Part Six: Visitors in the Night (1)
The ward was the same as all other children's wards wherever you seem to go; as much white as possible had been squeezed in between garish, badly hand painted Disney characters who's sole aim was to try and convey an illusion of bright, cheerful happiness to keep the patients calm, happy and as compliant as it was possible to get them. The stinging scent of disinfectant and overwhelming cleanliness attacked the senses as though trying to clean you inside as well as out and it clung to every wall and door. But flowing through it all was the odour of sickness; it embedded every hospital and sank into their very foundations; stone too could hold memories, even modern concrete and the passing of thousands of illnesses, births, deaths and accidents would always remain no matter what kinds of bleach were thrown about.
Most humans would never notice it but Alucard did as he slunk through the darkened, midnight corridors with his footfalls making less sound than a drifting down feather. Whenever a member of staff entered the path of his wanderings he merely needed to dissolve into the darkness and become just another shadow to be completely ignored. For a moment he was convinced that this was just too easy but reminded himself that he was in a place of science designed to heal the masses in a public area, not some castle in the middle of nowhere or a facility filled to the brim with horrors and enemies.
This was really not his forte. His job was to do what he did best and what his blood told him; to kill…and sometimes intimidate. But this was a whole new kettle of fish.
He emerged through a wall into a room filled with beds, which in turn were filled with peacefully sleeping children; their little hands curled around blankets, teddies and other such comfort items that they needed hen they were so far from home.
He could sense something about this particular part of the ward; something akin to the feeling surrounding Axel, the lingering touch of that which is not human. Creatures created of darkness or light always left their mark upon man's world.
Looking for the Cladrius…what a ridiculous thing to be doing…especially in a modern day hospital. Bird watching. He though to himself. Is this what I am reduced to?
He let his gaze flit over every part of the room and moved position frequently in the hope that he might find one place that 'radiated' unearthliness more than others.
No such luck.
He suddenly got the distinct feeling that he was being watched. In fact, he knew that he was being watched. Turning his head very slightly to the right he saw a pair of hazel green eyes watching him intently from behind loose brown curls and a stuffed animal of questionable type. It looked as though his 'cover' was blown.
The eyes were filled with worry and the moment that the owner of the eyes realised they had been spotted the eyelids slammed closed as though if she couldn't see him he would not be able to see her; the usual juvenile logic.
The girl could be no more than five years old and had no idea what to think of the man, clothed in red and black, who had crept into the ward. He couldn't be a doctor or nurse and visiting times were well and truly over until the next day, so who was he, what did he want and why did it sound as though he was getting closer to her? She eased one eye open…yes; he was crossing the wardroom to reach her bedside. What should she do! He scared her…he had walked right trough the wall…he looked so strange, so tall and pale…was he a bad man?
She closed her eyes again.
"I know that you saw me." She heard a harsh voice whisper.
Her little eyelids squeezed together a little more and her fingers curled tighter around the toy…possibly a rabbit.
"You're not invisible, little girl."
Her eyes crept open yet again and fixed on the orange tinted sunglasses in front of her. The face upon which the glasses rested was grinning…with sharp teeth…very sharp teeth. She opened her mouth to scream but was so afraid that the only noise that she could force out was a high pitched but quiet wheezing.
"Have you seen a white bird, little girl?" Alucard asked her. He didn't want to be doing this at all…he didn't want to deal with a mortal child. The problem with children was that their tiny heads were always so confused and full up with a mix between fantasy and reality that made it extremely difficult to extract things from them. Mind reading was practically impossible…but at this rate he may just have to try. As soon as he had discovered anything he could use from this girl he would magically induce sleep in her tiny frame and she would wake up convinced that he had just been part of a nightmare.
The small head nodded in response to his question.
"Where did you see it and what was it doing?"
"Mmmm…" this time only mumbling ensued.
Damn it all, why children? Why did it have to be in a place like this? "Care to answer?"
A small shaky hand appeared over the covers and offered a finger that pointed to a bed opposite. It was empty. By the smell lingering around it, he judged that it had only recently been vacated. Perhaps yesterday.
Alright, so what did that have to do with anything?
The small girl still didn't speak, and he decided that he might rather wade through the murky depths of her fairy tale mangled thoughts than try to get a spoken answer from her.
The sound of careful footsteps alerted him to the nearing presence of a nurse doing her round of checking on the children. Damn, that meant that he was going to have to leave the girl and he'd be back to square one…not that he had gotten far anyway. He stepped backwards into the wall.
The girl ducked under the covers again, taking the stuffed…possibly dog…with her to hug protectively.
The nurse took a stroll up and down the aisle between the beds, made a few checks and was satisfied that all was well. With that duty done she returned to her station.
The girl beneath the covers decided to take a risk; she tossed the covers away from herself and made a dash for the door, dragging the fluffy…possibly cat…along the ground behind her by one leg. She was hoping that she could reach an adult who could make her safe again from the scary man with the Cheshire cat grin.
But as the door neared her grasp two strong arms scooped her up from the floor.
"It's rude to ignore people." Alucard told her very quietly.
She kicked and struggled but he barely felt it, it was like she was pushing at stone; hopeless.
When he spoke he had his mouth right by her ear and so even though he was barely whispering his voice was sickeningly loud to her. "Just tell me what I want to know."
She couldn't make herself speak. Even if she had wanted to she just couldn't bring any words out.
Damn, damn, damn. He was just going to have to fish.
He opened his mind to hers and connected with the memories in her head. Just as he had suspected she was full of the terrifying mix of lies and truth that children thought the world to be. Such as the universal presumption that the world was a safe place and people were good…hmm, seems he'd just shattered that one…but kids minds were resilient things and anything he had damaged would soon heal over when she awoke and comforting adults told her that it was nothing more than a bad dream. But there was a true fear in there too; a new fear, a fear of what appeared in the childrens' ward at one o'clock in the morning. That was it; everything surrounding that was far too muddled to work out specifics from. It reminded him of the blood reading he had done for just like then he could find hints but nothing solid. Close but no cigar. Ah well.
He carried her back to her bed and dumped her on the sheets. She promptly shrank back against the wall with the…possibly monkey…tight against her like a shield.
Alucard looked to the clock on the wall, that man-made instrument constantly ticking away moments of life and counting mortal men down to their deaths. He didn't like clocks. He found their ticking quite unnerving. It appeared to be just about twelve thirty.
He could wait
One o'clock wouldn't take long. If he could pass survive twenty years rotting in a dungeon with only his own mind for company he could damn well last out half and hour. He perched himself on the edge of the bed, wriggled a little to get comfortable and then waited.
The girl waited too…she was utterly confused…why had he stopped, what was he doing? He had been all scary but now he just looked bored. Ten minutes passed in the silent room and she gathered enough courage to edge closer to him. "Why are you still here?" she asked.
He turned his face to her, a little grateful to have something other than the hands of the clock to look at. "I'm waiting." Though the relief was short lived. Great, so now you decide you want to speak. Good grief, children.
"What for?"
"One o'clock."
Her face screwed up in though for a few seconds. "That's when the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the one?"
"Yes."
"That's when the birdy comes." She said and peered around the room as if by mentioning it she might have accidentally invoked it into appearing.
Maybe this can be used to my advantage. "What does it do when it comes?" he enquired pleasantly in the tone of voice that was specifically reserved by all peoples for small children and pets.
"Not sure; m' to scared to look, but I know it goes to a bed and whoever is asleep there get sicker and sicker and the birdy keeps coming back to make them more sicker until they get taken away forever."
"Does it come back at the same time every night?"
"Think so…why?"
"I'm here to catch it."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You came out of the wall."
"I know." Now I need an excuse…oh hell, she's just a child; loose truth will work better than any lie. "I'm magic."
"My mummy says that there is no such thing as magic."
He raised one eyebrow. It was so typical of a child to try to stick to the words of the parent even when faced with obvious contradicting proof.
He flicked his head back to the clock to check on how time was progressing…it was now about quarter to. He looked down at the floor and wondered if he should hide again in case the Caladrius sensed his presence and refused to appear this night. That was if what he was dealing with actually was the Caladrius. Until he saw it he had no way of knowing.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses in the dark?" the girl questioned.
She was really starting to annoy him. Why did she have to ask him so many questions? He wanted to just send her to sleep but she was being a little more useful now. The more he knew the better prepared he could be…but then again; if it really was here at all it was only a silly little bird. He didn't know why he had left her awake this long. He looked back to answer her question. "Because I can."
"But why?"
Oh please, not the 'why' game. "You don't need to worry about it."
The girl settled her toy in her lap then reached up with both hands to his face and wrapped her small fingers around his shades where the arms met the lens frame. She gently pulled them away from him. He wasn't entirely sure why he let her do it. He supposed that he vaguely admired her courage; he had held her in fear yet now she was so curious she was willing to take her life in her own two hands. He could feel that she was still afraid of him yet that wasn't stopping her.
She looked at his now naked eyes. "Oh, your eyes are bleeding!" she gasped as quietly as a surprised female human child can be.
"No." he said, wiping his eyes and showing her that his glove was not stained with blood. "They're just red."
"Do they hurt? My daddy sometimes gets red in his eyes when he's got a headache."
"No, they don't hurt." He took back his shades and slid them back where they belonged.
"How long have they been like that?"
Why so many questions? "A long, long time." Something over 525 years, but I don't think you need to know that. He was suddenly horribly aware of the ticking of the clock. It was five to now.
"You should go to sleep." He told the girl. And I should think about getting out of sight.
"-m not sleepy."
"Yes you are." He told her as he closed her eyes for her with two fingers. "So very tired."
She slowly slumped forwards without a word. He closed the two fingers together and placed them in the small space between her eyes. "Forget." With that at last over and done with he tucked her back into bed for the remainder of the night. She wouldn't remember any of it at all once she had awoken. And if by chance there were still some residual memories he had missed she would discard them as mere dreams. Perhaps in the morning there would be odd drawings of a man with a red coat and hat appearing in the children's ward.
With one final glance to the room and a readjustment of his sunglasses he fell back into the shadows of the nearest wall to wait for o'clock and, hopefully, the mythical bird that a young girl feared with all of her soul.
----------
She had grown tired again. She had been spending so much time awake recently. Integra, instead of actually sleeping, would take short catnaps throughout the day and night where work would permit her to do so. But now she had decided that it was time that she made herself get the full amount of real sleep that she desperately needed.
She had retreated to the comfort and respite of her warm bedroom as soon as Alucard had left for the hospital and had fallen asleep before her head had even hit the pillow.
It was such a shame that she didn't managed to stay that way; peace just didn't come to the Director of Hellsing that easily.
The strangest of feelings began to creep over her, filling each and every on of her nerves with a sensation that was not altogether very pleasant in the slightest. It made her feel nervous…worried…uneasy…Then for the shortest of moments she thought she heard a stranger's voice call out her name and in that moment she was calm again. Then it was gone and she was left to shiver in the dark.
She turned over, curled up a little and tried to tell herself that it was nothing, that it was sleep deprivation making the sounds of the mansion settling itself seem like something they were not. Content with this knowledge she closed her eyes and began to sleep again.
But again…she had to open her eyes and stop her resting.
It was little more than a whisper in the wind but she was sure something was calling her…but not in any words. It was more of a drifting sensation that was gently encouraging her…to do what?
She pulled back the covers, swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. For a minute she just listened for the calling and then padded away out of her room. She wandered the halls in her pyjamas, dressing gown and bare feet, somehow unintentionally avoiding every man and woman in the manor and also managing not to attract the attention of her garrotte-wielding butler. She made her way slowly to the very back of the building and walked up to one of the many windows. She opened it fully, sliding it up its rails until it could go no further and then climbed outside, pausing briefly on the sill to look about. Outside, her dressing gown and hair whipped around her and her pyjama top billowed about her chest while she surveyed the area surrounding her on the grass of the manor grounds. In the dark she spotted a pair of glinting red eyes and for a second her breath caught in her throat...what was she doing out there…what had convinced her that this was a good idea; coming outside in the dark without a weapon or notifying someone of her whereabouts…had she even thought about it at all…had she been unconsciously led away from the safety of the mansion…a trap?
And what was out there with her?
To whom or to what did the red eyes belong and what did they or it want with her?
To be continued…
Author's Note – Ye gods; an update!
Chicken-Chan – Ello there…though why I'm leaving a message when I saw you yesterday I don't know. Anywho catch ya later. P.S – I finished ure Shaman King last night. eh-he.
Kiyonekage – I'm glad I'm not the only one. Being short sucks royally. But…it means I can get cheap fares pretending to be younger than I really am, hehehe. Thought it's difficult trying to convince people I am my real age sometimes. The surprise can be amusing.
Jaided – Hooray! Someone likes the fic. Uh…genius is something I've never heard before…Thank you. I'm sorry the update took so long but when people don't show much interest I kinda forget to post and just carry on writing for myself.