It was almost time to go. David Belmont had a meeting with the supposed head of the FUNTOM company, Hercule Phantomhive, and was going to attempt to gain access to its vast funds. Money makes the world go 'round, after all, and if he was going to bring forth a new world order, he was certainly going to need some. His facilities were already starting to become difficult to run, so he was in dire need as of this particular moment. Needless to say, the stress was getting to him just a tad.

Everything was close to falling apart before it even had a chance to pick up if he didn't do something quickly. With his power, it should have been easy, in theory, but he's limited in his method of control and can only do some much at a time. All of this coordination at once needed a certain degree of finesse that simply wasn't obtainable to him at this point in time. Certainly, his power was excellent at keeping people under his control, but he would have to employ other methods in addition to the ones that he was already. If money is the root of all evil, then surely, it will appeal to the hidden evil nature within every human being that Belmont believed existed.

Twisting and turning within each and every human being was an uncontrollable beast driven by an unquenchable greed for money, for power, for the ability to be on top. That is why people who did not restrain themselves, who did as they pleased and did not worry about such trivial matters like whether or not it would affect other people rose above the rest. In the modern age, human beings have clearly repressed these urges, these instincts, which are merely humanity's drive to survive! In this world of monsters and of men, men needed to fight with everything they had in order to maintain the natural order of things. Yet, they have so obviously neglected their duties, opting instead to sit on their couches or at their computers to stare at screens and let go of these natural urges. Instead of killing to survive, they instead killed bad guys in their video games. Instead of watching and revelling in the failures of their enemies, they wants people on television do so. Instead of maintaining a strong population of fit human beings, they opted to watch pornography instead, when the real thing was right in front of them! This is why, as they are, humanity is doomed for failure. Inevitably, they would be die out when the beasts realised what easy prey they were and conquered this pitiful, poisoned earth. In fact, being forces of nature themselves, they may in fact be better for it.

Yet, David saw an alternative. Instead, he would take humanty's strongest, those who evolved in spite of these needless pitfalls that their idiotic, under-evolved, biological relatives succumbed to by enforcing on themselves. Belmont, in an act of grace, has decided to show benevolence toward his fellow man by presenting the superior humans with the opportunity to flourish- to claim the earth that they so rightfully have inherited without waiting thousands of years for evolution to take its course by natural means. By the time that happened, who is to say that the world wouldn't be overrun by beasts before then? That is why he needed to strike right there and then before it became too late.

He imprisoned and killed supernatural beings while attempting to amass an army. Most of his operatives, he confessed, were thoroughly useless, but they did serve a purpose. Those who showed promise would have the truth revealed to them and would have various procedures done onto them in order to grant them the salvation of psychic abilities. Less gracefully, those lesser humans under his command unwitting served the purpose of live bait for the more dangerous monsters with need be.

All was carefully cultivated to the very best of Belmont's abilities. All he was lacking was an injection of funds. Once he had acquired that, his plans would be set into motion. Streetlights passed over the top of two cars en route to the FUNTOM office building in London as they traversed the streets. It was casual in their method, but the amount of people David brought meant that he was being cautious. He had to be. One of his psychics can see glimpses of future events and suggested that this trip might be dangerous, but the payoff was so good that he had to take the risk.

Flashes of imagery appeared behind the eyelids of one psychic, revealing the image of a monster that devoured the flesh of men with a haughty roar. With a sudden gasp for air, her eyes opened, revealing that the girl was in no danger. The girl known as "Martyr" to those who knew not of her true name realised that she was still in her room at HELLSING headquarters. David Belmont was nowhere in sight.

Alone in her cell, Constance had nothing to do but peer out into the world through her third eye. Anxiously, she observed what was happening outside her door, growing impatient for news about

Tonight was the night. She was certain of it. With every fiber in her being, she knew. She also knew that she could not stay there. Whatever that creature was, it wasn't anything good. From what she could see, it was big, mean, and cruel, but that was about it. It also appeared to not be part of the plan and that simply would not do.

Standing up, she felt the carpet beneath her bare feet and rubbed her head, now that she had some hair on it. It ached from what she saw, but she had to push through it, anyway. Time was of the essence. Back and forth, she paced while trying to figure out a way out of this room.

The front door was no good. It was locked from the outside and since she was down in the basement, she would have to sneak past practically every supernatural agent HELLSING had to offer, given the location of their apartments. Furthermore, even by some absurd miracle she managed that, she couldn't exactly get out the front door of the building, especially if she wanted to do it without getting caught.

There had to be a way, she was sure of it. She looked around carefully, even going so far as to crawl on the floor for something- anything that would aid in an escape. Unfortunately, this bunch was thorough, it seemed. At the very least, they put a ridiculously large lock on the door and gave her no window. She had no idea what time it was outside. It could be day or night, but she did know for certain that she needed to go right at that very moment.

Then, the mirror caught her attention when she turned her head. She didn't exactly look like a normal person. She didn't move like one either, stepping carefully with each step as though she were dancing or stalking prey. There was something that was somewhat animalistic about the wild look in her eyes and the way she carried herself. Resting her hands on the vanity, she stared into the mirror. Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she spotted something on the wall behind her near the ceiling. Slowly, her gaze shifted from the vent to her own gaze, staring back at herself.

"The curse is upon me." she said to her reflection and slowly, they both smiled.


A/N: This chapter looks much shorter than it is. It's only two pages long, but there's only one line of dialogue. It's weird, but I thought that cutting it here was fitting. I'll start the next chapter right away and it should be done before the weekend is over.

This is probably one of the strangest chapters I've written in a while. I feel like if you squint, you can find some meaning in it. You really shouldn't take anything at face value when it comes to Skullface, though, that's for certain... Tell me what you think about this stuff, though. I'm really curious as to what people take away. Overall, people seem to be enjoying the throwback to the concept of "humanity", so I'm gonna try to do more of that from now on.

Here's a fun thing that you can think about: I was listening to "The Lady of Shalott" by Loreena McKennitt. Take that as you will.

Also, I'm not sure if this was a question, but it was a really interesting thought and I want to talk about it: The lovely Kinja145 (who translates DLTD into French btw it's really cool) said: "...On the other hand, Alois or Daniel (like in this chapter) see Ciel as a good person who cares about the ones he loves, and will do what he can to keep them safe. But I'm wondering, could things have been different if they weren't close to Ciel ? If they weren't close to him and knew what he does, would they still see him as a good person, or even as a person at all?"

The short answer is: "No, they probably wouldn't." They'd probably be terrified of him. Most people are. It's hard to even conceptualise the idea that someone who is a literal demon who eats souls and murders humans and supernatural beings alike could ever show any signs of kindness or humanity. It's very easy to not see him as a "person," but rather a "thing." A monster. The fact that he isn't a particularly open person certainly doesn't help. He's still somewhat of a tragic person in that regard, and I really hope to bring that up more. The theme of "perspective" is one I haven't really touched on in this series, but I desperately need to both out of genuine interest on my part and due to how it would enhance the story!

Ciel is someone with good intentions who works in shades of grey. He does terrible, horrible things for what is arguably a very noble and good cause. He can be kind, generous, loving, and gentle, but he can also be violent and even sadistic in the field. And he feels guilty for it. I would like to have him talk about that more as well. We kind of like to undercut the fact that he kind of enjoys these missions, but it's something that should be talked about.

I feel like I went off topic...

Oh, well...

There was more that I wanted to say in this A/N, but now I can't think of it...

I did get an actual question, though! And I forgot to put it in a few times... I'm very sorry for that...

"Curious as to whether not the characters had to face off against knock offs of Hellsing, like say TARDIS(Doctor Who wannabes) or Men of Letters(Supernatural fanatics)? If the have can they explain what that was like?" by Tazmania

Probably not. Well... Supernatural fanatics, since this sort of thing can overlap with it. The Belmont Organisation is actually not based on HELLSING at all. I came up with it after seeing these people (nerds) online who either prepare for the zombie apocalypse, whether they believe it or if it's just a hobby because hey, monsters are cool. I watched a lot of "Zombie Go Boom" episodes on Youtube while sitting on this idea. (I even took notes) I also drew inspiration from paranormal investigators and "monster hunters" who track cryptids and such.

This is the natural progression of monster-hunting. This is a real-life phenomenon, so what happens when those people live in a universe where supernatural beings are in fact real? What happens when those people actually do meet monsters? That's what I wanted to know and started thinking about. It would be SUCH a waste not to draw inspiration for a story from this, and I'm kind of dissappointed that the arc went in a direction that distracted from it.

I'm pretty sure that there are fans of Supernatural that would get behind this and want to be a part of this "movement" using the "knowledge" they obtained from the show. Now, I'm not sure what exactly that would entail because I've never seen the show, but I'm rather certain that yeah, people would. Maybe just a different sort of flavour of monster hunter. I dunno. Tell me what sort of things they would do if they were hunting supernatural beings. I'm curious.

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!