The Seldom Seen

AN: Hallo! Lookit this, I updated again. And with a very long chapter. :D
Getting this out a bit earlier than I thought is dedicated to Kara Ashford. I hope this helps your day get better. :]

Let's see... warnings... uh. My attempt at adding a hint of sexual tension, combined with bits and pieces of a dream I had once. This chapter didn't quite go the way I'd originally planned, so I hope it doesn't feel too choppy of a read, Love to all my readers! Might be able to crank out some extra chapters today while I'm still on a roll.

08: This Used To Be A Fun House…

Seras woke with a gasp, eyes wide, pupils dialated, and covered in a layer of sweat. "Dear lord!" Fanning her flushed cheeks with her hand, the fledgling shivered and squirmed. "Ew… I'm all sweaty. I thought being dead meant I didn't have to deal with this kind of stuff…"

Grumbling irritably, and flinching slightly as her thighs brushed, the faint friction sending chills down her spine, the girl fumbled for her remote to raise the lid of her coffin-bed so she could escape into the shower.

"A cold shower."

Minutes later, Seras emerged from a cloud of steam – she had turned the hot water on about halfway through – wearing a fluffy bath robe and toweling her hair into messy spikes.

'Police Girl.' Her Master's voice echoed in her head, making the girl shriek and jump about a foot into the air. His mocking laughter reverberated almost painfully in her thoughts, 'Sir Integra has a mission for us. Report to her office immediately.'

Great… 'Yes, Master.' The girl thought in reply, hurrying to her closet to retrieve her uniform.

Dropping the robe carelessly to the floor, the blonde shivered as flashes of her dream trickle to her minds eye. Master's hair all long and silky… Black claws tearing her shirt… The sweet sweet smell of blood in the air…

God! What was wrong with her?! Shaking her head vigorously to banish the naughty thoughts, Seras Victoria finished getting dressed for her mission and hot footed it out of her room to not keep Sir Integra waiting.

…Only to ram face first into Alucard's chest as he appeared out of nowhere just feet from Integra's study. "Oof!"

Falling backwards gracelessly, Seras' eyes went wide as saucers as Alucard reined her in to his chest with a 'tsk'. "Clumsy Childe." He mocked, staring with glee at her tomato red face.

"M-Master…" Seras muttered, pushing feebly at his chest to get some distance between herself and her blood Sire. God… Did he always smell this good?

Her cheeks flamed brighter still as she thought that, and an even worse thought made her blood turn to ice. Was he listening in on her mind again?! Jerking her head up to stare at hin in pure panic, the sight of his twisted smirk made her wilt. Oh dear…

"Watch where you're going, Police Girl." Alucard continued, an unholy light in his ginger gaze as he turned the both of them to the double doors to Sir Integra's study and walked her to it.

A little confused at his lack of mention of her wandering mind, and apprehensive at the continued close contact, she tugged at the arm around her waist more insistently. Master was acting weird, damnit!

"Ah, Seras, Alucard... you're late." Integra purred their names threateningly, standing stiffly behind her desk.

"Apologies, my Master, we were delayed." Alucard crooned oh so sweetly as he bowed, taking Seras with him in the gesture of deference. His fledgling squeaked and her face flushed even brighter red.

Sir Integra stared at the pair with an unreadable expression on her aristocratic features. Then her eyes narrowed behind her glasses and her lips tightened, "You have a mission at a carnival." She sounded rather aggravated, "One of their attractions, a supposedly haunted maze, has been reporting patrons going missing, screaming, blood, and various other maladies not part of the act."

Alucard chuckled. "A fun house. How amusing."

"Your mission is simple; search and destroy. Now go." Sir Hellsing turned her back on the undead duo, puffing furiously on her cigar. Clearly she was displeased with this ridiculous mission, but it had to be done.

"As you wish, my Master."

"Oh wow, Master, look at all the rides!" Seras gasped as they stepped out of one of Alucard's shadow portals into a dimly lit section between two booths. "I've never been to a carnival before… could we maybe do one or two things before the fun house?" Seras asked pleadingly, blue eyes wide and hopeful.

Alucard gave her a flat look and she frowned, "Just the rollercoaster?" She tried, pointing to the thrill ride where the loudest screams emanated.

"If it will stop your pitiful begging, Police Girl, fine."

"Yes!" Hopping in place like an eager child, Seras grabbed her Master's hand and tugged him along towards the somewhat rickety looking ride. She could practically feel his bemused smirk as they approached. Fortunately there was no line, so they only had to wait for the next car to arrive.

The ride worker blathered on his nonsense about 'keep your arms inside at all times' and other useless info, and Seras was secretly amused at how skittish he was when It came time to lock their lap bar into place because of the look her Master gave him. Smothering her grin, the Police Girl looked straight ahead at the slope they'd be climbing any second now.

"You know what would make this ride really fun?" Alucard hummed conversationally, the tone sending chills down Seras' spine. "Master…" Gripping the handrail anxiously - and denting it into the shape of her fingers without noticing - Seras stared at the man beside her with a slight frown tugging her pretty lips.

"Don't you want me to have fun, too, Police Girl?" Her Master mocked, fangs glinting in the carnival lights as their car starts up the hill with a clanking sound of working gears. Fidgeting in her seat, wondering what inspired her to ask her Master for this in the first place, Seras' frown deepened before she sighed. "No bloodshed?" She'd play his game – ha! Like she had any choice… - but she really wanted to enjoy the ride without being questioned by the police for being the only other survivor in some horrific accident on the coaster.

"Pffeh… Sir Integra would be displeased with me, though it would be glorious. No, Police Girl, no bloodshed." She could practically taste the 'yet' lingering around him menacingly. "Fine, Master." She answered a bit grumpily, much to his amusement.

Darkness swelled around the pair, fortunately they were in the back so none of the other passengers could see them, and centipedes began crawling up the sides of the connected cars as bats swirled in choking clouds around the structure. Master's laughter echoed louder even than the screams. Just as they crested the hill, a hell hound appeared with its slavering mouth gaping wide. Seras shrieked herself in reflex as she stared into the darkness about to swallow them whole. Cringing against her Master's side instinctively, he just continued to laugh as they passed through the illusion. "I don't think I like this ride anymore…" The Police Girl muttered, nearly deafened by the cacophony of females and males alike screaming in mortal terror of her Master's sense of humor.

"Tsk, tsk, Police Girl, don't be that way." Alucard crooned, snaking an arm around her waist and tilting her head up with the other, "Open your eyes and enjoy it with me." He continued, voice cajoling, though she knew it was a command. His hand on her side moved, and she felt a flush rise to her cheeks. Damnit. Cracking open her lids partway in a bid to distract herself from his newfound fascination with touching her, his fledgling almost shrieked again at the sight of the scythe aimed at her throat. It passed through harmlessly, but she still half expected to find herself dead. "Not funny, Master!"

He just laughed.

When the ride finally stopped there were more than a few sobbing people, and Seras' legs felt a bit shaky as she stumbled out of the car. Her Master scoffed, a sinister toothy grin on his face, and grasped her by the elbow to lead her away from the hysterical crowd and towards their objective. "Come along, Seras, no time to be a coward."

"R-right…Sorry, Sir."

The fun house attendant seemed nervous as he let them in, and Seras caught him whispering 'please not again' under his breath as they entered the beginnings of the mirror maze. She'd looked at the posters lining the queue, and they'd informed that this fun house had multiple parts – first came the mirror maze, then a spinning room, followed by what sounded like a child's jungle gym enlarged for adults as well, with the ending of a choice of slides. The building was a few stories tall, and she caught a glimpse of a circular opening in the wall to the left of the entry, and she could swear she caught a whiff of old blood. There was also some nonsense about a ghost clown – probably a projection – that they had to beat to the exit to win a prize… Something like that.

"Well this'll be interesting…" Seras muttered as they passed the threshold, swallowed by darkness. A light shined at the end of the tunnel, a dense fog hugging the floor and a strange smell in the air. Seras' nose wrinkled and her hand twitched, itching to grab hold of her Master's sleeve.

The first sight that greeted them was a hall of mirrors. Expected, given the info outside. But what drew Seras' attention was the mirror directly to her right that reflected her covered in blood. Eyes widening, she jerks away, and another mirror shows her as a little girl with a great slavering black dog at her side. "What…" A slight tremble appeared in her hands as she took a deep breath… and coughed, that strange smell choking. Her hapless gaze traveled to a third mirror and a disturbing sight met her sapphire eyes; it was her, in her Hellsing uniform, only it was blood red and her left arm was missing, replaced by a swirling mass of bloody shadows.

"Stop breathing." Master ordered, a warm gloved hand settling across her face to cover her eyes, "There's a drug in the fog that plays with your mind." He continued, lecturing and explaining all in one go as he tugged her blindly along.

Seras obeyed, remembering sheepishly that she really didn't need to breathe, it was just habit. They continued like this for a few feet until she stumbled over something on the floor, and Alucard's hand slipped free of her face. It took all of her will power not to scream at the sight of her as a little girl inside a closet, a massive bullet hole through her face. It didn't happen like that! It didn't…

Shaking, the Police Girl turned to her Sire and swallowed – he was covered in those crawling blood shadows like her earlier reflection. But this didn't scare her as much as the gory images in the glass, this was familiar to her. Closing her eyes to block it out, she reached for her Master blindly, trusting him to guide her through the maze until the effects of the drug she'd already inhaled faded.

'I'm starting to hate carnivals.' She muttered into their mental link. 'Who drugs a mirror maze like that? This isn't some cartoon where the villain laughs behind a pane of one way glass.'

Her Master's chuckle sent shivers racing down her spine and she clung tighter to his arm. 'Indeed. I believe the FREAKS, if they are here, added that particular surprise. Fear makes the blood taste especially sweet.'

Seras could easily envision his expression of dark hunger as he licked his lips. God, her Master was so bloodthirsty. He's not human… but then, neither am I anymore.

"Open your eyes, Seras, we're passed the maze." Alucard's words yanked her from her darkened state of half awareness, and her lids fluttered open obediently. Her head canted to the right quizzically as she stared at the rotating tunnel. It wasn't moving that fast, but it was clearly spinning, and in a full circle, too. When she looked closer, she frowned – there were dark spots that could easily be holes, and judging by them, the tunnel was in a few different parts that moved in opposite directions.

Alucard went first, and Seras nearly boggled as she saw him walk calmly - diagonally, horizontally, upside down… - along with the flow of the tunnel's moving parts until he reached the end and turned back to look at her with such a smug expression on his face she wanted to throw something at him. "That's cheating, Master!"

He said nothing, merely crooking his finger in a come hither gesture. She growled and stared at the rotating surface appraisingly. Maybe… if she…

Deciding that two could play at that game, Seras hopped through the vortex, never landing in one spot long enough to be pulled with the cylindrical floor, Landing next to her Master with her own smug look, she stared up at him challengingly. He laughed. "Nice work, Police Girl."

The pair walked another few feet before encountering an oddly shaped exit – it looked like an obese crescent moon turned on its side – and a set of rather squishy stairs leading down into the main attraction. Glancing back curiously, Seras shuddered. The entrance into the jungle gym was a giant clown face, and they had walked out of it's mouth and down the tongue. She hated clowns.

"The FREAKS will be here, if anywhere." The instant they stepped off the 'tongue' a rather disturbing laugh echoed from the grinning clown's mouth, and a projection appeared behind them of a semi-transparent ghost. Ugh! "Well that's one way to announce we're here…" Grumbling, because she really really hated clowns, Seras tried her best to ignore the laugh track and the floating clown approaching their position so slowly it felt like a horror movie.

Her Master grinned knowingly at her and made a hand motion to send her on ahead. Sighing, she obeyed and trotted towards the first obstacle – a net ladder – she can't help but grin a little as fonder child hood memories remind her of how she dominated these play structures as a kid. Curling her fingers into the ropes, the skirt wearing blonde began to scramble nimbly up towards the top when she heard a faint whistle and she froze in mortification. Oh good lord… was… was her Master looking up her skirt?! Tensing, she threw a look over her shoulder at the grinning red clad man standing below her. Ugh!

Growling obscenities under her breath, the fledgling twists her fingers tighter in the ropes and kicks off her unstable footing to roll forward and push herself up the rest of the slope without giving the Peeping Tom another glimpse of her white panties, damnit.

He chuckled as she collided with his legs, having appeared on the landing with the use of his powers, cheating, again.

The stupid clown hologram began to float up the net ladder, too. Rolling to the side to sit on her knees, Seras glanced between the two different paths possible, "Now what, Master?"

Alucard hummed and sniffed the air, "We split up, Police Girl." Reaching down, he hauled her up to her feet with an arm on her waist … while his hand moved rather close to her backside. Flushing bright red, she slapped the hand away, and was jerked roughly to his chest in retaliation, a growl rumbling between them. His hand returned and moved deliberately along her hip, the other arm settling just under her rather generous bust. "Master!" She protested, squirming.

"Mm, please do continue struggling, it's not unpleasant." He leered, breath hot on the back of her ear as he bent to rest his cheek against hers. She froze and he chuckled.

She was starting to really hate his laughter.

With a squeeze to her rear, the male dissolved into a shadow and slithered along the right path of the play maze. With a grimace, the former police officer darted off to the left.

At least Master can't look up my skirt if he's going the other way…

After a moment, she grinned outright as she swung from the monkey bars over the ball pit, took the monorail glider across the rolling pins, and generally had quite a blast while looking for signs of FREAK infestation. Finally, halfway down a slide, the smell of blood reached her nose. Slamming her hands and feet out to halt her downward progress, she frowned and inched her way cautiously down the slippery plastic. There, at the bottom, was another ball pit. But it reeked of blood. 'Master, I think I found them.'She sent as she reached into her boot for the blessed silver knife she kept for close combat emergencies. No immediate response came. She slid down to the end of the slide, and stood on the extended lip that would have sent her flying into the pile of colorful balls, blue eyes narrowed and darkening to a rich crimson. Glancing up, she quirked an eyebrow at the sight of swinging padded pillars, and evidence of the former floor above being removed by force. A fall from that high would probably hurt a child. Disable the prey. She thought grimly and scanned the sea of hollow balls for any sign of movement.

Nothing. Yet.

Spying a ball wedged into the netting around the pit, she reached out, took it, and hurled it as hard as she could into the approximate space she would have landed. With the aid of her vampiric strength, the yellow sphere made quite the explosion of disrupted balls. Movement under the balls started like a shark fin breaking through the water's surface. Three of them. Shit.

'Master!'

Baring her teeth nervously and bracing herself against the opening of the slide, the blonde dearly wished she had a more portable gun. When the trails met there was a quick tussle before a gaunt looking, greasy haired and sallow skinned male burst out of the sea of color, headed right for her with black claws extended and mouth opened inhumanly wide to show off predatory teeth. Seras shoved the blade into his forehead with a sickening squelch, and hurriedly kicked the disintegrating body off her knife to free her weapon for the other attacks.

They never came.

Damnit, her prey had fled in the face of a stronger vampire.

Alucard's laughter seeped into her head, and she shuddered. 'Nice work, Police Girl. Now go fetch.'

Not liking the idea of jumping into that pit of blood and lord knows what else, she tilted her head back and sniffed experimentally. The ripe stench of fear emanated from further in the structure. Further in and further up.

'Yes Sir.'

She leaped across the distance easily to land on the other side, thankful for the platform's existence.

It didn't take her long to track the FREAKS down to another ball pit and she glared. "Again? Seriously? I'm not bloody jumping in there, damnit."

The imposter undead leaped at her simultaneously, one for her legs, the other for her head. Shit. Throwing her knife at the second one's skull, she kicked at the female trying to hobble her. She missed and the bitch sunk her teeth into Seras' calf. Screaming, the fledgling fell off balance – thankfully away from the balls – and regretted the rashness of tossing her blade, even if it did kill the other one.

An ominous presence oozed into the chamber, and she spied the oily shadow mass congealing on the ceiling… and staying there. Her Master apparently wanted to see if she could deal with the situation herself.

Gnashing her teeth in frustration and pain, Seras swung her other leg out in a vicious kick at the leech's ribs, dislodging her in a spray of blood. "That hurt, you bitch." Seras snarled, her own claws extending and ripping through the fingers of her gloves. Forcing herself to her feet, despite the rather obscenely large bite mark torn out of her leg, Seras waited – and wobbled – for the thing to come at her again. It did.

These things are about as intelligent as ghouls. Seras thought disdainfully, ducking to the right and raking her claws along the feral female's back. The FREAK howled and crashed into the netted wall, tangling herself as her claws severed strands of the reinforced wire.

Seras shuddered, glancing up at the shadow mass, it didn't move. Pursing her lips, the fledgling hopped gracelessly over to the writhing mass of manufactured vampire flesh, and reached out quick as a flash to fist the grimy locks, jerk the thing's head back, and slice through her throat with one rake of her claws. Ugh, their blood smelled like moldering dirt.

The thing went limp, gurgling a few times before slowly disintegrating.

Seras' leg throbbed, "Ow."

Alucard appeared in his human guise behind her, a sick grin twisting his lips, "I searched the rest of the maze while you were playing, Police Girl. All targets have been silenced. We're going back to Hellsing." His arms slid around her waist and she tensed a bit, flushing. He chuckled and they disappeared from the 'haunted' house as though they were ghosts themselves.

Seras' last thought was a grumble, agitated and somewhat bitter; I hate fun houses.