You hadn't intended to travel for so long, it was only to ensure that Wallachia was surviving after Dracula's tyranny. Alucard, had to stay with the castle and the Belmont hold lest it be ransacked. The keep is quiet when you return, air heavy with an ominous silence and thick with a musk that makes your lip curl in disgust; humans.

Alucard is no where to be found, even when his name echoes in the halls as you call for him. The blood cellar, the kitchens and the great hall all turn up empty. His father's study- or... his study now, you suppose, shows no sign of recent life, but your shared bedroom door is ajar. That's when the familiar sweet metallic tang of blood hits your nose.

Inside, you find the source of the human scent. Two of them, naked and very dead, sliced to pieces by Alucard's sword. From their clothes strewn on the floor, they're hunters from Cho's old region in the far East. Why they'd strayed to Wallachia is beyond you.

Startled, your search through the castle grows more frantic until you reach the top floor. Alucard's childhood bedroom... in the highest tower where he had the best view of the stars through his telescope. The one room in this place he's ever felt safe, the one room he hasn't dared touch since the flames that burned as he vanquished Dracula singed his rug to ash and tainted that sacred place.

You hear the sounds of weak weeping before you reach the door. Exhausted, guttural, a pain deeper than physical. And there you find Alucard curled in a ball on that burnt blue rug, his face in his hands, his naked frame covered by a ripped sheet. Burn marks wind around his arms, a telltale sign of being bound by silver- a hunter's weapon- and his shoulders wrack with deep, broken sobs.

He startles when he senses you, Alucard's body jolting and his glassy eyes looks up at you, hooded and bloodshot. His expression crumples and your name slips out, fractured between a plea and relief, his voice hoarse and his tears still spilling. "{{user}}..."