• A scream sounded like the wailing of a siren announcing the arrival of an unwanted guest. With a start, a lone figure jerked upright in his bed, his silky red hair spilling around his lithe frame as if he was in the middle of a pool of blood. A bright green eye darted back and forth, a frantic look about it.

    His body was out of the bed faster than the eye can blink. Panic seized the boy as he ran to his younger brother's room. He felt his breathing still as he stared with empty eyes at the unoccupied bed. With his eyes scanning the room instantaneously, he realized with horror that his younger brother was no longer in the bedroom.

    His senses picking up the trace of a faintly familiar scent, the redhead now ran to the freshly-moved window and peered into the darkness beyond. An endless sea of white spanned the horizons in every direction as subzero winds ripped across the boy's face. He felt his eyes sting as he searched onwards of miles in the directions he could see. Where had he been taken?

    Leaping out into the Siberian snow, the boy began flitting through the snow as if he was floating rather than running. His objective was to find the scent that was in his brother's bedroom, but that wasn't happening. He circled the house hundreds of times in the few moments he was outside, coming to a halt twenty miles from the house. The scent was dead.

    A silent scream ripped through his being, his form slumping into the hard snow. Body lifeless, the boy wept, tears both salty water and blood pouring down his face like a waterfall had opened in his eyes. He had fallen deeply into the snow, the icy-ness of his skin matching the extreme temperature of Russia's Siberian climate. Although this had been the home to the two boys for quite some time, now it was merely a grave memory as the redhead dug inside himself, searching for the reason his brother had been taken.

    Although the boy's race was the strongest and fastest of every other being on the earth, when running against his own kind, he would never be able to catch up to whomever had taken his brother. A sudden spurge of rage flared throughout his thoughts, taking hold of his body and causing him to rip angrily at his hair. The nearest enrooted plant was forcibly ripped out of the frozen earth, bits of permafrost still connecting to the roots. He flung the object hundreds of kilometres in his enraged antics.

    Tears streamed down his cheeks, his mind reeling as thoughts of what might happen to his younger brother began to pass through his mind. Why had he not done more to protect him? How could he have not noticed that someone was near by? Who had come to pluck the young boy from the safety of his own home? They lived far far away from any civilization, and no one knew of their whereabouts. So who could have taken him? Who could have taken the only thing the redhead held dear?

    His hands tore at his flowing red locks, attempting to scalp himself with just his nails. Shaking back and forth, his head felt as if it would explode any minute. Where had the silence in his thoughts gone? Could he not return to the sanctuary of blissful ignorance? He cried out mentally as his mind was viciously attacked over and over by his subconscious telling him all the things he'd done wrong. He hadn't moved far enough away. He hadn't been watching over the younger. He'd wanted his brother to be taken.

    A muffled sound signaled to the boy that someone was nearby; someone was coming. He was instantaneouly on his feet, slamming into the ground as he pushed himself as fast as he could toward the figure on the horizon. Slamming into the creature produced a sound as if two mountains had collided, and also threw the other a few hundred metres away. A groan could be heard as the creature felt his body be attacked and thrown such a far distance.

    "OW!" the man screamed as he skidded along the frozen earth. "What'd you do that for, Akira?!" he growled, coughing harshly and attempting to stand up. The man was clad in a black leather trenchcoat that went down to his ankles, his hands covered with black velvet gloves with a ruby ring the size of a quarter on his left pointer finger. Upon his head dawned a thin rimmed black fedora, a lone red bang stringing around it's base. Black pants adorned his legs, as tough, designer boots fit snugly on his feet.

    Eyes widening at the familiar voice, Akira flushed with colour as he raced towards his fallen comrade. The other, still clearly upset at having been thrown off into the distance the moment he came home, refused to take the redhead's outstretched hand. He got up on his own, still coughing while he dusted off his pants and coat. "What the Hell do you think you're do-."

    His sentence was cut off as he finally saw the state Akira was in. The redhead's hair was mangled with dirt and snow, his face streaked with tears and blood, his body only half clothed in what he normally wore to bed. The look on Akira's face went from apologetic back to his earlier frazzled, hateful expression. As soon as he saw the way the other was looking at him, the redhead let out a silent moan and threw himself into the arms of the one he'd been fighting only seconds before.

    "What's wrong, Aki-chan?" the other asked in a gentle yet concerned voice, wrapping his arms around the smaller and attempting to remove some of the objects from the red silky strands. Sobbing was all he got, as the redhead's frame shook from the force of his crying. Blood stained the black coat while its owner continued to try to calm the other down.

    "He's gone, Alucard! Neak's gone!" The mental cry that was implanted into Alucard's mind startled him. He was confused, and tried to understand the meaning of Akira's thoughts. "S-someone took him... He's gone.... Neak..." Akira's sobs rung through Al's mind as he tried to figure it out. What did Aki mean when he said Neak was gone?

    "Akira, calm down," he cooed, running his hands up and down the other's back. "Where is Neak?" Alucard pulled Akira's arms from around him and firmly pulled the other back. He looked into Akira's eyes with questioning stares.

    "Gone!" Akira growled, his anger and frustration venting out on the man before him. "I woke up to his screams, and then he was gone! I have no idea where he is!" he cried out in anger, his body slumping forwards and sagging as though the boy's life had been yanked from him. "I've... failed... I'll never see him again, Alucard! He's dead!"

    A rough smack sounded as Alucard's hand collided with Akira's cheek. His expression was furious, anger seeping into every pore of his being. "Get ahold of yourself, Akira! This is not the time to be feeling sorry for yourself!" he screamed, staring into the widened eyes of the boy. "We need to be going after whoever did this, not sitting around saying he's dead!"