Chapter 3 – Action Starts, it gets interesting
Authors note: I'm so sorry about not making another chapter for a long time, but I've finally done it. This one is quite long when it is compared to the other ones, so I hope you enjoy it. This one is a lot better than the previous chapters in my opinion, too, as they were short and somewhat boring, but this one, to me, is interesting and fun. I could talk more, but I'd probably spoil it, and I don't want to get your hopes up too high.
It took Integra only a few moments to leave the car, though those few moments seem to be too long to the General. He seemed irritated as a whole that Integra was coming along. This was a battlefield, he wasn't a babysitter. She glanced around the area, full of now dark looking buildings. The rays of the sunset were almost completely hidden out behind two huge block of flats. She didn't know why, but her instinct told her that inside those gloomy looking flats were some vampires. The ways had been blocked off, but the place had a feel to it which made it seem as though this place had been long since deserted of any human life.
Authors note: A flat is a British word for an apartment, just in case you were wondering.
Without a word, he threw her a weapon, a simple pistol. She barely caught it, fumbling with it and almost dropping it for a moment before resting it in her hand. The General only grumbled, 'And don't get shooting anything that's not a vampire.'
'I wouldn't dare to.' Integra grumbled at him. He motioned for the squad to come over to him, which they did. 'Right,' he said. 'This is a C46-21, so use extreme caution. Be careful about shooting civilians though. I've split you up into six groups, and you know those groups: red Alpha, Beta and Delta, and Blue Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Red team will check building one, and blue will check building two. No doubt you know where you are and where you're supposed to go, so let's get to work; they don't pay us by the hour in these situations.'
With a chorus of 'Yes sir', followed by salutes, people wandered off, some silently, others more loudly, but all of them were soldiers, none of them were rookies here, except for her, the daughter of the late owner of Hellsing.
Before the general could leave, though, Integra grabbed the sleeve of his arm and stared at him in irritation. He looked down at her taking a long drag of his cigarette as he did so. 'What now? You scared?'
'Which group am I with?' she asked, tapping the side of her leg with the gun in impatience, she knew he had done this to piss her off.
'Red Delta,' the general said, pointing towards a group of filthy, mean- looking soldiers. One of them spat on the black pavement, leaving a white frothy mark. Integra looked somewhat disgusted, and looked at the general, who made a disgusting noise and then spat out onto the floor, leaving phlegm on the floor near him. Why people seemed to spit in groups was beyond her, but she hated it when people spat, it was a disgusting thing to do, as her father had told her. 'Take care of her guys, she's new, and she's the boss' kid.'
One of the soldiers grabbed her wrist and looked at her. 'What's a spoilt little bitch like this doing here?' he asked. His face was a maze of scars over his tanned skin, and wisps of black hair were visible out of his helmet, showing dark, empty eyes. 'I'm going to do my given duty and protect England from vampires.' Integra answered with pride.
'Hah, oh that's rich kid, but being funny isn't gonna save you.' He said as he looked at her. 'You're gonna need some muscle like me to look after you.' A grin slowly formed on his lips, exposing rotten teeth and a single, dull gold tooth. Integra said nothing, but stared at him. 'Call me Jeano kid, and stay with me and you'll get through this.'
'Thank you, but I'm quite capable of looking after myself.' She stated to him. His smirk slowly vanished. 'Alright, but don't come running to me when one of those vampires in there sucks away at your blood and leaves you as a mindless idiot.'
'And you're on your own if you get overpowered. I won't hesitate to put a bullet through your head when you become a vampire.' Integra said. One of the other people stopped them before they could start arguing. 'Come on then, let's get this mission done.'
And with that, they headed off to a way in the flats.
~~--~~
Once they entered the flats, the smell of death and blood immediately filled Integra's nostrils. It made her scared and want to be sick. She had smelled death before, but nothing at all like this- this was just indescribable, except for it being called a smell which would stick in Integra's memory for a long, long time. It's not the kind of smell that one can forget easily.
Even when she had entered into Arcard's 'room', the smell of death was nothing when compared to this. Arcard's room, or more precisely holding cell, smelled merely of bleach and mould.
But this—this she wasn't prepared for. She let out a heaving sound as though she was going to throw up. Jeano hushed her with one of those "shh" noises that people make, which are always louder, and she fought back the urge to vomit. She succeeded, and continued walking, pistol in hand, but she had left the safety on. The sound of some kind of sandy material on the floor made it incredibly difficult to walk quietly, and once or twice her shoes made loud grinding noises against the sand-like material. She knew the walls were damp, as from the little light she had, she could see damp patches in the corners, and some kind of moss growing. The only thing this building actually seemed good for was hosting vampires and other unwanted beings.
The further they walked up the stairs, the more the floorboards creaked. Integra had a feeling that if she didn't tread carefully she would end up falling through one of the floorboards which had rotten away; she guessed some of them had rotted away pretty badly, and she didn't want to fall through.
For the first time so far, one of the other members of the group looked over at her and spoke. There were more two more members of the team besides her and Jeano, in truth, but Jeano was the loudest, and Integra was by hierarchy the most important. They said a simple sentence.
'Stay here.' Said the one member, it was a female, with her face obscured behind a helmet. She looked somewhat creepy like this, and Integra would have quite comfortably thought she was a female if she didn't speak. She vanished inside a room, along with Jeano. They closed the door behind them.
It was just about two words, but those two words made Integra feel as though she was part of a team. She liked that feeling, the feeling of being more than just some girl who sits behind a desk giving orders, that's a coward's job. She'd rather be in the frontline, fighting with her soldiers, much against Walter's will, but he knew he couldn't stop her- she did have the blood of her father in her, after all.
She gave a quick look over at the other soldier, who returned her look with a dark one. She quickly looked back at the door, and thought to herself. They're probably searching inside for vampires, yeah. It makes sense; they're hired to kill vampires, so it's best for them to search so they can take the vampire by surprise.
But after five minutes of waiting, Integra began to get a little bit nervous waiting out here. 'What do you think they're...' she began, glancing over at the soldier as she spoke.
The other soldier was dead.
This was the first time Integra had seen someone dead like this, or more precisely, murdered. His eyes were black, sunken and yet still wide with terror, his jaw was hanging low, and his skin was cold and completely white. Blood had seeped out of a hole in his neck and brought him to a quick, possibly instantaneous death.
The blood dripped onto the floor, causing the uneasy silence to be broken. The soldier had been murdered standing up, and was leaning against the wall. His body hadn't even had time to react.
Integra screamed, but found hands around her throat and mouth, and she was dragged into the darkness by something. She fought against it, kicking and screaming like a madwoman, before a voice spoke in her ear. It was Jeano. 'If you don't shut up we'll both die too.' He hissed at her. She went silent; her heart was no longer thumping so hard she could hear it in her ears.
'Where is... your friend?' she asked quietly, once she had decided that it must be safe here. His grip tightened around her mouth for a moment, before he loosened and whispered to her in response.
'She's dead. Lillith is dead.' He growled down her ear. 'Lillith is dead, by these fucking monsters.' He growled. 'It knew we were coming. It fucking knew it. I couldn't do anything. I could barely save myself.'
She reached up to make him loose her, she didn't want for him to keep holding her like that—she didn't like it, it felt creepy. As she touched his arm, she felt blood, warm blood. It was seeping down his arm. 'He got you?' she asked. Jeano nodded, before he started to get up.
'Where are you going?' she asked. Jeano looked at her coldly through his dark, expressionless eyes.
'To find this bastard, and get revenge for Lillith and Mokey,' he said to her, pointing towards the way out. 'You're welcome to leave now, I might die here.'
'I don't want to die just yet.' She said as she stood up, and began to leave the way she came. Jeano didn't wait for her, but wandered off, pulling out his gun and slamming a door behind him. The place almost seemed to shake.
She took a step onto the damp floorboards, and was about to move across, when a mental image passed through her mind. It was the image of the soldier, the one who must've been called Mokey—his eyes black and in shock. She didn't think Jeano could do it alone, so she had to do something. She wouldn't be able to live with the guilt, but she probably wouldn't be able to live through this.
'Hell, I guess I can always leave.' She said as she moved back, leaning back against the wall. The floor that she was standing on just a moment ago creaked, and gave way. If she had crossed, she would've been falling with those floorboards and breaking a good few bones. Integra put that down to being guided by God.
'Looks like someone up there is looking after me,' she said as she slowly, but surely, moved away from the damp area.
She slowly, and carefully, opened one of the doors and checked inside, there was nothing. Before she went in, she took one quick glance at the soldier, or, where he was supposed to have been, but now was only a bloodied wall and a few blood-soaked drag marks. Integra stopped dead in her tracks and went back to the wall, closing the door behind her. She heard something scrape along the door but decided upon it being her own imagination.
She followed the bloody trail, and suddenly, it stopped without a trace. Integra looked straight up. There was a hole, but how anything could get up there without it being something inhuman was beyond her. It would have to be able to jump really high, as it was a hole onto the next floor. There was no way she was getting up there.
It was only then when the seriousness of this situation stuck in Integra's mind. She was ill-equipped, both in weapons and in items. She could barely see in the lack of light, and had no way to compensate for that, and something had already killed off two of the four of her team, who were better trained and better equipped.
She watched for a moment as something moved in the darkness, before it appeared in front of her. It was a humanoid, with bright red eyes, staring at her menacingly, from what she could see, it was dribbling something, and it didn't look like saliva, it was too thick, too dark. It straightened itself out, still staring at her. In its real size, it towered about her by two feet.
Integra did, without even the slightest bit of thought, run like the wind, and run into one of the rooms, through another door, and hide under the nearest thing—the bed. She turned the safety off so she could shoot anything if she needed to.
Oh my god, what do I do, what do I do? I don't want to die here, not by a vampire, that's not my kind of death. I can't die like that and bring disgrace to my family. Integra thought this to herself as she waited patiently, waiting for the vampire to walk inside the room, but he never did. 'I just wish I had my dad here to hold me right about now, but I have to prove to him that I'm strong enough to continue on with our family's legacy. I need to show him I am more than just a teenage girl.' She whispered to herself. She felt comforted with a feeling of being held enveloped her, as though someone was with her. She looked behind her, out of mere habit.
Straight into the eyes of the vampire—where the hell had it come from? It had just appeared out of nowhere. She stared for a moment; it watched her, keeping its arms around her. They remained still for a few seconds, but to Integra it felt like days.
It held its arms around her so tight she could barely move. She bit into the flesh of the vampire, trying to make it loosen her from the pain, but it felt nothing. She kicked, screamed and flailed, but it all came to no avail. What scared her more than anything was the fact that it hadn't killed her straight away.
It eventually opened its mouth and exposed to her dozens of sharp, jagged teeth, the overpowering smell of rotting flesh came from its mouth, caused by bits of flesh left hanging in gaps in its teeth. It went to bite her. Integra freaked out.
She could have sworn at about this time that she had wet herself, but one thing was for certain, the fight-or-flight gene kicked in. Integra decided to use flight, by fighting. Her hand fumbled for the gun, and she placed her hand on it.
The vampire's hand moved onto hers. In a mocking, echo-filled voice, it asked her, 'Can you do it?' 'Yes.' She replied. 'Can you really do it?' the vampire asked again. 'Show me; kill us both, here, now.' Integra slowly moved the gun towards her head, resting the cold steel of it against her forehead, directly between her eyes. The vampire's hand was also on the gun, its one finger which was bone held onto her finger which would pull the trigger.
'Can you do it?' the vampire asked again, pressing his rotten lips against her neck. 'Or I will certainly make a snack out of you, drinking every little drop of your blood from your sweet little neck.' His one hand moved down to her shoulder, trailing down her chest and resting on her stomach. 'I could make you mine unless you do it... do it. do it... do it.' It said; it started to get louder and louder. Integra's eyes widened, her finger began to squeeze the trigger.
'I don't plan to die here.' She said as she quickly moved the gun and squeezed the trigger. With a bit of luck, it should be able to shoot the vampire straight in the head, and kill it outright.
It didn't work.
'You missed.' The vampire hissed down her ear. She wanted to scream and move, but she thought she'd lost this now, the vampire could kill her. The only way she stud a chance was to try it again, but he knew what she was going to do now.
His hand moved around her neck, the bone finger he had touched at it sharply, and he traced her jugular vein through it, and then went to the neck of her shirt, to her buttons.
'How stupid of them not to give you armour. I mean, you could've got shot,' he said with a chuckle. 'Have you ever been shot, dear?' he asked her. She shook her head and closed her eyes, but he made her open her eyes when his hand trailed down her top and unbuttoned the first button. She was about to say something, but he spoke first. 'It's not nice to be shot, especially in the chest.' His hand unbuttoned the second button.
'What the hell are you... doing to me?' she asked, her voice shaky, but she wanted to escape. She had to think, think of a way to get out.
'It's been a while since I've seen such young, tender flesh. I'm going to eat you darling, down to the bone.'
'I would like to see you try.' She spat out darkly, even though she was absolutely petrified, she still managed to show him hatred and spirit. He laughed at her, his hand trailing along her neck, pressing two of his normal fingers around by one of her veins.
'I wouldn't, because you forget I can kill you any way I please.'
'As I said,' she growled, 'I'd like to see you try.' He unbuttoned the third button of her shirt, and immediately hissed in pain and broke his grip away from her. Silver, pure silver, upon closer inspection, he saw it was a silver crucifix, and by the amount of detail put into it, and the way it hurt his eyes to look at it, he'd guess it was probably blessed too. That was all he needed for him to loosen his grip of her, and give her the chance to get up and run.
For the first time in her life, Integra really was, from the bottom of her heart, grateful that her father had brought her up to be religious. It seemed to have repelled the vampire just long enough for her to begin to run. Slamming the door behind her, she heard it opening almost instantly after she closed it, but by the time the door had opened, she was already gone, looking for another place to hide in the attached room.
She didn't know where she could hide, but there had to be somewhere, anywhere. She didn't know how long she could continue to play hide and seek with this bastard, but she knew that if she could get the attention of Jeano, she would be a lot safer—or so she thought, then another thought crossed her mind, what if it didn't work like that? What if Jeano couldn't protect her? She shook her head to remove negative thoughts. 'But at the moment, I'm on my own.'
She came on this mission to prove to herself that she wasn't a kid, and to others, so needing Jeano's help would only make her look weak, like a child, but if she didn't go to him, then she might die. She realised now that this wasn't a game that you could buy, there was no off switch, no load or save, and there was no way you could just play the game again.
She ran to the closet, and checked inside before hiding in there. It seemed safe; there were only the remains of an umbrella in there. She closed it behind her, and from a small crack in the side by the hinge, she had a viewing point from which to watch by.
Sure enough the vampire opened the door and came in. He laughed slightly as he went inside, and leant against the door, his face was, for the first time, clearly visible by the light, and damn, was he ugly. His one side of his face was partially missing, the bone on one side completely visible, and there were a few cracks on the bones, the edges of the skin leading to the other side were almost peeling off, a dry, grey colour. His one canine fang was chipped off, and on the other, more normal side of his face, he'd got the wound from a gun—her gun, more precisely, where she'd shot, and grazed his face in the hopes she'd killed him. Other than that, his face was hidden by crème coloured hair, except for his eyes, which were still visible. The bone side's eye had been gouged out, but the other was a bright red eye, and he looked like he was watching her even though she was hiding. He seemed to look like the surroundings, really, with the destroyed edges of plain grey wallpaper, and rotting carpets mixed with equally rotting wooden floors.
'How cute,' he said with a smirk as he sat down in a chair nearby. 'Do you know I can tell you're in this room?' he asked nobody in particular, leaning backwards on the chair slightly, making himself comfortable. 'And should I wish to, I could appear right now, and I could grab you from your hiding spot inside that closet by your hair, drag you out, and drain your blood right here?'
Integra's heart almost stopped as he told her she was in this room, in the closet. How would he know? Are vampires' psychic or something?! She bit her lip, no, that couldn't be. Carefully, her hand lead itself to the pistol, and she placed it in the opening, doing her best to line it up with his head. When she felt she'd got it right, she pulled the trigger, covering her ear with her one hand. The gun fired, and the sound of it hitting the wall was heard.
The cupboard opened, and he grabbed her by the hair, throwing her onto the floor in front of him and stepping on her like she was a rug or some animal he'd won from hunting. 'Oh you are a silly, silly, stupid girl.' He said with a chuckle. 'I said I knew where you were, yet you still tried to kill me? I'm going to have to punish you, you bad girl.' He snickered at her. Integra still had the pistol in her hand, and she was hard set on that she was going to use it. She pulled the trigger, and heard the vampire yell out a curse. Blood dripped over her face, and she got up, firing another shot, which he absorbed into his hand as he held his hand over the pistol. 'That was a very, very stupid thing to do. I'm going to fucking make this hurt now.' He growled; blood was seeping down his legs.
She knew she'd only pissed him off, and she knew that there wasn't going to be an easy way out of this now, because where she'd just shot him. He didn't seem like a very happy person now. She tried to run off again, yet he held onto her by her arm and the back of her shirt, he pulled her back to where she was before, tearing the arm off her sleeve as he did so, a menacing look in his eye. He grabbed her by the throat with his bony hand, opening a window with the other, and dangling her outside it. 'Want me to drop you?' he hissed out this evil question at her, she screamed and kicked, but no avail. He let go of her, and caught her with his other hand, she dangled helplessly by the neck of her shirt, and thus she found it hard to breathe. 'Want me to drop you?' he asked again, this time it seemed a lot calmer. She said nothing.
'Well?' he asked impatiently. 'My hand could at any time decide to lose its grip of you.'
'No, I don't want to be dropped,' she said quietly. She looked down and saw it was a long drop, if she fell she'd definitely be dead. He brought her in, and threw her onto the floor.
'Little bitch,' he growled. 'I'm going to disgrace you and your family before I send you to hell.' Integra didn't even wait for it to sink in what he'd said before she started firing shots at him. He hadn't closed the window, so this was her only option at the moment: shoot him down out the window, maybe he'd die from falling.
Sure enough—after a few shots he tumbled backwards out of the window, and Integra slammed it shut and locked it in case he was going to try and come out through that, but he knew he could just smash the glass if he hadn't fell, and just climb through. Nothing came, though.
Integra breathed a sigh of relief and made the cross in front of her with her hand. 'Thank you Lord,' she muttered. Someone chuckled behind her, it sounded like Jeano.
'Way to go kid. I saw you shoot that vampire out of the window, chances at that it's dead now.' Jeano told her, sitting on a chair nearby with his leg leaning against of the one next to it. Integra wrinkled her nose slightly.
'Just how long have you been here?' she asked, and she was irritated when he didn't give her a straight answer.
'Oh, maybe: long enough to see you send that demon to hell where it belongs?'
'That doesn't answer my question. Why didn't you help me?' she glared, he chuckled at her and got up off the chair.
'I didn't think you needed helping, you seemed to handle that pretty well for just a kid.'
'Pretty well—I nearly died out there for the love of God. Don't give me pretty well.' He chuckled at her, and looked straight at her; with red eyes.
Integra's heart nearly stopped. 'Jeano, y-your... eyes—they're red! That means.'
'Yes, it means that. What can you do about it, Integra?' he asked with a chuckle. 'Are you going to shoot me through the window, too?'
----End of Chapter 3---
Authors note: So, what did you think? I enjoyed writing this one, but I feel as though the style is completely different to the other. Oh well, that's what happens when you experiment with styles, I guess. But I suppose it turned out better than I was hoping for it, so I hope I can make the next chapter like this one.
I don't know if this will come out the way I wrote it (two spaces after a full stop [that is, a "."]), but if not, oh well. I wrote like this anyway.
If you've read this far and haven't posted a comment yet, then please, please write one, good or bad. If you've read it, write another comment anyway.
Peace out. Love, Odion (aka Carl. PS: Not that kind of love. ;p )
Authors note: I'm so sorry about not making another chapter for a long time, but I've finally done it. This one is quite long when it is compared to the other ones, so I hope you enjoy it. This one is a lot better than the previous chapters in my opinion, too, as they were short and somewhat boring, but this one, to me, is interesting and fun. I could talk more, but I'd probably spoil it, and I don't want to get your hopes up too high.
It took Integra only a few moments to leave the car, though those few moments seem to be too long to the General. He seemed irritated as a whole that Integra was coming along. This was a battlefield, he wasn't a babysitter. She glanced around the area, full of now dark looking buildings. The rays of the sunset were almost completely hidden out behind two huge block of flats. She didn't know why, but her instinct told her that inside those gloomy looking flats were some vampires. The ways had been blocked off, but the place had a feel to it which made it seem as though this place had been long since deserted of any human life.
Authors note: A flat is a British word for an apartment, just in case you were wondering.
Without a word, he threw her a weapon, a simple pistol. She barely caught it, fumbling with it and almost dropping it for a moment before resting it in her hand. The General only grumbled, 'And don't get shooting anything that's not a vampire.'
'I wouldn't dare to.' Integra grumbled at him. He motioned for the squad to come over to him, which they did. 'Right,' he said. 'This is a C46-21, so use extreme caution. Be careful about shooting civilians though. I've split you up into six groups, and you know those groups: red Alpha, Beta and Delta, and Blue Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Red team will check building one, and blue will check building two. No doubt you know where you are and where you're supposed to go, so let's get to work; they don't pay us by the hour in these situations.'
With a chorus of 'Yes sir', followed by salutes, people wandered off, some silently, others more loudly, but all of them were soldiers, none of them were rookies here, except for her, the daughter of the late owner of Hellsing.
Before the general could leave, though, Integra grabbed the sleeve of his arm and stared at him in irritation. He looked down at her taking a long drag of his cigarette as he did so. 'What now? You scared?'
'Which group am I with?' she asked, tapping the side of her leg with the gun in impatience, she knew he had done this to piss her off.
'Red Delta,' the general said, pointing towards a group of filthy, mean- looking soldiers. One of them spat on the black pavement, leaving a white frothy mark. Integra looked somewhat disgusted, and looked at the general, who made a disgusting noise and then spat out onto the floor, leaving phlegm on the floor near him. Why people seemed to spit in groups was beyond her, but she hated it when people spat, it was a disgusting thing to do, as her father had told her. 'Take care of her guys, she's new, and she's the boss' kid.'
One of the soldiers grabbed her wrist and looked at her. 'What's a spoilt little bitch like this doing here?' he asked. His face was a maze of scars over his tanned skin, and wisps of black hair were visible out of his helmet, showing dark, empty eyes. 'I'm going to do my given duty and protect England from vampires.' Integra answered with pride.
'Hah, oh that's rich kid, but being funny isn't gonna save you.' He said as he looked at her. 'You're gonna need some muscle like me to look after you.' A grin slowly formed on his lips, exposing rotten teeth and a single, dull gold tooth. Integra said nothing, but stared at him. 'Call me Jeano kid, and stay with me and you'll get through this.'
'Thank you, but I'm quite capable of looking after myself.' She stated to him. His smirk slowly vanished. 'Alright, but don't come running to me when one of those vampires in there sucks away at your blood and leaves you as a mindless idiot.'
'And you're on your own if you get overpowered. I won't hesitate to put a bullet through your head when you become a vampire.' Integra said. One of the other people stopped them before they could start arguing. 'Come on then, let's get this mission done.'
And with that, they headed off to a way in the flats.
~~--~~
Once they entered the flats, the smell of death and blood immediately filled Integra's nostrils. It made her scared and want to be sick. She had smelled death before, but nothing at all like this- this was just indescribable, except for it being called a smell which would stick in Integra's memory for a long, long time. It's not the kind of smell that one can forget easily.
Even when she had entered into Arcard's 'room', the smell of death was nothing when compared to this. Arcard's room, or more precisely holding cell, smelled merely of bleach and mould.
But this—this she wasn't prepared for. She let out a heaving sound as though she was going to throw up. Jeano hushed her with one of those "shh" noises that people make, which are always louder, and she fought back the urge to vomit. She succeeded, and continued walking, pistol in hand, but she had left the safety on. The sound of some kind of sandy material on the floor made it incredibly difficult to walk quietly, and once or twice her shoes made loud grinding noises against the sand-like material. She knew the walls were damp, as from the little light she had, she could see damp patches in the corners, and some kind of moss growing. The only thing this building actually seemed good for was hosting vampires and other unwanted beings.
The further they walked up the stairs, the more the floorboards creaked. Integra had a feeling that if she didn't tread carefully she would end up falling through one of the floorboards which had rotten away; she guessed some of them had rotted away pretty badly, and she didn't want to fall through.
For the first time so far, one of the other members of the group looked over at her and spoke. There were more two more members of the team besides her and Jeano, in truth, but Jeano was the loudest, and Integra was by hierarchy the most important. They said a simple sentence.
'Stay here.' Said the one member, it was a female, with her face obscured behind a helmet. She looked somewhat creepy like this, and Integra would have quite comfortably thought she was a female if she didn't speak. She vanished inside a room, along with Jeano. They closed the door behind them.
It was just about two words, but those two words made Integra feel as though she was part of a team. She liked that feeling, the feeling of being more than just some girl who sits behind a desk giving orders, that's a coward's job. She'd rather be in the frontline, fighting with her soldiers, much against Walter's will, but he knew he couldn't stop her- she did have the blood of her father in her, after all.
She gave a quick look over at the other soldier, who returned her look with a dark one. She quickly looked back at the door, and thought to herself. They're probably searching inside for vampires, yeah. It makes sense; they're hired to kill vampires, so it's best for them to search so they can take the vampire by surprise.
But after five minutes of waiting, Integra began to get a little bit nervous waiting out here. 'What do you think they're...' she began, glancing over at the soldier as she spoke.
The other soldier was dead.
This was the first time Integra had seen someone dead like this, or more precisely, murdered. His eyes were black, sunken and yet still wide with terror, his jaw was hanging low, and his skin was cold and completely white. Blood had seeped out of a hole in his neck and brought him to a quick, possibly instantaneous death.
The blood dripped onto the floor, causing the uneasy silence to be broken. The soldier had been murdered standing up, and was leaning against the wall. His body hadn't even had time to react.
Integra screamed, but found hands around her throat and mouth, and she was dragged into the darkness by something. She fought against it, kicking and screaming like a madwoman, before a voice spoke in her ear. It was Jeano. 'If you don't shut up we'll both die too.' He hissed at her. She went silent; her heart was no longer thumping so hard she could hear it in her ears.
'Where is... your friend?' she asked quietly, once she had decided that it must be safe here. His grip tightened around her mouth for a moment, before he loosened and whispered to her in response.
'She's dead. Lillith is dead.' He growled down her ear. 'Lillith is dead, by these fucking monsters.' He growled. 'It knew we were coming. It fucking knew it. I couldn't do anything. I could barely save myself.'
She reached up to make him loose her, she didn't want for him to keep holding her like that—she didn't like it, it felt creepy. As she touched his arm, she felt blood, warm blood. It was seeping down his arm. 'He got you?' she asked. Jeano nodded, before he started to get up.
'Where are you going?' she asked. Jeano looked at her coldly through his dark, expressionless eyes.
'To find this bastard, and get revenge for Lillith and Mokey,' he said to her, pointing towards the way out. 'You're welcome to leave now, I might die here.'
'I don't want to die just yet.' She said as she stood up, and began to leave the way she came. Jeano didn't wait for her, but wandered off, pulling out his gun and slamming a door behind him. The place almost seemed to shake.
She took a step onto the damp floorboards, and was about to move across, when a mental image passed through her mind. It was the image of the soldier, the one who must've been called Mokey—his eyes black and in shock. She didn't think Jeano could do it alone, so she had to do something. She wouldn't be able to live with the guilt, but she probably wouldn't be able to live through this.
'Hell, I guess I can always leave.' She said as she moved back, leaning back against the wall. The floor that she was standing on just a moment ago creaked, and gave way. If she had crossed, she would've been falling with those floorboards and breaking a good few bones. Integra put that down to being guided by God.
'Looks like someone up there is looking after me,' she said as she slowly, but surely, moved away from the damp area.
She slowly, and carefully, opened one of the doors and checked inside, there was nothing. Before she went in, she took one quick glance at the soldier, or, where he was supposed to have been, but now was only a bloodied wall and a few blood-soaked drag marks. Integra stopped dead in her tracks and went back to the wall, closing the door behind her. She heard something scrape along the door but decided upon it being her own imagination.
She followed the bloody trail, and suddenly, it stopped without a trace. Integra looked straight up. There was a hole, but how anything could get up there without it being something inhuman was beyond her. It would have to be able to jump really high, as it was a hole onto the next floor. There was no way she was getting up there.
It was only then when the seriousness of this situation stuck in Integra's mind. She was ill-equipped, both in weapons and in items. She could barely see in the lack of light, and had no way to compensate for that, and something had already killed off two of the four of her team, who were better trained and better equipped.
She watched for a moment as something moved in the darkness, before it appeared in front of her. It was a humanoid, with bright red eyes, staring at her menacingly, from what she could see, it was dribbling something, and it didn't look like saliva, it was too thick, too dark. It straightened itself out, still staring at her. In its real size, it towered about her by two feet.
Integra did, without even the slightest bit of thought, run like the wind, and run into one of the rooms, through another door, and hide under the nearest thing—the bed. She turned the safety off so she could shoot anything if she needed to.
Oh my god, what do I do, what do I do? I don't want to die here, not by a vampire, that's not my kind of death. I can't die like that and bring disgrace to my family. Integra thought this to herself as she waited patiently, waiting for the vampire to walk inside the room, but he never did. 'I just wish I had my dad here to hold me right about now, but I have to prove to him that I'm strong enough to continue on with our family's legacy. I need to show him I am more than just a teenage girl.' She whispered to herself. She felt comforted with a feeling of being held enveloped her, as though someone was with her. She looked behind her, out of mere habit.
Straight into the eyes of the vampire—where the hell had it come from? It had just appeared out of nowhere. She stared for a moment; it watched her, keeping its arms around her. They remained still for a few seconds, but to Integra it felt like days.
It held its arms around her so tight she could barely move. She bit into the flesh of the vampire, trying to make it loosen her from the pain, but it felt nothing. She kicked, screamed and flailed, but it all came to no avail. What scared her more than anything was the fact that it hadn't killed her straight away.
It eventually opened its mouth and exposed to her dozens of sharp, jagged teeth, the overpowering smell of rotting flesh came from its mouth, caused by bits of flesh left hanging in gaps in its teeth. It went to bite her. Integra freaked out.
She could have sworn at about this time that she had wet herself, but one thing was for certain, the fight-or-flight gene kicked in. Integra decided to use flight, by fighting. Her hand fumbled for the gun, and she placed her hand on it.
The vampire's hand moved onto hers. In a mocking, echo-filled voice, it asked her, 'Can you do it?' 'Yes.' She replied. 'Can you really do it?' the vampire asked again. 'Show me; kill us both, here, now.' Integra slowly moved the gun towards her head, resting the cold steel of it against her forehead, directly between her eyes. The vampire's hand was also on the gun, its one finger which was bone held onto her finger which would pull the trigger.
'Can you do it?' the vampire asked again, pressing his rotten lips against her neck. 'Or I will certainly make a snack out of you, drinking every little drop of your blood from your sweet little neck.' His one hand moved down to her shoulder, trailing down her chest and resting on her stomach. 'I could make you mine unless you do it... do it. do it... do it.' It said; it started to get louder and louder. Integra's eyes widened, her finger began to squeeze the trigger.
'I don't plan to die here.' She said as she quickly moved the gun and squeezed the trigger. With a bit of luck, it should be able to shoot the vampire straight in the head, and kill it outright.
It didn't work.
'You missed.' The vampire hissed down her ear. She wanted to scream and move, but she thought she'd lost this now, the vampire could kill her. The only way she stud a chance was to try it again, but he knew what she was going to do now.
His hand moved around her neck, the bone finger he had touched at it sharply, and he traced her jugular vein through it, and then went to the neck of her shirt, to her buttons.
'How stupid of them not to give you armour. I mean, you could've got shot,' he said with a chuckle. 'Have you ever been shot, dear?' he asked her. She shook her head and closed her eyes, but he made her open her eyes when his hand trailed down her top and unbuttoned the first button. She was about to say something, but he spoke first. 'It's not nice to be shot, especially in the chest.' His hand unbuttoned the second button.
'What the hell are you... doing to me?' she asked, her voice shaky, but she wanted to escape. She had to think, think of a way to get out.
'It's been a while since I've seen such young, tender flesh. I'm going to eat you darling, down to the bone.'
'I would like to see you try.' She spat out darkly, even though she was absolutely petrified, she still managed to show him hatred and spirit. He laughed at her, his hand trailing along her neck, pressing two of his normal fingers around by one of her veins.
'I wouldn't, because you forget I can kill you any way I please.'
'As I said,' she growled, 'I'd like to see you try.' He unbuttoned the third button of her shirt, and immediately hissed in pain and broke his grip away from her. Silver, pure silver, upon closer inspection, he saw it was a silver crucifix, and by the amount of detail put into it, and the way it hurt his eyes to look at it, he'd guess it was probably blessed too. That was all he needed for him to loosen his grip of her, and give her the chance to get up and run.
For the first time in her life, Integra really was, from the bottom of her heart, grateful that her father had brought her up to be religious. It seemed to have repelled the vampire just long enough for her to begin to run. Slamming the door behind her, she heard it opening almost instantly after she closed it, but by the time the door had opened, she was already gone, looking for another place to hide in the attached room.
She didn't know where she could hide, but there had to be somewhere, anywhere. She didn't know how long she could continue to play hide and seek with this bastard, but she knew that if she could get the attention of Jeano, she would be a lot safer—or so she thought, then another thought crossed her mind, what if it didn't work like that? What if Jeano couldn't protect her? She shook her head to remove negative thoughts. 'But at the moment, I'm on my own.'
She came on this mission to prove to herself that she wasn't a kid, and to others, so needing Jeano's help would only make her look weak, like a child, but if she didn't go to him, then she might die. She realised now that this wasn't a game that you could buy, there was no off switch, no load or save, and there was no way you could just play the game again.
She ran to the closet, and checked inside before hiding in there. It seemed safe; there were only the remains of an umbrella in there. She closed it behind her, and from a small crack in the side by the hinge, she had a viewing point from which to watch by.
Sure enough the vampire opened the door and came in. He laughed slightly as he went inside, and leant against the door, his face was, for the first time, clearly visible by the light, and damn, was he ugly. His one side of his face was partially missing, the bone on one side completely visible, and there were a few cracks on the bones, the edges of the skin leading to the other side were almost peeling off, a dry, grey colour. His one canine fang was chipped off, and on the other, more normal side of his face, he'd got the wound from a gun—her gun, more precisely, where she'd shot, and grazed his face in the hopes she'd killed him. Other than that, his face was hidden by crème coloured hair, except for his eyes, which were still visible. The bone side's eye had been gouged out, but the other was a bright red eye, and he looked like he was watching her even though she was hiding. He seemed to look like the surroundings, really, with the destroyed edges of plain grey wallpaper, and rotting carpets mixed with equally rotting wooden floors.
'How cute,' he said with a smirk as he sat down in a chair nearby. 'Do you know I can tell you're in this room?' he asked nobody in particular, leaning backwards on the chair slightly, making himself comfortable. 'And should I wish to, I could appear right now, and I could grab you from your hiding spot inside that closet by your hair, drag you out, and drain your blood right here?'
Integra's heart almost stopped as he told her she was in this room, in the closet. How would he know? Are vampires' psychic or something?! She bit her lip, no, that couldn't be. Carefully, her hand lead itself to the pistol, and she placed it in the opening, doing her best to line it up with his head. When she felt she'd got it right, she pulled the trigger, covering her ear with her one hand. The gun fired, and the sound of it hitting the wall was heard.
The cupboard opened, and he grabbed her by the hair, throwing her onto the floor in front of him and stepping on her like she was a rug or some animal he'd won from hunting. 'Oh you are a silly, silly, stupid girl.' He said with a chuckle. 'I said I knew where you were, yet you still tried to kill me? I'm going to have to punish you, you bad girl.' He snickered at her. Integra still had the pistol in her hand, and she was hard set on that she was going to use it. She pulled the trigger, and heard the vampire yell out a curse. Blood dripped over her face, and she got up, firing another shot, which he absorbed into his hand as he held his hand over the pistol. 'That was a very, very stupid thing to do. I'm going to fucking make this hurt now.' He growled; blood was seeping down his legs.
She knew she'd only pissed him off, and she knew that there wasn't going to be an easy way out of this now, because where she'd just shot him. He didn't seem like a very happy person now. She tried to run off again, yet he held onto her by her arm and the back of her shirt, he pulled her back to where she was before, tearing the arm off her sleeve as he did so, a menacing look in his eye. He grabbed her by the throat with his bony hand, opening a window with the other, and dangling her outside it. 'Want me to drop you?' he hissed out this evil question at her, she screamed and kicked, but no avail. He let go of her, and caught her with his other hand, she dangled helplessly by the neck of her shirt, and thus she found it hard to breathe. 'Want me to drop you?' he asked again, this time it seemed a lot calmer. She said nothing.
'Well?' he asked impatiently. 'My hand could at any time decide to lose its grip of you.'
'No, I don't want to be dropped,' she said quietly. She looked down and saw it was a long drop, if she fell she'd definitely be dead. He brought her in, and threw her onto the floor.
'Little bitch,' he growled. 'I'm going to disgrace you and your family before I send you to hell.' Integra didn't even wait for it to sink in what he'd said before she started firing shots at him. He hadn't closed the window, so this was her only option at the moment: shoot him down out the window, maybe he'd die from falling.
Sure enough—after a few shots he tumbled backwards out of the window, and Integra slammed it shut and locked it in case he was going to try and come out through that, but he knew he could just smash the glass if he hadn't fell, and just climb through. Nothing came, though.
Integra breathed a sigh of relief and made the cross in front of her with her hand. 'Thank you Lord,' she muttered. Someone chuckled behind her, it sounded like Jeano.
'Way to go kid. I saw you shoot that vampire out of the window, chances at that it's dead now.' Jeano told her, sitting on a chair nearby with his leg leaning against of the one next to it. Integra wrinkled her nose slightly.
'Just how long have you been here?' she asked, and she was irritated when he didn't give her a straight answer.
'Oh, maybe: long enough to see you send that demon to hell where it belongs?'
'That doesn't answer my question. Why didn't you help me?' she glared, he chuckled at her and got up off the chair.
'I didn't think you needed helping, you seemed to handle that pretty well for just a kid.'
'Pretty well—I nearly died out there for the love of God. Don't give me pretty well.' He chuckled at her, and looked straight at her; with red eyes.
Integra's heart nearly stopped. 'Jeano, y-your... eyes—they're red! That means.'
'Yes, it means that. What can you do about it, Integra?' he asked with a chuckle. 'Are you going to shoot me through the window, too?'
----End of Chapter 3---
Authors note: So, what did you think? I enjoyed writing this one, but I feel as though the style is completely different to the other. Oh well, that's what happens when you experiment with styles, I guess. But I suppose it turned out better than I was hoping for it, so I hope I can make the next chapter like this one.
I don't know if this will come out the way I wrote it (two spaces after a full stop [that is, a "."]), but if not, oh well. I wrote like this anyway.
If you've read this far and haven't posted a comment yet, then please, please write one, good or bad. If you've read it, write another comment anyway.
Peace out. Love, Odion (aka Carl. PS: Not that kind of love. ;p )