Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Descent Into Sin ❯ Keeping His Promise ( Chapter 4 )

Father Alexander Anderson sat at his desk waiting for the vampire known to him as Seras Victoria.  The phone call had been most bizarre but after what he saw during the war, nothing surprised him.  The Captain's soul was inside of Seras.  He should have known when she returned to protect Integral. She was not the same girl he had thrown swords into and now he knew why.

Anderson sipped on his coffee remembering it all: How he had assisted in killing his former boss, hundreds of the demon's enslaved souls impaling humans and vampires alike, fighting the monster and surviving.  It all seemed so very long ago, like a different lifetime.  When he had passed Alucard's test, he had come back to Hellsing to recover from the injuries.  He had healed well under the Hellsing's care.  She had asked what he wanted for his help during the war.  He had saved her life after all.  A part of him had wanted her but he knew it wasn't possible, not with her pet vampire.  He would never have let them be together and besides he was a priest. He went with his second choice: Remaining a priest and operating an orphanage.  Maybe then he could redeem his soul.  At least he hoped so.  The Queen had granted him political asylum and talked to the Vatican.  He could remain a priest but was never to set foot in Italy again.  And Integral used her connections to get him a position operating a Catholic orphanage.  Everything had worked out for him…except he still thought about her every damn day. He would have given everything up for her if only Integral had asked. She was the reason he had agreed to see the vampire, the only reason.

Pip arrived at the orphanage just after 9:00 AM.  Father Anderson had requested that time so the majority of the children would be at school.  He just hoped that Anderson would help him.  The priest had been so weird on the phone.  A housekeeper let him in and brought him to Father Anderson's office.  He seemed just as crazy as ever.

“Good morning, Seras Victoria or should I call you Pip.”

 Pip grinned. “Pip.”  He sat down in a chair opposite the priest's desk.

“So if I'm to understand you…your soul is in the body of a vampire.  Like Alucard's soul slaves, correct?” Anderson asked.

“Well kind of. I have more power then they do.  I gave my blood willingly so it is kind of different. But yeah, it is kind of like that.” Pip answered.  Part of him wondered if he was doing the right thing. No he had to do this before he hurt her.

“So on the phone you said some about an exorcism.”  He studied the vampire; she did act differently and spoke with a mixture of French and British accents.

“Well, yes sir. I'm not sure how to say it but I've been having these…. feelings, bad feelings.  I want to hurt her and yet I don't.  Well, I guess part of me does.  I think about doing awful things to her. I don't know what is happening to me but I have to stop it.”

“Why do you want to hurt her? I thought you loved the girl.” Anderson replied.

The vampire's eyes grew darker as he spoke.  “Why?  I have to watch her do everything, feel everything second hand.  I can't fight - only watch her battle.  I can't have sex, but she could if she wanted to, and one day she will. It isn't fair, I gave up everything for her and I have nothing. I want to lock away her soul so I can have what she does, so she be trapped like me...” Pip couldn't believe he had just admitted to the priest how he really felt.  But it was true - all of it and he hated himself for feeling that way.  “I feel like a bastard for even thinking these things.  I promised her that I'd protect her but I'm not sure how much longer I can protect her from me.”

Anderson watched him as he spoke.  The Captain was truly a tortured soul.  If he could exorcise him from the vampire's body, he would be helping both him and Seras Victoria.  Indirectly he would be helping Integral.  “Aye, it is possible but I cannot say where your soul would go.  You might be damned, Captain.”

“I-I-I don't care.  I'm living in hell right now.  Do you know what it is like to want to hurt, to kill, someone you love?”

“Can't say I do.  I do know what it is like to kill someone who trusts you.  Come back at nightfall, Captain. I shall try to end your torture.

Pip didn't know how he was going to convince Seras to come back here.  Or how he could keep the truth for her.  She would not like what he was going to do but there was no way out.  He climbed into their coffin and went to sleep.  Their dreams intertwined together for one last time.

They were on the beach and the sun was setting.  Seras had on a black bikini and had on a pair of cut-off shorts. There was so much he wanted to do to her right now but there wasn't time. He would have to settle for a kiss.

“Why are we here Pip?” Seras asked him.

“I don't know.  It is your dream silly.” He replied pulling her against his chest.  In the dream her skin was warm and his was cold.  He wondered what it meant.  She laid her head against his chest.  Pip loved the way her hair tickled his chest.  He felt a chill and Seras moved away from him.  She was looking out towards the beach.  “What---what is it?”

Pip felt her tremble as he turned around to look.  He started to shake too.  Walking slowly towards him was a huge black wolf.  Nothing had ever terrified him so much, not even Alucard.  The beast had red eyes and the sharpest teeth on any animal that he had ever seen.  They almost looked like fangs, except his mouth was full of them.  Pip stood in front of Seras to protect her and started to pull his gun.  Not there, he thought. 

Then the animal started to talk to him.  The voice chilled him down to his bones.

“Do you really think you can protect her?”  The wolf asked.

“Yeah,” Pip replied, although he wasn't sure.

“Then I get to rip the flesh from your bones and devour your soul.  Are you ready to die for a girl?  She isn't even human.” The beast walked even closer to Pip and Seras.

“Wa-wa-wait.  What is it that you want?  Why does one of us have to die?” Pip asked him.

“You should know, Captain.  I am a part of you.”  The wolf appeared to grin as he spoke. 

“What?  How could you be part of me?  If you are part of me then leave. Get the hell away from me.”

“Oh, I love when they get feisty.  Don't you know who I am?  I am your darkness, what consumes you.  I cannot leave until you tell me who I can eat.” The wolf licked his lips in anticipation of his meal.

No, he thought, I am not going to die like this.  Seras is stronger them me. She can defeat a stupid wolf.  He looked at the wolf and mouthed the name of the girl he loved.  Why did he feel like a Judas?  He turned to Seras and told her, “Get ready, you can defeat him.  He is just an animal.”

Seras looked at him with hurt and terror in her eyes.  Pip wondered if he had mad an awful mistake.  When the wolf jumped on Seras, he tried to stand in his way.  The wolf merely knocked him down on the ground.  Pip watched as the wolf ripped Seras' flesh from her skin, bit by bit.  It was torture watching the wolf drink her blood and listen to her screams.  Every time Pip tried to get up and stop him the wolf knocked him back down.  The last thing he saw was the beast devouring something else.  As the wolf gnawed at her head, a glimmering light started to come out.  There was nothing else it could be but her soul.  The wolf grew even large as he absorbed it.

Now it was Pip's turn to cry.  The tears would not stop coming from his eyes.  What I have done, he thought.

 

The wolf turned his head and grinned at Pip and spoke into his mind. Now you have it all, Pip.  Her body is yours.  Her mind, her soul are gone.  This is what you wanted. 

Pip watched the wolf lick his lips as he walked away.  He looked at what remained of Seras Victoria.  Bones.  Her flesh was gone, all of it.  Pip started to scream when he realized just what he had allowed to happen.  The laughed of the wolf rang in his ears.

Pip, why are you screaming?  What is the matter? Seras asked the man inside of her, rubbing her eyes.

Pip stopped screaming; realizing all of it had been part of a terrible nightmare. Something that terrible, it had to mean something, didn't it?  I'm okay now, Seras.  Just a bad dream; don't you remember it?

I don't know. I can't remember it.  I know we had a nightmare but it's just not coming to me. She replied.

Thank God.  She won't know how truly awful I am, he thought to himself.  I'd rather not talk about it anymore, Seras, he told her. Pip thought he knew what the dream meant.  It was a warning.  Seras would end up like she did in the dream if he didn't do something fast.  I have a surprise for you, Seras but you have to trust me.

Surprise? What kind of surprise? Seras asked.

Oh, we're going to visit an old friend. Pip explained.  He felt bad about lying to her. It was something he had never done before.

I guess so.  You promise this has nothing to do with sex?  The last time you had a surprise, you ended up ordering sex toys off of the website.

“Well this is different, sex has nothing to do with it.  Just trust me, cherie.”

Pip drove while Seras watched from within her body to the orphanage. She had her eyes closed at his request.  The darkness inside of him was growing. He thought how easy right now it would be to take control of her body. Rip her soul to shreds.  No, I can't do that.  I must protect her.

They arrived at the orphanage.  Seras still had her eyes shut.  As he walked up to the door he told her to open them.

An orphanage? What in the bloody hell?  Seras glance up at the sign.  The fact that is was a Catholic orphanage started to dawn on her. Pip, I don't like this.

What? It is Father Anderson.  He's not our enemy anymore.

He's not our friend either, she replied.

Don't be so harsh, he is.  Pip argued with her.

They knocked on the door and were let in by the housekeeper.  She showed them into the parlor.  Pip hoped the priest kept his promise.  It was his last hope. He heard footsteps and the door opened.

“Good evening, Draculina.” Father Anderson approached her and smiled at the vampire to put her at ease. Anderson still wasn't sure if he could go through with it.  Seras would be upset when she woke up and she was a vampire, a demon.

“Hello, Father.” Seras smiled back at him, starting to feel a little more comfortable.  She still had no idea why Pip had brought her here.

Alexander stood by a bookcase in the room and started to approach his desk.  He withdrew something from his pocket. I can only pray that this works.

Seras tried to feel Pip's presence in her mind.  Bloody hell, Pip, you pick a fine time to go back to sleep.  She continued to look for him inside of her mind; he was the one that brought them there.  “Ouch!” She screamed aloud. Something had stabbed her in the neck.   That insane priest, she thought. Seras tried to turn her head to see what happened but felt Anderson's other hand grab the front of her head.  He was holding it still while he plunged whatever the hell it was deeper into her neck.

Seras was pissed.  She thought the priest had changed his ways. Why was he attacking her like this?  Seras started to get up and push his hands away but found her strength was dwindling.  What is going on?  Her vision blurred and she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.  The last thought she had before she went to sleep was of Pip and why he had done this to her, to them.

Anderson withdrew the needle.  It had worked after all.  Integral had gotten the drug and needle from her lab.  She said it was the only drug that had sedated Alucard during her family's experiments on him.  Now I have only to wait for the Captain to appear.

Thirty minutes after he had given the vampire a shot, her eyes opened.  From the darkness in them, Anderson knew it was not her soul that was okay.  “Captain, are you ready? I want to get this over with before she awakes.”

Pip struggled to control the darkness in side of his soul.  He could feel that part of him resisting what he was about to do. “Yes, and hurry, Father.”

Anderson took him to a dark room and locked the door.  He lit a few candles, just enough so he could read from the book.  He had learned about exorcisms in seminary school and even seen a few performed.  This would be the first time he had performed such a ritual.  His services to the Vatican had been more practical.  He killed his demons with blades.  Anderson wasn't even sure it would work; Seras Victoria was a demon herself.  Looking at her laying down even with Pip's dark eyes, he found it hard to believe.  She looked more like an angel then a devil.

“Close your eyes, lass.  I shall start now.”

Pip closed his eyes and fought against the dark urges going through his mind.  He wanted to get up, attack the priest, and drink from his neck.  It was taking every bit of his strength to remain still.

Alexander Anderson started the exorcism prayer. “I adjure you, demon enemy of man's salvation, acknowledge the justice and goodness of God the Father, who by just judgment has damned your pride and envy: depart from this servant of God, whom the Lord has made in His own image, adorned with His gifts, and has mercifully adopted as His child. I adjure you, demon, deceiver of the human race, acknowledge the Spirit of truth and grace, who repels your snares and confounds your lies: depart from this creature of God, whom He has signed by the heavenly seal; withdraw from this girl whom God has made a holy temple by a spiritual unction. Leave, therefore, Satan, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy @ Spirit; leave through the faith and the prayer of the Church; leave through the sign of the holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.” (1)

The body of Seras Victoria shook for several minutes.  Anderson did not hear any voices like he had during the exorcisms he had watched others perform.  The only sign that something had left the vampire's body is that the seizures stopped, she smiled, and fell into a deeper sleep.  The Captain no longer spoke to him so perhaps he had been successful.  Anderson carried her into an empty room with a sofa and closed the blinds before returning to his office.

Alexander picked up the phone and dialed the number of Integral Hellsing.  She would be waiting for his call.

“Hello,” she answered.  Her voice was filled with anxiety worried about the police girl.

“It is done, Sir Hellsing.  I think you should come right away.” Anderson said to her.

“Right away?  Is she okay?” Integral asked.

“Aye. She is sleeping but I don't know how long drug will last.  She will not be happy to find him gone.”  Anderson explained.

“All right, I'll leave now.” Integral said as she hung up the phone. 

“Well Master?” Alucard asked.  He sat in a chair across from her desk.

“I don't know.  I believe it went well.  I'll be leaving in a few minutes so I can be there when she wakes up.” She told him.

“If I have your permission, Master, I would like to go.  She is my servant.”

“No, Alucard, you do not have my permission.  This is at Anderson's orphanage.  The two of you lose what little sanity you have left the minute you get near each other.  You can see Seras when she returns.”

Alucard hid the disappointment he felt.  “As you wish, Master.”  The vampire dissolved into mist.

Integral called her current butler on the phone.  “Alfred, get the car ready.  I have some important business to attend to.”

(1) FromLatin Mass Magazine