Alucard awoke with a start. So startled was he that he rammed his head against the thinly padded lid of his coffin hard enough to pop it open. He lay back and examined his head while trying to determine what had roused him.
Ever since defeating his own father, Dracula, a week ago, Alucard felt as if he were going through a mid-life crisis, or as close as a vampire could be to that. With Dracula gone, there was no reason for his son to walk among the living. His work done, Alucard should have been satisfied with submerging his powers and entering eternal sleep once again, but he was far from doing that. Knowing that his very damned existence was a potential danger to the world, he wondered why he still allowed himself to live. To commit suicide was the way of a coward; he did not welcome death, nor did he shun it (he whipped that sorry little reaper to dust in the Cave/Abandoned mine!), so the only solution left was to sleep beyond the flow of time. Yet he could not bring himself to do so.
It seemed hours before he stirred again from staring at the wooden rafters of the room. Time was not relevant to an ageless being. He finally sat up and looked around the room as if never before seen. It was a tiny room above the town inn: an empty attic where he had dragged a coffin to dwell in before returning to his sacred abode to sleep. The wood of the attic walls was dark and old, cobwebs and shadows hung in every corner, stretching across the boards. It smelled musty and sweet, but not overbearing, in the cool morning air.Yet the sun was shining outside, the rays finding their way through slits in the roof and slanting through the air in shimmering sheets of light. It reminded him of home.
What home? Alucard asked himself. Obviousy not his father's lavish castle, the ancient Castlevania, which was an enormous house both beautiful and frighteningly horrible. So there was no place that seemed like this except, perhaps, something from his earliest years, beyond the void of timeless pain that was his memory, when there was nothing but wonderment.
Yes, that's it, he thought. It does remind me of home: my mother's home.
He remembered from so long ago the time he visited Lisa in town when he was nearly sixteen. He remembered the unmasked happiness on her face when he rode up to her door on a demon, the sight of which scared the entire town into setting blockades from the inside of their houses and crossing themselves over and over. But she did not care, not for all those neighbours condemning her the minute she stepped outside. How could she? Her only son had come, demon or no. He also remembered her modesty, her bottomless generosity to others, and most of all her love for her damned son.
Alucard recalled his mother's small house with a large yard for growing herbs. The simplicity of her lifestyle had urged him to stay with her, and the human side of him had told him to look after her the way his father could not. So he had stayed until her death and then returned to Castlevania for a short time...
That was how it was, Alucard reminisced sadly. Since then he had not been among humans except for the teaming up with Trevor Belmont, Sypha and Grant to destroy Dracula...
Now, he stepped out of the coffin in a single, fluid motion, moving towards the one window facing a side street. With little difficulty, though the frame was stuck and twisted, he slid it open and put his head outside.
"Good afternoon, Master Alucard," Maria called up from standing in the street.
Alucard sighed heavily. Each morning he awoke and looked out the window to find her standing there. Each morning she said the same thing:
"I pray you come down and speak with me," she was saying.
For the past five days he had closed the window and resumed his slumber until night when she was no longer there. Why he had not left the town, and the girl standing there with it was still a mystery even to himself. Today, perhaps, things would break from their daily cycle.
Alucard realized he was staring a vampire's stare and checked himself. "Very well then," his rich voice uttered so softly that she did not hear him.
Maria watched hopefully up at the window, knowing fully that he would come down that day. Something inside her knew, and that knowledge filled her with warmth despite the demi-vampire's cold stare. She would wait all day if only to talk him out of going away. If he so much as stepped foot out of the town, she knew she would never see him again. She had almost lost all hope when he had left the ruins of Castlevania, but she was lucky enough to find him stalling in this nearby village of Wallachia.
Suddenly, something large overshadowed her and she looked up to see a blueish-grey wolf appearing in mid-air a story above ground. It flew overhead and landed some paces away from her, the largest wolf she had ever seen, well above her waist. Its yellow eyes flickered within, constantly watching as it circled her. A voice came from the animal although its lips did not move.
"About what do you wish to speak to me?" Alucard asked, still circling Maria slowly.
"You know you do not have to leave," said she turning her head to follow him.
". . . And why not?"
"Because you are not evil, Alucard, but almost human. I know you would never hurt anyone involuntarily. You do not need to hide."
"We've been over this." He was annoyed. "My bloodline is cursed; I should keep it away from the rest of the world." The wolf shook its head.
"And you would keep your human side from the world as well?" Maria pointed out.
The wolf's form shimmered and elongated upwards becoming the shape of a man. Alucard, being half a head taller, looked down at her with unmasked coldness.
"That is a necessary sacrifice," he said flatly.
"It does not have to be," she pleaded, ignoring his attitude, "You can control your power. You can live like a normal person."
"Normal?!" He was incredulous, then gave a bitter a chuckle. "I suppose I could take that as a compliment. But come, Maria, this is no place to talk."
They started walking as the town slowly came to life around them, it was already mid-morning. Maria calmly slipped her hand around Alucard's unwilling arm.
"Where are we going?" She asked innocently.
"My mother's grave." His voice contained no emotion.
"Oh," was all she uttered. Then, "That is why you came here?"
"Yes. . ."
Both remained silent even as they came around the outer stone wall of the village to the cemetary. Beyond that they continued along the wall until Alucard stopped. Maria wondered why they stopped for there was nothing unusual, just the wall on their left and a vast plain stretching into forest on their right. There was no marking of any tomb nearby and nothing out of the ordinary. Then Maria looked carefully at the moss covered stones of the wall. There seemed to be one large stone, or a few composite stones that formed a cross. Maybe it was just her imagination, but when Alucard noticed her scrutinizing it, he nodded.
"My mother was lynched, crucified and burned as a witch, and so received no proper burial. I laid her beneath the wall where her remains will never be disturbed."
"How horrible," Maria said, truly moved.
"Indeed."
The girl knelt in the long grass and traced the edge of the cross with her gloved fingers, removing the moss as she went. Alucard merely watched in mild fascination.
"As I was saying," she began, "You are obviously not devoid of human qualities. You can control your vampiric powers completely, so why not try living with humans for a while?"
"But that is the point!" he said heatedly without altering the volume of his voice. "I can control it most of the time, but what happens if some ignorant triggers something within me? That is my fear: that I will lose control."
He turnied away from the houses and towrads the open fields. A light breeze picked up and played with his pale blonde, waist-length hair. The sun, which had now reached a formidable height, beat down on them without obstruction, but Alucard showed no signs of discomfort despite wearing a black overcoat and cape. The view of the tranquill plains did little to calm his raging inner conflict.
Control. That is what it is all about. All his life, Alucard worked hard to maintain the uneasy balance within him between vampire and human, and that was ultimately himself. He was neither being, not enough of each, but possibly something more than either could be. This is what he believed himself to be concerned over. If he stayed amidst humans what would happen? Would the balance tip, and would he become more human? Or maybe loose control of his vampiric side in the process...
“I grow weary of this world. . .” said he, finally.
“Is there not anything you love within it?” Maria stood up beside him trying to make contact with those elusive golden eyes.
He thought for a minute. “The wind, perhaps. It is not unlike myself: Always there, but forever moving.”
“. . . Anything else?” she queried.
A slightly curious look in his eyes, Alucard turned to face her.
She exhaled her words in a sigh, as if not meaning for him to hear them, “I love you, Alucard.”
Despite the detachment from feelings vampires had, Alucard could not help the shocked expression on his face. He actually backed a step away from her.
“I was afraid of that,” he said albeit her infatuation was blatantly obvious. “Another reason I must remove myself from here. I thank you for your honesty and concern, dear lady. Farewell.” He spun around and walked with inhuman swiftness away.
Maria immediately broke into a run as quickly as her long legs could allow, but when she tried to grab his arm, her hand swept through his multiple shadow images. He kept walking without looking back, and a pit of despair began to form within Maria, rising until it threatened to drown her. She knew she had to stop him somehow; if only she could catch up to him! She kept running after him as she called out.
“And what of me? You would leave me here in desolation? I believed you could love, as you could love your mother, the wind, or was I wrong about you? Why can’t you love me?”
Her words floated to him unevenly on the wind though he tried not to listen.
Her breath became ragged with trying to yell and sprint at the same time, and her tone dropped, “Have you forgotten how to feel human emotion?”
Alucard abruptly turned and walked back so quickly that Maria had no time to slow down, and ran right into his solid frame. His hands were on her shoulders steadying her before she even knew she was off balance. She looked up at him hopefully when he did not move. They stood there a while like that without a word passing between them. The sun began the second part of its journey before Alucard finally stepped back.
“You do not realize how heavily your words weigh upon me,” he said slowly. “Nor do you realize what they truly mean to yourself. You cannot love me.”
Somehow, Maria could sense the true impact of her words on him, and was instantly sorry. “I’m sorry,” she said contritely, “I suppose it is unfair of me to expect you to risk endangering innocent people, and yourself just for the want of a silly girl. And I guess it is not within my power to keep you with me. Good-bye, Alucard. . .” She inhaled deeply to refrain from breaking into sobs even though her eyes had already begun to water.
Alucard stood watching her. He knew that she, being a strong and noble girl, would not utter a sound until she was well away from him.
Maria started walking quickly back towards Wallachia, trying to focus on a single puff of white cloud in the azure sky to keep her tears from brimming over. She hoped he was happy to be rid of her, since that was all she had felt him telling her wordlessly while staring into his infinitely deep gaze. Yet she still loved him, and could feel her heart breaking as much as for him as for her own sorrow. Then she fancied she could hear him following her at a short distance. But that could not be, she thought, he would be well away by now.
“Maria. . .” She heard the wind playing tricks with her. Her step faltered once but she continued even faster.
“Maria, please. . .” Alucard seized her arm gently, but she twisted away only to stare foolishly, and then angrily back at him.
“What?” she nearly screamed at him. “Why do you not leave, since that is obviously what you want to do? You want me to leave you alone, so I am going! What do you want??”
This caught him dumbfounded. Why did he stop her? He looked away, I do not know. . . Then he suddenly made up his mind. “Now it is I who must speak with you,” he said. “But not here, lest I feel like running away.” His form shifted and became wolf again. “Climb on and hold on tight.”
Maria looked bemused, then smiled as she gently mounted his back, and gripped the belt around his body until her knuckles turned white. She gave a small shriek as the wolf charged across the fields towards the village, his powerful muscles moving under her. As Alucard picked up speed, she flattened herself against him, her face against his neck. They flew across the fields, and she was amazed that she had followed him so far away from the village, which now loomed up before them, fast.
The wolf switched from a lope to a trot and they stopped as they reached the stone in the wall that marked Lisa’s grave. Alucard said, “Kiss the stone for me.” Without dismounting, Maria leaned forward and touched her lips to the cold stone. “Thank you,” was he said before he moved again.
With fightening power, he leapt onto the ten foot high wall and trotted along it until he reached the street that led to the old inn. He then scrambled along roof tops, thrilling Maria many a time, heading for the tall building. Reaching the building next to his temporary home, Alucard reverted to human form, took Maria up in his arms and jumped the ledges on the wall to the top, where he place her on the roof while he opened the window.
“You expect me to climb through that??” Maria exclaimed at his gesture towards it.
“It’s not as small as it seems,” came his cryptic reply.
Indeed it was true, for when she stepped over the sill she found it much easier to slip through than it looked. It must be an illusion, she thought. Even Alucard entered relatively easily.
As soon as he entered there was a screech and a flutter from somewhere on the ceiling. It descended and screamed loudly in front of Maria, whose eyes tried to adjust in the relative dark to see what it was. The noisy little thing hovered for a moment and then drew back as if to attack.
“Stop that,” said Alucard sternly. The bat cried in defiance, but nonetheless flew away from Maria to perch on his forearm. “Spiteful wretch,” he scolded softly and then to Maria, “You must excuse her, she’s a little over protective of me.”
“She?” Maria looked at the bat.
It was about the size of a large crow and as black. It cocked its head and turned a shiny, cautious eye on her. When she tried to touch it, the bat hissed in annoyance and flashed its sharp teeth. Maria recoiled slightly.
“Does she have a name?” she asked as the bat resettled its leathery wings.
“No.” Alucard left it at that, and kissed its ugly head. “Go back to sleep.” The bat took off and disappeared amidst the shadowy rafters.
“How now, Alucard?” Maria turned to look at him.
“You may call me Adrian,” he said, removing his cape. “I am sorry, I have not any appropriate furnishings for you to sit on. Here.” He spread his cloak out on the wood panelled floor.
“I don’t mind. . . Adrian.” She flushed at having the privilage to speak his real name, and settled herself comfortably on the cloak.
Alucard also sat, thought some, then faced her and began to relate a brief tale of his life. From Dracula’s involvement with Lisa, to the legendary story of how he helped Trevor Belmont, to his final battle with his father a week before, Alucard spoke with little emotion, but inside he could feel his soul burning.
The Sanctum of Alucard
Back Shadowfax's Fanfic Page!