Devil's Repent
		By:  Fragraham Lincon
-----------------------------------------------------------

	The castle keep was still dark.  The perpetual clouds that
surrounded both above and below obscured any evidence of the time
of day.  In the candle lit gloom the main door creeked, and
kicked up dust as old cobwebs split apart.  Through the
slowly opening heavy wooden doors a lone black caped figure
entered.

	Down his shoulders was draped flowing white hair.
his countainance was so pale it was nearly pure white.
Dust puffed up into the air just slightly before settling back
down as he took each step forward.  Along his sideds on each
column were torches which lit one by one illuminating his path.

	As the black caped man approached the coffin before
him the faint light illuminated it revealing another figure
sitting atop it.

	Clad in purple with hair blue as the sea was a child.
He smiled and bid the caped man welcome.
"I've been waiting for you Alucard."  he said smiling.

	Alucard stepped back with surprise.  "Who are you and
how do you know who I am.  I would think that you're a lost child
but you stink of demonic power."  Alucard said in a half confused but
half accusatory tone.

	The child shook his head.  "Come now Alucard, surely
you recognize your own father."  

	Alucard streightened his stance.  "I had heard rumors
that you had taken on a new form.  But then what do I 
sense sleeping in that casket?"

	The boy Dracula answered.  "Just my old shell currently
occupied by an imposter spirit.  The long battles left if far
too weak to channel my true power."

	Alucard held his head down.  "Then I shouldn't call
you father should I Dracula.  If that is even the name you would
prefer.  After all you'r spirit is not the man my father once was
before he sold his soul to evil.  And now you are not even the
physical body."  he said solemnly.

	"I've taken a liking to the name Malus as of late.
I supose in my second childhood I grew accustomed to it 
prior to fully regaining my memories."  the boy replied.

	Malus extended one hand and suspended in mid air above
his palm a flame appeared and slowly floated toward the outer
walls of the castle keep alighting every torch.  Cobwebs
burned away and the occasional spider still inabiting them.

	Alucard's senses could almost hear the tiny screams
of tiny lives being turned to cindar.  That was his own blight
that in the centuries of battle his sense of the suffereing around him
had only grown more acute.  Every little death he had heard in his
lifetime always left him to wonder if his father had done the oposite
and become desensitized to the suffering around him, or worse
become even more aware and somehow learned to enjoy it.

	Shaking Alucard from his inner contemplation Malus 
began to speak.

	"Alucard have you come to try and kill me?
Or are you here to ask questions?  Which vain attempt to
vallidate your continued existance on this plane is it that
has brought you here?"  Malus asked.

	"I've come to ask you something."  Alucard answered
after some hesitation.  "Why are you doing this now?
Even if you were Dracula before if you've been reborn
then why not change?  All of your past could be put behind
you.  You don't have to be damned to this life anymore."
Alucard continued.

	"Alucard.  Don't you think that's what I've wanted to
do.  Though my minions resurected me with only the blackest of
intentions don't you think I held some home that my newfound
innocence would not fade.  The fact is I tried.  I even
felt something I have not felt since I was a mortal man....
...love.  The same love I felt for your mother.
She curses the name Dracula but not the name Malus."
Malus said with meloncholy abundant in his voice.

	"Then why not.  Why not go with her.
Go among the people as a new person and let Dracula
die here."  Alucard plead.

	"Because, my son.  The darkness has followed me
into this new body.  Like my memories it was weak at first but
it is overwhelming me.  There will soon come a time when I am
once again Dracula and I will revel in the suffering of 
the mortal world.  And then she....my dear Carrie will
hate the name Malus just as much."  Malus' words
seemed to fall on Alucard as if a weight on his chest.

	"Just like you Alucard I've loved two in my lifetime.
And just like you I fear what I am too much to ever
bring them joy.  Lisa, your mother dared to defy my fate
and held on to me.  She died for such a sin and it's the very
reason you pushed them away.  Both of them.  Sonia, Maria.
And now I continue the cycle.  Poor Carrie.  I will shatter
the most innocent of love."  Malus said with a tear falling from
his eye.

	A genuin tear.  Neither black as his soul nor red as the
blood that stained his hands.  Pure and clear.  Splashing on the floor
like a fine crystal shattering and it was gone.

	Alucard turned his back seeing that there was nothing left
for him to do.  "I live by a code never to strike down an
innocent....Malus.  So I will leave this day without fighting you.
The Belmont should fullfill his destiny.  Or perhaps the Fernandez
girl herself.  And I know you will return again and again.
And mabey just mabey there will be a day that rather than slay you
some one can save your wretched soul."  Alucard said as he prepared
to depart.

	"Alucard...tell Carrie when this is all over...
...tell her to curse the name Dracula to Hell for eternity.
But ask of her.  To forgive the boy she called Malus.  Tell her
that Malus died loving her."  Malus asked as a second third and a
patter of tears fell from his face to the floor below.

	"I will.  And may God some day find it in his heart
to grant mearcy to your misserable existance."  Alucard replied
before walking out the way he came slamming the door
shut.  

	With the loud thunder of the ancient door the torches
all about snuffed out leaving Malus alone in the darkness.
	
	In the silent shadows Malus spoke to himself.
"I pray that day will come.  I only wish it had been
in time to spend one lifetime with her."