Chapter Three: Choice
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Gwendolen watched tensely over her shoulder as Alucard smiled. Oddly enough, he looked as if he was enjoying all this. The ghouls closed in, forming a circle around him-
BANG. He shot one to his left, then spun in a circle, shooting every ghoul that was in his line of sight, one after another. They exploded into clouds of ash that quickly vanished on the wind. In a matter of seconds, the vampire's large mass of ghouls had been cut down to half its former size. The blue-haired vampire pursed his lips, looking extremely displeased. "This is growing bothersome," he muttered, and gestured with a hand to the row of ghouls that were farthest back. "Armsmen!" he called. "Ready your weapons!"
The ghouls he had spoken to groaned and suddenly whipped out... Guns. They looked to be machine guns, actually. Gwen's eyes widened. What the hell? She thought, frustrated. Zombies with machine guns!? Oh, come on! She looked back to Alucard, and found herself fearing for the strange, smiling vampire. The enemy of my enemies is my ally until my enemies are disposed of, she thought, watching him. And this ally had better get his sorry butt behind that boulder before those guys turn him into swiss cheese.
But Alucard did not move. He only grinned that evil grin, and casually reloaded his gun. Now Gwen was getting worried. Move, you idiot!! She screamed in her mind. Are you freakin' suicidal!?
Her captor smiled, his deep violet eyes glowing creepily in the moonlight. "Armsmen," he stated with finality, and pointed abruptly at Alucard. "Kill him."
The cacophany that arose then practically deafened the former slave. The ghouls opened fire, and still their target did not move. He only stood there, smiling, as his death shot towards him with inescapable speed. "NO!!" shouted Gwen, horrified, but her voice was lost in the sound of gunfire.
Bullets ripped through her ally's flesh, one after another. Skin was torn off, limbs detatched, blood spilled. And through it all, that smile stayed on his face. Now it was frozen there.
After a small amount of time, the blue-haired vampire gestured for a stop. The gunfire ceased. Slowly, the grinning vampire toppled over forward. THUD.
It was very quiet as everyone stared at the mutilated, gorey mess lying on the ground in a huge pool of crimson blood. The gorey mess that used to be Alucard. And then the purple-eyed vampire began to laugh. "What a pitiful excuse for an opponent!" He cackled, twirling his cane in one hand. "And that is why you do not mouth off to those who are superior to you! Let that be a lesson to you, little slave," he sneered, and turned back to Gwen, whose face was deathly pale.
She gave no response. She only looked away from the bloody remains of her only known ally. Damn, she thought, clenching her teeth. I'm dead meat, aren't I. Dammit, dammit, da-
Pause. She could've sworn she'd heard something weird just now. She strained her ears, and after a few moments, she heard the unmistakable sound of laughter. And it wasn't coming from her captor.
She saw the blue-haired vampire stiffen and slowly step to the side, turning around. The pool of blood that Alucard's body had been lying in a moment ago was being pulled inward again, and the wind, so mild earlier, was beginning to howl. As they watched, darkness roiled around the vampire's corpse, swirling madly and obscuring it from view. Still the laughter continued.
After a moment, the darkness slowly dissipated, leaving Alucard standing there, as he had been before he'd been struck down... The only difference was that his grin was now three times scarier, and his red eyes were wide, pupils small. His expression was the picture of evil. This time he didn't bother with words- He pointed his gun in their direction and fired.
Gwen heard an impact sound come from the creature that held her wrists, and she quickly looked back at the ghoul that held her captive. Just in time to see it dissolve into ash and drift away on the breeze. Gwen sank to her knees, grimacing; best to stay low when people were having a shoot-out. Okay, great; she could move now. But where was she going to run when she was surrounded by ghouls with machine guns?
Alucard, eyes still locked on the other vampire, casually shot down the ghouls who held guns. One after another, they vanished in clouds of ash. The blue-haired vampire's face grew paler with each shot. He wasn't looking so smug anymore. He was looking more like he was about to crap his pants. Soon enough, every ghoul was gone, and it was just the three of them.
Gwen no longer cared to stick around and watch the fight; all she wanted was to get the heck out of there. All of her enemies were dead but one, and she had no idea what Alucard would do when that one was killed. Hence the term 'temporary allies'. She sprung to her feet and raced-
"Where do you think you're going, wench?" Snapped the vampire, and she felt a gloved hand clamp onto her wrist. Before she had time to react, he'd dragged her around in front of him, lifting her off the ground and holding her before him like a human shield... Literally. He glared at Alucard, who had his silver handgun pointed at them. "This girl," snarled the blue-haired vampire, "is an escaped slave from Warbridge. There's a rather large price on her head. It wouldn't do to let her die, now would it? If you turned her in, you could make an awful lot of money!"
Alucard eyed them in silence, his expression unchanging.
Gwendolen's face was white as a sheet. What! WHAT!? Don't you drag me into this, you b*****d!! She swung her legs upwards and then brought them down, hard, on the vampire's knees. He winced slightly, but his hold didn't loosen, and she felt his nails dig into her shoulder. "Let go of me, you freakin' b*****d," She snarled, struggling violently in his grip. She was beginning to panic. Alucard was not looking as if he considered the loss of her life much of a complication. No! No! I can't die now! Not now!
The blue-haired vampire, completely ignoring her, was talking again. "Come now, have some class, my good vampire! You can't honestly be planning on shooting down an innocent girl and a gentleman in cold blood, now can you? Why don't we negotiate on this, hm? What do you say, then?"
Alucard didn't appear to be listening. Gwen noticed, to her unease, that his red gaze had shifted from the vampire to her. His expression still didn't shift from that horribly evil-looking grin. He said nothing.
"Eh, are you listening, my good man? Come now, you look as if you're daydreaming-"
Alucard spoke, his deep voice smooth, his eyes still fixed on Gwen.
"Are you a virgin, my dear...?" One side of his mouth stretched even higher, turning his grin into a smirk.
Gwen felt one eye twitch, forgetting momentarily that she was pretty much at the mercy of these two supernatural monsters. "What the Hell," she shouted, face going red, "does that have to do with anything, you jerk!?"
The other vampire's face had gone five times paler at Alucard's seemingly random question. "You're joking!" He cried, and Gwen could hear the panic in his voice. "You cannot be ser-!"
"Answer me, slave girl," commanded Alucard. She saw his finger tighten slightly on the trigger.
"Yes," she snapped, green eyes narrowed, muscles rigid. "What's it to-?"
BANG.
"-GHH..." Pain. Extreme, incredible, mind-numbing pain. Gwen's eyes widened in shock, and she noticed, with a deadly calm, a jet of blood shoot from her chest. A gurgling scream sounded, right in her ear, and she felt through the pain that the arms that held her captive were gone. The vampire, a bloody hole where his heart should be, screamed and dissolved slowly into ash.
Gwendolen fell to her knees, eyes wide and staring, and coughed. The cough sent another searing blast of agony through her entire body, and a stream of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She couldn't see straight anymore; a red-tinged darkness writhed sluggishly at the edges of her vision, and everything else was blurred and unfocused, as if she were in a dream. With an agonizing slowness, she toppled forward onto the ground, a puddle of blood spreading where she lay. He... Shot me. Her thoughts were slow, as well. Her mouth opened in a silent scream of torture, but the only sound to emerge was a strangled, gurgling half-gasp. The darkness at the edges of her vision was creeping slowly inward, and she found herself wondering where she was headed now.
She stared almost sightlessly at the gray-green grass in front of her face, the watery light of the bright silver moon glowing surreally on every blade. And then she saw a shiny black boot instead. A voice sounded from above her- That voice is... familiar, she thought dazedly, I wonder where I've... heard it before...
"I had to shoot through you to pierce his heart. I'm sorry, but you have a choice to make, and you don't have much time left."
With a sudden, brief clarity, Gwen recalled all that had just occurred. Slowly, painfully, she lifted her head enough so that she could see, blurrily, the dark figure looming above her. He still had that strange smile on his face, but his eyes were serious enough. "You don't have to die here tonight," he told her. "If you wish, you could come with me. It would come with a price... You wouldn't be the same anymore. Life will cost you your humanity, slave girl." He smiled wider. "What is your choice?" He asked her calmly.
Gwendolen said nothing. A single tear rolled down her face, mingling with the blood. It's too much, she thought quietly to herself. T-too much... To handle... Wh-which... Which path should I take...?
A brief, colorful vision arose in her mind. A vision of her only sister, Hannah, six years old, lying bleeding and battered on the ground. She saw again, as she had seen that horrible evening, the words that her sister mouthed, her last words, her dying wish.
Gwen... You have to live.
The image disappeared, and Gwendolen stared up at the still-smiling Alucard, tears misting her already-blurred and darkening vision.
"I-I'll do it," she whispered brokenly.
And then her world went black.
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