LETTERS FROM HELLSING IV

Power shot through me like a searing flame. My fear and anger were burnt away leaving only room for that voice. That voice, which I knew somehow, would let me keep my promise to that little boy. I did not even care at this point if I lived or died, but this...thing was not going to get those children!

Another chair bent, then another, and another. They seemed to jump into my hand as I needed them.

The voice, stronger now, was singing through my veins. The blood was pounding in my ears. My head was spinning. Distantly I could hear someone singing. Not well, but loudly.

"GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE, BOOGEY MAN!"

"Stop singing you stupid bitch!" the man screamed.

Startled, I realized it was me singing. I took a deep breath and bellowed out at the top of my lungs, "HE’S BIGGER THAN GODZILLA OR THE MONSTERS ON TV!"

He snarled and began advancing toward me. The blood was pounding so hard in my ears that I could barely hear myself. So I sang out louder. "OH GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE, BOOGEY MAN AND HE’S WATCHING OUT FOR YOU AND ME!!!"

I could almost feel the children smiling behind that door. I smiled back. Tears were streaming down my face and my head was pounding; "Thump, Thump, Thump, Bang!", but I was smiling.

He had just about reached me and I was just about to start verse 2, when he hesitated and cocked his head as if listening to something. I could not hear a thing for the blood pounding in my ears "Thump, Thump, Bang! Thump. Thump, Bang! Bang! Thump".

Bang?... No wait, that’s not right.

The man turned towards the door, he held up his hand and the ghouls instantly froze. So did I.
It was dead quiet.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Gunshots rang out in the hall. Then the sound of footsteps, then "Bang!" another shot, closer than the last. I sagged with relief. The police. The police had come at last!
A single set of footsteps echoed in the hall.

A man appeared in the doorway. He was tall and thin with wild black hair and dressed from head to toe in red. Well, not quite. His boots were black but his hat, his overcoat, even his glasses were all a deep brownish red. He took in our strange tableau and smiled.

"I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner" he said in a deep, smooth voice "but why don’t you try picking on someone your own size?"

He seemed to be alone. "Where are the others? Where are the police?!" I screamed in my head while frantically craning my neck to see past him.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?" said my attacker.

The man in red ignored the question, glancing at me where I still stood panting with a twisted metal chair in my hands. "Your dance card looks a little full. Do you mind if I take a few admirers off your hands?"

I stared at him speechless. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How could this strange man possibly save us from these monsters?

"I don’t know who you think you are" said my attacker, "but if you wish to die a hero, I am happy to oblige you." He flicked his hand towards the man in red in a dismissive manner. The ghouls swung around and lurched towards my would be rescuer.

Slowly, almost lazily, the tall man reached into his overcoat and pulled out two of the most enormous handguns I had ever seen. One silver and one black, both glinting dangerously in the light.

My attacker gave a snort of contempt "you guns won’t harm me!" He laughed.

The man in red glanced over at me and smiled in a truly frightening way, winked, then addressed my attacker. "No, but the bullets will." and began to fire. A loud terrible booming in that small space. I flinched at the sound, dropping the chair.

The man moved into the room aiming and firing over and over so quickly his arms seemed to blur. I stumbled back as ghouls began to explode around me.

"Yes, silver bullets will most definitely kill scum like you." he said.

"Silver?" my attacker gasped.

"Yes." the man said "Now, will you stand and fight or must I waste more time on your filthy undead puppets?"

"Kill him!" my attacker screamed.

The ghouls lurched forward from all directions hurling any objects they could find at the man in red. The coffee pot whizzed past his head knocking off his wide brimmed hat. He pivoted and fired at the ghouls coming up behind him momentarily turning his back to us.

My attacker pounced on the opportunity. He pushed past me shoving me hard against the podium as he snatched up the flagpole with the Union Jack. He pointed the Fleur-delis finial at the man’s back and began to charge.

"No!" I screamed, as my hands closed down on the only weapon I could find. I ran up behind that horrible man and just as the man in red began to turn around, I brought that big bible down on my attackers head as hard as I could.

He did not go down. He just got angry.

He turned, and impaled me on the flagpole instead. The bible dropped from my hands as the force of the blow drove me back up against the podium. "That’s it for you bitch!" He snarled. He smiled as he twisted the pole "Does it hurt?"

Suddenly the tall man in red was behind him. Gripping his shoulder with one hand he reached around my attackers head with his other arm and pulled. There was a sickening crack as the head was snapped around to face backwards.

"What are you?" my attacker asked.

The tall man smiled, placing the silver muzzle of his gun against my attackers head "You’ll just have to die disappointed." he said, then pulled the trigger.