Spring Forward, Fall Back (Alucard x Chubby! Reader)

Chapter 23 - Fever Dreams Part 3

Reader P.O.V.

'Shit! It heard me!' I thought as the sound of those claws started up again. It wasn't as close as it was before, but it was definitely rushing toward me at a pretty good clip. As exhausted as I was, that glow was almost close enough for me to touch and I wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Run! Keep going! You can do it!" the voice was now yelling out. Such a strange change from what it had been doing all this time, but I wasn't going to question it. It felt as though I'd been running for days rather than a couple of hours. I didn't even know how much time had passed with all of the distractions I was forced to face in this darkened room. The appearance of this light was a bit of a shock, but my thoughts dictated that if there is light in this darkness, then that must surely be the way out of it.

I ran into the halo of that light and immediately felt the warmth therein. It wasn't an overwhelming heat like I had been feeling all this time, but rather a welcoming warmth that spreads through you when you drink something hot on a cold day. The brightness of the light had me squinting into it, the polar opposite of the darkness I had been running through for I didn't know how long, and I still feel comforted. The pains running through my body like a river suddenly began to ebb away, the breathlessness I was experiencing from running was gone.

"Take my hand, Y/N."

This voice is new. It's familiar. It's as warm as the light.

Before I could do anything more, the creature that had been following me latched on and pulled me back, it's fangs and claws digging into my skin. I could swear that chunks of skin were being ripped out, and that made me shriek and cry. I twisted my body left and right in an effort to throw it off and was successful only to have it come back and latch it's teeth onto my arm.

"You didn't think you were getting out of here that easily, did you?"

"Tell this thing to let me go!" I shouted in return. When I looked down I could see what looked like a large bat mixed with an even larger wolf staring back at me, one fang dug in deep where the wound in my arm was. I could feel poison trying to inch its way through my blood, but the light seemed to be burning it out as quickly as it came in.

"I won't let you go! You're supposed to be mine! You're supposed to have given up already! You were supposed to give in to me! Come back!" the voice screamed back in a cracking wheeze. It sounded more like a petulant child than the intimidating, fear-inducing voice that I'd been hearing the whole time. Now, it had all the presence of someone who had been crying for too long and was resorting to lashing out to get attention.

"What makes you think I'm going to listen to you now?"

"Because you always have before, so come back!"

"Before?" I managed to ask before the creature once again yanked me closer to the edge of the light. I pulled and strained to get back inside regardless of the pain that I was feeling in my arm. I knew deep down that this was where I needed to be.

"Y/N! Please? Don't leave me!" the voice pleaded. It started to sound vaguely familiar now that the scratchiness had been removed.

"But I belong out there. I have people who want me to come back, and I can't let them down. And there's someone I think I love that I just couldn't leave now. Please tell this thing to let me go?" I pleaded as calmly as I could while fighting my way back into the light. I closed my eyes and pulled as hard as I could against the jaws of this creature and felt a jolt, causing me to stumble backwards and fall unceremoniously to my backside while the creature screamed and writhed in pain before completely disappearing. When I looked down at where the creature had bitten, the vague outline of a large canine tooth was slowly fading away to reveal the wound left behind. I saw the veins that had turned a nasty purple color now fading away and the wound closing with a golden glow.

It was then that the owner of the voice that had been taunting and torturing me made it's way to just outside the halo of light. I saw a young girl, which was a surprise, with tangled and snarled (h/l) (h/c) hair, (s/c) mottled with scars and bruises, and (e/c) orbs that seemed to have no life left in them looking back at me. Her sullen face tilted up to me and I recognized her at once. It was ME.

"Please don't go? I'll be alone here again. I don't want to be alone." She sniffled and rubbed her reddened eyes before looking to me once again to emphasize her plea.

"You won't be alone. You'll be part of me always. You know that, don't you?" I replied softly. I stretched my hand out to her and nodded, hoping that she would trust me. One moment she did nothing but stare at my hand, the next was her launching herself at me to grip me in an almost smothering hug. When I wrapped my arms around her in an embrace, she disappeared into me and I felt all those raw emotions that I had been holding on to for years. The fear, desperation and sadness that came with being rejected, bullied and beaten.

' I don't ever want to be that girl again,' I thought to myself before turning back to the light behind me. I reached out and took the hand that I could barely see through the light and was pulled into the arms of the being that was waiting for me. Instantly the pain that I had felt from those claws and teeth was gone, all wounds healed completely as the being in the light held me close. I looked up and gasped in wonder and happiness...those golden eyes that I could never mistake for anyone else's.

"Adrian."

Alucard P.O.V.

I dabbed cool water over Y/N's brow while keeping an eye on the puncture wound she had on her arm, as I had been doing for the past few hours. The wound looked like it was almost done healing, which surprised and delighted me, however, the lingering thought that she could've died because of this wound had me up in arms and completely distracted from what I was supposed to be doing.

I heard her groan softly and quickly turned my head in her direction again. Her brow was furrowed in confusion and her body started to shift from side to side as if she was trying to awaken from a nightmare. Y/N closed her eyes tight and whimpered quietly while I dipped the cloth in water and squeezed the greater portion of it out to turn and reapply it to her forehead. When the cool cloth was reapplied, she sighed softly and her movements slowly calmed down. Worry creased my own brow when I saw her lashes fluttering at first, and I thought to try to awaken her. But, before I could even reach for her, her eyes slowly slid open.