Letters from Hellsing II

I ran across the orchestra pit to the door and praying, turned the handle. It swung open revealing a large, low ceilinged room running underneath the length of the stage. Two or three doors were set along the back wall. Over one of the doors was a glowing plastic "Exit" sign. It was the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.

I turned back to waive more people down the steps and looked right into the eyes of a ghoul. She was stumbling down the steps, eating what appeared to be an arm. She dropped it and began reaching towards me with a gurgling sound. I screamed and ran for the exit sign dragging children as I went.

"Hurry, Hurry! This way!" the young man called from somewhere up above. He was there ahead of me kicking at the back door and cursing. It had been chained shut.

"The window" I screamed to him. He stopped kicking and looked around. There, on the floor was one of those old flat irons. The kind you used to have to heat up on a stove. Just the thing to prop open a door to catch a breeze on a hot summer day. He picked it up and smashed it against the window in the door. The glass shattered and a blaring alarm went off.

I looked ruefully at the small opening. "Can you get through?" I asked the young man.

"I think so." he said.

"OK, you go first and I’ll hand them through to you."

"What about you?" he shouted over the alarm.

"I’ll come out last after the children."

We both knew this to be a lie as it was painfully obvious that there was no way I could ever fit through that window. But we also knew that there was no time to argue about it so he handed me the little girl (his youngest sister it turned out later) and squeezed through the window.
I began picking up children and passing them through to safety. I was just lifting the 3rd child through when the remaining kids began screaming. I looked behind me and saw several ghouls advancing towards us. They were moving slowly, but surely in our direction.

I managed to hand two more children through the window before my nerve broke. "Run!" I screamed shoving the children before me. I had seen that horrible man from the stage. He was smiling and waiving at us like we were some old friends he had just spotted across a crowded restaurant. Panicking, I wrenched open the nearest door and without even looking to see what was in there, began pushing the remaining children into the room. I glanced back down the hall. He still stood there smiling.

"I’ll be right with you my dear, just as soon as I finish my appetizer." He shouted above the alarm. His smile broadened as he held up a small child who was staring at him with enormous eyes. "Waive to the nice lady" he said raising the child’s limp hand and wiggling it back and forth.

"Won’t be a minute." he said. "You just wait for me there, that’s a good girl."

I bolted through the door, slammed it shut and leaned against it panting with fear. I could hear his laughter echoing through the wood. I thumbed the lock and grabbed a chair jamming it under the doorknob as I’d seen done in the movies. Like that would keep out a vampire.

I looked around. The children stood gravely silent, staring at me. We seemed to have run into the old Green room which the producer had converted into a makeshift chapel for "Fellowship Time" before the performances. There were several folding chairs lined up in front of a podium which had a large bible placed on top. To either side was a flag pole stuck in a heavy base. One flag was white with a golden cross wrapped in red flames. The other was a Union Jack. An old battered couch, a side table with a coffee maker and a few overstuffed chairs scattered about the room made up the rest of the furnishings. A door in the wall near the podium stood open. It led into a closet which contained a card table and a few more folding chairs. That was it.

The alarm cut off abruptly. I could hear shuffling footsteps in the hall and scrabbling sounds as the horrors outside attempted to open the door. There was nowhere to run. We were trapped.

We were going to die.

I gave up, collapsing sideways onto the nearest folding chair. I stared at the door. I was so tired. I had been praying in my mind for escape this whole time. Perhaps, I should begin praying for a quick and painless death instead.

So tired...

So easy to sit. Just sit quietly and accept my fate.

The thoughts rolled through my mind like a comforting fog. I closed my eyes. Why keep fighting? It won’t make a difference and it will just frighten the children that much more. Why should they die so afraid? The scrabbling sound grew louder as a comfortable apathy swathed my brain in a soft, calm gauze.