Suffer The Little Children

Warning: Use of the "F" word from Alucard and a scary scene involving a demonic tree.

Seras rushed in through the kitchen just as some of the younger sisters and female parishioners were cutting up meats, assorted vegetables, and other foods for the children and other workers. She placed the flowers aside and put on an apron from off a nearby hook. Looking around for something to attend to she approached the cabinet and pulled out a few plates to serve the food on for the hungry children.

"Do you need any help?" asked a woman from behind her.

Seras turned around quickly and locked eyes with a beautiful woman smiling at her. She was a bit taller than Seras and poised very elegently and perfectly. Almost noticing how pale in comparison Integra stood in majesty to this nun. The only thing that stood out were her ocean blue eyes that sparkled from the light of the hearth bouncing off the walls. Holding the plates close to her chest, she blushed slightly, the nun seemed to not have noticed.

"Oh, well, I didn't know which food went on which plate," she said,"perhaps you know...?"

"Certainly," replied the nun,"I am Sister Lillie by the way,-" she took the plates off of Seras's hands"-my your hands are cold."

"Oh I just got inside," replied Seras hiding her free hands underneath her robe,"its getting chilly out there."

"I haven't noticed," admitted Sister Lillie,"but I have been inside myself for most of the day, now lets see...I think the meat goes on here...and we always put the green beans in this bowl, take this out will you?"

Seras nodded and took the bowl of green beans into the eating hall and placed it on a table in the middle, the room was empty saved for some of the other nuns placing various meals in the same places where Seras did, she was about to turn back around and fetch the meat when Sister Lillie appeared standing at the entryway holding a large plate full of juicy roast. It was odd, the vampire nun dared to wonder, how quickly she moved like that when the kitchen was just a two minute walk away. But she shrugged it off seeing how Sister Lillie just was here longer and could get things done around here faster than most.

As Seras along with the rest of the nuns got everything ready for tonight's meal, Alucard helped himself to a meal of his own within the confines of his well-hidden coffin concealing a enough blood packets that would sustain him for the duration of his trip until they were ready to leave. Sitting down beside the coffin he sipped his drink as he watched the crescent moon cast its light down upon the orphanage.

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Father Anderson lead the meal in prayer as he stood at the main entrance that lead from the studies into the dining hall. Routinely it seemed like, Timothy would take him to wherever chair the little boy would sit next to and that would be his designed spot, walking from his spot and supervising the meal making sure that the plates were notified of refills, children didn't cause any trouble or no one was absent he glared from underneath his glasses at the nun Sister Mary as she appeared from the kitchen hall entryway watching the children one by one. Suddenly, he saw a dark-haired boy in a green shirt run up to the woman and grab her hand leading her to a empty chair next to him.

"Sit over here," said the boy excitidly,"please?"

"Well," responded the nun flustered,"if that is okay with Father Anderson, Timothy."

"Oh he won't mind," shrugged Timothy, "please Sister Mary?"

"Well," she looked up at Anderson,"all right I will."

A flush of heat entered his face the moment he heard it, what was that little fanged Jezebel trying to pull, he thought, did she put the kid under some sort of spell or something? However, upon closer inspection the boy sounded and looked absolutely free-willed in allowing Seras to sit beside him. It was not unusual since there was suppose to be one two adults per table on the left and right ends. He made his way down the opposite end of the table where Seras sat and took his chair all the while giving "Sister Mary" a side-long glance. It would be undignified to make a scene after all, as long as he was sitting at the same table as she Seras would soon think twice before trying anything sinister on the young ones.

Unbeknowest to either one of them Sister Lillie was observing thier awakard glances as she served the punch.

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The blood packet had emptied into his mouth in the blink of an eye. The Elder vampire got to his feet and stretched out his body as agiley as a cat before throwing the plastic bad aside on the ground. He was about to make his way to the building in front of him when a strange sound in the woods stopped him in mid-stride. With his vicious grin he took out his guns from underneath his red duster and backtracked into the woods. Something that sounded like hollow rasping from a dying creature. A wandering ghoul or a demon that was out hunting for a meal. The raspy sound changed from a gasp into a large deep animalistic roar of moving air but no movement or sensation from the breeze to autherize it.

"What on earth is that?" he mumbled couriously.

He broke into a run the moment his eyes casted down on the vague forest path that sent him into the thick of the deep dark forest. Sensiblity would have him say to call Seras, but there was no way that she would have all the fun, besides it was exactly the break he needed from the dull quietitude of tonight. Weaving off the path through one tree and the next, the sound changed its location taunting the hitman everytime he felt he was close. Shadows morphed the size and depth of Alucard's surroundings, shadows that were not his own but casted by the moon's bright light giving off the illusion that the tree limbs were moving and shifting without the aide of the wind to guide them.

Like they were truely alive he noticed.

Once he reached what was the epicenter of the forest near Ferdinant's Luke he stopped and took a look around with his weapons cocked and pointing at various spots. Expecting to see a ghoul or even the vampire. The sound continued and lowered its volume very slowly. His insticts told him to leave, that something here was not right, but that vampire was a daredevil in his own right. He let out a definate laugh and took another step when the instep of his shoe kicked something as hard as a stone. It was a stone as a matter of fact. Many stones arranged in a ritualistic fashion in the shape of a semi-circle mirroring the moon. In the curve of the stones was a patch of dry blood sprinkled in such a way that it made out a odd little symbol unlike anything he had ever recognized before. He knelt down to get a closer look of the design.

Master...can you hear me?

What is it Alucard?

Master, I seem to have uncovered something quite interesting in the woods close to Ferdinant's Luke, some sort of runic symbols arranged from stones.

What do they look like, are they anything vampiric?

Vampires do not bother themselves with arts and crafts master, he responded reaching down to touch it with the tip of his fingers, we are more 'hands on' in our work so to speak...but I have never seen anything like it as long as I have served your family. I can't even tell from what pagan rituals this looks to be from.

From behind him, two swinery branches began to twist and turn snaking thier way towards Alucard as he was standing there relaying the news of the archaic shrine to Sir Integra.

What makes you say its pagan?

What else could it be then, he snicked amusingly, besides, last time I check faith-based religions didn't concern themselves with that much primitive symbolic decorating.

Symbolic?

It is shaped like the crescent moon my master.

The branches twisted themselves together into one long braided rope attached to a large decaying tree with two holes on each side of the front of the base and one larger jagged hole on the bottom making a most macabre face. The end of the braided rope disappeared into the tree's mouth creating a diabolical tongue and it did not breath or make a sound but it shifted its weight to know that it was coming to life. In the end it was living ghastly tree with its top branches as grasping claws and the brambles from its mouth slithering ever so near to the unsuspecting vampire.

Import the image to Walter, ordered Sir Integra, and he will be standing by with a sketch book to-to...Alucard?

In the flash of a eye, Alucard's mind was interrupted quickly by the feeling of something grabbing his waist and dragging him on his stomach across the dirty forest floor. Rotating on his back he looked up into the horror of a living man-eating tree staring down at him with ember-filled red eyes; its mouth jagged with pointy sharp bark pulled Alucard towards him into its mouth as the vampire kicked and moved trying so hard to turn into mist or bats. But the intensity of the tree monster's 'eyes' burrowing straight into his own filled him with a sense of horror that he had never seen numbing his cool composure enough to keep him from figuring out whether the safest bet would to turn himself as mist or escape as a bat.

Expecting to fight a ghoul or vampire he never thought he would deal with a tree that was trying to eat him. In a manner of seconds was all it took when he saw his feet and then shortly after his legs disappear into the tree monster's mouth leaving only his upper body sticking out of the creature. He felt like the poor little girl in one of the Nightmare On Elm Street movies being swallowed alive by the might Krueger-like worm. The tongue cradled inside it's oral wooden cavity slithered warm sappy saliva around Alucard's hips and legs at the same time the bark teeth bite down on his waist so deeply that they drew blood from him. He nearly came close to passing out when it hit him that he was about to be devoured alive.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" he yelled more in anger than in fright there was no way in hell he was going to have his undead life end by the hands of a goddamn walnut tree,"EAT BULLETS YOU FUCKING VAMPIRE-EATING SAPLING!!!"

He raised his guns and fired straight into the tree hoping to hit a weak spot that would entice it to let him go. But the tree growled between its teeth and two branches on the side of him lowered down on Alucard and turned into wooden hands gripping tightly around him. Holding him down as he was being gently coerced into the monster's mouth. Alucard was bound and determined to not be eaten by this being, there was only one shot, it may have been silly considering what he was fighting against but it was the only shot he had.

Alucard fired a bullet into the right hollowed out eye of the tree. It was a direct hit, a wave of blood poured from the knothole of the tree that was its eye and spilled down on Alucard covering him in blood. However it was no time to contemplate the possiblity of a tree bleeding let alone eating someone that was not a tree themselves. Painfully, the creature roared loudly releasing his hold on Alucard allowing the triumphant vampire to collect his thoughts and disappear into a wave of bats appearing on the top most roof of the orphanage leaning against the bell tower. Deep in the recesses of his mind he could still here Sir Integra calling out for him.

Alucard! ALUCARD! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED!?!?!? ANSWER ME!!!

He rested his back against the stone frame of the bell tower used to call the children inside and reloaded his guns.

Don't worry master, I just almost became plant-food, that's all...

WHAT? DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE!?! THIS IS SERIOUS WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT THERE?

What is happening master, he sat himself down on the shingles, is that we may not be dealing with no ordinary vampire.

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In her room, Seras closed the door and looked around her room. It was just as drab and dull as the room back in Hellsing. No mirrors, no table cloth on the table, even the bedsheets were plain with a shade of ugly gray. It made her realize how much better it was in her chamber. So far nothing out of the ordinary in the interior of the orphanage. Alucard must have been looking around the outside premises as told to by thier boss as Seras removed her whipple she sat down on the bed and looked out the window that showed the woods nothing but the flock of blackbirds pouring out from the canopies croaking and cawing. She leaned back in her bed and thought about today.

The only two that showed the most interest in her was Sister Lillie and the orphan boy Timothy. Timothy was very chatty mostly telling her about who he was and how he came to be here most of which she had forgotten after being too busy trying to avoid Father Anderson's cruel stares. Did she overstep her boundry a little, maybe even butted into some turf that could blow her cover, no he couldn't be that petty could he?

"Stop it," she scolded herself,"you are not trying to make friends here, you are suppose to uncover the indentity of the vampire stalking these children, who cares if he feels left out not sitting next to that little boy its not as if I hypnotized him into sitting next to me that may work for Master but not me-and I shouldn't be thinking these worries anyway, not when I have a job to do-"

A knock on the door drew her out of her inner conversation.

"Who is it?" she asked lifting her head.

"Its Sister Lillie may I come in?" answered the woman from behind the door.

"Its open," responded Seras sitting up and on the side of her bed,"you can enter if you like."

Sister Lillie walked through the door staring down at Seras smiling.

"I was checking to see how your first day was going," she said,"I hope you decide to make yourself home here, so rarely do we get a new face, and I think Timothy seems quite taken with you."

"He is a very nice boy," shrugged Seras,"its a shame what happened to his parents both dying in that car accident, I know what its like to lose both parents at the same time I hope the best for him, and I also hope I didn't make Anderson jealous or anything; he seemed quite taken aback when Timothy wanted me to sit next to him, does Anderson usually sit next to him?"

"Sometimes," responded Lillie sitting down next to Seras,"he may look like a cranky rooster but he is a gentle soul with a fondness for those in need of the lord, he may be intimidating at first, but once you stay here a while longer he will open himself up to you, has it been bothering you Sister Mary?"

"It dosen't really bother me," Seras lied of course,"I will be fine I think."

She moved over across the room to reach for her whipple when she heard Sister Lillie say:

"I do love the color of your hair."

She snapped her head toward Sister Lillie

"Huh?"

The sister stood up and walked gracefully towards Seras placing a hand through her thick trussels of strawberry blond hair, "Its lovely," she admired,"I like the way it shines so beautiful, please don't cover it up with a whipple now. You don't have to not in the privacy of your own room, you don't sleep with it on do you?"

"No," she giggled,"of course not...okay then, its been feeling itchy anyway."

She felt a pair of full red lips touch her forehead,"Sleep well, sister, tomorrow is a new day."

With that Sister Lillie walked out of Seras's room as quickly as she had entered it.

"Yes," sighed Seras,"tomorrow is a new day for Sister Mary."

The door clicked shut and she heard the all too familiar purr of a man's voice in her ear,"Police Girl...Sister..."

Seras turned to Alucard the moment he showed himself through the black inky portal, his waist was lined with blood as was his coat, hat, and the rest of his attire dripping with dark red liquid soaking into the floorboards. She cringed hoping that it wouldn't attract the attention of anyone standing down below her room. It was bad enough she as a nun that had a man in her room but a man drenched in blood to top it off.

"Master," she gasped audilbly,"what has happened to you?"

"Lets just say karma came and kicked me in the ass tonight." he said with a blood soaked grin.

TBC

A/N: This chapter was more or less a big challenge for me, since I am not sure how Alucard would truely react to almost being eaten by a tree (which will be explained later on in the next chapter) but I figured it would be interesting to witness and seeing how it has never happened before I guess the truth is it can be perhaps played out however you want, in my case, here you go. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

I intend to make Timothy and Sister Lillie my OC for this story since they both play a big part til the end. I am so glad you all love this story and I apolgize for Alucard's lame responce to Seras at the end of this chapter. Happy writings to one and all!