Part 23

I wake up back to myself at the bottom of the familiar hill I fell from. If anyone was near Kryst Lane, Chrisvale, on April 5th at approximately 6pm, they would have heard a mad woman screaming and cheering for joy.

That would have been me.

I don’t know what I’m more amazed at –the fact that I’ve been gone for six months, the fact that my body is still here at the bottom of the hill after six months, or the fact that my phone still has battery, and is still on me.

Still, I take the chance, and call 911, because the aches of my rolling down the hill is coming back to me. I don’t know how I could have such amazing lag time, but the pain of broken bones and cracked head of rolling down a hill comes to me as I come back to my human self, back in my own Human World.

The process of recovery was pretty messed up, but the craziest thing was the paparazzi. It turned out that my empty coffin had been buried weeks after they pronounced me missing and dead. The gangsters who had shot the tree and had me rolling down the hill had confessed to seeing me fall and roll. They were all arrested and locked up behind bars, but when they couldn’t find my body and just bits and pieces of my torn clothes on the slope of the hill, they presumed I was dead.

My ‘revival from the dead’ became highly publicized, and I made the mistake of spilling the fact that I’d dropped into Limbo, the Devil May Cry World, while I was under the influence of drugs. People who intially looked at me in awe of cheating death, called me crazy, and I was sent to brain scans to make sure my brain was working right.

Doctors said I must have had hallucinations, but no one could explain why my wounds were fresh as if I had just rolled down the hill only the day before. No one could explain why I went missing for six months, before coming back to life. No one believed me, but there was no reason anyone would.

To the world, I must have hit my head too hard on a stray rock, and I must have ended up with hallucinations. Or maybe I’d been dreaming in my near-death experience.

They came up with a million and one ideas.

Then afterwards, they simply said I was suffering from shock. The roll down the hill ‘gave me too much a shock’ and my mind ‘created figments of imaginations to help me cope with the pain’.

My parents were worried as hell, and I loved them all the more, knowing that in a parallel world, I had another set of parents who loved me equally much.

I was put into counselling, and when it didn’t get better, I was referred to a psychiatrist.

And that is how it all happened.

How I fell into Limbo, how I fell in love with Vergil, how he took my virginity, and how I escaped from it all, finally knowing who my real parents are.

This is all true, I am not lying. It really happened.

I am not afraid of what the world says, because I believe.

And my mother once told me, if I believe, then my love will pay off.

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“…And my mother once told me, if I believe, then my love will pay off.” I conclude, reaching forwards for the cup of water that was waiting for me on the desk in front of me.

Over time, we’d migrated from the chair to the desk that my psychiatrist used, with Marielle sitting at her seat, trying to make herself feel professional while I narrated my story from the patient's seat. There is really no need to state exactly why I love my sister, but the thing about Marielle is: she accepts everything.

If you tell her the world will end tomorrow right now, there is no problem in her believing you wholesale. Marielle is the only one that has believed me, and has sat there, listening to everything. It was really amazing, how I’d managed to cramp in six months’ worth of life into two sessions, three hours each.

One hour for each month, huh?

“Oh, Lila!” Marielle’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears, and while I understood that she was more than a little touched at my story, I was still amused at how much she could feel for me. But then, what else could I ask from my sister? Marielle was the best sister anyone could ask for. “I’m so sorry you couldn’t be with your real parents and Vergil! You must miss them so much!”

She ran over and hugged me tight, making me remember the hug that I’d shared with my real mother right before my journey ended. I still missed them, and I still dreamed of Vergil every night. I wasn’t sure if it was my mother’s doing –by letting me dream of my lover –but I was still happy that I could still remember and love Vergil, even though we’d missed each other for the past three months now.

Three very painful, Vergil-less month.

But I believe, and I know my love will pay off one day.

“I miss them, Marielle, but I missed you too. How did your day go?” I hugged her back, glad to have her back at my side. Trish may have been almost like a sister to me, but Marielle cannot be replaced. It was just too bad that Marielle was studying at a private college quite a distance away from our house, which meant that I didn’t see her often since she needed more time for travelling.

“Oh, my day was just perfect! Didn’t I tell you there was this guy called Leander in my class…”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I step out of the building, facing the sun. The sunlight warms my face and I bask happily in the warmth that fills me. I close my eyes, and only imagine my mother smiling back at me from her place in the Heavens.

I remember her beautiful face, her amazing wings and hair flowing behind her.

I remember how her son resembled her too. Vergil had his mother’s silky hair, his mother’s soft cheekbones. It took someone who knew the two of them well, but I knew that despite being identical twins, Dante had sharper cheekbones and but softer lips. Vergil had soft cheekbones, and sharp lips. His nose was definitely a result from his mother, but those eyes. There is no denying whose eyes Vergil and Dante inherited.

I sigh happily at the memory of my lover, glad that I could still place him firm in my mind. Three months had passed, but it already felt like a year since I last saw Vergil again.

My phone rings in my hand, and I pick it up without looking at the screen.

“Leah speaking.”

“Hey Lila, how did the session go?” Marielle’s voice was bright and lilting, and she totally didn’t sound like the tired teenaged after-school college student she was supposed to be. Sometimes, I really wonder what Marielle does in school to have such a perfect life. She had perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect energy. In every way, my sister was the perfect sister.

“The same.” I sighed as I began making my way home from yet another round of arguing with the psychiatrist about the state of clarity of my mind. “I really don’t want Dad and Mum to waste money on therapy, but I won’t stand being called a liar. Can’t people just understand that I might really have met someone I love, and just leave it at that?”

Marielle laughed, and I heard in the background that she was already on the way home. I should be studying, but after the entire fiasco of going missing for half a year, my parents had given me leave to stay away from any form of studying for another half a year to recollect myself. I sure needed the break –and some time to accompany Marielle.

“You do realize that people find it hard to accept that you’ve fallen in love with a video game character?”

“People fall in love with Dante all the time, all around the world.” I pointed out, but Marielle only giggled.

“Like you before you went missing?” She pointed out cheekily, and despite everything that I’ve been through, I laughed at myself.

“That was just a phase.” I protested, trying to defend myself. “I’m way over him now, and totally just caught up with his hotter, more amazing twin brother.”

“Then maybe I can claim Dante?” Marielle suggested with a giggle, and I walked towards my car parked down the street chatting to my imaginative sister who ended up planning for a non-existent double date for me, Vergil, Dante and her. Marielle had never been as large a DMC fan as me, but she was still caught up with the video game series –and the main character of course.

And now that I’d claimed Vergil to be mine, she’d been given the go-ahead to fantasize about a dreamy Dante –which I couldn’t bear to tell her that the heroic, humorous version never existed in Limbo.

“I’ll see you at home, Marielle.” I reached the Lexus given for my welcome-back gift and was fumbling for the keys in my pocket when a cold gust of wind brushed past me.

On pure instincts, I looked up and around at the unnatural gust of cold wind that had brushed me by.

I dropped the keys from my hand, my jaw dropping too.

It couldn’t be…

She smiled with the tears in her eyes, and waved at me.

“Mother!” I cried –a little glad that there was no one around in this hot, stuffy afternoon –as I ran to her, enveloping her in a strong, fierce hug. It had been three months, but it felt like a year since I last hugged her like this.

When I saw her for the first time in the room of blue and green walls, I’d been amazed by her beauty and the light she almost seemed to radiate. Now, under the light of the sun, Eva seemed to positively glow. The light was caught everywhere –in her eyes, in her hair, on her skin and on her wings. Her warmth engulfed me, and even though the afternoon heat was sweltering hot, she was still an amazing warmth that surrounded me, keeping me in her love.

“My darling daughter, how I’ve missed you!” She cried as she hugged me back fiercely too, kissing the top of my head.

“I believed, Mum. I believed, and my love paid off! You’re here to see me!” I grinned brightly at her. I didn’t want to know how and why she suddenly appeared to me like this; I just wanted to know that she would stay and talk to me, that she would be around.

“I’m your guardian angel, I will always be watching over you. But this time, I was Tasked by the Lord to give you a gift; a present.” She smiled greatly in reply, and I could almost hear excitement exploding forth. Was her presence not the only good news? Seeing Eva again was enough to make my day brighter by a hundred times.

“I don’t need any present as long as I get to see you!” I declared, but she only smiled knowingly, shaking her head.

“You won’t say that when you see your present. You’ll love it to pieces.” She says, turning and leading me away from my car.

“I love you to pieces.” I pointed out cheekily, but she only spares me a sideward glance. The cheeky expression in her eyes says that she’s more interested to see my reaction at her ‘present’, and I’m wary. I know my mother will never give me anything that might potentially harm me, but I’m still curious as hell. What could be so great that I would forget the arrival of my mother to see me again after three months?

We stopped outside a door that led to a broken down building that used to be a luxurious theatre. Since we were in the neglected part of the town, it was not surprising to see many of these boarded up windows and chained doors. What was surprising, however, was the fact that the doors here weren’t chained or locked.

“Your present is inside, waiting.” My mother announced with a wide grin. There was glee in her eyes, and I couldn’t fathom –for the life of me –what put it there. I tried to get a peek through the door, but it was dark inside.

Eva stopped me before I opened the door wide, and I was surprised to be handed a bag that seemed to be full of items -namely some clothes and what seemed like toiletries.

“You’ll need these.” She said, before she handed me a file that I hadn’t seen her carry at all. Was it an angel-thing for her to manifest things out of nowhere? “And the paperwork inside should do the job.”

I tried to peek into the file, but she slapped my prying fingers away gently, giving me a warning look, as if warning me not to spoil the fun by peeking. Curiosity almost exploding, I tried to peek through the door again, but Eva cleared her throat, and I reluctantly turned my attention back to her.

She handed me a clear prescription bottle with two familiar-looking pills inside. I’d seen those pills before, they’d been the one I’d taken when Eva sent me back here. Were they called ‘dimension travelling pills’ or something?

“Take them only when you’re sure of your future, Leah. Take them only when you know you have faith enough to shake the Earth and move mountains.” She said severely and seriously as she handed them over. Filled with utmost wariness and confusion, I pocketed the pill bottle quickly and nodded to show understanding.

The gentle expression seeps back on her face as she gestures one last time.

“Time for you to unwrap your gift.” She says gleefully, and opened the door, pushing me in.

I turned around to say something about her pushing me in, but she cheekily closed the door behind me quickly, leaving me in darkness. I tried to open the door, a little afraid of what I might find hiding in the darkness, but I really must have inherited a sense of teasing from my mother, because she kept the door adamantly closed behind me, not even budging.

With nothing left to do, I sighed, turned around, and chanced a step forwards.

As if movement triggered some sort of sensor somewhere, the lights leading forwards turned on and lighted a narrow pathway forwards, showing me a small set of stairs that led me towards the lighted stage. Someone stood there, back facing me.

With a sigh, I continued on, holding on to the bag and file in my hands stupidly.

“Hi… Err, do you by any chance, know Eva?” I asked awkwardly, standing at the edge of the stage, still not daring to go up. I would totally seek some sort of revenge if this was a twisted joke.

“She…” The voice is deep with contained emotions, and it strikes a pang deep inside me. “Is my mother.”

“Your mother? Wait, she’s my…” I began to say, rushing up the stairs; eager to meet someone who would declare that Eva was his mother –much less of a fact who would know an angel named Eva. Maybe it was some delusional DMC fan.

I stopped, now that I had seen his face.

We meet each other’s eyes, and it’s like the world has fallen away.

The hug he gives me is the strongest I’ve felt thus far. In that one hug, I feel everything that we’ve missed between us for the past three months. At one point of time, my knees turn jelly, and I lose my strength to stand. But he is there… he is always there.

The kiss we shared… it was one of the best few we ever had.

“You’re the present.” I realized after long, in which my mind had been blown away by the presence of my lover. Vergil being here made no sense, but nothing did. My love for him didn’t make sense, and the same was vice versa. Nothing between us made sense, but they never did anyway.

“I’m sorry?” He asked, holding me tight with him as we sat at the edge of the stage, looking out into the darkness.

“Eva sent me here saying I have a present waiting, and she gave me a bag full of clothes, and some fake documents for you. She said I wouldn’t be satisfied with just her, if I saw you.”

He looked at me for a long moment, then closed his eyes and gave a very Eva-like serene smile. “That’s my mother for you. She touches you straight in the heart.”

I trailed my fingers softly over his heart. “And so do you. You are without a doubt, Eva’s son.”

“And you,” He dips in for a kiss, “are without a doubt, Eva’s daughter.”

“Are you afraid, Vergil?” I ask, clutching on tightly to his chest and shirt.

He looks deep in my eyes, nothing but honesty and love written in the blue orbs.

“I am afraid of many things. But most of all, I am afraid of losing you.”

I feel my heart leap and soar.

“I am afraid of losing you too. I was so afraid I would never see you again. I was afraid I would forget you.”

He cradled my cheek. “I never forgot you, and I never gave up. I promised you, Leah.”

“We promised.” I corrected, just looking out to the empty audience seats. It feels like I’ve just performed a show, and it’s all over. It’s all over, and there’s only the two of us left in this world. I’m afraid that if we walk out of here Vergil will disappear.

But I believe in him, and I know our love will pay off.

“Leah Katherine Cartlier,” He pronounced as he intertwines his finger with mine. “I promise on my life that I will never let you go ever again.”

I look up at him, and I smile happily.

“I must have made a mistake, Vergil.” I say abruptly, but my lover simply entertains me.

“A mistake?”

“You. You’re my mistake.”

His face turns curious. “I am your mistake?”

“I shouldn’t have dated a devil, much less a son of Sparda. What am I thinking?” I pretend to get away from him, and pure dismay flashes past his face. I take a few steps away, and he tries to follow, before his footsteps slow and stop entirely.

“Leah…” His voice is weak, and I giggle silently. How can he be so gullible?

Vergil is so cute, it should be a sin for him to be so gullible. Someone seriously needed to do something about the level of cuteness my lover was radiating.

I flew back to him, surprising him by literally gluing myself to him and attacking his lips with mine. Whatever initial dismay he had was kissed away, but the confusion is still there in his eyes.

“What was that about?”

I hooked my arms around his neck and grinned.

“You’re my mistake, Vergil.”

I kissed him again.

“But you are the best devilish mistake that I’ll ever make.”