Suffer The Little Children

In was well in the afternoon at Father Anderson's orphange. Much of the morning chores were done and there were only two hours until supper in the great hall. Some of the children while being watched under heavier supervision were blowing off some energy outdoors talking with friends, studying thier lessons, or just using the full extent of thier imaginations. The day was still warm yet the air was like a cool damp washcloth; moist and sultry after a heavy rain. Timothy Kellis, the dark-haired boy that had lost his bed neighbor Sally Minoro, was stalking a solitary frog out on the front porch of the main entrance. He made it into a game, seeing how close he could sneak up on it before it detected the child's presence and hopped off.

Sometimes the boy would make it interesting by switching positions, or crawling on his hands and knees like a cat sneaking up on birds. And then it would dart off again trying to reach the small pond near the front yard. Just as he was sure that he was close enough to the frog, he heard the sound of footsteps on the cobble sidewalk.

Must be someone to visit the sisters and priests today, Timothy thought looking up in the direction of the road.

Instead of the usual old men that would pay a visit to Father Anderson and bore him with adult discussions was a young woman dressed head to toe in a black nun's habit. The hem barely touched the woman's ankles and he could see her flat black shoes kicking up dirt as she went. Timothy took his eyes off the frog and watched as the woman dressed in a nun's garb approached the front entrance of the orphanage. He brushed the dust from his pants and ran up to the nun.

"Hello," he said cheerfully,"who are you?"

The woman stopped nearly dropping her suitcase in surpise. Ever since coming here she had rehearsed in her head what to say when she was being confronted by various priests but never had she ever expected her first encounter to be by one of the children. He was a sweet-looking child around the age of seven with short wavy dark-hair and bright brown eyes and a narrow angular face. When he smiled, Seras saw a row of bright pearly teeth glaring back at her. Upon first looking at him, she almost thought that it was her master in the form of a child. But she bite her lip remembering how it wasn't so and not confuse the child or worst yet blow her cover so soon.

"My name is Sister Mary," replied the nun,"and who would you be?"

"My name is Timothy."

"That is a very nice name Timothy," said Sister Mary,"I am new here, can you direct me to the man in charge?"

The boy smiled even wider happy to help out a new order of the convent, he quickly took Sister Mary's hand and dragged her up the steps to the front door.

Master I am in...apparently, I met one of the children and they are quite friendly...

Well, pay attention police girl and don't get distracted by thier adorable charms, you have a job to do!

Yes Master...

Remember, look for anything or anyone suspicious when you are here.

Timothy pushed the door open with his free hand and led Sister Mary through the threshold. At once her stomach did a flip-flop and she felt dizzy the moment she looked over her shoulder and saw a crucifix hanging over the front door. The kind little boy that escourted her inside disappeared from the corner of her eye calling out in a loud voice a name that almost made her as nausated as she was previously upon arriving.

"FATHER ANDERSON! FATHER ANDERSON!" Timothy could be heard yelling,"THERE IS SOMEONE TO SEE YOU!"

HIM!?!?! W-W-WE'RE HELPING OUT HIS ORPHANAGE...BUT...BUT...

What is the matter? Don't you to help those poor little things?

Why didn't you tell me?

Because then you wouldn't have taken the mission.

She didn't want to admit it, but deep down it was true, she would have turned it down flat out. Kids or no kids. But then, how would she live with herself if any innocent ones died just because of her own cowadice. Alucard wouldn't let it down (even call her a dissapointment for not facing her demons in the midst of a job) and Integra God knows how she would punish the fledgling if she refused to take the mission flat out. What was done was done, it was a terrible way to trick her into getting here, but it wasn't as if anyone would know who she was anyway. At least not at first glance. Sister Mary held back the urge to throw up as she sat down on a nearby chair, trembling softly as she waited for Father Anderson to greet her.

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The grandfather clock in Integra's office read a quarter past eight. Save for the tick tock of the large clock the room was quiet. Even Alucard standing there smugly beside her kept his full lips shut as he looked over her shoulder as Sir Hellsing read through the file that Enrico had handed to her yesterday; every once in a while to see if there was anything of interest to him in it. So far, all it had were the victim's birth certificates, photos, and background files that were filled out upon admitting them into the orphanage. What a bore.

"Alucard," seethed Integra,"you know how I hate having people read over my shoulder, why don't you go and get yourself ready for the midnight plane?"

"Because I didn't pack anything." he responded with a grin.

His master rolled her eyes and replied,"Then why don't you clean up your coffin spic and span so its ready to be taken to the airport...with you inside I might add."

"Honestly," he frowned, "I always liked a window seat why should I be cooped up in my coffin when I can mingle with the lovely passangers on the plane my master?"

"Because, you will just scare them half to death with your grin and the last thing I need is to draw this case any unneeded attention by someone screaming 'monster' at the top of thier lungs," she picked up a little girl's photograph and studied it as she continued, "you will go the same way Seras did, as a corpse whose family requested her to be buried in thier homeland, besides, I rather like making up little stories on thier cause of death when I transport you and Officer Victoria overseas in your coffins, I haven't told made-up tales like that since I was having a sleep-over with my friends at the boarding school...yours will be most romantic."

"Romantic?" he leaned over and whispered in her ear,"how so?"

"Oh, well," she turned around in her chair looking up at him playfully,"you were a man whose heart had been broken by your lover when you caught her cheating on you with another man and climbed up the highest building in London falling to your death...I love tragic romances...don't you?"

Alucard jumped back and let out a irritated growl as if Integra was entirely made out of blessed silver. She always used the 'tragic love story death scene' for him whenever he got too cocky before a mission or she was in a bad mood. His master swiveled back to her spot facing the desk and looked down at the files again. Trying to make heads or tails of the connection between the children victimized and the mysterious vampire hanging around the orphanage. One thing that Alucard mentioned many times in truth was that children's blood though sweet like sugar to a vampire made a very poor prey, and vampires being natural predators rarely ever ate them. Unless, he always told her, they were used by inexperienced fledglings then it was more as practice; a exercise the same way a mother cat would bring her weaned kittens a live mouse to play with and learn how to handle such prey on thier own. A true vampire alone never can last on children's blood except as a side dish or a special treat like candy. But never as a straight foreward food supply.

"This explains the ghoul infliction that Father Anderson saw in young Minoro," said Integra changing the subject,"it says here that before she came there, she was sexually abused by her biological father before he died...as for the rest of them, none were never molested or sexually abused before coming to or staying at the orphange, that would consider them ghouls then wouldn't it if that was the case, even for children?"

"As long as their virginity is taken than yes the rules are still the same last time I checked my master."

"She was the only one made a ghoul then," went on Integra,"according to the file that was written up during this incident only four children were entirely drained of thier blood, appearently to prevent the vampire change within them the remaining children's bodies were blessed and then cremated, Minoro was the only one killed by Father Anderson; each having the same mark on thier throat and looked as if they were sucked dry."

"The usual time it takes for a vampire to drain a child's blood in one night is at least a hour," noted Alucard, "he or she knows how to be efficient that means we may not be dealing with a fledgling here, they would have caught it in the act, but according to Maxwell it kept evading them, a fledgling until they learn uses the same place twice for a meal but a seasoned vampire will trick its enemies and other vampires by setting up false spots to throw them off to keep vampires and vampire hunters away. One of our many survival tactics."

"How educational," drawled Integra, as much as she appeciated Alucard's insight when it came to understanding how thier enemies thought, he always puffed himself like a big vampire know-it-all, which maybe was to be expected, but his arrogance in the matter annoyed her to no end,"then if this is a seasoned vampire like you said...give me a profile Alucard."

"A 'profile' Master...you humans always need to catagorize something, why the need to make something subhuman worth a file?"

"Because, I want to know what you both need to expect."

"But the fun is in the unexpected master..."

"Just give me a damn profile, you've been around other vampires before, there at least must be something in here that conjures up memories," she said,"besides, if Seras is undercover looking for anything suspicious it would be beneficial to her to focus on one particular thing that could help with this case. The sooner we solve it the better."

Integra eyed Alucard eagerly as he strolled around the desk taking a seat in the chair across from her and sat down with his legs crossed in a gentlemanly fashion. He seemed to be pondering in thought or perhaps pretending to just to tease her. She hated that he never took anything seriously. But when it mattered to him, than he never gave up until he saw it through to the end. The Hellsing woman leaned forward in her chair with her elbows on the desktop waiting for Alucard to say something.

"Well," he said with a air of professionalism,"I would have to say that...the vampire is a woman..."

"A woman?"

"Yes, a feminine face draws a child's attention more so than a masculine one," he quirked,"and not only does it have to be feminine, but one that is pleasing to the eyes, luring the child into a false sense of sercurity to match even the most protective of mothers."

"What else?"

"She must be attractive, gentle, kind, and even playful...not pouty or serious, enjoy being silly in thier company. She is a siren, a temptress, but instead of promising them carnal desires she promises them joy and fun. That is our vampire."

"Anything else?"

"Well, yes, actually," he leaned towards Integra until there was only a thin silver of space between them before adding,"if I was to turn you-you would make a horrible child-stalking vampire...you are too much of a wet blanket..."

Sir Hellsing drowned out Alucard's evil laugh with a rough yell and grabbed for her silver ashtray, she raised it up to slam it into the side of the vampire's face, but the No-Life King was too quick for her swing and pulled his head back out of the path of the makeshift weapon. She was so irked by his childish remarks that she had forgetten that it was full of dead cigar remains and it scattered onto the desk and all over the files she was suppose to be looking at. A agitated hand brushed the strands of yellow hair away from her eyes revealing that she was now sitting alone in her office with a spilled ashtray and dusty files. Integra leaned back into her chair deciding if it was a wasted effort on her voice to scream at him until her lungs were raw since he had already vanished through the walls anyway leaving behind his trademark spine tingling chuckle.

Get yourself ready to leave and no goofing around! She resorted to mentally scolding to him, and remember no fighting with the Iscariots for four days until the case is solved, or you will be locked in the chamber for three hundred years...Got it!

Yes Master...I hear and obey...

Good...now...when the time is right...search and destroy...

Sir Hellsing stood up from her chair and tucked the files underneath her arm. If they were to make the coffin to the airport they would have to hurry. Luckily, Walter had the death certificate and insurence waver they needed to ensure the luggage handlers that Alucard was indeed a dead body needed to be buried abroad. Everything was easier to manage when you had a couple of forged documents and a few extra strings to pull, she reminded herself.

Now the hard part was keeping Alucard quiet along the way.

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Seras (aka Sister Mary) smoothed her habit out nervously when she heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

"There she is," she heard Timothy say, "right over there."

The undercover nun/vampire looked up to see a towering man coming down a flight of stairs in a long black cassock and silver cross worn around his neck that dangled down to his abdomen. Upon approaching her closer, Seras saw perched on his shoulders was Timothy steadying himself by burying his tiny hands into the priest's short blond hair to prevent from falling, for if he did it would certainly give him more than a few bruises, yet the tall man was very careful as he walked. To Seras surprise, Anderson seemed quite skillfull in this type of carrying. Like he had done it a thousand times before.

For the first time in her undead life fighting in Hellsing and against the paladin, had she ever seen him in this type of enviroment before. Usually she saw him as a rabid, wild man with baronets brandished in the air hurling them at her one by one with a murderous glint in his eyes eager to rip her and her master to shreds. But now, it was just as much a shock to see him so gentle and quiet around a little boy, her surprise increased when he propped the boy off his head and gave him a hug before setting him down on the floor and watched him scurry off like a father happily watching his son go off and play with the other children. Seras refrained from nervously biting her bottom lip as he turned to her.

"Sooo," he drawled lackadaisely,"what do we have here, you must be the one that Timothy Kellis told me about, what is your name?"

"S-S-Sister Mary...Mary Auberon," she stuttered, "pleasure to meet you Father."

Anderson took a step towards her,"You look peaked, is something the matter?"

"I am just tired from the plane ride over here that is all," shrugged Sister Mary,"I will be fine..."

"Good," he said,"my name is Father Alexander Anderson, I run this orphanage, its good to see freash face here...come with me, I will show you to your room..."

He turned his back to her and went down a long hall filled with many painted pictures of various biblical scenes from both the New and Old Testaments. Sister Mary edged her way into the hallway but stopped aruptly, worried as to how she will react to the pictures on each side of the wall. As if sensing her, Father Anderson looked over his shoulder and halted to next to where the picture showed a scene in which Jesus was exorcising demons out of a man and placing it into a pen full of pigs (Mark 5 :1-16) staring at her emotionless.

"Are you coming or not...?"

TBC

A/N: Whew, another cliff hanger. I think this one was probably better than the first don't you think so? Does Anderson know its really Seras? Or is he having the wool pulled over his eyes by Hellsing? And will they ever catch the vampire that is hurting the children? Find out!

I understand that many of you were confused by the whole Sally Minoro deal. And though the "she was sexually abused by her father" solution seems a bit obvious it still sounds plausible considering how she may have ended up in the orphanage in the first place. So far from what I have seen or read about there is no age limitation for mortals being turned by vampires and sexual abuse of children has sadly gone on for centuries (take the manga chapter "Castlevania" for example) so in my opinion given those factors the idea of a ghoul child is possible.

Also, I hope you enjoyed Alucard's little "profile" of what kind of vampires can stalk children. I always enjoyed his little "vampire educational" discussions and so you may notice a lot of them swimming around here in this story...I figure no matter where you are its never too late for Seras to learn something new about her people. lol. Whether you disagree with the profile or not, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will have more on the way soon! Ciao!