A/N: Thank you all so much for the lovely favs/follows/and reviews! I love them so much!
And I apologize for my absence. Life got hectic and emotional, but here I am!
I hope you enjoy this chapter and enjoy the new cover art by ponurygrajek on tumblr! It is Olivia and Little Alucard! You can see it better on my tumblr blog! Olivia is so freaking beautiful and Alucard is so freaking adorable!
Please enjoy this chapter and I welcome all new and returning readers!
Enjoy! :D
"Well, aren't you going in?" Alucard prodded, noticing Olivia hadn't moved from her spot in front of the decayed door. "Isn't this what you've been waiting for?"
Olivia didn't answer him nor did she move as her sights were locked on the little girl skipping up the dirt path with her school bag bouncing from side to side.
Her pink dress was littered with grass stains and her pigtails flapped in the breeze while she brandished a radiant smile on her chubby face.
"Anya! Apa!" Eight year old Olivia called out, phasing through Alucard and Olivia's forms before opening the freshly painted door of a beautiful blue bricked cottage. "I'm home! Did you miss me?!"
"Olivia." Alucard's gruff voice shattered the illusion and the house was decrepit once more. "What do you see?"
"I thought….." She murmured, placing her hand on the once eye level doorknob. "I thought I saw a baby rabbit run past us."
'The doorknob is smaller than I remember. Have I truly grown that much?'
Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Olivia turned the knob and stepped inside, memories of long ago bombarding her senses.
The oak banister she used to slide down so often that her father had to repaint it every other week; the china cabinet that her and little brothers used to hide in when their mother wanted them to eat their vegetables; the pink wall paper Mark had scribbled on as a baby that eventually became the family mural; the music room where their parents would practice until the early hours of the morning, and the kitchen/dining area that constantly smelt of sugar and baking bread.
It was all gone.
Everything Olivia knew—all the traces of her family's presence and her childhood—had vanished.
The floorboards were rotten; the pink wallpaper had become brown and moldy; cobwebs hung from the ceiling corners; the banister had decayed years ago, and the china cabinet, the table, and everything else that the family had left behind were missing—stolen during the war by soldiers and scavengers.
"So this was your home." Alucard stepped inside, having to bend down slightly since the doorframe reached the top of his shoulders. "I am surprised it is still standing after ten years."
"….Gone…" Olivia dropped her bag and stumbled forward, her vision fading in and out with her frantic heartbeats. "It's all…gone…"
"Gone?" Alucard repeated, sliding his glasses down his nose with a bemused expression. "What is gone?"
Once again, Olivia ignored him and, with a strangled gasp, she tore across the rotting floor and into the kitchen-dining area. She desperately searched the empty room before rushing into the former music room and doing the same.
"No…!" Olivia pounded her hands against the walls and floor, as if searching for a secret passage. "Please no!"
Her heart was in her throat as she raced through the remaining rooms of the first floor before stampeding up the stairs.
'Dear God, please!' Olivia begged, latching onto the attic door and slamming it open. 'PLEASE!'
The attic once served as the Song's bedroom and the children's play area. On one side of the room was her parents' bed and on the other were Olivia and her little brothers' bed and their toy trunk. Many nights while their parents practiced in the music room, Olivia would fashion up a blanket fort and put on shadow puppet shows for Akos and Mark who loved her stories about time traveling samurai and winged maidens.
But, just like the bottom floor, all that remained were cobwebs, dust, and decay.
Olivia had come home to a graveyard.
She staggered towards the center of the room, staring at where her bed once lay when Alucard suddenly materialized behind her with her bag in his grasp.
"You look disappointed." His breath tickled her ear as he placed the bag on the ground next to her. "Were you expecting to find something?"
"I….I don't know." Olivia grasped her bracelets and closed her eyes, four cracks on her heart reopening. "A photo, a candy wrapper, something….anything…"
The floorboards groaned as the coffin entered the attic room, and Alucard snapped his fingers and pointed to the far left corner; the coffin obeyed and settled itself down, its arms and legs regressing back into its walls.
"Oliv—." Alucard started, only to be interrupted by Olivia spinning around and pulling him down for a quick peck on the lips.
"You should get some sleep, Alucard" She smiled widely, her face devoid of the sorrow and desperation from moments prior. "You haven't slept in your coffin for the past few weeks, and I know you are exhausted. Don't worry about me. I'm fine—."
"Don't you dare lie to me." Alucard yanked her off the ground and held her at eye level, his fingers digging into her waist and his eyes glowing red. "And don't you dare insult me by thinking I would believe your fake smile."
The smile melted from Olivia's face, and with a heavy sigh, she cupped his face and kissed him once more, except this time her kiss was slow and tender.
"I didn't think you would believe me anyways." She chuckled, her tone devoid of amusement. "That was stupid of me, wasn't it? Please forgive me, arany virágszál."
Olivia paid no mind to Alucard's scathing glare or the way his fingers were leaving bruises on her waist and simply kissed him again.
Eventually Alucard reciprocated the gesture yet he continued to comb through her mind, only to find nothing.
'Why are you blocking me out?' He wondered, pulling away and placing her back on the floor. 'What is going through your mind now?'
"News of the incident on the train will eventually make its way back to Headquarters. We should go and alert Sir Hellsing before someone else does." Olivia wrapped her arms around her waist and stared at one of the many floor pits. "And then…..I guess we'll figure it out from there."
'You are donning the ice mask again…,' Alucard noted as he transformed into his teenage form, but he was taken aback when Olivia suddenly grasped his hands and cradled them against her chest. Bemused, he looked at her, only to find Olivia glaring up at him with an iron gaze. Then, he felt her heartbeat and smiled widely as the beautiful sensation vibrated up his arms and down his spine. 'Yes, keep beating, keep fighting. You have traveled countless of miles to return to your birth place, and now that you are here, what will you do next?' Alucard brought Olivia's hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles, his fangs poking her skin through her gloves. 'What will you do now, my Olivia?'
For the entirety of the war, Hungary was under the Axis Powers and then, from 1944 to 1945, the Red Army occupied Hungary. 600,000 civilians were captured by the Soviets and deported to labor camps in the Soviet Union. It was only a month ago that a few hundred civilians were able to return home, yet the Soviet control over Hungary continued to grow stronger with every passing day.
Szentendre's population had declined drastically as a result and the once bustling streets had become desolate. The stores and locations Olivia frequented as a child were now nothing more than ruins and abandoned buildings, and the friends and neighbors she once knew were either dead or missing.
"The post office should have a phone you can use." She explained, a death grip on Alucard's hand as they passed by what was once a family-owned bakery. "….If there still is a post office."
"Apa, can we buy 20 cakes instead of one?" Olivia inquired from her perch on her father's shoulders. "Akos and Mark really liked the strawberry one we bought last time!"
"So that is the reason I found crumbs under your bed!" Jwa-jin laughed, sending his daughter a playful glare. "How about we buy two cakes instead? Deal?"
"Deal!" Olivia cheered before bellowing "Hello! We are here!" when Jwa-jin opened the bakery door.
The walls of Eva's Bakery were always lined with freshly baked bread and mouthwatering sweets. People from across Europe would flock to Szentendre just to have a slice of Eva's creations, and the town had become known for Eva rather than for its music and art.
"Well, well!" Eva Varga emerged from the back room with flour caking her apron and hands. "If it isn't my number one customers! Here for the usual, I assume?"
"Yes, but make it two please, Ms. Eva." Jwa-jin chuckled, placing Olivia on the ground. "It would seem I have three hungry children at home who refuse to sleep without having a cake of their own."
Eva's wrinkled face lit up as she laughed and bent down to Olivia's level.
"Is that so? Well, I guess you and your brothers are in luck, Olivia! Do you know why?"
"Why?! Why?!" Olivia bounced on her heels with sparkles in her eyes. "Tell me! Tell me!"
"Because I happened to bake an extra three-tier chocolate cake this morning!" Eva grinned, patting Olivia on the head much like a doting grandmother would. "Can I trust you and your brothers to take it off my hands?"
"Yes, Ms. Eva!" Olivia cheered, pumping her fists into the air. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"Oh boy." Jwa-jin groaned, already envisioning a long night of chasing after his children as they bounced off the walls. "Zsofia is not going to like this…"
"This is a quiet little town, isn't it?" Alucard remarked, eyeing a row of shabby houses with orchids and lilies drooping in the windowsill. The stone and brick walls had eroded over the years, but the painted on Nazi and Soviet symbols remained intact. "Did you enjoy living here?"
Olivia's answer didn't come immediately, but when it did, it came out as a dry whisper.
"Sometimes."
"Who did this?! Answer me, you fucking bastards!" Zsofia stood protectively in front of Jwa-jin while glaring daggers at the small group of locals in front of them. "Answer me before I rip your fucking heads off!"
"Zsofia, stop!" Jwa-jin pleaded, blood pouring down his temple from a clay pot someone had thrown. "I'm fine! Please, let's just go."
"I'm not going to let them get away with this!" She growled, snatching up a shard of the broken pot and brandishing it to the crowd. "Who did this?! Who threw this?! Answer me!"
"Hey, don't blame us! If his eyes were rounder, he would've seen it." A tall man with a straw hat laughed and the rest of the crowd followed along. "To be fair, we did tell him to 'look out!' but I guess yellow trash can't understand any other language than their 'glass cup' gibberish."
"What the fuck did you just say?!" Smoke was practically shooting out of Zsofia's ears, and it took all of Jwa-jin's strengthen to restrain her. "You listen here, you son of a—!"
"No, you listen!" The man spoke up again. "That piece of yellow trash thinks he can waltz into our country and sing our songs in our language like it is his own! He has even soiled you by getting you pregnant with a half-breed—!"
Zsofia had the man on the ground within seconds, pounding his face repeatedly while Jwa-jin tried to yank her off.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL MY DAUGHTER, YOU FUCKER?!" Zsofia bellowed, shoving dirt down the man's windpipe. "SAY IT AGAIN! I FUCKING DARE YOU!"
"ZSOFIA, THAT IS ENOUGH!" Jwa-jin wailed, yanking his wife off the choking man and struggling to keep her in place. "STOP IT, ZSOFIA! DON'T MAKE THIS WORSE! STOP IT! OLIVIA IS WATCHING US, DAMMIT! OLIVIA IS WATCHING!"
"…A…Anya…!" Five year old Olivia bawled as she sat in the middle of the cobblestone street, having fallen down when Jwa-jin pushed her out of the pot's line of sight. "A-Apa!"
The post office, which was still remarkably intact, soon came into sight and Olivia halted at the entrance, her fists trembling and a cold sweat breaking out on her brow.
"I'll wait out here." She mumbled, drawing the brim of her hat down over her face and reluctantly releasing his hand. "Now go call Sir Hellsing before someone else does. I don't want you to get in trouble."
"As you wish." Alucard nodded before gliding into the post office with a feather-like step, leaving Olivia alone on the narrow street.
Happy and bitter memories polluted the air along with the stench of blood that stalked her everywhere without a moments rest. It was like a foul slime Olivia could never peel off, no matter how much she scrubbed her arms until they bled.
But now, after last night's events, the foul slime became more like a second, parasitic skin.
All it took were two clean slices and Alexandria was revealed for the world to see.
She was so tiny with her body drenched in blood and her tiny hands clawing at the open air where Julia's uterine wall once was.
Flinging the accursed knife aside, Olivia reached into Julia's torn uterus and gently lifted Alexandria up into her arms.
"Julia," She croaked, staring at the woman's still form. "Alexandria is here. Isn't she beautiful?"
No reply.
"Didn't you hear me?" Olivia brandished the baby to her mother's corpse. "I said, Alexandria is here! Your baby is finally here!"
Still no reply.
"L-Look," Olivia scooted closer and angled Alexandria towards Julia's dim, unfocused eyes. "That is your mommy, Alexandria. She has been waiting so long to meet you." Her tears dripped onto Alexandria's face, causing the newborn girl to cry louder. "Look at her, Alexandria." Olivia whispered as Alexandria's cries grew louder and her tears came quicker. "Look at your Mommy."
Olivia's head shot up when she heard a baby's cry in the distance and, before she knew it, she was fleeing from the post office as fast as her legs could take her.
It was unlikely that baby was Alexandria, but Olivia didn't dare to stop and turn around.
She darted down the rest of the block, her heart pounding in her ears, and didn't stop until she couldn't hear the baby's cries anymore.
Panting heavily, Olivia hunched over with her hands on her knees and inspected her surroundings, noticing a familiar wishing fountain a few meters away.
"This is Szentendre's Art Quarter.." Olivia wheezed, closing her eyes only to have them snap back open seconds later. "Wait…..this is the Art Quarter….that means—!"
Ignoring the burning in her lungs, Olivia bolted past the dried up fountain and down a street lined with old art galleries and music stores.
"Please, God, please….!" She cried out, veering to the left and spotting a familiar sign in the distance. "Let it be there! LET IT BE THERE! PLEASE LET IT BE THERE!"
As Olivia turned the corner and reached the end of the road, she found what she was looking for.
Well….what was left of it.
"Why….?" Olivia crumbled to her knees as she beheld the charred remains of the Szentendre Opera House through blurry vision. "God, tell me…..why do you hate me so?"
"WHO IS IT?!" Arthur bellowed, throwing open his bedroom door to find a steward with one of the hallway phones on a silver platter. "I specifically ordered everyone not to wake me up until noon!"
The previous night, Arthur had gotten a bit carried away with the scotch and his favorite ladies of the night, meaning now he was nursing a brutal hangover in addition to the stubborn cold he couldn't shake.
"My apologizes, Sir Hellsing, but you have an urgent phone call." The middle aged steward bowed slightly and offered the phone up to Arthur. "They are calling on the direct line."
"The direct line?" Arthur felt a pit form in his stomach, and he snatched up the headset from the receiver without a second thought. "Who is this?"
"It's your humble servant, Master Hellsing." Alucard's voice drifted through the top of the headset, and Arthur could practically see his smirk through the phone. "I trust you had a good night's sleep? It is unlike you to sleep in."
"Don't bother with the small talk, Alucard. What happened?" Arthur braced himself against the door frame, the pit growing larger with every passing second. "You wouldn't call me unless something was wrong, so what the hell did you do?"
"I did my duty, Master." Alucard snickered, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and the phone nestled against his shoulder. "You ordered me to protect Olivia, and that is exactly what I've done."
"What. Happened?!" Arthur repeated through gritted teeth. "I swear to God, Alucard, if you—!"
"There was an incident on the train to Hungary." Alucard calmly explained. "An Austrian stowaway threatened Olivia and a bystander with a gun. I eliminated the vermin before he could harm Olivia but the bystander was shot and died upon the delivery of her child."
"W-W-W-WAIT WHAT?!" The steward winced as Arthur's spit coated his face. "THE BYSTANDER WAS PREGNANT?!"
"Yes, her daughter survived and was delivered to the grandparents. And I tampered with the passengers' and employees' memories to ensure nothing would be traced back to Olivia or Hellsing."
"….It was Olivia who performed the delivery, wasn't it?" Arthur groaned, running a hand down his face.
"You are correct, my Master."
"Fuck!" Arthur punched the doorframe, causing the steward to leap back in fright. "How could you let it get that far?! Why didn't you stop that lunatic before he shot anyone?!"
"You ordered me to protect Olivia, and I did just that." Alucard answered plainly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I have done nothing but follow your orders, Master Hellsing, have I not?"
"YOU DARE TO CHALLENGE ME, MONSTER?!" The headset cracked in Arthur's iron grip. "YOU MAY NOT BE IN LONDON BUT I STILL HAVE CONTROL OVER YOU! I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW IF I—!"
"You can do whatever you wish to me, Master." Alucard chuckled, not at all shaken by his master's fury—in fact, rather amused by it. "But you ordered me to protect Olivia until the end of her journey. So, this humble servant requests that you wait to punish me until I complete my mission. Wouldn't you agree?"
Arthur was going to pop a blood vessel at this rate, so he bit his lip and took a few deep breaths before continuing.
"….Just complete your mission, vampire." He groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'll deal with you when you return to London."
"Until then, Master Hellsing." Alucard purred, giving an ominous chuckle before hanging up.
"Fucking vampire!" Arthur slammed the headset back on the receiver before picking it up again almost immediately and dialing a familiar number.
"Hello?" came Sir Penwood's voice, his tone laced with anxiety since very few people knew the private number for his office, and one of those selective few was notorious for dialing this number when he was in the mood for 'stress shopping'.
"Penwood, old boy!" Arthur greeted in a forced cherry tone, his headache now ten times more excruciating. "How are you this fine morning?
"Um, well, I'm actually—."
"That's great. Listen I need 500 machine guns and a new submarine, stat!"
"Wa-Wait, what?!" Penwood exclaimed, nearly tumbling out of his desk chair. "But I just got you a new helicopter!
"Ah, good call! I'll need three more of those too!"
"Bu-But—!"
"Can you bring them here by this evening?"
"B—!"
"Great. Thanks a bundle, Penwood!" Arthur placed the headset back on the receiver, leaving Penwood to listen to the dial tone in frustration and misery.
"Arthur!"
Alucard chuckled as he hung up the phone and strutted away with his hands in his pockets, finding it amusing whenever Sir Hellsing lost his composure.
"Hey, young man, wait!" The post master scurried around the counter and skid to a stop in front of Alucard, his gaunt cheeks flushed red in annoyance. "You haven't paid for using the phone! That'l l be—!"
"Step aside." Alucard slid his glasses down and grasped the post master by the chin. "My wife is waiting for me outside, and I would hate to keep her waiting."
"….Yes…Yes, sir." The post master drawled out, his brown eyes turning red as he moved aside. "Please be on your way, sir. I apologize for my behavior."
"Why thank you, Post Master." Alucard smirked, stepping outside and noticing Olivia was nowhere to be seen. "Tch. Where did you run off to?"
Using his third eye, he was able to detect her presence on the other side of town and quickly appeared at her side.
Olivia was lying on her side in the middle of the burnt down opera house, the dirt around her head damp from her tears. Alucard didn't have to ask her what this place was; he knew the answer by the look on her face.
"How many times did you come to see your parents' performances?"
"….Every night from the day of my third birthday to the day we left." Olivia whispered, recalling how beautiful the building looked at night with the chandeliers illuminating the foyer, music drifting from the grand hall, and the roaring applause that accompanied her parents' performances.
Despite the townspeople's' scathing remarks and opinions, no one could deny that Zsofia and Jwa-jin were magic on stage, and the shining reviews from critics across Europe only solidified their talent.
But the opera house was gone, just like everything else.
Everything that held significance to her past was gone, leaving her with only memories that consumed her from within.
"Get up." Alucard grasped her arm and tugged at it. "There is no use—."
"Heart shaped face, green eyes, curly hair, and black hair." Olivia recited, her green eyes burning into Alucard's crimson ones. "Do you know what those traits signify?"
"…What?"
"They are the only traits I can recall with a hundred percent certainty about my family. Just those four things and nothing else." Olivia sat up on her knees and curled her trembling hands into fists. "In my memories, my family is a hastily thrown together mosaic, glued together with traits that may or may not be theirs. And, it wasn't until we met Ms. Valentine that I remembered what my father's voice sounded like."
"Olivia—."
"I know you think I'm stupid for believing something would be here. But I still foolishly hoped and prayed that I would find a poster, a doll, or something! Anything to prove my family existed! But….it's all gone. My childhood may not have been perfect but it was mine!" She whimpered, biting her lip. "It was mine….."
"Olivia—."
"Why didn't you save them?!" Olivia suddenly shot up to her feet and snatched her arm out of his grasp, fury etched across her tear stained face. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE THEM?! YOU WERE THERE TO KILL THAT MONSTER THAT NIGHT TEN YEARS AGO, SO WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE MY FAMILY?!" Her voice cracked slightly as she began to beat her fists against his chest. "AND YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD PROTECT MARTHA! BUT YOU DIDN'T! YOU LET HER DIE! SHE WAS YOUR MASTER'S FIANCÉE AND YOU LET HER DIE!" Her lips began to quiver, and her blows slowly died down in ferocity. "AND WHY DIDN'T YOU COME SOONER?! WHY DID YOU WAIT UNTIL I WAS IN DANGER TO ATTACK THAT MAN?! YOU COULD'VE TAKEN THE BULLET FOR JULIA AND SHE WOULD BE ALIVE! EVERYONE WOULD BE ALIVE!"
And, while Olivia screamed and hit him repeatedly, Alucard just stood there and stared down at her with a blank expression before grasping her by the wrists and halting her assaults.
"Forgive me, Olivia." He whispered, his eyes crinkling slightly as her heartbroken face looked upon him. "It wasn't my intention to cause you pain."
Her heart breaking clean in half, Olivia collapsed against Alucard's chest and sobbed openly.
"How can I beg for forgiveness if there is nothing here?!" She wept, her breath catching in her throat when Alucard embraced her. "Everyone is gone….erased….yet I am still here." She clutched her chest and dug her fingers into her skin. "I covered this wretched thing with iron yet it still rusted, then I covered with ice yet it still cracked. No matter what I do, it will always hurt…." Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, Olivia threw her arms around Alucard and latched onto him as a string of apologizes poured from her mouth.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't leave me." She begged, clinging to him like he was the only lifeline on a sinking ship. "It's not your fault, it's mine. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"I won't leave you." Alucard vowed, sweeping an arm under her legs and cradling her to his chest.
Olivia had held him for years, wiping his tears and granting him peace in a lifetime for war.
Now it was his turn to do the same for her.
"I will never leave you." He buried his face against her neck, the tips of his fangs gazing against her pulse point. "Never."
Later that night, Alucard and Olivia laid together in his coffin. The lid was open so Olivia could breathe, and she stared up at the starry night sky through the massive hole in the roof. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her body felt weightless yet heavy at the same time. But, the feeling of Alucard asleep beneath her anchored Olivia to Earth, and with one final glance at the nighttime sky, Olivia closed her eyes and burrowed her face into Alucard's chest.
It was pointless and stupid yet, even after everything that happened, Olivia still prayed to God to grant her wish.
'I know you have abandoned me for all the sins I've committed, but….please…I beg of you…' Her fingers curled into a fist and her nails drew blood. 'Allow me to see my family again….even if it is just for a moment.'
And, as she lifted her bleeding hand up to the heavens, the blood soaked through her gloves and dripped down her palm with one of the droplets landing on Sic Parvis Magna, which was tied to her hip.
Alucard had stood on this battlefield countless of times over the millenniums and knew every single corpse by name.
This was not a battlefield from his crusades but a battlefield containing all the people he had killed since he was eight.
His father, the Sultan, Jusztina, his sons, everyone who had met their end by his blade was impaled on spears that touched the sky.
Yes, Alucard had visited this battlefield countless of times, yet this was the first time he appeared here as not the Mad King of Wallachia, but that pitiful, sobbing eight year old boy dressed in rags and chains.
And, nestled between his blood soaked hands, was not his sword but the ashes of his heart.
At this point, Alucard would usually wake up but instead, something different happened.
A pair of small hands cupped his and he gazed up to find eight year old Olivia, wearing the same blue dress from the night he met her.
"What happened to your heart?" She asked, completely unaffected by the chaos surrounding them.
"It's broken." He answered, allowing a gust of wind to sweep the ashes out of his grasp. "Now I don't have one anymore."
"Then I'll give you part of mine!" She beamed, reaching into her chest and pulling out a shard of her beating heart.
Alucard's body was engulfed in warmth as Olivia placed the shard against his chest, and for the first time in years, he felt the satisfying thump of a heartbeat. However, when Alucard looked back up, Olivia was gone and the scenery had changed.
Instead of the impaled forest of his victims, a vast briar patch laid before him and, ensnared within each vine, were the bodies of the people and monsters Olivia had killed.
Alucard felt nothing as he moved through the patch, recognizing only three people amongst the masses: 'William', Francesca, and Toby.
Then, as Alucard reached the end of the briar patch, he found a long winding path awaiting him, and located at each turn were the bodies of Olivia's loved ones.
At the first turn, he found Olivia's parents and little brothers, their bodies partially decomposed in a patch of sedum and asters; at the second turn, he found Martha who had daisies growing from the hole in her face. Her body was being cradled by a man—who looked exactly like Sir Hellsing—with red eyes and a severed arm in his mouth; then, at the third and final turn, Alucard found Julia with her abdomen sliced open and her uterus empty.
All of their bodies had been displayed in different ways, yet they all had one thing in common: a piece of Olivia's heart cocooned within each of their hands.
Alucard heard someone coughing violently at the edge of the path and raced forward to find Olivia hunched over on the ground. She was missing one arm and used her only hand to cover her mouth as tremors racked her body. She began to gag, and with a loud heave, an object was expelled from her throat and blood leaked between her fingers.
"Olivia?" Alucard called out, taking a step forward but freezing in place when she met his gaze and slowly lower her hand.
Blood and saliva poured from her mouth and, resting in her grasp, was the last piece of her heart.
"It's broken." Olivia whispered, watching her heart struggle to beat normally. "And I don't know if I want to put it back together."
"Olivia…" Alucard reached out to her. "I can—."
Suddenly, a winged grim reaper appeared behind Olivia and swung its scythe down, slicing her head off her shoulders and crushing her heart beneath his heel.
"Trash." The grim reaper scoffed. "The dead are nothing but trash."
Alucard's eyes shot open and he sprung up to a sitting position, sweat caking his brow and bloody tear drops staining his cheeks.
"A dream…." He panted, slamming his palm over his eyes as he attempted to regain his composure. "Just a dream…."
But, when Alucard turned to check on Olivia, he discovered the spot next to him was empty.
"Olivia?" He sprung to his feet, noticing her bag and heels were still resting against the wall yet she was nowhere to be seen. "Olivia!" Alucard leapt onto the roof and scanned the town's perimeter with his Third Eye only to come up with nothing.
Olivia wasn't in the house nor she was anywhere in town.
She was...gone.
"OLIVIA!"
Well, maybe we won't be forgiven
For all the things we've said and done
But don't you ever give up, or give in
'Cause you know the show must go on
The sounds of a deep voice singing roused Olivia from her slumber, and she found herself surrounded by darkness and in the arms of a man wearing a hanbok. His facial features were delicate yet rugged and he seemed to be around her age but that was not what drew Olivia's attention.
The entire left side of his body was made of blood, while his right side was made of silver.
"Who are you?" Olivia whispered, drawing the man's attention. "And where are you taking me?"
He just smiled at her, and she was suddenly struck with the feeling she had seen this man before.
And don't believe them if they tell you
Where you're from's where you belong
He continued to sing, and Olivia realized his song was directed at her.
Just get up off your knees and say,
"Fuck you, I'm on my way!"
The show must go on.
The man suddenly stopped and pressed a kiss to her forehead before finishing off his song.
The show must go on
Then he vanished into thin air and Olivia plummeted into the darkness….only to freeze in place when a voice called out to her.
A voice she hadn't heard in years.
"It's such a shame you cut your hair." The voice stated. "You always had such lovely hair and I know how much it meant to you."
The air had been knocked out of Olivia's lungs as she tried to comprehend what was happening.
'That voice…..C-Could it be?'
"You've gotten so big, Olivia." The voice sighed, drawing near. "It seems just like yesterday you were a little girl, but now, here you are, a beautiful young woman. I'm so proud of you."
"It—It can't be…" Olivia stuttered, her body growing numb from the neck down. "Is….Is it really—?!"
"Yes, my Olivia." Martha laughed, materializing before her and looking exactly as she did four years ago. "It is me."
A/N: This chapter is dripping with so much foreshadowing and emotions that I need a towel to mop it all up. Lol. But yes, it is Martha! And the man carrying Olivia was Sic Parvis Magna and he was wearing a hanbok, which is traditional Korean clothing usually associated with the Joseon Dynasty. And I thank my History loving friend again for all the help! The song that Sic Parvis Magna sings is called "The Show Must Go On" by The Real Tuesday Weld! Link is in my profile and don't be fooled by the cute design and cartoony music! Lol! I have also provided the moment from Hellsing OVA that made me like Alucard. I think it is because of his one-liner. Lol.
But, yes. Very emotional chapter for Olivia. I mean, she left a graveyard in London only to end up in another graveyard in Hungary. But, rest assured! Things will get better! I originally planned to make this chapter more bloody and gruesome but my History loving friend told me, and I quote, "Give Olivia a fucking break already, you demon!" So I tuned it down quite a bit. Haha!
Now just hope Alucard doesn't tear the town apart looking for Olivia. Lol.
And yes, the fact that Arthur is somewhat monstrous in the dream means that Olivia hasn't forgiven Arthur for possessing her just yet.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please~~~leave a review! I love them so much!
Thank you again and I'll see you in the next chapter! :D