that he was the prey and soon to be a victim of this story.

"So, what am I supposed to do?" he said with a smile never wavering from his face, complete in blissful ignorance. "How long am I to sit here?" The smile only fell when the vampire behind him grabbed his head and pulled it back uncomfortably to expose his neck. "The fuck are you doing? I don't like that."

The bloodshed was moments away from covering the camera lens when the red light suddenly cut out and the screen went pitch black. The grueling vampire sucked in a deep breath and snapped his head up, looking around the empty room but not seeing anything. He followed the icy chill though and cranked his neck to the dark ceiling, seeing sharp teeth stretched wide into and excited smile. Alucard's body bled through the darkness and dropped down into the room with them.

"What exactly is so amusing about exposing your filthy face to the world?" Alucard's said, his grin spreading wide like a Cheshire cat.

"Who the fuck are you?" the vampire hissed his venom out through his teeth. He was more like a slimy snake than a terrifying vampire.

"Does having an audience for your sins make you feel like your special? Does it make you proud?" His voice didn't have the playful edge to it anymore, instead, it was riddled with a loathing that rose up in his eyes.

The drunk man was sat confused about what was going on and spoke up. "Ah? Are you lads gonna fight? Cause if you are, I'll just be go-" He didn't even finish his sentence when the vampire tossed him aside a little too hard, causing him to smack his head against the wall and crack it open like an egg.

Alucard sighed disappointingly. "Now look what you did. You went and killed your co-star," he mocked.

"Fuckng bastard." The vampire reached behind his back and pulled a gun out. "You talk too much."

"I can only pity such a vampire. A titan reduced to a puppet just to give humans a good show." He reached inside his coat and pulled out his own weapon that was much more intimidating to the eyes. "Then again...so am I." He pulled the trigger and blasted a hole right through the vampire's head and shattered the one-way glass behind him, exposing Steadler and Kim on the other end.

"I...we're just observing," Kim stuttered out, turning ghastly pale at the sight of the man.

Steadler pulled out a pistol to defend himself when he realized who he was up against. "It's one of the Hellsing Organization's vampires." He could easily recognize Alucard's tall and menacing figure that was really starting to resemble a demon.

Alucard scoffed. "Why did you need to witness this? I will never understand humans." He was about to pull the trigger until something shifted in his eyes. For a moment, he briefly appeared shocked before chuckling to himself and lowering the gun, much to everyone's bafflement. "Now this is a pleasant surprise."

"I'm sure it is," Anna's voice of a thousand melodies spoke up from the darkness directly behind Steadler and Kim. It instantly made them freeze.

Alucard glanced off towards the stairwell and saw Seras coming out with her pistol raised and ready. He smirked and looked back at Anna. "So this is what you've been doing all day? Were you playing undercover cop with your little servant?"

The beautiful shade of twilight faded from her hair and her clothes morphed back into the long white dress they all knew and loved. "I guess you can say I did." She reached her hands back and flipped her long blonde hair to shake out the lingering drops of darkness until she was fully back to the way she was.

Steadler snickered awkwardly and dropped his gun, now realizing that he wasn't going to get out of this one with all three of Hellsing's vampires here. Kim though on the other hand looked either petrified or bewildered. She didn't move, much less an inch and kept her eyes on Anna. She stared at the woman who had obsessively haunted her dreams since the day she first laid eyes on her. Not a thing had changed, except that Anna appeared calmer and less ferocious this time.

"It's...it's you..." Kim stuttered. "You're that woman. That vampire from...back then." She sucked in a deep breath when Anna turned her full attention to her and smiled for some reason. Kim instantly lost the ability to speak after that and slumped down.

"Victoria. Anna. ." Fargason echoed from the stairwell before walking out, Integra trailing behind him with hot steel in her eyes. "We'll take care of things from here. You two done well." He went and began to handcuff Steadler.

"Don't you ever get sick of it?" The traitor grinned through his teeth. "You give your life for this country but this organization hides and you get treated like you don't even exist."

"I think I seriously miss judged your character, Steadler." Fargason took him away and left Kim's fate in Integra's hands.

"I just...I just can't believe what I've seen," Kim sputtered out to Integra, trying desperately to hide her fear that came from being so close to Anna. "I have a journalist obligation to show this to the world."

Lady Hellsing's face resembled cold stone and lacked emotion. "So you feel no guilt for watching?"

"Damned right! I wasn't doing the videotaping. It was that pathetic computer freak."

Haunting silence claimed the room and every sound that was once inside. Kim's heart thumped erratically and the blood flow was thick and heavy with anxiety. Alucard's voice was the only thing that could break the silence, deep and smooth like a newly sharpened knife.

"What do we do with her?"

"She should be brought to the London police. From there, she'd go to trial." Integra crossed her arms over her chest before narrowing her eyes. "But I don't think man's law is a suitable punishment for her crimes."

Alucard suddenly appeared behind the startled woman and towered over her. "If she's beyond man's judgment. Beyond law. I guess that means it's up to me." He grabbed Kim's shoulder and forced her to turn around and face him.

Anna's face broke out with horror and she stepped forward quickly. "Wait a moment," she said frantically enough to caused everyone to turn around. Anna was more than just a little pale. She looked sick with worry. "Sir Integra, I hate to speak up since it's not my place, but I can't help but feel slightly guilty myself. I believe her involvement originally came from an unhealthy obsession with me. From the time I saved her from a vampire." She couldn't keep her feelings inside anymore and just kept on talking. "Could I simply just erase that part of her memory and anything involving vampires? Please," she pleaded.

Integra was steadfast and didn't even show Anna the slightest bit of mercy in her actions. "This doesn't concern you. You really need to understand your place." Her voice was just as dripping cold as a vampire. It was hard to imagine at that moment who was the real monster. Anna or Integra.

"But...Integra..." Anna's elegant face contorted and she looked completely shocked at what she just heard. She immediately snapped her head over to Alucard as he inched closer to this human with every intent of draining her dry. Every muscle in her body stiffened and she watched for as long as she could, soundless and terrified until she couldn't stand it anymore. "Alucard, stop!" she practically screamed with this utterly shrill cry. It was truly the only voice in the world that could make him stop and not think a second time. Alucard was physically pushed aside by Anna as she rushed to Kim who was practically in tears and scared. She grabbed the woman by her face and forced her to look into her eyes. "Don't think. Don't speak. Focus only on my eyes and voice." Anna's eyes shimmered between red and pink and reflected in Kim's. The tears ceased to fall and the woman's eyes slowly started to sink before she slumped down and passed out in Anna's arms.

After a moment, Anna finally was able to stop shaking and sat down on the floor. She held the human woman in her arms like she was the most precious thing in the world, not daring to look up and meet Integra's eyes. God only knows the look she was being given right now. Anna didn't regret it though.

On some days, the words just seem to fall out of her and write themselves. Others though, she struggled to bleed. Anna sat silently at her desk with her mind within a chaotic storm of emotions that struck every nerve in her body. She was afraid that these electric currents were going to end up jump-starting her heart once again. The room also had a cold current running through it that made her peak her head up and look around. She couldn't initially spot anything behind her but Anna knew that she wasn't alone.

"What is it...Alucard? I know you're there," she called gently into the cold room, turning around fully in her chair and watching as the dark corner to her left bubbled up from the ground and formed into Alucard's red and black frame. He wasn't wearing his wide-brimmed hat, nor his glasses, so Anna could easily see what he was thinking without him even saying anything yet.

"You made quite a spectacle of yourself today. Pushing Integra into a corner and forcing her to let that human go," he said deeply, his voice like an ominous rumble within her stormy heart. It sent electric shocks down her spine that made her arch her back.

"I've noticed," Anna's tone dropped and she groaned. "Tell me, is she still mad?"

"Well...she's saying your name right now with great disdain, so I suggest making yourself scarce from her for the time being." He strolled across the room before stopping in front of her coffin to look at it.

"I was planning on that." Anna's expression fell but she wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting. Her lips trembled with unease and she raised her eyes, locking them with his. "What...what about you? What do you think?" she asked hesitantly.

Alucard said nothing at first and just stared at her like she just asked the most ridiculous question he had ever heard. "Why would I concern myself with trivial human matters?"

Anna laughed weakly because that sounded like something he would say, so she knew he wasn't lying about it. "Because I was the one who made it trivial?"

"Hmm," he grumbled and sat down on the edge of her dusky red coffin that looked as if it was made of precious marble. He traced his white gloves across the thorny rose vines that were etched around her promised words on the front. He looked back up and noticed a glass of blood at her desk with an unused quill pen beside a wordless sheet of paper. "Anna...what do you write in those letters?"

He always knew Anna to be this way but not during the times she was human. He could specifically remember the moment she started to write those letters though. It was after those...complicated times he had been away from her. Those were dark days for both of them and he had never seen Anna act the way she did back then. The times she was still struggling with being a newborn vampire. Neither of them speak about those days anymore because the pain still felt fresh, as well as Anna's regret. It was taboo that both of them wish to forget.

Alucard noticed that her completion becoming pale all of a sudden with what looked to be anxiety waving across her eyes. He knew right at that moment that he had to stop and not ask a second time. "You don't have to tell me if it makes you so uncomfortable. I just noticed that you seem to be doing it a lot more frequently as of late." He tried to assure her by pretending to brush it off. Anna knew better though and was aware of his deadly curiosity that had gotten stronger over the years. He wanted to read them. He would kill to read them. The only thing that was stopping him though was his lover's words.

Anna grumbled under her breath and looked back at the glass of blood. She snapped her fingers and ignited the liquid since she lost the motivation to write. "Believe it or not, it's more so like therapy for me," she spoke up much to Alucard's astonishment.

"Don't be ridiculous. You confide in writing?" He never knew that and didn't once take that into consideration. It only made him want to read them more. Tear off the envelope and indulge himself in what she could've possibly written. He always thought he understood her heart and soul, yet she surprises him every day to the point of Anna feeling like a stranger to him. Or perhaps a beautiful ghost. She would probably prefer being a ghost instead of a bloodthirsty vampire though

"I speak but at the same time... I feel like I don't," Anna said wistfully. "I never had been good at talking about my feelings. Not even when I was human."

Alucard narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Then why are they addressed to me?"

"Because they are for you, and one day, you will get the chance to read them." That odd sound of regret faded from her voice as a smile grew instead. She offered her hand out and he took it, holding her tightly as she began to tremble. "I promise."

Author's Note:

I wanna quickly apologize for any mistakes I might've made. I was in a mad freaking rush to get this chapter out before the end of the day. There are still things I wanna kinda rewrite but it's really not that much of a deal. I can easily do it later.

Man, things are really starting to get spicy. Spaking up against Integra and Alucard's growing concern for Anna too. Not to mention they had a taboo past? That's gonna be an interesting flashback. Anyways, the next few chapters are really gonna be game changers and I'm really excited to show them.