Belmont Twins (OC x Alucard)

19

Elizabeth dragged herself out of the wagon, walking towards her brother. The sight before her took her back a little, she stopped in her tracks. Her once beautiful home was decrepit and empty, the halls that had once been filled with laughter were now a graveyard for her childhood. Even the once proud fountain that she had pushed Trevor into many times, was lifeless and desolate. She grazed a hand along the edge to feel where the carvings had once been but the whole side crumbled at her touch.

"Careful, we don't want you getting injured again," Alucard chastised her as he stalked past her. She took her hand back from the fountain and wiped it on the edge of her cloak for good measure.

Trevor let out a deep sigh, staring at where the spires had been. Elizabeth nudged her good shoulder against him and tried to reassure him but he couldn't even fake a smile at her. His eyes were empty and lonely when he looked at her. Her expression dropped along with him as they trudged through the rubble of the Belmont home.

Elizabeth followed closely behind her brother with Sypha close behind her, she couldn't remember where the entrance to the hold was but swore she wasn't going to be the one to fall down it and break her neck finding it. Trevor had huffed at her thought but soon took on her cautious attitude out of fear. The foundations of the house were cracked and shattered around them, any number of mortar or bricks could be hiding the door. The twins hadn't been allowed down there frequently but Elizabeth snuck down once or twice - which would always end up with her being caught and earning a slipper to the back of her leg to see the vast libraries that lie beneath the manor house.

"Oof," Elizabeth heard behind her as Sypha slipped and tumbled a little. Trevor slowed his pace after that, keeping a keen ear pointed in the women's direction. It earned an eyebrow raise from Elizabeth but she kept her mouth shut.

Elizabeth did try to make note of where they were in the manor, of which archway belonged to which room but the growing vines and the crumbling architecture made it difficult to decipher the lay of the house. The lack of light made it even more difficult to navigate the terrain as well. Trevor had a similar thought, ripping a stray piece of fabric from his cloak and wrapping it around what was a ceiling beam to create a makeshift torch. He struck a match from the floor and lit the torch, holding it high in front of himself.

"Oomph" Sypha's dress had snagged on a beam that jutted out. Elizabeth sighed, knowing it would be safer for her to be closer to the light. She took Sypha's hand and guided her towards Trevor who was a few steps ahead. Sypha blushed and silently thanked Elizabeth for the help. Once Sypha was safely ahead, she released the woman's hand and watched Trevor lift a beam out of the way so she could climb through a small gap in the rubble.

The gap gave Elizabeth the shivers, she wasn't sure how she was going to squeeze herself through it whilst holding the beam up.

Once Sypha was through the gap, Elizabeth planted her feet and held the beam up so Trevor could scramble through. Watching him suck his belly in made her smile a little, earning a strained glare from Trevor as his face disappeared to the other side. She gave the beam a sideways glance, unsure of how to proceed.

She took steps and paced either side to see how she could do it until Alucard's icy voice made her jump.

"Am I to be trapped on this side of the rubble with you till hell freezes over..?" he asked, impatiently waiting. His foot tapped against the floor, making dust flutter upwards in a swirl.

"If you continue like that, yes," She jabbed back.

Alucard's hand reached over her shoulder to prop the beam, "Does this solve the conundrum?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again in case he was tempted to drop the beam on top of her. She ducked her head under, putting her weight onto her good arm so she could half shuffle through. The tight space made her breath hitch in her throat. She slowly wiggled to the otherwise where her brother knelt with his hand reaching towards her.

She clasped onto his wrist and let him pull her forwards and back to her feet.

"Watch out!" a voice from behind the rubble shouted. The twins stepped very quickly away from each other to avoid the falling sword that clattered loudly between them. The ringing sound made Elizabeth's ears hurt.

"Are you insane?" Trevor said, covering his ears. Alucard soon appeared in the space too, sliding elegantly out of the hole.

"Well I guess I could have left lovely Elizabeth without a weapon and defenseless," he smirked, picking the sword back up to carry. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and followed him, his coat fluttering in the breeze that wafted behind him.

"You grew up here?" Sypha asked, diffusing Trevor's frustration. He removed his hands from his ears and scratched the inside of one with his pinky to be sure they weren't bleeding.

"Yeah," he responded gruffly.

Sypha spun in a half-circle, looking up at what could have been the old staircase, " I can't imagine what it was like living in one place," she said in awe. Elizabeth had forgotten that speakers didn't have a home so to speak. They didn't have a palace to return to every night or a room to hide in. Elizabeth had also forgotten what it even felt like to have a home.

"It was...well.." Trevor mused, kneeling to inspect something.

Elizabeth felt she should answer for him with his attention directed elsewhere, "It was fine," she replied. She knew she should have answered better but wasn't sure how to describe it, how to describe something that was so familiar yet foreign to her.

Trevor began dusting away at the floor with the palm of his hand, moving rocks and sand out of his way.

"How old were you when your home was taken from you?" Alucard asked, placing the sword down gently and taking the torch from Trevor's hands. Alucard looked to Elizabeth for her reply.

"We were young, probably 14? Something like that," she said quietly, as though it wouldn't make it a fact if she said it quietly.

"You've been on your own since you were 14?" Sypha asked in a somber tone.

"We had each other, we weren't completely alone. But yeah, it's just been us since then," Elizabeth replied, biting the inside of her cheek. She didn't want to have this conversation.

Trevor didn't either, "Who remembers stuff like that anyway. Is there a point to these questions?" he said, sitting back on his feet.

"I'm disturbed to find that I had a better childhood than the pair of you did," Alucard remarked sadly. Elizabeth sent him a half-smile as if to say, it wasn't so bad.

"And your dad's fucking Dracula," Trevor snorted. It was the comment needed to lighten the mood of the troupe. Trevor finally stood up to take the torch from Alucard. Sypha couldn't stifle her laugh which set Elizabeth off, their sweet soft laughter filling the night air.

"Further this way," Trevor directed, pointing the torch out into the darkness. The group followed after him save for Alucard who stood still for a moment to stare up to the moon. Elizabeth paused to wait for him as Trevor and Sypha made their way further into the wreckage.

"Are you coming?" she asked softly, seeing the vampire tense and relax before nodding and following after her.