"Move On"

R. K. Averomono

Chapter Two

"You'll do what I want--if I find the right words. Tell me, Seres, what words do you want to hear?"

Seres savored the sunlight.

It wasn't painful at all, the way Alucard warned her it would be, and she absorbed it with joy. She breathed in the smell of damp grass and cool mud. The sun was blinding, warm and perfect. Her senses were overwhelmed.

Her body had fallen apart again, had fallen apart an hour ago, halfway off the property somewhere in the shooting range. The field was so overgrown that wild weeds had overtaken the man-shaped cardboard targets set up in the distance.

Seres was on the verge of giggles. That horrible house and her master were far behind her. Even if she never got up again and rotted in that very field, she had proven her worthiness.

To whom had she proven her worthiness? To...God? To herself? To the memory of Sir Integra, maybe, or the memory of her father or her old comrades before Hellsing shut down, or even her old friends at the police force.

No matter what force would ultimately judge the value of her life, she would be seen as a human. Alucard couldn't mold her.

Alucard.

The thought of him made her tense, stirred in her a desire to rise and keep on moving. Just because he had not followed her out did not mean he would not. Being the indecisive creature that he was, he might come for her at any time. She doubted it though. She wasn't his little fainting pet anymore, and her refusal to drink his blood must have disgusted him. He probably could never understand why anyone wouldn't want to be just like him. It had been both their wishes for her to leave. She couldn't imagine they would ever meet again.

Still, before she knew it, she was standing once more, though she had no conscious memory of willing her limbs back to her torso. Her legs wobbled with effort.

"How am I going to keep myself from falling apart?" she wondered, slowly limping across the field. The grass brushed against her legs and waist, and the blood leaking out from between her hastily re-fastened appendages wiped off on the blades. Then, the blood would animate itself and come trailing after her like small children toddling after their mother. A whole trail of blood was following her in a snake-like pattern. It bothered her, so she tried not to look behind her.

Seres soon found herself out of the camps and into the trees, wandering through a wooded area that had never been kept, even when Integra was alive. She wandered through clumps of bushes, hugging her body with her misshapen arms. As she walked on and on, the trees were larger and grew closer together, their claw-like branches shutting out the sun.

"God, I don't remember any of this..." After about a half hour, she wondered if she was going in circles. She should have been well off the property by now. Where the hell had she wandered? She turned around, eager to re-trace her steps back out of the wooded area and back into the fields, but chest-high bushes full of thorny branches confronted her. "What? This wasn't here a moment ago."

Seres froze. Of course she didn't remember this...this wasn't real. There was no telling when it had happened, but she had stumbled into a hallucination sent by Alucard. She could tell by the way all the tress suddenly lacked leaves, by the black bark, by the thorns and the long shadows. This was a world of Alucard's making. His style was obvious.

"What is he thinking?" Seres was appalled. "Could...could he want to kill me for leaving?" She suspiciously eyed every shadow, every tree, waiting for sinister red eyes to open, but they didn't. "Lazy bastard." Seres felt more insulted then distressed. Alucard was obviously still in the mansion, probably half-sleeping in his coffin and sending little nightmares to Seres to keep her distracted so he could come look for her once it got dark. He wouldn't endure the bothersome sunlight just to look for her.

"We'll you're going to regret it. By the time you wake up, I'll be long gone and you'll never find me." It was a proud boast; especially knowing she was trapped in Alucard's fantasy. She admitted to herself that she couldn't escape without him releasing her. How could she press on?

"I'm still somewhere." She thought out loud. "Right now, I'm standing in a field or a forest, or in the street with a dozen strangers walking past me...who're all looking at me because I'm talking to myself." Her lips pursed thoughtfully. God, she hoped that wasn't the case. She was somewhere. If she walked, her legs would carry her somewhere. So, she walked, with her hand out in front of her to make sure she didn't accidentally walk into anything real. She kept wondering if a car was about to hit her.

Trying to take her mind off any possible immanent danger, Seres examined her out-stretched arms and saw with relief that her body seemed to be healing. She could wiggle her arms a bit and it felt like the bones inside had fused together. There were still deep gashes in her flesh and blood slowly continued to seep out, but the blood was aware of itself and clung to her skin without dripping off. It slithered back up towards the wounds. It was so strange. It was like her blood was a separate entity from herself, with a mind of it's own...

Suddenly, trees began springing out of the ground, shaking the earth beneath her feet. With a shriek, Seres tumbled to the ground, falling face-first into the mud and leaves. She spat out the dirt and looked up. What was Alucard doing now? She watched in horror as tree after tree grew in a circle around her, the trunks so thick that there would be no squeezing through them. The branches of each tree entwined around another's, as did the roots.

Seres stood up again, wincing in pain and grinding her teeth. Her right femur had snapped again when she fell and it took a great deal of concentration on her part to make it straight. She clasped her hand against her tender thigh. "Great," she gritted through her clenched fangs.

Seres hobbled over to one of the thick tree trunks. She placed her hands against the rough, black bark and, indeed, it felt solid. She pushed against it with both hands, but it remained. If it was a hallucination, it had convinced the part of her brain that might have allowed her to walk through it. She tried to wiggle her hand in between the trunks, but she could only get her fingertips through.

She stood a back a bit and looked up and down the tree. No getting through it.

"Damn it." She groaned. "Damn it. Damn it." This was so stupid. She had gotten so far only to be stopped by an illusion, a bad illusion at that. "Damn it!" She pounded her fist uselessly on the trunk. "Don't you get it?! I don't want you! I don't want you anymore then you want me!" Her pounding fists became scratches, her vampire-nails digging deep into the wood. She was brimming with frustration and hate. "You said you wanted me to go away! So I'm going! Why are you trying to stop me?!"

Seres was shot in the face by a spray of blood. She fell backwards on her rump and quickly wiped her face. "What? What is this?" She looked up and saw the tree was bleeding from the deep gashes in the wood.

Around her, the other trees were writhing in pain, swaying and groaning.

"That's it!" She sprang up and began biting and slicing the wounded tree, snarling and snapping like a wild thing. "Get out of my way!" The tree shuddered and suddenly the branches un-twisted from the other branches and the roots unearthed themselves and dove for Seres. The branches wrapped around her wrists, dragging her away from the trunk of the tree. Then the roots wrapped around her ankles, all pinning her against the ground, spread-eagle.

Seres shrieked, thrashing in the dirt, stretching so her fangs could snap at the branches, but they were just out of her reach. "Let me go!" she demanded.

The tree responded by leaning over and extending another claw-like branch. It wrapped around Seres's elbow and the healing gash that bled there. "No! No!" Seres cried, but the tree gripped her wounded arm anyway and yanked the appendage sharply, cracking the newly formed bone. Seres screamed and the tree delighted in her pain. The branch split into many branches, all which grew and made their way to Seres's wounds, intent on doing the same thing.

"Don't touch me!" Seres tried to kick, but the more she struggled, the harder the first branch pinned her down. The second branch began to harass her more aggressively, first breaking the bones in her tender arm, and then stabbing into her flesh. Even the tiny twigs wrapped themselves in her hair and pulled.

Then, the second branch, whose main trunk was floating over Seres's face, rippled in the bark and a single, crimson eye opened and focused on her. For a moment, that second branches' limps eased the torture on her body, though the first branch continued to hold her down. On one of the limbs of the second branch, which had punctured the flesh of her inner thigh, a small mouth opened and began to lick the wound clean of blood.

"You!" Seres snarled indignantly, more like an animal then a woman. "Don't touch me!"

The eyes squinted a bit. The branch that was licking her responded by encircling her thigh and crushed it like a snake, squeezing more blood out. It eagerly licked up the scurrying streams.

Seres looked around desperately, but there was no easy escape. There was nothing she could do. However, she did notice something; above the both of them, high in the sky, the patch where the branches had been was empty and Seres could see the sky, the blue sky. It was still daylight, though maybe now mid-afternoon by the longer shadows. Alucard was still at home. Even now, these shadowy-demons were just his hellhounds. I still have time, she thought, staring back at the bloody-eye that regarded her. The branch finished lapping her blood and stroked her punctured skin. The rest of the branches began following suit, slithering up and down her body in an attempt to sooth her and stop her from struggling.

"Don't do that to me," Seres told him, her eye twitching, trying to keep herself from crying. It was more then just the pain she felt in her limbs. "How dare you try to take me back after everything you've done to me?! You think you're so great? You think you can do anything you want to people? Do you think it's every human's secret dream to be a monster like you? It's not! No one wants to be like you!"

The thick branch morphed into a huge snake with gleaming, familiar red eyes. It hissed menacingly at Seres, flicking a forked red tongue through it's fangs. It's coils were now what was wrapped around Seres body and it began to squeeze her, forcing her to be silent.

She could no longer shout. Blood was streaming from her mouth and her hands shook compulsively as her nerves were crushed. Her mind raced, desperately trying to think what she could do now. How had anyone defeated this vampire in the first place? And these were just his familiars she was dealing with now. How had Sir Integra ever manage to deal with him? What would Sir Integra do if she were here right now?

"If I die..." she gasped, "...that's one more person...you couldn't have your way with."

The snake relaxed and it slithered into a pile on top of her chest. The head of the snake weaved and bobbed inches from her face. Seres blinked. She didn't want to try and get up. She lay perfectly still.

Get up. The snake was hissing deeply, and behind it, Alucard's deep voice resonated. Get up and fight me.

"Ma....Alucard?" she thought back to him. "I'm not going to fight you."

The snake continued it's memorizing dance. You wanted my respect, Police Girl? Fight me. Even if you lose...and you will lose...I can respect your effort. Then you can come home to me.

Seres glared at the snake. "I don't want to come home to you. Do you get it yet? I don't want to go back."

Yes you do. You're just acting like a little girl running away from home so daddy can come and rescue you from the night and assure you how much he loves you.

Seres gritted her teeth. "You've completely misjudged me!"

The snake gathered at her throat and began to caress her cheek. Seres jerked away from his offensive touch.

Don't you want to hear me say how much I want you back?

"No, actually, I don't."

No? Even if I say you're impressing me with your resolve? You're quite determined all of a sudden. I like it. I like it so much in fact I'm willing to give you a second chance. Put an end to your willfulness and return to my side.

"The only thing that impresses you is yourself. You'll say anything to make me do what you want and I'm not falling for it. And anyways, I don't want to be like you. You can't offer me anything I want..."

You'll do what I want--if I find the right words. Tell me, Seres, what words do you want to hear?

Seres turned up her nose at the vampire-snake. "I wont fight you and I wont obey you. I wont do anything. I'd just as soon sit here forever and do nothing for you." She looked down at grinned at the slithering creature. "I'm sure you'd hate that most of all...If I did nothing."

Then I'll come for you myself. And I'll bring you something sweet to drink.

Sir Integra never would have stood for this. Seres wanted this to be over already. "'Let me be already. You shame me.'"

The snake paused in it's bobbing. After a few moments, the head retracted into its coils. You insolent little bitch. How dare you talk like that to me. The snake was hissing and rattling.

"It still angers you, doesn't it?"

It stings my pride, all those years spent at the mercy of those inferior, smug creatures, ordering me around like a dog. And then you bring it up, you who speaks down to me as if you were one of those bastards...

"No, I mean, it angers you that Sir Integra didn't accept your blood."

Ridiculous! The snake uncoiled and recoiled in a mad fit. It was so mad it eventually tumbled off of Seres's belly and wiggled wildly in the dirt, like a worm trying to escape a robin. Suddenly, the snake disintegrated and became a pile of dirt. Alucard's concentration had broken.

Then, the whole forest dissolved and warm, orange light filled Seres's senses.

"The...the hallucination faded!" Seres sat up, elated. And then she looked down at her body—apparently, the injuries she had sustained had also just been an illusion. Her body was completely healed. She looked around to get her bearings. Then she realized where she was. "Oh my God."