Stay

Segment Four - Dante & Lynaria

Dante

The smell of blood only gets stronger as I near the church, entering through the back courtyard entrance. I push my way through the huge front doors, being enlightened with a candlelit entrance hall that leads to the main area for prayer. I can hear the crunching of bones and tearing of flesh as I saunter my way into the main room, my lip curling in disgust. I'm really pissed off that I made it too late, but that doesn't break my resolve to send this thing straight to hell.

I whistle to catch its attention and I am pleased when it see its crimson gaze lift from its meal of a poor priestess, it's maw drenched in liquid red. She's a big girl, not at all what I was expecting, and I wink at the creature, letting a wolf howl escape my lips in a taunt. The top half of its body is all voluptuous woman, bare and shameless for the world to see. Long raven locks cover its breasts, though by the way it rocks it's upper body, hard to keep it modest. The hair runs down its back in a tuft of curls and at the hip line, I can tell there's something reptilian about it by the way it moves its body like a snake.

It's mouth is all sorts of fucked up with rows of razor sharp teeth and it almost looks like it's unhinged it's jaw a smidge to attack its helpless prey. Definitely part snake. Then it hits me.

"Oooh, you're a lamia, aren't ya? I haven't been graced by one of your kind before. This should be really something special."

In its hands, the poor woman that she was devouring is further crushed in a motion of anger and I clear my throat, narrowing my icy gaze on it.

"That's just disrespectful. If you're gonna play with something, why not play with me? I've got all night to dance."

It elevates itself to stand "fully," and she's tall and indeed, a big ole lamia. I guess it's a "she" anyways. She spits out putrid words, her breath foul with the smell of death and other sordid contents, making my nose scrunch up.

"A fucking demon hunter? You disgust me. Die as others have before you!"

"Awww you hurt my feelings! And here I thought we had a connection. Alright alright," I am quick to aim Ebony and Ivory with a confident smirk, "let's rock baby!"

I strike first, blasting away a rain of bullets at her, clenching my jaw. I put a little extra power into the bullets with my devil trigger, wanting at least one of them to connect with her big ass tail. I succeed with two shots hitting her hip line and she howls in pain as she lurches for me. I jump, narrowly evading her assault, flipping my body to shoot down at her midair.

"Come on princess, you have to have more than that!"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Her tail whips at me and I use it as a stepping stool, calling upon my beloved and most trusted companion Rebellion to help me get this taken care of hastily, while quickly putting my pistols away. I slash at her, trying to take advantage of her back being open to me and she screeches once more, whipping her body around at me at a quicker speed than I anticipated.

Her claws clash with my blade and I smirk, getting a good look at her ugly face up close. I sneer at her, continuing to parry blows, as I keep egging her on. She's quick, but I'm one step ahead.

"That is only a face a mother could love, woof."

While jumping back against the altar, I take out my pistols again, barraging her with more lead to eat. I'm a bit surprised that she's just staring at me with her maw wide open and I don't realize why until I look down at my chest. The necklace Lynaria fastened to me earlier is out, the topaz gem glistening in the candle light.

A look of complete hatred is what I'm met with and if her eyes were lasers, they would have burned a hole in my face seconds ago. Somehow incensed with greater strength, she comes at me with her claws out, howling in a rage I'm uncertain of exactly why.
She completely destroys the altar I was standing on and I jump to a pew, trying to minimize the damage to the church as much as possible.

"YOUUUUU!!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!!!"

"Ooh did I hit a nerve, sunshine?"

As I turn to slash at her, her tail whips at me, slamming into my body, sending me flying with the force of a tsunami. I hit the wall hard and need to think quick as she is aiming her claws for my throat. I tap into my devil trigger again and grab her claws with my bare hands, grimacing slightly because of them piercing through my skin.

"We gotta be quick here, I gotta hot date I gotta get back to."

She howls again, trying to whip at me with her tail, and I exhale a deep sigh. This is going to be a long night.

~~~~

Lynaria

I lay in bed trying to sleep, but feel my entire soul restless with worry. I've been alone with my thoughts for the last few hours and feel like my whole world has been turned upside down. I was never ignorant to the world having ghouls, spirits, demons and other nefarious things. I just never imagined my parents were more involved with them as they were and that Sparda was the legendary dark knight who safe guarded humanity for a long time until his death. With his death brought back these ghoulish creatures, but I didn't think they were this bad that it would need hunters to take up arms again. Dante makes it look so easy and is so flippant with his thoughts towards the whole thing I almost believe him when he says it doesn't bother him as a one man show.

I open my eyes, staring at the ceiling, feeling my face turn to a frown. He is similar to me in where he uses his comical, jovial attitude to shadow his true emotions. Mine is just the other side of the coin so to speak in where I smile and delve into my work to bury my anxiety from day to day life. Nowhere near the same scale of severity, but still using similar mechanisms to cope. I turn on my side, recalling the conversation we had earlier about his brother.

"You haven't seen him for 15 years?"

Dante shakes his head, shrugging, staring out the window as he talks.

"Nope. I've tried to find him, but it's been a moot point. If I had known that day was gonna be the last day, I would have just followed him. He always made it a point when he was done with something to have the last word," he sighs as he laughs sadly, turning his cerulean eyes back to me as I feel my heart ache for him, "not to mention, the young lady that seemed to be attached to his side threw herself after him, promising she would keep him safe. I felt like I had to trust that."

I realize now as I've been studying his face as he talks, his eyes hold speckles of grey in them. I feel a deep tug to my empathetic nature and I fight the urge to stand and embrace him, to comfort him in a way that's reserved for lovers. Instead, I tilt my head to him, offering a sweet expression. I lean my hand and place it over his, unconsciously lacing our fingers together.

"You did the best choice you could given the situation. I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to experience such a complicated scenario, but I know your heart was in the right place for him. I really hope you both can reconcile one day. I'm sure that his lady friend is encouraging the same thing."

For the first time all day, I finally receive a genuine, not composed, surprised expression from him. I swear I see his cheeks turn a slight pink. He just nods, not breaking our connection, but turning his head away. The subject quickly changes and during the course of the story, his hand breaks away from mine to animate, leaving me to feel ashamed for wanting to keep holding his hand.

In that moment of vulnerability, Dante showed me that he does have things that bother him. I hope that he can understand it's okay to let those worries out and he doesn't need to pretend that carrying thr weight of the world doesn't phase him. I wonder if he does have anyone else to talk to about this, though from what I've gathered, it seems as if he's alone most of the time. I resolve to lend my ear to him if he needs, now that I've gotten to know him.

As I curl into myself, trying to let sleep take me. Yet as I try to get more comfortable, I suddenly feel wide awake by the sound of shuffling outside. As I focus, I can hear boots clicking against the pavement out outside of the front door in what sounds like a stagger. I am quick to get out of bed, rushing to the front door, whipping it open. I gasp, helping Dante in quickly, hurrying to help him to lay down on the bed. His whole body rumbles as he laughs, shaking his hand in that dismissive manner that has me one thread away from screaming.

"Don't worry Aria, it's just a flesh wound."

"Dante, don't you dare say another word. I will tend to you and that's it."