She walked down the dark halls of the abandoned compound. Small droplets of blood were drawing lazy and nearly dried patters along the contours of her face. Her red eyes scanned the area around her carefully. To anyone who would have happened to chance a look at her, they would have seen concentrated and set features and a firm stance. Ready and waiting for anything that might come her way.
But it wasn't so...
If someone looked hard enough, looked in her eyes long enough, they would have seen the self-degraded and distraint creature that laid inside the confides of a contradicting shell. She was thinking, unwillingly letting her mind wander to a month prior. The dreaded month that spiraled her down to the disoriented mess being what she was now. 'Why me? How could I fool myself into thinking that–? Silly me...' She berated herself. She hated this feeling of coldness and despair. It wouldn't leave her alone.
A noise came off to her side and she shifted her gun towards it.
Nothing.
Seras sighed in relief. It wasn't so much as the thought of killing the wandering ghouls; she needed something to vent her stress out on. But the fact that if one should catch her off guard; that could really do some damage that the others would take immediate notice to and start paying more attention to her. That was something that she didn't want, more less needed. She hated feeling like the little defenseless child everyone labeled her as. 'But it can't be helped, can it?' She held down her gun and continued to walk stealthily down the darkened walkways.
Her gun shot up into the direction of her right. "Who's there?" Nothing...Just the whispering winds that had escaped into the halls; bouncing gleefully from one wall to the next. Seras looked confused. She could've sworn on her gun that she'd heard something running away from her. Maybe it was just her imagination that was doing the running again.
She slowly lowered her gun again and continued walking, trying hard to keep her mind on destroying this vampire instead of the images that wanted to taunt her and pull at her heartstrings more. 'The sooner I kill this thing, the more time I'll have to myself; alone in my dark little corner...' She thought, eyes scanning the area around her. She slid her gun back down in front of her and proceeded cautiously. She hesitated for a second with the door's handle, bringing her gun to her face defensively, then opened the door.
She pointed her gun in all directions speedily before pulling it towards her chest and walking against the wall farthest away from the window in the opposite left-hand corner. She surveyed the poorly lit area around her with unblinking eyes, watching closely to every shadow that seemed to move. Nothing. There was nothing in the room as she searched deeper into each dark crevice. Searching every nook and cranny of the large room that seemed out of the ordinary. Nothing came to the surface. She sighed again.
She was just about to leave when a stray gust of wind drifted her attention away from the door she had used to enter into the room. She turned to look back at the window.
It was closed and tightly boarded; only letting small, minute twinkles of moonlight to enter in through the eroded cracks. The cool autumn gust blew through her legs again, this time a little harder. She looked down to examine the floor more carefully.
Cracks, eroding bits and pieces of wood, an old molded rug, a rusted and blackened silver handle, a – 'Wait a second–'
She lifted the molded, water-worn, aged rug out of the way and further studied the hidden door that was rewarded to her for her search. She kicked at the rusted pad lock and stomped on door a few times. The fragile wood gave in as it made its clattering journey down the dark infested stairs, making Seras wince a little at the noise it made. After a sort while the soft thud it made and te quiet the was heard soon after was its only clue that it had finally reached the bottom, and that nobody else heard it.
Seras whistled lowly. "I'd just have to watch my step is all." She said making her slow trek down the hidden stairway.
What seemed like a small eternity in the dark (which was actually just a little over thirty minutes), she began to see the dull glow and flickering of a fire of some sort. Seras stepped from the staircase she was climbing down and looked around. "What is this? Seems like some sort of ceremonial rite. But for what?" The few lit candles gave the room an eery, foreboding glow. Most of the candles where surrounded a black sand. The rest were on the outskirts of low rise on in which the black sand was on. Long medium sized candles were held in place by, what seemed like, sharp teeth with red, almost the color of black, gems spilling over the sides of each holder. Seras was at awe by its strange beauty.
Seras slowly walked over to one of the few candelabra the adorned the walls. The part what was on the wall was decorated with three skulls; all facing a different direction. Again, blacken red gems wove through the fangs– not teeth– of each of the three eerily mystifying structures.
Her gun was long forgotten as she made her why to the center where the levitated structure was. She walked around it slowly, as if taking it all in to memory. On close inspection (or closer than where she was by the hidden staircase), she found out that there were drawings, very graphic and articulate designs of...a battle? She didn't know, but it was amazing! More than eroding stone that she thought it was in the first place. She was so lost in the stone carving that she tripped on something and fell hard.
"What the bloody–!" She stopped in mid-curse to find out that she had fallen on the steps that led to the top of the platform. Runic markings adorned this part of the structure, and for some strange reason, seemed oddly familiar.
She heaved herself up from the stairs and started to climb them. "This is different." She mused to no one in particular as she stepped in the mist of the black sand. She walked to the center and stood there, looking around at the circle made from the sand. "Ashes to ashes, we all fall down. Burned from the sky, we're shot down to the ground. Tossed in flames and cremated in shame. So ashes in ashes we all fall the same..."
"Who's there?" Seras asked looking around her. "Such a lovely beauty. So dark and mysterious. It makes these dead bones proud to be alive." A voice moaning whispered; the outer edges of the circle started to glow. The dull, dark light started to slowly eat away at the other sand to leave it with a soft dark glow, duller than the outer ring. "Such hidden grace as noone has ever seen! Hidden below the surface, it cries to be known!" The voice moaned again gleefully yet mournfully, a strange twist being felt in the air around Seras. It sent warm forbidden chills to raked her frame. "Mysterious beauty and a dark forbidden grace, come to the surface! Let it be known that your cries were heard!" A woman's face appeared before Seras and leaned towards her. The eerily beautiful woman grabbed the sides of the startled young girl's face and kissed her lips fully. Seras was in total shock, and the dark light that finally made its way to her in the center, shot up around them.
Seras screamed in pain, darkness shooting in and out of her frame. She dropped with a sickening thud to the ground, throwing her hands out in front of her to keep herself from falling on her face. "It cries for you to hear it. Don't you hear it?" The voice cooed by her ear. Seras tried to bat her away, only to feel a new pain slowly crawling up her arms and legs. She cried out louder than before; black tears slowly licking their way down her face. "Beauty is to be seen in heated sands. Let thy beauty be seen through you!" The voice cried in laughter as she watched in delight the show Seras put forth.
"Seras!" A gunshot was heard and the woman smiled at the intruders and disappeared as though someone swept their hand across her silhouette like frame. "Kill, the intruders, will you?" Her voice laughed lazily. A horde of ghouls appeared out from the hidden doorways of the walls, attacking them all.
Seras was panting hard as she tried to stand, pain lacing through her bones, screaming for her to faint or to rest a while. "Seras!" Shouted the head officer, pulling her attention away from her pain for a little while. "Help us!" He shouted angrily as he shot a ghoul in his head. Seras reached for the gun at her side, only to find it not there. "Where's my gun?" She looked around and spotted a ghoul picking up, looking straight at her for a moment, but turning it towards one of the others on the floor. "No you don't!" Seras ran for him, forgetting momentarily about the pain lacing her legs and arms. She punched a hole through the ghoul's head and snatched her gun. Once in hand, she shot him in his heart. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust!" "Not you again!" Seras continued to shoot the ghouls as the woman returned to taunt her, this time in the flesh. "Fall to your inner self!" Pain danced inside of Seras once more, letting out a mighty yell as testament to her inner turmoil. "That should do it." It said walking closer to Seras's crouched form.
An officer saw this and shot his way towards the young vampire hybrid. He pushed the harlot vampire away from Seras. "Seras," he tried to get her attention. "Kill it! Kill it now!" Yelled the older man over the shrill screams of the ghouls. Seras grabbed her gun and aimed; shooting the vampire whore and the short line of ghouls that were in the way. The Whore cried out from the bullet wound to her head and dissolved into dust. 'That thing caused too much trouble.' Seras sighed heavily, lowing her gun and standing from her position on the ground.
The ghouls that were left attacking them, all disintegrated, leaving in their wake small piles of sand. "That was close Seras; real close." Said the older man as he walked past Seras after patting her shoulder.
She walked down the empty halls of the mansion. Sir Intergra wanted to see her. Seras internally shivered. She didn't really want to go see her, but she had no choice in the matter. Whether she liked it or not, this was her boss, this was a job.
She sighed taking a deep breath and straightening before entering into her office. The inside of the office was dark; the shades drawn close despite the beautiful autumn morning. "Seras," Intergra acknowledged after a few minutes of silence as noone spoke. "Sir?" "I wanted to talk to you about what exactly happened last night. The report on last night's events were a little vague, considering that the general was the one who wrote it." She paused, stamping out her cigar bud and locking cool crystal blues onto Seras. "Why were you detracted?" Seras sighed heavily again; this was going to be a long morning.
'That didn't go as bad as I thought it would.' Seras thought an hour later as she walked to her room, thinking over what Intergra had said to her. "I would've thought that she'd be mad and get rid of me, not give me a vacation."
When Seras got to her room, she started packing her bags for her short trip to 'clear her mind.' Within half an hour, she was ready and out of the door. "I don't understand what your fascination with her is, but I fear you have something more in mind for her." Integra said looking through her blinds to her office window at Seras as she waved down a bus and watched as it drove away to its designated destination. "You're looking too much into things." Came Alucard's husky voice from the shadows in the corner of the expansive room. "I know you Alucard, you haven't even broken in your little toy and I'm already seeing cracks in the framework." She said turning away from the window as the room once again shifted into the shadows that had before once claimed it. "Are you getting jealous? Is that really what I hear from you?" He asked, humor emitting from him in waves. "No. Just want to know what you are up to is all." "You'll find out soon enough if I have anything at all up my sleeves." With that, he disappeared, left to his own devices. Integra sighed. "What are you really up to Alucard?"
Sorry that it's taken me so long to get you guys this chapter and for those who've already read it, nothing has changed one bit. I've been on punishment and getting ready for a 'friend' of mine's wedding. :sigh: Please don't remind me. Okay, to answer a question, Hitokiri Cumberdale, if you're reading this, it wasn't a dream. Sorry to get you so confused 'bout that. R&R is not just for rest and relaxation! Thank you muches.