Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Renfield Wasn't Crazy ❯ Waning Concentration ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Renfield Wasn't Crazy.

Rating: R.

Summery: University student, Seras Victoria, is given the daunting task of writing a dissertation on Dracula. She quickly runs into trouble while trying to explain the characters in detail, but soon receives some help from an interesting passerby.

A/N: Let it be said, right from the get-go, that this story is mostly AU. Hellsing exists in the same way as it did in the anime/manga. What's AU are the circumstances of Seras' life and how Hellsing comes across her. In this story Seras is a university student writing a dissertation for her gothic literature class, rather than a police girl. I'm not entirely certain where this story will end up, but I have a good idea. If you have never read Dracula or seen one of the many movies, then parts of this might be a tad confusing to you, as the characters may end up discussing the novel at some length.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Hellsing belongs to Kohta Hirano, and Dracula belongs to Bram Stoker.

 

Renfield Wasn't Crazy

Chapter One: Waning Concentration.

 

“Damn it!” Seras Victoria usually considered herself to be a mild-tempered sort of woman. “Bloody hell!” But she was just having one of those days where nothing ever seemed to go right. “Shit! Why is this so hard!?” Her problem at the moment was a 20-page in-depth character analysis for her Gothic Lit. class, which she had less than a week left to write. She had known about the paper for some time now, but had procrastinated on the grounds that it was centered on Dracula, a novel that she knew inside and out. When the time had come to sit down and write she had started out well enough, but Seras shared an apartment with two classmates that were extremely fond of loud music and throwing wild parties.

 

Her concentration suffered greatly.

 

“Okay… Maybe I should try writing an outline first, since I'm having so much trouble,” Seras mused to herself, unconsciously glaring her baby blue eyes in the direction of her living room, from which some sort of heavy death metal music seemed to be blaring. `I wouldn't be having so much trouble if Juno and Eddie could just keep quiet for one miserable evening!' she thought to herself.

 

Main Focus:

1) Count Dracula

2) Professor Van Helsing

3) Mina Murray

4) Lucy Westenra

5) Renfield

Secondary Focus:

1) Jonathan Harker

2) Doctor John Seward

3) Arthur Holmwood

4) Quincey Morris

 

“The devil's in the sky, eating boysenberry pie!” Someone warbled while a bass-line thumped crazily about the apartment, shaking small things off of end tables.

 

“Alright, lets start with some basic info on the secondary characters…”

 

Jonathan Harker: A lawyerwhose firm sends him to Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with Dracula. Young and naïve, Harker quickly finds himself a prisoner in the castle and barely escapes with his life. He demonstrates a fierce curiosity to discover the true nature of his captor and a strong will to escape. Later, after becoming convinced that the count has moved to London, Harker emerges as a brave and fearless fighter.

 

Something, which sounded suspiciously like a glass vase, crashed to the floor in the next room over. Seras heard the door slamming open and closed, and assumed that more people were now over.

 

Doctor John Seward:A talented young doctor, formerly Van Helsing's pupil. Seward is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Dracula's English home. Throughout the novel, Seward conducts ambitious interviews with one of his patients, Renfield, in order to understand better the nature of life-consuming psychosis. Although Lucy turns down Seward's marriage proposal, his love for her remains, and he dedicates himself to her care when she suddenly takes ill. After her death, he remains dedicated to fighting the count.

 

Somewhere, most likely the kitchen, a smoke detector went off, and if Seras looked hard enough she could almost see some vapor coming from under the doorjamb. At that moment a phone rang, undoubtedly one of the neighbors calling to complain about the noise.

 

Arthur Holmwood:Lucy's fiancé and a friend of her other suitors. Arthur is the son of Lord Godalming and inherits that title upon his father's death. In the course of his fight against Dracula's dark powers, Arthur does whatever circumstances demand: he is the first to offer Lucy a blood transfusion, and he agrees to kill her demonic form.

 

Something that sounded like, “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” reached her ears.

 

Quincey Morris:A plainspoken American from Texas, and another of Lucy's suitors. Quincey proves himself a brave and good-hearted man, never begrudging Holmwood his success in winning Lucy's hand. Quincey ultimately sacrifices his life in order to rid the world of Dracula's influence.

 

Seras' apartment was of the comfortable variety. It was clean, spacious, the rent was cheap, the water pressure was good, the stove worked, and…

 

…The walls were closing in.

 

It was just too bright, too loud. Not at all conducive to writing a paper.

 

“I can't concentrate here!” Seras howled in frustration. Quickly she packed up her laptop, grabbed a coat, and headed out. Which wasn't easy at first; the throng of people in her living room had been larger than she had anticipated and for some reason they all seemed intent on blocking the front door. After getting tossed about horribly for a while, she managed to make it out into the fresh night air.

 

`Now,' Seras thought, `where should I go? I need somewhere quiet and relatively deserted… the park, maybe?'

 

A/N: That's all for this first chapter. I realize that it was short, and that next to nothing happened, but exposition needed to be set. Our mysterious helper should appear in the next chapter. Also, I'd like to apologize; the character descriptions here came straight out of sparknotes. It'll be different, more exciting, when she has someone to talk to. And don't worry, not all of this story will be about Seras writing her paper.