' T I S I N T H E L A N D O F D R E A M I N G
W H E R E T H E D R E A M E R I S S C H E M I N G .
ORDER 14: DREAMLAND
It was just a room, but is anything ever as it first seems? No windows graced the lifeless walls of stone, the place was thick with darkness and incessant silence, but a candle, pitiful and low, burned in the center of this room. Scents of suffocating breath permeated the lungs of the men who occupied it, but due the natural veil of secrecy, it was impossible to tell how many inhabitants there were. Well, for a human anyway.
Tension was like a noose resting on their pudgy necks. Any minute the floor could drop from below.
Shuffling feet of a weighty man signified at uneasy thoughts. Maybe a wry smile graced his elongated lips, although that made him a more gruesome sight; however, no one could see in this unnerving dark, save for one. But, alas, this hideous creature among the human kindred had to open his foul mouth.
"'Judas' has been caught," how strange it was that he refused to say the Hellsing's betrayer. Could it be that he does not want to obtain the bad luck that the moron had suffered?
Labored sighs from the remnants of the small, mysterious room told the specters that were ever-present in the world of the living that they all shared regret for their failure to further corrupt the Organization's reputation. After all, the Queen still favored Integral Hellsing.
"That is of little consequence. How many time must I tell you that 'Judas' was predetermined to rot," rang the harsh voice of a woman, and, judging by her tone, she was the head of this unsanctioned meeting. As Silence held the mouths of the gluttonous men sealed, the woman continued. "Although the main factory for the FREAK chips has been eliminated by Hellsing, the FREAKS are not over, and Dreamland is still here."
She liked 'Dreamland'.
~ * ~
Blood.
Integral knew that there was something different about herself due to her informative father, but still, why did it always seem to draw a vampire's or FREAK's fancy? And could it truly contain the power of a god?
More unsettling was the vampire Arucard at the moment. He had been nagging her to share her blood and become powerful. What was wrong with him, but maybe with Incognito, a true vampire, dead, he will stop.
She was afraid to admit that it was becoming increasingly hard to deny his request.
She felt as if she liked his secretive ways, and maybe she could trust his eyes. His eyes. . .
"Arucard, stop altering my thoughts," the woman, infuriated by the sudden boldness of this undead, uttered out.
His grin, that seems to always play his wan features, did not diminish as he promptly responded to his master, "As you wish, master, but my offer still and shall forever stand."
Why does he still do this, Integral had to wonder. The threat of FRAKS was most certainly low and the pet vampire from the Dark Continent had all but perish. There was no need for his shocking request. There was no need.
Arucard's once ivory glove was stained with the crimson wine, and it was all due to the glass he had shattered moments prior.
"Does Miss Hellsing have an order for me?"
Something about the vampire irked her, and thus, she put pressure on the bridge of her nose. Resisting the urge to growl, the woman responded, "FREAK activity is, without a doubt, low. You know as well as I that we shut down the chip's manufacturing industrial unit recently, Incognito is dead, and your violence in this current predicament will only worsen the situation.
'Arucard, be patient. There will come a time when you will be needed, or do you want to go back into your cell," she could not help but add.
The vampire remained hushed, and he spoke not a word of farewell as he dissipated into darkness.
"Typical," his master mumbled.
They kept her in the bowels of her own beloved home, and, although she had faith in the Queen, she could not help but worry.
Would this get straightened out? Probably. The Queen was learned about the 'Judas' after all. Still. . .
Not long later, one of the soldiers unlocked her makeshift cell and entered.
He was of Hellsing. A smile twitched onto her lips.
The green donned man nodded his masked head, and quickly undone the deceptively effective material that had bound her hands. So suddenly, she was free.
So suddenly, Hellsing belonged to Sir Integral Wingates Hellsing again.
The smile never faded.
~ * ~
Tendrils of thick red grass tried to tangle and tickle her bare ankles but to no avail for the woman treaded forward still. The wind carried the tangible scent of fear along the skyline that was akin to drying blood, and the sun, a black flame, gave this inhuman place a gloomy but diabolic feel.
She liked blood, but she liked Dreamland better.
The vampiress' tongue liked over her fangs.
What an archaic feeling, she mused.
"Incognito has fallen, what a shame," she nonchalantly stated to the gentle winds that tousled the red hilled landscape.
My poor little pet. . .
Yet any lament for the dead vampire was not shown on her pallid features, after all, she knew that he would defeat Incognito sooner or later for he is his child.
But her musings ended as she left her "Dreamland". FREAK chips needed to be remade.
Hellsing is not a threat.
Arucard is, however.