Sanctuary to the Lost and Damned
Ch 2: Capture
Pain. There was pain around his wrists. not a little, a lot. Was he dead then? No. as he slowly woke up he became aware of his surroundings. He was in a dark room and sitting on a cold floor. There was a distinct sound of dripping water. These things did not bother him too much. However when he located the silver chains around his arms and the fact that he could not use his powers to release himself he became alarmed. As memories of his downfall flooded into his mind he became angry.
They, that Hunter Hellsing and some others had followed him back to his castle. He wondered if that Hellsing, human was not as thirsty for blood as he, after all he had hunted him relentlessly. He could understand if the humans felt that he was invading their territory when he went to England. He could understand that as he too had once fought off invading Turks. He could remember it well. He however had retreated back to his home. He was in retreat! They were not satisfied with simply driving him back; They came for blood.
His thoughts went back to that night in the graveyard. He could remember the look the man gave him. It was one of fury. 'Did the human wanted a fight', he wondered. 'No, he wanted me dead for good.' The Vampire looked around but not being able to use his vampiric night vision, he could see nothing.
'Why am I not completely dead?' he wondered. His eyes widened. He remembered what he did to those Turks he captured: He tortured them. Those deaths were not quick either they often lasted days, even weeks before he allowed the prisoners to die. Was that why Hellsing had not finished him off. Did he plan to make the Vampire pay for the cruelties of his past human life? Or perhaps the human sought to make him suffer for the loss of the men who died in battle with him. If this were the case then he knew that he was in for a lot of pain.
Even without his vampiric powers he could hear the sound of foot steps down the hall. The door opened revealing the human who had captured him. Abraham van Hellsing stood at the door, with an oil lamp, eying the creature of the night. He set down the lamp.
"I see that you are awake. At last." his animalistic nature could not allow him to hold back a wolf-like growl. Hellsing ignored this and continued with his thought. "You have been asleep for quite a few weeks and-."
"Why did you not kill me, Human!" he snarled.
The human crouched down and smiled deviously. "Why? Because there is much to be learned from you. And I believe that in time you will become a great asset to me with eradicating the unholy presence which has been plaguing this world for all these centuries."
"You could have killed me and brought my body back to your homeland to study."
"Could I ? I considered it, but I can not be sure that your body would remain intact enough for study. I have never had the opportunity to study a member of your kind, one that is alive and kicking that is."
"My kind are not lab rats," He barked baring his teeth. "We are not the piles of flesh that you are, holding yourselves up with your mistaken sense of superiority."
"My kind populate the continents by means of sexual reproduction. You breed asexually, like many other lower lifeforms. You breed then destroy sometimes entire villages if not one stops you. Do you know what that sounds like to me." He leaned in close to the vampire. And whispered "It sound like a disease."
The vampire's eyes widened as he lunched at the human. He suddenly stopped an inch from the human. Much to the vampire's disappointment, the chains prevented him from attaching van Hellsing.
Van Hellsing's smile grew very Cheshire-like. The man pulled a key from his pocket. To the Vampire's astonishment van Hellsing undid the lock on the chains.
For a minute the living man and undead creature just sat there on the stone floor looking at each other.
The human spoke first. "There is much that you need to learn about your new life. You see you will be spending a lot of time in my laboratory. My the tides have suddenly changed favor haven't they Alucard?"
'Alucard?' the Vampire looked to the door expecting to find someone; a doctor, a priest maybe, standing there unnoticed until this time. No one stood there. 'who is the stupid human talking to?' the vampire thought. He considered that there may not be a someone, but a something. Perhaps the doctor was talking to some supernatural entity, which he, temporarily lacking his powers did not perceive, however the Vampire also considered another possibility. The Vampire had lived for centuries, which was more than enough time to hear stories of men having imagined companions, which existed only in their own mind.
The Doctor noticed this confusion in the Vampire's face. The man laughed. "I'm talking to you." van Hellsing informed him.
The vampire snorted. "Stupid human," he muttered, "I am Count Dracula of Transylvania."
"Incorrect. you are Alucard, the indentured servant to the van Hellsing family."
"Stupid human." He muttered before lunching himself at van Hellsing a second time. However before he could get to his captor. He collapsed into the cold floor in agony. It felt worse than the stake the man before him had forced through his heart. the human stood up and laughed the sort of laugh that sent shivers down the Vampire's immortal spine as he curled into the fetal position. Blood tears fell from his eye sockets as his body shock with a seemingly sourceless pain.
Van Hellsing's laughter stopped. as the Ex-Count's body stopped.
The Nosferatu's looked up at van Hellsing with fear.
"I think," the man began, "that you may be starting to understand the situation that you find yourself in."
The vampire looked away. He knew the look that he would see in the man's eyes; He had seen it before.
"you see my No-Life King, my Count, the titles, the faces, the people that you were once have now died. While you slept I ensured that everyone will know of your defeat. They will know that you are truly gone. So now you will need a new identity. With this new identity comes a new name. An old friend bought a year old beagle from his nephew. When he acquired the animal he knew that he would need to train the bitch to fox hunt. He has been very successful thus far. I plan to do the same."
"You have fallen. Your position in life is the opposite of what you once were. You were once a king, taking orders from no one. Now...you are a slave, who must carry out my every will." Van Hellsing crouched down to the Vampire. He dripped his index finger into a small pool of the vampire's blood-tears and spelled out DRACULA out on the stone floor. Then he dripped his finger back into the pool ad spelled it backwards: ALUCARD. The vampire looked on while his blood was used for van Hellsing to demonstrate his point. "Do you see it, Alucard?"
The vampire turned his head away. The man smiled. "There is no need to answer I know that you are not a stupid creature. If you were then someone else would have captured, or killed, you long ago."
"There are going to be a few changes to your life. Your life belongs to me, so then do your powers; I'm sure that you have noticed that they have been strangely absent."
The Vampire started to growl. Van Hellsing's smile turned to a frown. Alucard's body was then struck with another jolt of sourceless pain.
"Oh, Alucard, you need to understand this and understand it now. I. Control. You. If I am displeased I can give you pain. "
Alucard sat up and looked van Hellsing in the eye. "If I please you then what can I expect human."
Van Hellsing backhanded the vampire causing the creature to fall backwards. The human stood up and glared at the vampire who was now holding the left side of his face. "Never look me in the eye, slave! And always refer to me as master, understood!"
Alucard nodded. He did not look at van Hellsing in the eyes this time, not because he was told not to, but because he was too ashamed with himself to do so.
"If you please me enough slave, I will grant you limited use of some of the powers." Hellsing headed for the door. "There are also rules, but we shall discuss this another day."
"Human!" Alucard shouted. He pushed himself up onto his knees. "I mean Master..." he quickly corrected himself. "...I have not feed since before I was ...captured," he said quietly.
Van Hellsing did not turn to face him. "Well, you won't die will you."
Although Alucard could not see the man's face he could sense by the tone of Hellsing's voice that their was a malicious smile painted there.
Van Hellsing walked by the oil lamp leaving it in the cell. The door closed.
Alucard was left alone. Less than a feet in front of the vampire was the lamp illuminating the blood smeared letters that spelled Alucard, his new name; The first bit of his new life as a slave.
DRACULA ALUCARD
END of Chapter 2
