Chapter 5: The Lady in Red
sorry I have taken the longest time to get this chapter finished up. Starting college and trying to keep up has eaten up most of my time, but I am glad to say that I have finally finished. Hope you enjoy and please comment! P.S. - I don't own hellsing I just do cuz I enjoy it
Seras lay curled up in the silky soft confines of her coffin, sleeping while sun set. Snuggling into her pillow, she suddenly heard, "Where are they? Seras, where are you?" inside of her head. Her eyes instantly shot open.
"Who's there?" she called out with her mind, her eyes searching for anything amiss. She was met with nothing but silence.
Sighing, she lifted the lid of her coffin and climbed out. She scratched her head and yawned as she made her way to the mahogany armoire in her room. She opened it and pulled out another one of her blue Hellsing uniforms and headed for her shower.
Incredibly curious about the mysterious voice that had awoken her; she bathed as fast as she could. She changed into her uniform and finger-combed her strawberry blonde hair, smiling to herself.
She then walked out of her room and went to Integra's office to be briefed on the night's mission.
"Come out; come out where ever you are, Alucard."
His eyes opened slowly and a small grin appeared on his face. He opened a black portal underneath him as he lay inside his coffin.
The portal opened up and he walked into Integra's office. Integra sat at her desk with only a few stacks of paper to mar the beauty of the light cherry. Her cigar sat in a crystal ashtray, with a long wisp of gray smoke curling in the air. The woman herself was leaning back in her chair with her hands in her lap.
Seras burst into the room and looked around. She saw her master walk over to Integra's desk. Integra immediately straightened her position in her chair and placed her hands on her desk.
There was someone sitting in a chair in front of Integra's desk. She turned and smiled at Seras, "There you are! I was wondering where you were in this gigantic house!" There was Miss Murder, her long black curly hair tied into a high ponytail, donned in a pair of faded, black knee-length jeans with a matching jacket, with no shirt underneath and the top two buttons open. Both the jacket and pants were covered in patches of different bands like: My Chemical Romance, AFI, Sublime, Marilyn Manson, Blink-182, Otep, Korn, The Explosion, The Pink Spiders, and much more. On her feet were black knee-length, lace up, rubber soled platform boots.
Seras saluted and went to stand next to Miss Murder.
"So, what have you come up with in your investigation?" Integra asked, trying her best to relax in her chair again.
Miss Murder reached a hand down her jacket and retrieved an envelope. She opened the envelope and pulled out a powder blue card. "I think you received one of these yourself, Sir Integra."
"Yes, I did," Integra replied, "It's an invitation to the Queen's Spring Gala. What does this have to do with the vampire connected with the freaks?"
"A lot actually. Viktor is a troublemaker and a very big showoff. He will definitely be there if for nothing else, just to show his ass."
"How did you get an invitation?" Seras asked.
"Well, sweetie, according to the rest of your government. I'm an American ambassador of goodwill. So, your country kisses my ass by inviting me to things like this to try and keep things civil. It's like that everywhere."
"Oh."
"Getting back to this investigation, what are you suggesting?" Integra asked as she picked up her cigar.
"Simple. Go to the Gala. We could snoop around during the shin-dig, and if this idiot dares to start anything, we'll be there to protect the Queen."
"When is this 'shin-dig' as you refer to it?" Alucard asked making quotation marks with his gloved fingers.
Miss Murder rolled her crimson eyes before looking over the invitation. "It's on Friday."
"Tonight's Wednesday. Oh my! It's in two days! I have nothing to wear!" Seras started to panic.
"I'm just wearing one of my old ball gowns that are in the back of my closet," Integra stated, taking a long drag of the toxic smoke into her lungs.
"It looks like we're going shopping!" Miss Murder said excitedly, standing up and taking Seras' hands.
"Fine," Integra said, standing up herself. "You two go out to find something decent for Seras, and you…" she said, pointing to Alucard, "You're heading to Shropshire; another freak has been running amuck."
Alucard said nothing as his hat and sunglasses appeared in their proper places. He opened up a black portal and left the women.
"Can we go now?" Miss Murder asked, looking at Integra pointing to the door, and smiling. Integra just waved at them, both dismissed.
Seras and Miss Murder both ran all the way down to Seras' room, so she could feed and change into street clothes.
A car waited for the two of them outside. The girls jumped in giggling like children. As they were driven to an upscale mall in the middle of downtown London, Seras asked, "So how did you join up with that American agency, SMACK, was it?"
Miss Murder put her feet up on the seat and looked off for a moment, "it was in the late '60's, while the hippies took over the country. At the time, I was hanging in the library a lot. Not much was going on that concerned me.
"One night, I was walking home with a load of books in my arms. I turned a corner, and there was a man in a dark trench coat and fedora, very 'Dick Tracey' and the whole pulp fiction thing. Anyway, he called out my name and flashed a CIA badge at me, and I looked at him like he was nuts.
"He grabbed my arm and dragged me down the alley and into a car. It was filled with guys wearing the same thing. I thought it was one of those mob hits. They all looked at me and I simply asked, 'okay, what's going on here?'
"They explained that vampire activity had become an epidemic in the country, the killing of innocent people and what not. They told me that they were forming a new agency in the government to take care of the problem."
Seras stared at Miss Murder before asking, "But why you?"
The car had come to a stop, and the girls climbed out and headed to Caché. While perusing the racks for something she liked, Seras stated, "You haven't answered my question."
Miss Murder stopped staring at an electric blue silk gown with a haltered neck that plunged low in the front and handed it to Seras. "Go try this on and I'll tell you," whispered Miss Murder as she pushed her toward the dressing room.
Once both were in the same room, Miss Murder turned her back to Seras, allowing her to change and explained, "They told me that they knew who I had killed in order to feed. Petty thieves, rapists, murderers were my prey. It was, I guess, my way of getting back at my old master for what he did to me. The CIA said that I was almost like a comic book superhero, the way I cleaned out derelicts."
"Wow," Seras replied as she strained to get the blue dress on.
Miss Murder turned to see Seras legs and arms; everything else was covered by the dress.
"I know that's your size. I checked."
"Help, please," came a muffled voice be hind the mass of blue silk.
"Ok, turn around. I think there's a zipper back here somewhere," Miss Murder stated as she searched.
Finding the zipper eventually, she pulled it down and pulled the rest of the dress down. Once Seras was fully in, Miss Murder zipped her up and turned her to face the mirror.
A smile slowly spread on both of their faces. Seras smoothed out the dress and turned a little to see how the dress looked in the back. She looked at Miss Murder through the mirror, smiled and said, "I think we found it."
"I knew it. I'm good like that," Miss Murder replied with a laugh.
The girls paid for the dress and got back in the car to head back to the compound. Once they returned and reported to Integra, Miss Murder glanced at the clock and gasped, "The sun's gonna be coming up. I gotta go."
"But what about you? Do you have anything for the Gala?" Seras asked.
"Oh, don't worry/ I'm sure I have something special for Friday. Bye!" yelled Miss Murder as she ran out to the hearse that waited for her.
"Odd girl," Integra stated while she snuffed out her cigar and dismissed Seras for the night.
As she lay in her coffin, tossing and turning, Seras thought, "I wonder what it's going to be like. I've never been to anything like this before." She paused. "I wonder how many of these Master has been to. Will he like what I'm wearing? Maybe…" she thought as sleep finally drifted over her.
Her eyes opened on Friday, and Seras sprung from her coffin as if it were Christmas Day. Racing to the shower, she quickly stripped and got in. smiling as the hot water poured down her body, she didn't notice the dark presence that started to creep under the door of the bathroom, too busy going over what she still had to do.
The unseen eyes watched her as she bathed. Taking in her beauty, the eyes wanted greatly to make his presence known, "But she's not ready." The presence slowly crept back under the door, remembering that he, too, had to prepare for the Gala.
Out in the foyer, Integra sat in a plush velvet armchair dressed in a simple but elegant strapless silk emerald green gown, with a tiny bow at the base of her back where a white pleat under the green started and eventually became the train. She had pulled her hair up into a high bun and wore matching shoes on her feet. Next to her, on an end table sat a crystal ashtray already filled. With another one of her expensive Cuban cigars dangling from her lips she waited for her two servants and their friend to arrive.
Walter walked over to the seated Integra and informed her, "We just received a phone call from Miss Murder. She said that she would meet you all at the Gala."
Integra huffed and took along drag of her cigar, feeling the calming effects of the nicotine. "Well then, where are both of my servants?" She growled.
Walter patted her shoulder lightly and said, "I understand that you don't like the wardrobe obligations of events like this, but we must put on our best face for the queen."
Integra rolled her eyes and faked a smile for Walter. Walter just smiled back warmly.
Just then they both heard the clicking of a pair of heels. Seras entered the foyer, smiled sheepishly, and went to sit across from Integra. Besides the electric blue gown, she wore strappy blue heels and matching arm length gloves. She had blow dried the back of her hair, giving it nice volume and flat ironed the bangs. She had combed the bangs to the left and kept them in place with two small blue jeweled bobby pins.
"My! Miss Victoria, you look lovely," Walter exclaimed.
Seras blushed and softly said, "Thank you, Walter."
Five minutes, then ten minutes passed, and Alucard had yet to show up.
"This is bloody ridiculous! Alucard! Get out here this instant!" Bellowed Integra as she roughly snuffed out her cigar, spilling ashes all over the table.
Seras jumped a little in her chair.
A black portal opened up and out walked Alucard. Seras' eyes nearly popped out of her head and her heart started to skip beats. "He looks so…oh God!" Seras thought. His hair that was normally stick-straight was wavy and looked silky soft, as a replacement of his usual red trench, hat, and his sunglasses, he wore an expensive looking tux, worthy of Calvin Klein or Armani, except in place of a regular tie, and he had his typical ruby red cravat. The tux was cut close to the body, showing off his slim but slightly muscular build.
"Why thank you, Police Girl. I think I do a damn good job of cleaning up," he sent his thoughts to Seras, adjusting one of the white gloves that he never took off.
Seras stood up, and Integra huffed. "You should've been ready ten minutes ago," she muttered.
Alucard went over to her chair and kneeled. He took Integra's hand and kissed it. "I did not mean to upset my master so." He took her hand and bopped himself a few times on top of his head saying, "Bad, servant. Bad, bad, servant."
Integra mustered a small smirk before quickly pulling her hand away. "Let's go," she mumbled as she led them out to the car.
Inside the car, Alucard sat between the two women, each woman pressed herself against the windows. Seras watched the buildings blur together, while Integra just stared out, not noticing and wishing she really didn't have to go to the Gala. Alucard relaxed in his seat, draping his arms along the top of the backseat. He looked over to the women and thought, "Let's hope there's something that will make things a lot more entertaining."
They arrived at Buckingham Palace in the midst of a swarm of cars and people. "This is so exciting!" Seras thought.
"Another year, another Gala," she heard her master's voice inside her head, "Come along now Police Girl. We wouldn't want to leave a vampire like you wandering about in all of this madness." A dark chuckle consumed him for a moment.
Seras smiled as Alucard pushed her gently in front of him, while Integra led the way inside. Seras marveled at the beauty of it all. The interior of the palace was pristine with white marble and plaster. There were flowers everywhere the eyes could see. People who passed the group couldn't help but take a second look at them. Alucard had a maniacal grin on his face as he watched the people admiring him and the women he was with. "Envy me," he thought to himself.
As the party progressed, Seras stood in a corner by a stand holding flowers. She couldn't help but wonder, "I thought she said she was coming."
"She'll be here," Came Alucard's voice directly behind her. She turned to see him barely a centimeter away from her. "Enjoying the party?" he asked, a killer's smile pouring down as she looked up.
"Yes, master," Seras replied, blushing, "Very much so."
"Then why are you hiding in a corner, Police Girl?" he asked in a slow drawl.
Seras could feel her breath catch in her throat. "Err… I didn't realize I was," she replied as she felt him pry into her mind once again. She had ended up in the corner after seeing most of the men were staring at her, trying to see through her dress. Trying to calm her anger down, she went to the corner to collect herself and repress the urge to rip out their eyes.
"Integra's out on the terrace if you're looking for her," he stated. He watched as she made a small nod and left to find Integra. He slowly shook his head and a smile started to tug at his lips. "Still so innocent," he thought. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of red.
She had gotten out of the hearse in front of the palace and she smiled to herself. "Let's do this," she thought as she fixed her skirt and headed inside.
As soon as she walked in, every eye turned to her. "I didn't think I was that late!" she thought as she took it all in and then batted her eyelashes flirtatiously at everyone.
A group of three older men smiled at her. She walked over to them and held out her hand. All three men took turns in kissing her hand. She pulled her hand back, shaking some of the slobber off, Laughing, "Hello, I'm Angela Rodriguez."
"Oh yes, we have heard of your work in Guatemala with the American government for trying to help the destitute children stay out of those horrid sweatshop factories," said the first man, "I am also an ambassador of goodwill. I'm William Robertson and these are my colleagues Thomas Faber and James Talbot."
"It's quite a pleasure to meet all of you," Miss Murder said as she smiled, trying to look around for her friends.
"Trust me, my dear, the pleasure is all ours," Thomas replied, watching her look around distracted, "Is something wrong?"
"Umm, I just…saw someone I've been desperately trying to… get a hold of."
"Well then, hopefully we'll be able to speak a little more with you later," said James Talbot.
"Thank you all so much," she said as she turned and walked toward the grand staircase leading down to the party.
Alucard could sense that she had finally arrived. He grinned as he stroked the cheek of a redhead, who had a mind like an empty airshaft that he had been flirting with. The redhead was already melting into a puddle on the marble floor.
"Where are they? Oh shit, how the hell am I supposed to find them in all of this?" he heard Miss Murder whine inside his mind.
He quickly followed the direction of her thoughts and he stopped by the staircase, stunned. There she stood, looking around for anyone who remotely looked like her friends. Her hair had been blown out straight, with a 1940's side part on the left side. She wore a long sleeved red silk gown with a corset built into it. The a-line skirt of the gown had a small train, but had a gigantic slit that went almost up to her hip on the right side. She wore a platinum chain around her neck, with a matching skull dangling from it. On her feet, she wore red high heeled sandals and no fishnets could be seen.
"Damn!" he thought suddenly. He sauntered out of the crowd that had quickly sprung up around the staircase and waved at her.
She saw something move out of the corner of her eye. "Oh there he is," she thought as she spotted him. She took a closer look and "Damn he looks so good!" popped into her head. "Shut up… you know what? I'll show him." She flipped her hair flirtatiously and slowly started descending the stairs.
He watched as she glided down the staircase toward him. He licked his lips smirked. A soft look came from Miss Murder as she walked over to him. All of a sudden and she felt him grab her hand and place a gentle kiss on it.
"Well, it seems you're not all blood, guts, and mayhem after all," Miss Murder commented, slowly taking back her hand.
"I have more surprises up my sleeves that you could ever imagine," he challenged as they both heard the soft tinkling of a piano. He slowly took back her hand. "Care to dance?" he whispered in her ear.
"Do you think you can keep up with me?" Miss Murder asked.
"I should really pose that question to you, Miss Murder."
"Come on then!" she said as she led the way toward the dance floor.
The song "Bolero", which is the song that was played during the end credits of "Moulin Rouge", filled the palace. "I love this song," she thought.
"Such sentimental feelings for such a trivial thing," she heard a teasing voice that sounded a lot like Alucard's voice inside her head.
"Huh? Are you in my mind?" she thought.
"Only now. You've kept your thoughts locked up like a nun's thighs for the longest."
"Oh god," she thought as she rolled her eyes, put her left hand on his shoulder, and taking his left hand with her right.
He placed his hand on her hip, and slowly started to waltz with her. She only looked down to where he had placed his hand for a moment before rolling her eyes and continue dancing.
As the song started to crescendo up, Alucard picked up the pace of the dance. Miss Murder matched every move he made. The music turned into a game between the two of them. He spun her around the room, but she stayed in form.
"You're quite good," Alucard commented with a biting tone.
"I was a dancer when I came to America," Miss Murder spouted with equal venom. Alucard opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, "And no, I wasn't an exotic dancer. Why do guys always think shit like that?"
To shut her up, he spun her away from him. "You manage to have been so many convenient things, how do I know you're not lying?" he sent his thoughts to her mind.
"Why don't you look inside my mind for a second and find out?" Her question lingered in his mind.
"Why not?" he thought to himself as he probed into her mind.
He saw her backstage of a dingy nightclub, finishing up putting on her costume. Her so-called dressing room was littered with cobwebs and colorful fabrics. The bare bulb that hung from the ceiling provided the dim yellow light that filled the room. The small mirror that hung on the wall was cracked and next to it was a small poster with her picture on it, wearing a slinky pink dress, dancing with a man who had his back turned. He looked closer to read, "Ava the Diamond Dancer."
He turned back to look at her as she linked her pantyhose to her corset with garters that looked like they were going to fall apart.
A man suddenly burst through the door, Miss Murder jumped. "Hey kid, you're on in five!" he bellowed at her and Miss Murder rolled her eyes and sighed. She searched under many different fabrics until she found a suitcase. She opened it up, dug around until she pulled out an old pair of black mary-janes and put them on. She stood up and adjusted her blue dress that had a string of rhinestones around the neck, but most of them had already fallen off.
She walked out of the door, and he followed her. The hallway to the stage was dank with pipes running along the walls and ceiling. He saw that her eyes were blank. She soon ended behind the curtain as a man with a surly Irish accent introduced her as "the best set of spic tits: that he ad ever seen. He watched as she shook her head slowly. She looked as if she could burst into tears at any moment.
A flash came and suddenly Alucard was watching Miss Murder dance with a young man. He noticed that she had a smile on her face, along with a lot of makeup. She was donned in a very slinky red dress covered in beaded fringe. The young man she was dancing with had his hair slicked back and wore a white tuxedo shirt and black pants, both were cut incredibly close to his body and a number was tacked on his back.
Alucard finally took in the surrounding area which a large ballroom filled with people was watching the couple dance. "So, she was a competitor," he thought as he was quickly shut out from her thoughts.
"See," she whispered as she spun toward him and draped her right leg over his hip. He grabbed her hip and dipped her, almost touching the floor.
As she looked at the crowd that had started to gather, upside down, she felt the brushing of fingertips along the edge of the black silk underwear she wore under her dress. Her eyes went wide as she was pulled right side up again and pressed against his firm body. He smirked at her and sent, "I guess you don't like to be teased."
She lifted her hand to slap him, but was interrupted when he grabbed her hand and spun her so her back was to him. She got an evil look in her eyes, dropped her torso forward and pressed her backside directly onto Alucard's crotch. His eyes widened at the feeling and grabbing her by the shoulder, pulled her up and turned her to face him again.
"If you play dirty, I play dirty," she hissed into his ear as he spun her sorund the room. The song had finally started to end. "And now for the big finish," she thought as she cleared some space, ran up to Alucard and jumped. He caught her easily and lifted her over his head as the crowd watched, dazzled. He slowly brought her down, holding onto her waist as she did a split in the air. Never taking their eyes off each other, he slowly spun her in a circle as the last few notes of the song played.
As her feet touched the ground, Miss Murder could feel the weight of the silence. All of a sudden, the applause poured over the two in waves. She quickly grabbed Alucard's hand and both made sweeping bows to the audience. Alucard glanced over at Miss Murder to see that same smile that he saw when he had entered her thoughts. "She really eats this up, doesn't she?"