Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Life in the Gloom ❯ The Haunting ( Chapter 1 )

“The Haunting”

 

Integra peered into the vanity mirror.  She sighed softly, hating how wearied and haggard she looked.  Her eyes were still sore and the skin around them was puffy from crying all day.

 

It was shameful to realize she was so weak.  Her father had named her the new director of Hellsing and this was no way to act, even if it was perfectly understandable.  Today she had attended Father's funeral and had also found out that Walter would be away on business for the next three days.

 

This is was not a good time for her to be alone, especially with Uncle Richard acting so strange.  He'd been distant and cold since the wake.  Integra was wary; something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what. Maybe she was just being paranoid.  After all, she was quite possibly the youngest Hellsing to become the family's head, not to mention the first of her gender.  It was only natural that she would be nervous over the future.  Integra was not so naïve as to think that her leadership would be accepted without question or controversy.

 

“Doesn't matter,” she murmured with a determined shake of her head.  “The organization is my responsibility now; I won't, no…I can't fail, no matter my youth or gender.”

 

The solemn promise and the hardening of her conviction comforted her some, perhaps enough that she could conceive of sleeping.  She was actually very tired, all the way down to her bones, but a part of her was afraid to close her eyes. Integra was filled with foreboding, as if an ugly shadow was hovering near. 

 

The thought was disturbing and too intense for her to bear.  Integra shivered and closed her eyes, trying to still her unreasonable fears before they became hysterical within her.  It was only because she'd attended her father's funeral; it was only because a part of her felt guilty for being unable to do anything now aside from fearing phantoms and sinister intentions.

 

I must be brave.

 

She stood and turned away from the mirror, spine straight and proud.  This was just the first of many tests, wasn't it?  Integra was determined to overcome.

 

She had to...because she was Hellsing.

 

*~*~*~*

 

In her dream, she was back at the funeral.  It was not something she cared to repeat, being surrounded by relatives she didn't know very well but were oh so sympathetic.  Yet the dream was strange and everything seemed to be frozen in time. No one noticed when she stood and began to walk down the chapel's center aisle.  She stared in mute horror at the figures who had attended: Women with unmoving tears and the men as serious as statues.

 

Integra was relieved to see the barest hint of movement in the back of the church. Someone was standing while everyone else was sitting in the pews.  She frowned when it occurred to her that she couldn't recall anyone lurking in such a manner.  As she moved closer to get a better look, a creeping chill ran up her spine.

 

Integra did not recognize this man, not as a relative or anyone who worked for her family.  Perhaps he was an old friend of her father's or someone's older son, but she certainly would have remembered him had he truly been at the funeral.  He was very tall and almost unnaturally pale; his hair was black as pitch, shoulder length, and very smooth looking.  The man did not look English, but rather seemed to come from a more Eastern European stock. It showed in his aquiline nose and high cheekbones and the thin, somewhat sharp shape of his face.

 

He wore all black aside from a pair of white leather gloves.  Inappropriately, he was also wearing a pair of sunglasses perched high on the bridge of his nose.  The frames were round and small and the lenses were ruby red.  Integra was embarrassed to be sidetracked by his appearance, though she was quite sure that she'd never seen a man so handsome.

 

Enough of this, she shook herself.  She needed to know who he was and why he was here in this dream when he'd been absent from the reality.

 

Though she was unnerved, Integra decided to be as civil as possible.  After all, she'd heard of psychic dreaming and spiritual guardians.  Integra had never had a prophetic dream before, but it wouldn't do to mess up her very first one.

 

“Excuse me,” she greeted the man as she approached, “but what are you doing here?”

 

His expression was inscrutable due to his glasses and his voice was deep and silken when he spoke.  It made her feel funny and her breath hitch queerly in her chest.  “I am paying my respects.”

 

Integra blinked, “Well…yes.  It's a funeral, but…You understand this is a dream?”

 

The man chuckled, “Dreams are all that I have now.”

 

She struggled to comprehend his meaning.  Something in his countenance both frightened and enthralled her.  He looked ethereal and alien.

 

“Who are you to my family?” Integra demanded boldly.

 

“I am a servant,” he replied simply.

 

“A servant?” Integra was perplexed.  Her family really didn't keep many attendants around, the fewer the better lest their secrets be uncovered.  “What do you do for us?  Why have I never met you?”

 

“My services have not been needed of late, so I have not been utilized.”

 

Integra thought hard on what he could be.  She couldn't picture him doing laundry or cooking evening meals.  Her eyes widened at the notion that he could be a specialized hunter under the organization's employment.  “Are you a vampire hunter?” she asked, “because if you truly exist outside of this dream, I should very much like to meet you!”

 

Possibilities swarmed through her mind.  Dusty old journals and verbal tutelage was fine but to speak to someone who actually hunted the creatures and successfully killed them appealed to her greatly.  Why just the stories he could tell was enough incentive!

 

He favoured her with a look that was somehow both bemused and sad, “You don't want to meet me.  Stay innocent a little longer, Miss Integra.”

 

She shivered despite herself; she liked the way he said her name.  Her temper overcame her momentary girlish fluster.  “I am the new leader of Hellsing!  You must come and speak with me!  I want to know all that I can about my enemy.”

 

The man scrutinized her with great interest.  The lenses of his sunglasses were somewhat translucent and made his eyes appear to be scarlet.  “Oh?”  He intoned softly, “Then I suspect we will be meeting quite soon.”

 

A wash of foreboding chilled her to the bone.  Something wasn't quite right here.  She was missing something vitally important…But what?

 

He was suddenly very close to her and gently grasped her chin between long, elegant fingers.  His touch was cold, almost icy despite the fact that he was wearing gloves.  “I think that I would like very much to be mastered by you.” 

 

“I…I don't understand.”

 

“You will soon.”

 

Integra shook her head as the dream began to break down. “Who are you?”  She whispered.

 

He grinned and revealed long, sharp fangs.  Integra faced down the vampire, but her mind was dizzy with the horror of it all.

 

*~*~*~*

 

The sound of morning songbirds outside her window pulled her out of an uneasy slumber.  She woke up angry and disappointed as she remembered last night's dream. Of all the bloody, stupid things to dream about.

 

Integra vaguely wondered what on earth could have sparked such a strange, vivid nightmare.  Honestly, a vampire serving Hellsing?  How absurd, she thought.  She wasn't sure what was more ridiculous, the idea that her family would utilize such a creature or the concept of a vampire submitting to any will other than their own.

 

Integra sighed and put on her glasses.  She was alone in the compound until later today when Sir Islands was to stop by in order to speak to her about her future with the Protestant Knights.  It was six in the morning; she had three hours to get ready.

 

Integra knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, half-afraid that she would dream of that strange vampire again.  Though she was mostly convinced that it had all been a silly little nightmare, Integra made a mental note that she would ask Sir Islands about it.

 

I think that I would like very much to be mastered by you. Those remembered words were too vivid and clear in her mind.  Integra trembled with fear and curious anticipation.  Master, she thought idly, almost dreamily, I like the sound of that.

 

Shaking herself from the disturbing memory, Integra steeled herself for the day to come.  She couldn't go around daydreaming when she had to make a good impression.  Integra wanted to seem like a competent leader and not an awkward, uncertain teen-ager.

 

Despite her conviction, she was still a bit anxious.  It was of her opinion that it would be a very good idea to have her morning tea in the small garden on the compound's grounds.  She wanted to get away from the shadows that seemed to forever lengthen the building's hallways and into the early morning daylight.

 

Finis.