No Life Waltz

*****
No Life Waltz: Session 2_Acrimonious

Seras’s whole body shook with some emotion akin to both anger and joy as she stared at Alucard in disbelief. She wanted to reach out, to feel him, to have some sort of tangible proof that he was really there, grinning up at her from the bottom of the stairs like he was greeting her after a particularly fun mission. “Hello, Seras,” he said, his deep voice cutting through the blanket of silence that had covered them.
She took a wary step down towards where he was standing, her footstep resounding off the empty room. “What are you doing here?” she asked coldly, her voice like ice. His grin only widened as she continued to walk down the stairs to him.
“I thought you might be glad to see me,” he said as she stepped off the last of the stairs and stood stock still before him.
There was a resounding crack as she brought her hand across his handsome features with 53 years of pent-up rage behind the blow. “How dare,” she stared at the floor, her voice low and dripping with a poisonous rage. Her whole body shook with the effort it took to not slap him again. “How dare you show your face here,” she snapped her head up to meet his manic expression, her red eyes blazing with fury, “How dare you come back here to mock me!”
Alucard’s smile only widened, his long canines revealed above his lower lip. Some unknown emotion flashed through his eyes as he calmly replied, “I had hoped that 53 years had changed you. Good to see that you’re still doing well.”
“You bastard,” Seras spat, her hands flexing into fists at her side, “why have you come back?”
He shrugged carelessly, as if this was an everyday occurrence. “I had thought perhaps you would have welcomed my return, Seras.”
She scoffed and folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to keep from beating whatever was left of his unlife out of him. “Welcomed you?! I’ve wanted nothing more than to see you burn in hell for over 50 years! I hate you and you expect me to welcome you?”
He shook his head. “You don’t hate me, Seras. Hearts don’t change so easily.”
She grabbed the collar of his red duster violently, quite a feat considering their height differences and brought his face inches from her own. “They do when you leave them broken for half of a century, Alucard,” she hissed vehemently. She pushed him away, letting go of his coat and looking away so that he wouldn’t see the depth of pain in her eyes. “Leave. Let me forget you and live my life again.”
She felt the cloth of his gloves against her chin as he tilted her head up to meet his unwavering gaze. She turned her face away, not allowing him the reassurance of contact with her, but still held his eyes with her own from the side. There was some emotion in those red orbs that she didn’t remember from her youth as his expression grew somber. “I don’t want to leave and I refuse to allow my own progeny to tell me what to do,” he grinned slyly as if considering his next words carefully, “and what makes you think that you have to live for eternity alone?”
Seras pushed him away viciously, trying to force away all the emotions that his words awoke in her, the hope that was seeding her mind. She was no longer the weak kitten he had sired and wouldn’t forgive him because of his unreliable rhetoric. “Then why did you leave me in the first place? Was it something I did? Was I too weak an apprentice for you to be around anymore? Or,” she grinned maliciously, knowing that her next words would be the final blow, “was it your hurt pride because your master refused to join you in the unlife?”
She didn’t even have time to gloat before she was roughly slammed against the far wall, her head hitting the cold stones with an unappreciated amount of force. Cool stone bit into her back as fingers gripped her neck like a vice, chocking unneeded air from her lungs. Stars faded from her view as her master’s face came back into sharp focus only inches from her own. Seras had never seen so many emotions on her master’s usually stoic features. An anger deeper than any she had ever known flashed through his blood-red eyes as he whispered threateningly, “You dare to speak to your master in such a manner? You’ve grown stupid over the years.”
Had she been 50 years younger, she would have shied away from his piercing gaze. Had she been a sane person, she probably wouldn’t have dared push his patience so far. However, she was neither young nor sane and simply glared at him from under her strawberry-blonde hair. “You may have sired me,” she smirked, “but you no longer control me as you once did. I was forced to drink of human blood of my own will long ago. I have truly become the demon you wished me to be and you no longer control me!”
His grin returned, though his voice remained dangerously somber. “Beautiful,” he growled, his face inching closer to her own, his warm breath on her lips, “you are everything I could have ever hoped. Look at you, all hell-sent and spit-fire. Worse than the Paliden, you’ve become. What happened to the Seras Victoria I knew?”
“She died a long time ago,” Seras whispered, turning her face away from his. A single tear traced her pale cheek, eventually falling into the abyss of the long-forgotten cell and onto the floor. She had tried to be strong and not show any emotion, yet here she was bowing to his will as always. It angered her and saddened her at the same time to know that he still held her heart as he always had.
“You don’t look dead to me,” he murmured, his voice softer than before, “so to speak.” She could almost feel his smile and wanted to wipe that ever-present smug look off his face for good.
“No thanks to you,” she growled, her anger returned in full force. Her voice grew with every word as her bitterness towards him resurfaced. “You left me to die, Alucard! And for that I will never forgive you!”
She was slammed against the wall again, this time with less force than before. “I left you to live, Seras!” Alucard growled. He backed away, allowing her to slide back down to the wall for a moment, holding her numb neck in annoyance, “And look at what you’ve become, a true nosferatu. This is the path you chose, Seras, the of a No Life King. Or Queen, if you so choose.”
She didn’t miss the hidden meaning laced under his words. Glaring pointedly, she lifted her head proudly in defiance. “You presume quite a lot, Master.” She said the last word mockingly, reveling in the fact that she was no longer bound to such trite designations.
“You’re still bound to me,” he told her grinning, “until you drink the blood our Mur Master, I will always know you. That is how I called you here through my will.”
“What do you want with me then?” she whispered fiercely, not breaking eye contact the entire time. He only smiled down at her wickedly, making her glad for the first time that she couldn’t read his thoughts.
“That,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a child, “is something I believe I will keep to myself for now.”
She wanted to scream at him in frustration. “Damn it, Alucard! Don’t play your games with me!”
“Who’s playing?” he asked, staring at her manically. Suddenly, he seemed a little more somber as his grin wavered a little. “Where are you staying?” he asked, looking upward as if he could see through the stone ceiling and out into the world above.
“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously, not sure what he was implying, but knowing that it probably would only lead to more irritation.
“Where do you stay during the day?” he restated to question more urgently, “the sun is almost up.”
“What does that matter?” Seras pointed out, still glaring at him angerly, “can’t you just stay here for the day? It’s dark down here.”
He grinned again. “You truly are heartless, leaving you master in the dungeon where he was imprisoned for so long?”
She was speechless for a moment before regaining her composure and retaliating. “I’m not heartless,” she stated, shrugging to imply that it didn’t matter her where he stayed, “but I’m certainly not obliged to harbor you from the sun nor your fears.”
“Seras, I gave you life over 50 years ago,” he said solemnly, “the least you could do is she me me for one day.”
Seras wanted desperately to reject him, to leave him in the cold confines of Hellsing and forget that he ever came back into her life. She wanted to run as hard and as fast as she could until she could escape those intense red eyes that seemed to strip away all the barriers that she had built around herself over the years. In only a few hours, he had reduced her to nothing more than the scared, lost girl whom he had given second life to and she hated him for it.
She sighed as her heart finally won out over her mind. As much as she wanted to hate him an man many times as she told herself that she did, she couldn’t push him away as easily as he did her. “One day,” she murmured as he smiled in triumph.
*****
Seras almost wanted to smile as she mused over what a sight they must have made he dhe drunks and the prostitutes who were stumbling through the morning hours as they marched towards her apartment. She in her black ensemble, glaring out at the world through her thick dark glasses and him dressed in his usual blood red attire, towering over her and grinning as though he was in on some cosmic joke lost on everyone else. Not much had changed in fifty years.
“Police Girl. . .” She sighed. Not much at all. “Where is it that you live?”
“I have a name!” she snapped. “I’d think that you would have the decency to address me by it by now!” He watched her out of the corner of his eye, amusement written across his sharp features.
“Fine,” he repeated his question to appease her, “Seras, where is it that you stay?”
She was surprised that he had actually listened to her, but didn’t allow any emotion to cross her stoic features. “I live in an apartment not too far from here.”
He sighed. “Things have changed since I last wandered the world unbound.”
Seras scoffed at his audacity. “Would you rather that I find a nice old mansion for you? Or perhaps you would like to spend another night locked in the cells of Hellsing, oh great one? Either way, I don’t mind escorting you back.” She gritted her teeth to avoid any more sarcasm to betray her, but her triad had already earned her a glare from her master. “An apartment is less suspicious than anything else,” she offered as an explanation, “My neighbors believe that I work a night job for a security firm, so they don’t notice my lack of day activity.”
“I see,” he said nonchalantly, “and you sleep in a coffin, I suppose?”
She shrugged. “It’s convenient.”
“And how is that you keep that hidden from others?” he asked, still staring straight ahead down the nearly deserted sidewalk.
“I don’t. There’s no need to hide things that no one else sees.” She watched him out of the corner of her eye, noting his graceful steps and manic gleam that she remembered from so long ago.
“You don’t have anyone at all?” he asked casually. She wasn’t sure what he was implying, but she could detect the hint of skepticism lingering in his voice.
“I have myself,” Seras answered curtly. She was relieved to see her building to her right a little farther down the block. Pulling her keys out of the pocket of her coat, she flipped to the key that unlocked the front door, as it was locked by the manager after ten for safety. “We’re here,” she murmured as the door clicked open.
They stepped into a dimly lit hallway that led directly to a flight of stairs to the right side and rows of doors to the left. The apartment complex was not high-class, but it was livable, with freshly painted toffee colored walls and wearing brown carpet. The dissipating smells of meals eaten earlier in the evening and human stink wafted through the air. The soft sounds of people in their bed reached the elder nosferatu’s sensitive ears as his kit led him to the right up the stairs. Their footsteps were muffled by thick carpet as they trudged upward.
As they neared the second flight, there was a faint creak from a door to the right as it swung open so slightly that one could have mistaken it for an accident had they not heard the heavy breathing of someone behind it. Alucard watched with amusement as Seras glared at a set of red eyes staring out at her from the door.
“Oh, Seras,” said a male FREAK as her stepped out into the flickering light, realizing that his jest was over. He had rust colored hair that stuck out in odd angles all about his sharp, animalistic features. Bright green eyes, unusual for a vampire, shone with mischief, first taking in the lovely female vampire before him then the stranger at her back. “I’m disappointed,” he grinned and leaned against the door frame, “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”
Seras’s already frayervesrves began to whine at her from pressure. She gritted her teeth in order to keep from punching the man right in the mouth. This FREAK vampire had fancied her since she moved into the complex and went to great lengths to pester her and bother her for favors of sorts. She had all but thrown him out into the midday sun to keep him away from her. She figured he was some sort of masochist and now he had decided to pick at her on a night that she very much just wanted to go to her room and go to sleep.
“Sod off, Bradley. First of all,” she answered through clenched teeth, “who I fuck is none of your concern, but if it was him, then I would probably throw myself into the sun.” Both men winced at her harsh words.
“Well then,” the FREAK Bradley smirked, taking a step closer to Seras who snarled ferally in return, “that means that we could just. . .”
“Don’t make me break your arm again,” she warned, grasping the aforementioned limb and twisting it until it cracked with pressure. He winced and stepped back, his hands held up in a gesture of surrender. “And remember,” she told him, almost as an afterthought, “you don’t see me, you don’t hear me, you. . .”
“Know nothing of you,” Bradley chanted with her and sighed, “I know, Seras.”
Seras smiled grimly. “Good,” she said and continued up the stairs towards her apartment, listening for the familiar click of Bradley’s door after a brief, yet annoying, conflict with him.
“Friend of yours?” Alucard asked teasingly, taking the whole of the events in and contemplating what he had seen between Seras and the FREAK vampire. She had obviously grown quick short-tempered in her years. ‘Or perhaps that had always been there,’ he mused, ‘and I just never taken the time to notice.’ His question earned him a glare in his direction.
“He wishes,” Seras murmured weakly, running out of witty retorts and angry words.
“I’m quite sure that he wishes you were more than friends,” he replied.
“In his dreams,” she answered, sliding her key into the lock and turning. The faint click of the bolt could be heard as he nodded towards her.
“Seras,” Alucard said amused, smiling down at her, “vampires don’t dream.”
Her only response was a subtle glare as she opened her apartment door and stepped into the familiar interior. She could hear Alucard moving n behind her as she flipped on the lights.
As light flooded the room, Alucard’s eyes feel upon Seras’ modest surroundings. The walls were painted a soft tope color that was muted by the dim lights and heavy black curtains over the windows to presumably keep out the light of the sun. She had a single couch, well worn and beat up, pushed against the far wall of the living room covered in blankets and pillows. Directly in front of that was a coffee table littered with books and magazines from different times from the last half-century. Pushed against the wall across from the couch and table was a small color TV on a sturdy wooden stand with a few movies and DVD’s scattered around it. Overall the whole living room was a farrago of seemingly random furniture and color schemes.
As Seras led him down a small hallway towards the back of the apartment, he noted a small kitchen off the right, open to both the dining and living rooms, giving the flat a more spacious look. There were a few closed doors to the left that he assumed led to extra bedrooms used for storage. She opened the last of these doors on the right and rushed into the waiting darkness of what he presumed was where she slept. Though he wasn’t sure if she would like his being in her private sanctuary of sorts, he doubted that she would make too big a fuss if she had allowed him to follow her thus far.
Alucard blinked as he entered what was obviously her bedroom. A large black coffin made of what appeared to be stained rosewood rested in the far corner, the lid closed to reveal a simple silver cross set in the obelisk-like surface. Across from the coffin was a large bookshelf overflowing with battered copies of all genres of material. Next to the bed was a large desk with files of papers meticulously piled and organized on it, including a few sketchpads and chew-on pencils and pens.
The thing that struck him the most surprising about the room was that, unlike the barren walls of the rest of the house, these were covered in both canvas paintings and ink sketches directly on the plaster surfacing. Screaming faces and monsters of blood and paint cried out at him from their two-dimensional prisons. The paintings were all dark and jagged, as if the artist had painted in a wild frenzy with bold strokes and nails, their medium of blood, tooth, and paint.
“Did you paint these, Seras?” Alucard asked curiously as she opened the closet door next to the bookshelf. Inside, he could see her clothing, most dark colors, meticulously arranged, a habit from years of military training. He grinned as he caught a glimpse of a familiar anti-FREAK cannon pressed into a corner of the closet behind everything else.
“Yes, I did,” she answered his question as she stretched to reach for a blanket and pillow on the top shelf of the closet.
“I see you’ve found your demons, then,” he observed, taking a closer look at a particularly large canvas near him. Dark colors and what appeared to be blood crossed white feathers and twisted human limbs. “An angel?”
Seras walked back towards him, the sleeping gear bundled in her arms carefully. She looked up at the painting as if seeing it for the first time and examining it for any flaws, her expression impassive. “I can’t manifest my demons physically like you, but I can see them in my heart. Waiting for something and screaming for release.”
“You know,” he told her, almost relieved to be telling her of the ways of the lamia, like he was supposed to, “each vampire’s demons will manifest themselves differently, according to that creature’s basic nature. Their soul, if you will.” Seras met his gaze and he glanced down at her for a response. Her eyes seemed hard and distant, so different from the meek, unsure girl he had known from so many years before.
“I’m not an angel, Alucard, “ she told him coldly as she lifted the bedding up in a gesture for him to open his arms. He accepted the blankets and pillow as she dumped them into his waiting arms and said, “These are for you.”
“Where will I be sleeping, then?” he asked, doubting very much that she would allow him to share her coffin, though the thought itself was a tempting one.
“You can sleep in the sun for all I care,” she answered nonchalantly, “but if you must, you can use my couch.” He grinned at her response, part of him secretly glad that she hadn’t lost her fire in a such a short amount of time.
He nodded and turned back toward the front of the apartment, presumably headed out to the couch for a day’s rest. She watched him retreat, her eyes weary and her mind heavy with unbidden thoughts that snuck into her conscious as his form disappeared into the shadows of the hallway. Sighing, she slipped her boots off and opened her coffin lid, not even bothering to change her clothes before she lay down for another day. “What have I gotten myself into?”
*****