Hellsing: Resurrection (WIP)

Chapter 21: A Monster's Reflection

The steady tick of the grandfather clock in the corner was the only sound accompanying the rustle of paper beneath Integra's fingertips. Her bare hands moved across the crisp pages, the texture slightly rough beneath her touch, the ink smudged in places where reports had been hastily compiled. The weight of them was significant, not physically, but in what they implied. Noon sunlight slanted through the tall windows behind her, cutting through the lingering haze of cigar smoke and dust, illuminating the faint wrinkles in the once-flawless paper. The contrast was stark, the warmth of daylight against the cold weight of the reports before her.

Her fingers hovered over the images stapled to the corner of each page. Identical. The victims in two different locations, separated by miles, yet drained in the same unnatural manner, husks of people, their bodies untouched by wounds, their expressions frozen in silent terror. She exhaled slowly, rubbing her temple with the pad of her thumb before leaning forward, the leather of her chair groaning slightly beneath her shift in weight. The reports detailed everything the investigation had uncovered, yet they gave her nothing. There are no traces of forced entry. No signs of struggle. No residual energy that her vampires could pinpoint. Only the lingering, uneasy certainty that something was interfering with the natural order. And now it had happened again.

Integra's fingers tapped lightly against the page, her bare skin catching on the slight ridges where the ink had dried unevenly. The name stared back at her, Officer Daniel Blake. Killed in action during the Cheddar incident thirty years ago. She had expected as much, given Seras' reaction at the scene, but the confirmation still left an uneasy weight in her chest. What she hadn't expected was the location where he had "resided." Not his burial site, not a place tied to his work, but his childhood home, the town where he grew up.

Why there? If some force had dredged his existence back into the world, why not from his grave? It remained undisturbed, with no signs of tampering, no theft, and no rituals performed in its vicinity. No one had even visited it in years. Yet something had drawn his likeness back to a place of personal significance, as if it had roots in his past rather than his remains. Was this thing reanimating the dead in a traditional sense, or was it pulling from something deeper, something tied to memory, to emotion, to familiarity? What if it wasn't even him at all, but the imprint of who he had been, conjured up by forces that had no right to him in the first place?

Integra's gaze flicked toward the window, catching the shifting patterns of sunlight filtering through the gently swaying branches outside, casting delicate shadows on her desk. The warmth felt out of place amid her troubled thoughts. Seras had frozen, Seras, of all people. It was understandable on some level; this officer had died in front of her decades ago, a traumatic moment that surely lingered in her memory. Yet, it still bothered Integra. Seras was no rookie; she had faced monsters far worse, yet one apparition of a familiar face had stopped her cold.

Her fingers curled absently around the edge of the report, her thumb tracing idle circles against the paper's rough edge. Could there be a connection between Seras and these occurrences? Had the thing specifically chosen Blake's likeness because it knew she would be there? Or was it mere coincidence, just another victim plucked from memory by chance? Integra frowned, a subtle crease deepening between her brows. Coincidences didn't sit right with her; experience had taught her they rarely existed in matters like these. If this was deliberate, then the implications were troubling. It meant this wasn't random, it was personal.

Integra straightened in her seat, adjusting the papers into a neat stack in front of her before pressing a small, silver intercom button at the corner of her desk. It gave a gentle click beneath her finger, and she spoke clearly into it, her voice firm and direct. "Send in Alucard and Seras," she ordered, releasing the button as soon as she received a curt acknowledgment from the other end. Moments later, the double doors swung open silently, and Alucard stepped into the room first, his coat trailing behind him like a shadow as his gaze immediately found Integra's face, his eyes gleaming with quiet amusement.