Sanctuary to the Lost and Damned
Chapter 14: Praying Companions
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Walter carried a tray with tea and biscuits from the kitchen to the sitting room on the second floor where Alfred had told Walter that Arthur was waiting with an old friend.
As he was walking up the stairs his attention fell to a portrait hanging at the top.
He had never noticed that the painting was there before for some reason.
The small plate below painting read: Abraham van Helsing. (1)
Walter would have instantly recognized the man, even if the tag had been missing.
He recalled the first time he had met the man.
He had been wandering the church as he often did go he was bored. He saw an old man on his knees praying in a spot was more than a little dusty.
Although Walter did not make a sound the man turned to face him.
Walter felt rather awkward at having disturbed the man's prayers.
"Forgive me, Sir." Walter said as he backed away.
"No," the old man said to him, "Why don't you join me young lad?"
Walter stood beside the man on the floor. There was silence. It seemed uncomfortable to Walter, but the old man did not seemed to have minded.
"Most people pray near the altar." Walter stated neutrally.
The old man laughed. "That is because they do not know that the Lord is where ever he is need. He is not in any place more than the other."
"Then why are you here?"
The old man laughed. "Well you have me there."
Walter had never thought about why most people had prayed by the front alter.
"May I join you?" Walter asked the old man. "My name is Walter."
The old man nodded his head. Walter got onto his knees with the old man.
The old man held out his hand. "Hello Walter. My name is Abraham Hellsing."
"I have never seen you here."
Abraham smiled. "I do not usually come here. I usually find my sanctuary in another location." Although Walter did not know this Abraham was referring to the church which had been built
below the west portion of the Hellsing Mansion. The old man had spent sometimes days there without leaving. But no many how long he had spent there he still always felt that it was never enough.
The old man had been plagued by his sins for years, beginning with Emily's death and he was sure that it would continue until his own death. He had had such vivid nightmares of his life's most traumatic events.
In particular he had been having a reoccurring nightmare these last few years which had involved a feminine Alucard under him engaging in sex. The vampire in his dreams was crying, always crying. He had always kept the vampire in a submissive state. That was what was required to keep a monster like it under the control of the family. What had prompted such nighttime fantasies the old man could not fathom.
Alfred had practically forced the 85 year old man out of the door of his own home as he told the leader that he needed to get off the property for a change.(2)
Abraham had imagined that the butler had been hoping that he would find some park and feed the birds or something, but Abraham had found this church instead.
He had not expected to have found this boy.
He examined the boy's facial features. He watched the boy shift uncomfortable on his knees. He knew immediately by this that the boy was uncomfortable; and he was causing this. "Sorry." The old man apologized as he realized just how long he had been staring at the boy for. "You just remind me of my son when he was your age." Abraham thought about Arthur and how he had missed so much of his son's life. Not that he was there for either of his wives. He had seen his youngest child so little that he doubted that he would be able to pick Richard out of a group of children of his age group. "He's a grown man now...He has his own life..."
He wished that he could be back at a time when Arthur was the same age as the boy. Despite all the mistakes that he was still making his list of regrets seemed to have no end, and he had never
found a way to resolve them. What was worse for Abraham was the knowledge that he had kept making these same mistakes.
Abraham imagined that was the reason the boy reminded him of Arthur so much. He had assumed that it was his own desperate desire for his little boy to be back with him.
When Abraham's mind found his current location he became aware of Walter saying out loud a verse from the bible which seemed to reflect how he was feeling.
When Walter had stopped he looked at the boy. "That is a very good verse, Walter. I shall have to find it in my bible."
Walter told Abraham exactly where it could be found.
"It must be a very special verse for you to know it so well." he said with amazement to the 8 year-old boy.
"No more than anywhere verse in the good book." he had told the old man. "I know them all." The boy had told the old man trying to keep his bragging tone to a minimum.
"How old are you, Walter?"
"I'm 8-years-old. I'll be 9 this upcoming April, sir."
Abraham was astonished. Was this 8 years boy really telling the truth? Had he memorized the entire bible? "Show me."
The boy and the Old man spend at least 3 hours together. Abraham kept flipping randomly through the book and asking Walter to tell him the book and verse numbers of whatever he would read out loud. Had also gave the location to the boy and asked him for the verse. He was able to do this perfectly. Abraham had even made up a couple of verses to test the boy. Walter had told him flat out the verse was not in there.
"I may be a priest when I grown up." Walter told the old man.
The old man smiled. "We could certainly use more soldiers of God. There is much evil in the world, Walter, but armed with Faith any man can beat the monsters in this world."
Walter eyes fell to a one inch cross that Abraham had started to hold.
"Do you have one?" Abraham asked referring to the cross.
The boy held out his self-carved wooden one. It was misshapen and had a bit of an unpleasant smell. Walter brought it out with embarrassment. "It's not really a good one..."
"Well," Abraham said as he drew a much smaller cross, than his own, from underneath his overcoat. He tried to hand it to Walter. "Why don't you have this one? It used to belong to my sister, but it has not belonged to her for a great many years." It was a silver cross which hung from a small link silver chain.
"But, sir-" Walter had started to object on the grounds that he could not take the cross as he did not even know the old man, and that such an important item should be given to someone within the family.
"I really think that if she were still alive, she would want you to have it. She was about your age when she..." Abraham trailed off. Walter turned to leave the man with his grief.
"Wait!" the man pleated. He held it out. "I really want you to take it. It would honor me to know that a boy, who had worked so hard to know the words of the Good Book to such levels, would accept this cross as his first good cross."
Walter did not know what to say to the old man. He knew that he did want it, but he still thought that the cross belonged with a member of Abraham's family. Not wanting to reject it and hurt the man he put out his hand and accepted the cross.
The man had come by the following weeks to pray with Walter in that same spot.
The old man had called Walter, Arthur on many occasions. Walter had not made a move to correct him. Walter suspected that the man at times would forget that he was not the man's son, Arthur, but he did not care. If the old man wanted to call him by a different name he would allow it for the chance to spend time with a man whom he did not have to share with the entire town.
It wasn't long after that Walter had gathered information about the old man that he learned that the man headed an organization known formally as the Royal Order of the Protestant Knights.(3)
Walter learned through eavesdropping that this organization killed unholy monsters. The more he heard the more he wanted to know. He had gone to the library seeking information the supernatural.
One day about a month before the man's death, he had received a letter which was handed to him by an old butler, he later learned was named Alfred Parker; the letter had apologized that he would not able to see the boy anymore. He informed the boy that he had grown ill and promised to visit him again if he ever got better; He never did. Walter learned not long after that the old man had died. He stood with the priest as the ceremony was held by the priest as par Abraham's wishes.
Walter had seen the old man's son; a grown man by the name of Arthur Hellsing. The blond man was wearing around his neck his fathers' one inch cross. Walter watched as many men of distinguish came to pay respects to Abraham.
Following the funeral Walter had come to believe that it was fate that introduced the old man to Walter. If he had never met that man, he would not have been interested in listening in on the confessions of the Hellsing membership.
Walter continued up the stairs where his employer and guest were still waiting for their afternoon tea.
"Ah," said a tall man Arthur's age. "This must be Richard, then."
Walter became a bit nervous as Arthur explained to Sir Wingates, that Walter was the butler and not Richard. There had been others, mostly on the staff, who had behaved the same way.
What bothered Walter more was the fact that Sir Islands had believed the same thing just last week. Both of these men were shocked when Arthur told them that Walter was not his brother, or a cousin of any distance. At first many of the staff had been convinced of this. Some of the maids had been convinced that Walter was Arthur's illegitimate son. It was true that Arthur was only 23, but the man would have been 14 at the time that Walter would have been conceived. Though this seemed unlikely to most, it was not entirely impossible. The identity of the mother however was of much more speculation to this rumor.
Oblivious to these rumors Walter had wondered so much why these people would think they were related. He did however see the stares that he would receive from the other staff.
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Stralsund, Northern Germany...
A female werewolf sat on a living chair with her feet up as she listened to a radio drama. It was a program that involved a woman having an affair with another man other than her husband. That man happened to be the man's brother however the man's mother had told her best friend that she thought that her second son was stillborn until her cousin told her otherwise. This had lead the listeners to believe that the child was actually the woman's cousin's child which she secretly hid and had switched at birth with the stillborn. This werewolf had been listening ever since it was discovered that the woman was pregnant, but with whose child? Was the father her husband or his more handsome 'brother'?
The program stopped for a few minutes to allow the sponsor of a laundry soap company to advertise their product. (4)
She retrieved the oil for the lamp; making sure that she had it at hand well before it got dark. She had the candles ready for the night as well, but the oil lamp was safer to have burn throughout the night. She didn't know if she could stay up the entire night, though she knew that she needed to. She supposed that she could use the electrical light which hung above, but she was still unsure of the technology.
Her eyes traveled to the bound form of 'her' in the center of the room. Across from the chair she had been sitting in. 'she' was suspended into the center of a metal cube which had been braced with several metals bars and supported with padded cloth strips.
She also took this moment to ensure that the feed tube was running a steady supply of 'food' and consequently a drug which affected the creature.
The creature wiggled around. Some of the drug was wearing off. It had been happening more and more. She had made a note of this to the doctor. He had suspected that the affects of this particular drug was losing its effectiveness, but had made no action to change the drug. The female werewolf walked over to what looked like a tool-box and pulled out a needle and a small bottle. Out of that bottle she drew out an amount into the syringe. She, following the good, or rather the cruel Doctor's instructions, pushed out a small amount before putting the needle into a port-end of another tube.
The wiggling stopped as the creature was once again sedated. The female werewolf patted the still figure in the cube. "Now there." the werewolf said in a thick Irish accent. "I'll bet you are feeling much better, dear."
The Irish werewolf sat back down to listen to the remainder of the dramatic program. She loved the drama.
Nothing further was reveled in the program about the plot. She changed the station. She came across a mystery program, which was only sometimes interesting.
She wanted to curl up in the bed, but since she was there all alone, she knew that she need to stay awake until the morning when the nearest train would bring another werewolf to replace the silent werewolf who had left a day earlier than planned. She hated that he had left early. She liked him though.
She looked at the suspended figure again. She considered it and wondered about its mysterious origins. She had asked the Doctor. He had told her that she was not allowed to know such things, but she could sense that he didn't know very much about 'her' either.
Guarding this creature wasn't very difficult, as 'she' was always kept docile. She had honestly always preferred the more difficult tasks in the past.
She was beautiful, so she was usually used as an envoy to men in high positions of power, who would often pay more attention to her than to what they were agreeing upon. She often accompanied bribed police officers to scenes that held supernatural activity as she could sense such activity while they could not. Likewise she knew what she was seeing even they did not. She also knew the best ways to clean up after a clash. The master had trusted her on a couple of occasion to even act as assassin for 'the party.'(6)
She picked up the blanket that lay on the hardwood floor. As she did so a white tin of aspirin fell out. (7) She picked it up before curling the blanket around herself. She examined the tin. She knew that it belonged to her silent comrade. She debated about what was in it before she opened
it. It did contain 2 pills of the medication, but it also contained something else. She pulled out a thin strip of paper and unfolded it. It contained a long list of names. These names seemed to span a range of nationalities. Some of them were slashed through. She decided that it was a hit list, perhaps given to him by the master. It was possible that he too was acting for the benefit of 'the party'.
She did recall him going out when they had changed shifts, when she was on watch. Perhaps that was what he had been doing. She had never asked him where he was going or what he was doing. She knew that he would not answer her anyway, but that was not the reason that she did not. They had an established don't ask, don't tell policy among them; them being she and the other four werewolves who had been assigned to guarding 'her'. It had been decided on that this female werewolf would remain on duty permanently. The other four rotated taking on the guard duty for spans of two week periods.
She was to remain there because she had been given some training by the Doctor as how to care for 'her'. The original plan had been to have more werewolves stationed there, but her master had set up a cover story for her to use. She was to claim that this house was hers, though it wasn't and was to claim that these rotating werewolves were her relatives and friends. Naturally if anyone were to see a dozen or more strangers wondering on and off the property, the neighbors were bound to get suspicious; so the number had been limited. She was to claim that the Doctor was her husband, as he would often be there to check up on the prisoner.
The five werewolves had often taken the opportunity to engaging in activities that they would not normally be allowed. For example, she had been listening to the radio programs being broadcast from England, despite the strict law now in place that forbid any media getting into Germany other than the party's.
The same was true with two of the werewolves on the guard duty. They had originally been English, but like her had been compelled to leave their native land.
Schrödinger had found a microscope in the basement of the house. She could recall when he had found it. His eyes had lit up like it was Christmas.
Then there was 'Silent Hans', as many of the werewolves had come to call him. Her roommate had told her the story behind his name. Some werewolves had been trying to move something heavy for the Doctor. The entire conversation had been in English. she was told that it was for the benefit of the new werewolf which had been recruited from Australia. The doctor had told them that they needed another set of hands. A German werewolf assured the doctor that he would get a pair of silent hands, referring to the largest werewolf among them; Schrödinger, who had been sent there as a messenger for the master, had misheard the message as the werewolf getting 'Silent Hans.' Since then that was what all the pack members had called him.
She knew that Hans was not his name. She did not know if the master knew his true name, but she was certain that she was the only werewolf who knew his birth name.
What he did she didn't know, but the list that she was still holding gave some insight as to what he might be doing.
The telephone rang. She answered it. "Hello."
"Hello, I'm calling to see how 'she' is." The Irish werewolf recognized the voice as belonging to the doctor.
"Ah, she has not changed since last time."
"I heard that Hans left early. I hope that you can stay awake until Gleeson gets there."
"I will, don't worry Herr Doktor." She knew that she had no choice. If 'she' were to escape or be freed under her watch she knew that she would pay for it. It happened while she slept she knew that she would face even stricter punishment. It wasn't as though she could lie either. She knew better than anyone that the doctor had ways of getting information from someone.
"I hope so. It was difficult enough getting 'her' into our custody. We lost many men, some of you people too. 'She' must not get loose. Make sure that you remember this."
"I will Herr Doktor. My monthly report has just been finished and-"
"You are to leave." The doctor told her.
"Leave...?"
"Only temporarily; you will return in a couple of days. Gleeson will be briefing you in further detail. "
"Is this 'party' business?"
"Not over the phone!" the doctor scolded her. "Yes and no. You will be meeting with one of the Baron's esteemed friends. He will be very interested in what you have to tell him."
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END of Ch 14
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AN: 'Herr Doktor' I believe that translates in English as 'mister Doctor'. ; Or something close to it. I am an English speaking person. I am not a linguist or a historian, so if I make some mistakes in either of those regards, please forgive me.
(1) – There is a reason for the difference in the names. Do not think that this is a mistake. I will explain later on why this is.
(2) – In The novel 'Dracula', Abraham van Helsing is a professor, who has taught grown men medicine. Dr. John Steward is an old student of his in the novel. I don't know how old he is but I will assume that he was 45 years old in 1898 with Dracula's defeat. So Under my time-line I will say that he was born in 1853.
(3) - Royal Order of the Protestant Knights is the official name of the Hellsing Organization
(4) – The first dramatic radio programming were catered to the female listener for the purpose of selling laundry soap to them. They became nicknamed 'Soap Operas'. When Television came into the homes these programs remained under the same. Now these television shows are referred to as 'Soaps'.
(6) – 'the party' refers to the Nazis Party, which is now in Power in Germany in the plot.
(7) – Aspirin was available in small metal tins of 12 tablets starting 1930 and continued to be sold in that form for many years after.
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Preview of the next chapter: Origin Fantasies
In addition to Walter's combat skills; he had developed keen investigative skills. This was mostly born out of his early drive to find his mother; the one who had left him.
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