(no subject)
The bracken cracks and whips against her as a rather worse-for-the-wear "Monsters must be destroyed... to protect the innocent."
Sonia stumbles through the forest. She doesn't have very clear
"Do you really think that the likes of you can destroy me? You're a fool, just as Alucard was."
memories of the past few nights. There was blood, and wolves, and
"Dark Masses, then, Belmont? Wouldn't Father Martin be disappointed?"
Jova, and Veros. They spin in and out of view, refusing to offer a
"I am the Prince of Darkness, and I will rise again and again, as long as people like you are alive."
clear picture of where she's been.
But there's blood on her dress.
on the floor in a glass on the walls
There's screams in her ears.
wolves villagers ghouls priests ghosts Daddy demons Alucard
There's the vision of a man, naked and battered, slipping from life.
Alucard Father Daddy Alucard Alucard...
Her legs burn. Her lungs burn. Her back burns. Her skin is raw against the freezing wind. Frozen tears crack her cheeks.
The trees part, and there's a familiar pile of rubble. She staggers to a halt, dropping onto her knees, gasping for breath.
"I fear I shall not meet you again."
The castle.
His castle.
"Give yourself to me, young lady. There may be merit in having your presence."
She looks over the ruins, spread across the clearing.
"Then it is your fate to kneel before my
power!"
For a long time, she doesn't move, a captive audience to the theatre in her mind. It all comes to her- the castle full of monsters, the battle with Alucard, then... the master of the castle.
"You're a fool just as Alucard was."
"Alucard..."
She looks at herself. Blood. Rags. A growing intruder in her belly.
A lone woman- no family, no friends, no home- fighting and fighting and finding herself utterly useless and hopeless when there's no more fighting to be done.
"...Alucard..."
"You have made me belive in your strength."
She lets herself fall, numb to the sting of masonry fragments and frozen ground.
"shouldn'a left... shoulda stayed... shoulda... shoulda gone down with the castle." She sobs. "ain't no use to nobody anymore... just hurtin' things..."
"Now I must sleep. I fear I shall not meet you again. Farewell my beloved, my beautiful vampire slayer."
She curls up, shivering with more than the cold. "good idea... just... go t'sleep... go t'sleep, an' maybe when i wake up... i can see daddy and mama and father martin... maybe- maybe even you..." She sighs.
"...my love..."
Snow begins to fall.
*****
Two figures in the woods- one a man, tall, regal, stoic, unmoving, with an eldritch air; the other a distinctly human girl, burning with contained energy and distrust, whip out and ready to leap at the slightest twitch.
"You're his son... how come you don't follow his footsteps?"
He turns, looking to the castle sadly. "My mother..."
"Mother?" Of course, in theory, with a HALF vampire, there'd have to be some non-vampire part of the equation, but... She'd never thought about demons- even half-ones- reallly having mothers. At least to speak of.
"When she died, she told me not to hate humans- theirs is a hard lot already." With a sigh, he adds, "Were it not for her words, I might well have joined him. But she was... such a good person..."
*****
Her belly jumps.
Everything is sore and tingling.
Her brain is wet wool, frozen.
Another jump in her belly.
She squints, muzzily. Something... (so cold...) Something she was doing...
shouldn't be in the snow... She sits up. what...
Memory returns, reluctantly, with a heavy sigh.
She looks down at the bulge in her belly again.
And, shaking, gets to her feet.
"cave nearby..." She coughs. "makings of fire... gotta be somethin' t'eat..."
*****
The fire won't be enough for very long, but it's better than the outdoors, and it warms the gutted remains of a house nicely. It also serves to cook the unfortunate hare that had previously made this place its home.
There's a fair amount of activity from the baby-bulge. She smiles down at it, wearily, and runs a hand over it.
"don't fret... we'll be eatin' soon enough..." She curls around it, trying to keep in the heat.
"I'm gonna do my best, okay? You're... you're all I got now. So... I'm gonna keep you safe."
for him...