Characters: Alucard & anyone who wishes to join him
Setting: First Block - Floor Thirteen
Format: Prose
Summary: Alucard surfaces from hiding and comes across the one floor he feels he needs.
Warnings: none


In the distant past, for anyone in the tower to come across the forlorn dhampir was a rarity, but the past few weeks had been exceptional. Alucard had been counting the days since that moment, that lapse of hungry desperation when he had given in to his undead, vampiric tendencies. But what was worse than the act of feeding on the dead was that others had seen him do it. Innocents had been witness to his true nature (as he liked to call it) and this had affected him so greatly, had wounded him so irreparably, that he felt unable to show his face again.

A creature of the night like Alucard found great ease in hiding, with his impressive skill set it was effortless for him to phase into a cool, eerie mist to avoid detection. Nobody thought twice to examine the chilling air around them.

He had expected to live in hiding, but staying in the same area for more than a few days was a great strain on his mind. The same four walls were enough to drive a normal, healthy man to depression so it had been nigh unbearable for the dhampir to stay put for more than a day or so.

In Alucard's solitude he had found one place he took solace in. On the thirteenth floor of the first block he had recently come across the architecture of a grandiose cathedral. He spent a great deal of his time here, consumed by prayer and thought, contemplating his past actions and what was to become of him.

In this quietness a deep, and very secret part of the half-breed thought on the few companions he had made in the tower, an odd mix of emotions welling in him. He battled with the desire to see these people whilst fully knowing the threat he posed to them. It was a dilemma that he did not know how to remedy.

The vast halls of the cathedral were solemn and quiet today, more so than Alucard felt they had been for a while. In the background he could see
the ritual of a Mass being performed, watching from a distance with cool, glassy eyes. It was some time before he pulled away from the spectacle and moved to a less populated area of his favourite floor.

Towards the back of the cathedral stood an ornately carved box with two hip-length curtains in a shade of deep red. A confessional that was (in Alucard's experience) never occupied. A moment's pause before he pulled back one of the curtains, stepping inside the penitent's compartment, and shutting the curtain behind him he sat down gingerly, staring through the wooden lattice and the neighbouring, empty compartment.

The dhampir spoke, it had been weeks since he had.

"I should be so lucky to speak with a priest."

A pause before he continued.

"What would I even say to a priest if there were one here. Forgive me of my sins?" a bitter-sweet chuckle as he idly shook his head, the idea of forgiveness far from his mind. "How men find comfort in confessing their woes, and how I envy them." his hand reached up and lackadaisically he stroked the back of his gloved fingers against the intricate carvings of the lattice. "Hm..." he hummed in a solemn, melodic tone "I wonder what is to become of me in this place."