Deadly and Blonde
Chapter 6: Foundling
Eventually Seras found herself standing outside a park that she'd frequented back when she'd lived in this area. It had been years since she'd last been there, but everything still seemed the same she reflected as she started walking through. There was a small playground in the middle of the park, with a cluster of benches nearby. She used to like to sit over in the benches and watch the children play, it all seemed so long ago in her mind; so much had changed since those days. Seras wandered over towards the benches and noticed there was a small figure sitting on one of them, seemingly ignorant to her presence.
Seras approached the figure, moving slowly so as not to startle whoever it was that was sitting there. As she got a bit closer, and could better make out the shape of the figure Seras realized that it was a girl, probably no more than twelve years old. More curious than anything else, she walked up to where the child was sitting. "Excuse me, are you lost?" she inquired. The girl looked up to examine the person before her. Her eyes paused when they landed on the insignia badge on Seras' outfit and an expression of abject terror swept across her face before she got it under control again.
"You're going to kill me now, aren't you?" The girl asked in a meek voice. This really had Seras puzzled, why would she want to kill a child. Perhaps she'd heard some of the nasty rumors about the Hellsing organization that had been circulating ever since the incident with Incognito at the Tower of London. But that look she had wasn't an expression that a girl that young should know, it seemed too…adult.
"Why ever would I want to do a thing like that?" The girl shook her head and smiled sadly.
"I guess you didn't notice then." She smiled timidly at Seras, then lifted one hand to her mouth and pushed up one side of her upper lip. Fangs, smaller than her own, but definitely not just the abnormally sharp cuspid teeth that some people had. So she was a vampire then, but who would make such a young vampire? This girl looked to be even younger than Helena was. Seras pulled off her glasses and took a closer look at the girl. She did indeed have the pale skin and red eyes that were the more obviously prominent feature of people with their affliction. Seras noticed that she also looked very weak and tired.
Not really sure of what to say, Seras simply said, "Oh, I see." It sounded somewhat ridiculous, but this wasn't really a situation she'd been prepared for. "May I sit?" She asked. The girl moved over on the bench and motioned for her to go ahead. After sitting there in silence for a few minutes Seras finally got her thoughts in order and spoke up. "I don't think I've ever met a vampire as young as you are physically. How long have you been like this anyway?"
The girl still looked nervous but still answered, "I've been a vampire for a bit more than six years now." She looked up as Seras, "So you're not going to kill me?"
Seras shook her head, "No, I'm not going to kill you. Generally speaking, we only hunt down and kill vampires that are causing problems; Running around the city killing people, raising demons, trying to overturn the government…things like that. There are actually a number of vampires that I know of living in the city that we've largely just left alone since they don't cause any problems." Seras supposed that this girl didn't know about the small vampire community in London that subsisted largely on stolen medicinal blood, if she did she probably wouldn't look so hungry.
"I guess that makes sense. I've been a good girl," she said somewhat depreciatingly, "I haven't drunk blood in more than a month. I wonder how long it'll be before I die of starvation, if I even can die of starvation. It's been hard finding mice and other such things recently since it's winter."
"I'm impressed, you must be really strong willed to be able to go that long without feeding and not just kill the next thing that you come across. It's really hard to resist the bloodlust"
The girl laughed bitterly, "What would you know. 'really hard,' It's more like damn near bloody impossible. But I wouldn't really expect some soldier from a vampire hunting organization to know about that sort of thing."
"But I do know. Believe me, I know. You're not the only vampire in this city kiddo." Seras flashed the girl a toothy grin she knew would show off her fangs. "How'd you end up like this anyway? I know that generally people so young don't end up getting turned."
"I was homeless as a child, roaming the streets with other homeless kids trying to survive. I was captured one day while I was scavenging for food. I don't know really who I was captured by, or really why they would want to experiment on me. When I woke up at their facility, I was already like this. I managed to overhear two people talking about me, they said that I wasn't what they were trying for, that I couldn't be controlled, and to kill me. I escaped then, I killed one of their guards on my way out. I haven't aged at all since then."
"So you are an artificial vampire. That makes more sense, no real vampires turn people so young."
The girl looked shocked, "You mean there are real vampires? I thought that it was all just stories and stuff."
Seras nodded, "You're looking at one. I was turned the old fashioned way, bite to the neck." She pulled down her collar a little to show the two small scars where Alucard had bitten her what seemed like a lifetime ago. Strangely enough, those two scars had never healed. Seras thought for a moment, this girl was still much to young to be out on her own like this. Sir Integra would probably tear her a new one over this, but she supposed it was worth it. "I think you'd better come with me." She told the girl. "We can get you cleaned up and fed, then figure out if maybe we can't find a job for you or something."
"Really? I can come with you?" The girl looked to be on the edge of tears, "Is…Is there any way to cure me?"
Seras shook her head slowly, "I know that there's no going back for me, but for you I'm not so sure about. We've never been able to examine a live artificial vampire before." She gave the girl a hopeful smile, "Who knows, maybe we'll be able to find a way to reverse your condition." The girl started to cry, "Hey now, don't cry. You can't afford to lose any more blood right now."
"What are you talking about? I'm crying, not bleeding." Seras took a closer look at her face. The girl still had real tears, salty water not the blood real vampires cried.
"I guess that's one more difference. I cry blood." She showed the girl the stain on the back of her glove where she'd wiped her face earlier that night.
"Wow, that must make such a mess."
Seras grinned, "You have no idea. Whenever I have the occasion to cry it drives the maids crazy, blood is notoriously difficult to get out of upholstery. It's scary looking at yourself afterwards when you're trying to clean up too. Looks like someone tried to stab your eyes out or something." The girl giggled at this, and Seras smiled. "My name's Seras by the way."
"Shielle," the girl replied quietly, "My name is Shielle."
Taking the younger woman by the hand Seras stood up, "Well, I guess we'd better get walking. I want to make sure to get you indoors well before sunrise, I don't know how severely you react to sunlight." She eyed Shielle questioningly.
Shielle shook her head as they started walking down the path towards the exit to the park, "I don't know either to tell you the truth. I knew that sunlight is supposed to be one of a vampires largest weaknesses, so I didn't really want to experiment."
Almost as soon as they'd stepped past the threshold that marked the end of the park, Seras' phone rang. She sighed somewhat irritably and answered. "Special Lieutenant Victoria."
"Seras, Walter seems to be busy with something, so I'd like you to come back here and get a car so you can go pick up our guests at the airport. Come up to my office first to make a report on anything you've found tonight."
"Yes Sir Integra." The phone went dead almost before she was done speaking. Seras sighed again and shook her head. This was going to be a long night.
"Who was that?"
"That was my boss. I'm still trying to figure out a way to explain to her why I'm bringing you back with me."
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Seras was still trying to figure it out as she walked down the hall to Integra's office and knocked on the door. "I want you to stay close to me, alright? I know she can be a bit intimidating, but don't be scared." She whispered to Shielle.
"Come in Seras." Seras pushed open the door and walked into the room to stand in front of Integra's desk. "There is a car waiting for you in the garage. Their plane should be arriving at about 9 at Hereford, that's the military airport; the sticker on the car should be enough to get you in, but bring along your company ID just in case. There's a divider between the front and the back and the windows in the driver's compartment are darkened enough so that it shouldn't give you any trouble driving during the day." She looked up. "Seras, who's that behind you?"
Shielle stepped out from where she was half hidden behind Seras. Integra immediately noticed the red eyes and pale skin. "Seras, you didn't…"
"No, of course not; I found her while I was out on patrol. She was artificially turned, against her will apparently. I couldn't just leave her out there.""
Integra cradled her head in her hands, one more problem to add to the stack. "Very well, she can stay; for now. I'm placing her under your supervision. We'll talk about this more later. Now go pick up our visitors from the airport before they have to wait too long."
"Thank you Sir." Seras spun on her heel and marched out of Integra's office with Shielle next to her. She breathed a sigh of relief once she had closed the door behind them. "Well, I guess we'd better be on our way. We'll stop by the kitchen on the way to the garage and get you something to eat."