Sanctuary to the Lost and Damned

Chapter 17: Ghost

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AN: I would like to take this time to inform the readers that since I am writing from the point of view of some characters which have deplorable views on human life, (cough Nazis) I may write something which many will find offensive. These are not my beliefs! Do not burn me in a review.

Oh, and please review... nothing rude please...

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1939

Walter tossed and turned in his bed. The day had been longer than he would have hope. Hellsing was not particularly demanding as far as serving him; the man did choose to do many of his own things on his own, but the Knight seemed to leave behind an unnatural amount of a mess behind him where ever he went.

Walter turned to his other side. 'How can one man make so much of a mess?' he wondered to himself as he waited for sleep to take him.

Sleep did not come. Walter cursed to himself. He would be expected to wake up early in the morning to begin his duties. He knew that lack of sleep would make his duty difficult.

Walter decided to get out of bed and find something to do. It was better than just lying there becoming frustrated.

He first headed to the drawing room on the third floor. The room had a good view of the estate and Walter had never seen it at night. However when he got there he heard two voices: Arthur's and the voice of some woman. There was also a great amount of other noises which Walter, being nine years old did not yet understand.

He next headed over the main library, thinking that he might read a book. He had always been there giving Arthur tea in the day time. As he pushed the doors open, the room seemed somewhat creepy in Arthur's opinion. Nevertheless, he looked through the collection of books. He first looked for mystery novels. He came across a novel entitled Frankenstein. It was an old book and not one that he had ever read before so he sat down at one of the chesterfields several feet from the master's chair, which was sitting sideways to the fire. (1) He lit the fire and started to read through the book, sitting in the closest spot to the fireplace.

At about quarter to three, as Walter, the training butler, was drifting off, he was fully woken by the image of a figure appearing through the lit fireplace.

Walter jumped off the furniture. "What the hell!"

The figure was dressed in a dark suit covered over with an old Victorian style red trench coat. This figure was not wearing a normal straight-tie; it instead was an intricately knotted red bowtie. On the top of its head it wore a wide, floppy brimmed red fedora hat. On its feet it wore large leather riding boots. His hands was gloved, each hand with a plain white glove.

Walter couldn't help but stare at the odd figure. Then it had started staring at him as the figure noticed for the first time that he was not alone in the library. Walter had expect to see the figure was burnt the figure was not touched by the fire. He wondered if the attire was somehow fire proof, but he doubted it as he noticed that nothing had been affected by the flame, not even the figure's hair.

The longer Walter looked the more he felt that there was something wrong with this stranger. There seemed to be an aura, which he had never before felt. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stick up. It felt like danger; it was as though there was a predictor nearby.

The two stared at one another for far too long. Walter briefly wondered why

Walter continued to look at the figure that stood in the moonlight coming through the window. The figure had crimson eyes and produced a smile full of white teeth, which seem to include a set of fangs.

The two just looked at each other for a minute before the strange figure continued on to whatever destination it was headed. Walter watched with shock as the figure 'shifted' through the wooden door which led into the library.

Walter moved over the fire place and moved his hand toward the fire, no close enough to be burned, but close enough to confirm that the fire was indeed there. Next he went to the door to verify to himself the wood was indeed solid. He then went back and forth between the two points as his logical mind searched for some rational explanations to how someone had just walked through two solid objects, one of which was also contained a fire, which did not harm the figure.

Walter held the facts up together in his mind.

The figure had moved through the wall.

It wasn't burnt when it moved through the fire.

It was dressed in old Victorian style clothing.

Something in Walter's mind told him that the figure was not of this world. This was not a fact however Walter felt so confident that it was true that he added.

Walter, who had developed a love of sir, Arthur Doyle's works, mainly those novels featuring Sherlock Holmes, recalled a bit of logic which the detective had once explained: When one has ruled out what simply cannot be, no matter how unlikely it is, whatever remains, no matter how impossible it seemed was bound to be the truth.

After examining the places which he had seen the figure move through it then occurred to the boy that there was only one answer to the problem at hand. The figure was a ghost. How else could it have done what it did?

Walter also thought about the ghost's clothing: Victorian time period. Walter knew that no shop sold such clothing. Then there were the boots. They were Leather riding boots. Walter knew that most people had embraced the relativity new invention of the automobile and thus few people still rode horses as a means of transportation. Walter knew that Arthur Hellsing did not own any horses, but Alfred had pointed to a bare spot once and told the boy that there had once been a barn full of horses in that place.

Walter decided that the figure was a ghost of some previous occupant who had once lived there. It struck Walter as odd that the figure had looked to be in his 20's. 'He must have died from some disease.' Walter thought. Walter knew that in the mid 1800's there was an epidemic of tuberculosis in the region that had killed many people. (2)

Walter put out the fire and headed off to bed.

On his way Walter had walked around the house looking at the old portraits that lined the hall he looked closely at them with the light from his lantern. He only found once portrait who wore a similar outfit; it belonged to Abraham Hellsing. Walter knew that the ghost had not been that man. For one, the man had died at a ripe old age; the ghost was of a younger man. Another thing was that the two did not resemble each other in the least bit.

Once in his bed the boy thought about the prospect of living in a haunted house. He supposed that it would liven up his dull duties. He didn't know if he believed what he had saw was true, He decided after a half-hour of lying in bed not to say anything to anyone about his encounter with the ghost; He doubted that anyone would believe him. He had already been teased by some soldiers about being just a kid, telling him that he need to run off to school to practice his arithmetic's and some other things which were meant to belittle him. The last thing he need was to be teased about this.

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"Walter" Arthur asked the young butler in training.

Walter felt a tinge of guilt as he realized that he had been drifting off while making the afternoon tea.

"I'm fine, sir, I just am a bit tired."

"Why don't you, go get some rest Walter," Arthur said looking up from the paper. "Alfred has everything." The older butler nodded.

Walter though for a fraction of a minute before telling Arthur that he would just needs to make himself some tea to perk himself up.

Arthur nodded and carried on reading the paper, before asking Alfred if Sir Wingates was able to meet with him on such short notice. Alfred told him that the man was but had requested a change of location

Alfred went on to say that the person by the name, Alucard had returned last night from his journey. Walter did not know who this Alucard was, He might have wondered if not for his struggle to stay awake, which despite the tea was not helping him.

Alfred tapped Walter on the shoulder and informed him that Arthur wanted to be left alone. The old man then suggested that they dust off the large and numerous staircases. Walter nodded, but inwardly he groaned; this was not what he had pictured his employment to the Hellsing family would be.

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A fat short man of 25 years sat down on a sitting chair.

A tall, very thin man in a vested shirt and a pair of trousers stood in front of him. His long hair, kept back in a ponytail had on a couple of occasions made others mistaken him for a woman.

"That is very interesting Doctor, but I wish to discuss your report. You are very...ambiguous in many places. Tell me Doctor what are the results?" the fat man said directly to the man before him, who was only two years older than him.

The doctor shifted on his feet. "Discovery takes time..."

"Have you been able to stop the aging process?"

The Doctor thought about how to answer this. He had made some progress, but he knew that it was not enough. The trials with the dogs had given mixed results. Dogs were chosen because they grew about 7 times faster than humans did. Many of the puppies had seemed to have a slowed growth rate, but it had been uncertain if the results could be duplicated in human subjects.

The human subjects had been gathered by the werewolves. They were selected based on their ethnic status; all needed to be impure. They all had to be under the age of 12. Children were chosen for their rapid growth. Since these children grew so quickly in a span of only a few years, they were the optimal subjects. Their high growth rate meant that it could be measured quickly if and when they had stopped aging. This was much more difficult with adults.

The doctor had believed twice that he had the desired results. The first time they had noticed that some of the children had stopped developing, but they came to understand that all they had done was delay puberty. The second time was the result of accidental interference with the hormone that regulated growth. All they had done was to stunt the growth, the children had still aged. These failures frustrated the doctor. Neither of these failures had resulted in any growth of understanding; they were both useless failures.

"I believe that we need some more time, Second Lieutenant." The doctor said as he moved a long strand of blond hair out of his face.

"Time? Time is not friendly." The fat man, having reached what he thought was his peak physical age did not want to get any older than he was. Though too young to have fought in the Great War, he had heard stories of battle. He wanted to fight in the next war, and then the next one after that and the next one etc. he knew that he could not do that as a fragile old man."Tell me about the other project?"

The Doctor had hoped that the fat man would not ask about the other secret project, the one that involved the werewolves.

"Doctor." the fat man verbal prodded.

"They are all dead." The doctor had not known a better way to say that.

"All of them?"

"All of them; even the children which we had included. We will need more subjects." the doctor said as he readjusted his ordinary glasses.

The Doctor knew that finding more adult subjects would be simple. They were enemies of the party taken from prisons, and some were kidnapped from their homes.

The children were a more difficult task. The werewolves had 'adopted' many of the children. Many had literally been taken from their mother's side and as they were playing their backyards. Nearly all were the children of 'sub-humans'. (3) So the use of these children did nothing to bother their standard of ethics. But the Doctor, Second Lieutenant and Baron all knew that there was a limit to the number of children that could acquired for experimentation. Taking too many too quickly would only raise alarm with various authorities.

"Then we will replace them and try again." the fat Second Lieutenant told the Doctor neutrally. "Was that werewolf telling the truth?"

"Of course! I interrogated her myself before bring her here!" The Doctor felt somewhat offended.

"Remarkable. Remarkable! Don't you think that it is Doctor?"

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END of Ch 16

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AN:

(1) – I used the word chesterfield because I believe that is a term more used in Britain. I also feel that the word implies lavishness, while couch or sofa implies comfort. These may seem to go together, but from personal experience I know that they do not always.

(2) – A lot of people in England, and other places in the world, died of tuberculosis 1800's. The infection is now curable with antibiotics, but back then it was as good as a death sentence. Many regions were evacuated. Many places were quarantined; there was buildings used as places to quarantine sick individuals.

(3) – 'Untermenschen' meaning 'sub-human' is the term Nazis used for Gypsies (Roma), Jews, Communists, Poles, darker-skinned individuals, any 'non-whites' from African, Middle Eastern, Asiatic and Latin American origin. This also included Homosexuals and the disabled (included those with physical and mental illness/ conditions)

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Preview of the next chapter: New Mission

"My old master took back the gun which he gave me. I will need it along with a few magazines of blessed silver bullets." Alucard turned to face Arthur. "When do we leave?"

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