Part 3

I sat up with a gasp, and realized immediately that I had no idea where the heck I was. It was just trees and forest, but if I squinted far enough, I was pretty sure I could see a peek in the thick trees, looking out to what seemed to be a road of some sort. There was a peek of a building too –and it looked strangely old-fashioned.

I looked over myself, to assess the damage that I was sure I had incurred… and found nothing. There was no sign at all to show that I had been tumbling down a slope, rolling in an invisible washing machine. I wasn’t sure if that was cause for concern or not, but I wasn’t ready to dwell about it at the moment –considering the fact that I had more pressing questions: mainly about my location.

If I expected someone, or at least some angel of some sort (perhaps because somewhere in my heart, I still believed that Azazel was going to come back and tell me explicitly everything that had happened to me), then I was sorely disappointed. Instead, what I got greeting me back to reality was something more horrendous.

Something more… demonic.

They literally crawled out of black holes that seemed to form from the ground, and the smell of rotten flesh was suddenly so heavy in the air that I struggled not to gag. Watching these things attack Dante on screen was entirely different than watching these things rise from the ground. It is doubly worse when you know that they are real. And in front of you.

A few moaned, as if long tortured by their journey back to the surface of the Earth, and I scrambled to my feet with a scream. I wasn’t afraid of screaming, because it was obvious that they somehow seem to know that I was the target –that they were about to get me. Most of them either had scythes on what-was-supposed-to-be-their-hands, or they had sharp-looking appendages that no-doubtedly could simple cut my head clean off my neck.

I screamed a second time for the heck of it, and didn’t bother to assess more of my body state. I picked up pace, and dashed around the side of the clearing I’d woken up into. I didn’t know where I was, but I was pretty sure I don’t want to experience the feeling of dying by demon attacks.

Even though I used to be an athletic person, even though I used to be the fastest runner on my track team in junior high, it didn’t explain my inhumane speed. I literally zoomed across at least ten meters in less than five seconds, almost hitting into a tree because I almost couldn’t pull the breaks in time. But I wasn’t going to complain. I have super-speed and a horde of at least ten demons after me. Something was working in my favor, and I wasn’t going to say no.

I adjusted myself, and ran like hell out of the forest clearing, towards the road. I prayed that this place was populated, and while I dreaded bringing the demons to somewhere where they could kill more innocent people, I was banking on pure luck that someone around here had a gun. No one needed to be a demon hunter to shoot holes into demons, after all.

I burst through the forest with a breath of fresh air, the sunlight basking in my face. How can my life be screwed up in such good weather? It must be some heavenly sin –or perhaps just an angelic joke –that someone was out to screw my life out on such a good day.

My luck was just about stretched to its limits, for there was no one on the road that I’d emerged on. I could hear faint sounds of engines running in the background though, so I wagered that this place was still populated –except for the fact that they were probably ALL THE WAY AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TOWN OR SOMETHING.

I decided not to waste my energy on screaming uselessly, and instead put focus on putting one god-damned foot in front of the other, making towards the end of the road where I could turn into some place that actually had people around.

At first, I thought it was coincidence, but looking back, I realized it was all planned by the stupid angels upstairs (more specifically Azazel), because when I turned the corner, I hit heavily into a strong body, and we both fell to the floor, rolling. The feel of strong muscles beneath me told me it was a guy –probably a really hunky one. He hadn’t really even made a single sound when I collided into him, which meant he was probably some really quiet guy. Either that or maybe he lost his voice.

Still, we went rolling down, and I scraped my elbow on the rough sidewalk. With the level of pain, I was pretty sure I’d gotten an abrasion, though I didn’t have time to care about a minor injury when I knew major injury was going to come if I didn’t act soon.

“I’m so sorry! Do you have a gun?” I scrambled quickly to my feet, looking back and trying to see if the demons were close. I probably shouldn’t have checked, because my heart literally skipped a beat when I saw exactly how close they were. How the hell do monsters with bones for legs and flesh in tatters run as fast as me?

“Never mind the gun, run!” I yelled, grabbing the man randomly as I began to run, pulling him along. I never was a strong woman, and I while I considered myself independent, I often allowed guys to help me carry my textbooks when they offered. But, for some reason, I was able to drag a fully muscled man along the road behind me as I continued running down the road as if I hadn’t knocked into him at all.

I guess it was adrenaline, but thinking back, it really wasn’t such a simple explanation.

I managed to drag us at least down the length of three shops and one empty café before the man finally planted his feet and stopped me from dragging him further. He jerked me back, stumbling to hit his body, but this time he was like a pillar erected from the floor –unmovable.

“What’s wrong with you? There are demons on our tails!” I yelled crossly at him when I tried to pull him along, and this time he refused to budge. Worse, his hand was now firmly gripped around my wrists, keeping me prisoner. What is wrong with him? Did he really want to court death?

I glared from his hunting boots up his legs and body. I cannot say I don’t like what I saw, but I had neither time nor mood to appreciate the anatomy of the opposite gender. Though I will say that he really has good hips… hips good at grinding. His fitting black pants was casual sophisticated, and a tight black shirt covered the washboard-abs. I noted too that he was wearing a dark blue coat of some sort, but my eyes strayed quickly to his half-gloved hands and… the sword in his hand.

A very familiar sword stared back at me, and I feel my eyes widen as I studied the details quickly –though still super aware that the demons were advancing on us. It’s really stupid how my Devil May Cry-Orientated mind just places these information so quickly under their respective categories, but anything else unrelated to the video game is simply negligible information to my mind.

“I believe they are on your tail.” Quite literally, the voice of Daniel Southworth filled my ears, and my eyes whipped up in a span of less than a second.

Time must have stopped, or the demons must have at least half a brain to stop and wonder why their quarry wasn’t running away from them anymore. I didn’t really care, because my eyes locked on to his, and he didn’t let me go. I must be such a state; with my mouth hanging open, my heart fluttering like a humming bird’s wings, my frozen state of shock.

Still, he must have found something extremely amusing, because there was a charming tilt at the corner of his lips, as if he was terribly entertained by my apparent reaction to him. I never pegged him for a narcissistic man, but I understood enough to know that he was confident of himself –and his looks.

He slowly removed his hand from my wrist, as if trying to make sure that I wouldn’t run away like a scared bunny. I didn’t have the voice or courage to tell him that my legs were jelly, and I wouldn’t be able to run anymore, even if he dragged me. Still holding unfaltering eye contact with me, his free hand slowly moved to the hilt of his katana.

I couldn’t even catch his actions. All I heard was a metallic ring of the sword leaving its sheath, and the next moment, he was already in the process of sheathing up his sword slowly in his usual fashion. My heart leap to my throat. He had just…

He slid the last of his sword into the sheath, and the demons that were behind us crumbled into sand with a soft whoosh of the wind.

He blinked once, eyes still keeping unfaltering contact. I don’t know what his goal is, but if it was to unnerve me or make me go crazy, then he was succeeding in that area. My mind screamed something that I couldn’t hear, and it took every effort inside me to continue breathing. Simply dragging enough breath into my lungs was a large effort, as I drank every detail of his face in.

He was not like his twin, but every aspect of him was so alike. You called them identical twins for a reason –they were practically identical. I could only imagine how pretty their parents were. It was ironic, how I would forever keep on to the idea that their parents were the match made in heaven –when one of them was a demon.

“Now that our demonic problem is solved, explain yourself to me.” He opened his mouth, and again I heard Daniel Southworth’s voice. Did he murder the voice actor and steal his voice box?

“I… I…” I began to say, and then pressed my hands over my mouth. Oh my god, what would I say? I didn’t know what to say.

His eyes narrowed, and my heart skipped two whole beats. Crap. I know that look. It was that look that he gave Arkham in DMC3 right before he pulled that sword. Oh my god.

“Hey, what’s with the mess? I smell demons in the air, but I don’t see any.” A very familiar voice shouted, and I turned around expecting to see Reuben Langdon.

But it wasn’t. IT WASN’T REUBEN.

The intruder dropped down lightly beside us, and I finally broke eye contact with my savior –and my would-be-killer-if-the-intruder-didn’t-arrive.

“What’s up? Who’s the chick?” The intruder asked, checking me out as I dragged my eyes reluctantly from that pair of deep and cold blue eyes.

I landed my eyes on the man in red trench coat, and I guess it was too much for my frail body to take.

I don’t think I made a sound; not a sign at all.

All strength just lost me. My vision just grew black.

I had no more thoughts after that.

_______________________________________________________________________________

“She is your problem, Verge. You’re the one who picked her up.” I drifted in and out of consciousness, but I could still catch the distant voice speaking. The voice was familiar –a voice that I fantasized speaking to me, declaring love to me often. There was a reason why I said ‘fantasized’, because it was all in the past, and it was all f-a-n-t-a-s-y.

“I did not pick her up.” A cold, sneering voice replied, and I heard a faint hint of displeasure and arrogance. “She merely ran into me. I only dispatched the demons chasing after her, for they –and she –were in my path.”

Wow. This second guy was an ass.

“Doesn’t change a thing. You picked her up; you let her down. It’s none of my business. But if you want to let her stay, you’re paying her rent. If you want to do something dirty to her, take it upstairs and close the door. If you don’t want anything to do with her, then I’m going to take her upstairs and close my door –if you know what I mean.” The first livelier and racier voice spoke up again, but there was no sound of offense or amusement from the second man.

“You will do well to know that it is mandatory rape, brother. While we have neither needs nor use for human laws, I do not wish to be cleaning your ass up. I do not desire to have investigators upon the shop, requesting to bring you in. You do not depend on this job to survive. I depend on this job to remain alive.” The second voice replied evenly, and I got a general idea of exactly how much crap the second guy could put up with.

Distantly my mind told me that the ‘she’ they referred to was me, but half of my actual brain power and consciousness was still taking a vacation at the moment, so I could only analyze whatever I could hear with half a working mind.

“Aww, don’t be such a sob, Verge. Look at her! So pristinely pure, waiting for you! I bet she’s virgin like you. Come on, I know you’ve got urge, Verge. You need to satisfy ‘em.” The first voice urged, and I struggled to come up with a name to put on to this man with such a racy mind. Truly, there was nothing else he could think of other than having sex with an unconscious woman?

“The only urge I have yet satisfied is letting your face meet my knuckles. I, unlike you, Dante, am not a sexual deviant. The girl is free to do whatever she likes when she wakes up. I am leaving.” The second voice declared in a high-and-mighty voice, in an I-don’t-care-what-you-think-anymore voice. Normally, I would have turned my nose up at the arrogance, but against this first man, I was suddenly supportive.

Wait… Dante? Did the second man address the first as Dante? Come to think of it, the first man kept repeating ‘Verge’… Was it the short form of Vergil?

“What? You’re leaving? But the party’s just getting started!” The first man complained as footsteps softly stepped away from my side.

The party’s just getting started! I remembered this line from Devil May Cry 3.

Oh my god.

It was a good thing that I was already blacked out, because my mind flew back into unconsciousness at the realization again.