Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 37)

Chapter 37 - Dante

My eyes slowly open to a blinding light. Relief comes over me, the light has finally come to take me instead of letting me sit in a timeless place of horrors.

A shadowy figure interrupts the stream of light. I squint my eyes and the figure becomes clear.

"Dante? You're...alive," the strange woman says to me.

I come to the realization that I'm not going to the light, but I'm back in the world of the living...

I jump into a sitting position out of my surprise and look around the room. An excruciating pain overtakes me as I feel my joints crack and snap themselves into working position again. I growl in pain and grit my teeth as I bend forward trying to ward off the pain.

The pain subsides and I roll my shoulders and neck around, making sure they're finished replacing themselves. I look around the room once and see the faces of people that I just can't put my finger on as to who they are.

"Wh...who are you?" I ask groggily.

"It's us Dante, your friends," the familiar voice says to me.

"It's me Dante, it's Ethan", the old guy says to me, stepping closer. I grin, let out a light chuckle, and smile.

"There's no way you're Ethan, he's only twenty-three," I respond.

"No Dante, I was that age a long time ago. It's been eighteen years. You were frozen in time. The ship that saved us hit the Zeus with a wormhole constructor to prevent the infection from getting out," the man who claims to be Ethan explains. I stare at him as if he's crazy and delusional.

"I think all of you have a few screws loose if you expect me to believe that," I say.

"He's telling the truth, Dante," a woman's voice sounds.

The sound makes an instant connection in my mind and I realize who it is. I twist around on the table and stare at the woman. Her face is older, still beautiful, but a wiser look surrounds it. I feel a tear run down my right eye as I come to a sudden realization.

"A...Anika...you're telling the truth...I remember now...I remember everything up to the final moment," I say in shock.

I stand up from the table, my legs shaking after all the years of not being used. I slowly walk to Ethan and look him in the eyes. A small smile comes across my face and I place a hand on Ethan's shoulder.

"Thanks for coming back for me...brother," I say to him.

Ethan grins back at me and just nods his head, unable to conjure words. I turn around slowly and step over to Anika next. As I stare into her unchanging, gorgeous eyes, they begin to flood with tears of happiness, I assume.

I can no longer resist the urge and I place my hands on both sides of her face and pull her into me, kissing her. I try to make up for all the years I was gone with that kiss before finally releasing it.

Anika says nothing to me either and simply wraps my arm over her shoulder and helps me to turn around. I stare at all the familiar, but older faces staring back at me, smiling.

"So...the first question on my agenda would have to be...where's my godson?" I say to all of them.

Ethan turns to the side and motions his hand towards a boy who seems to be close to twenty, out cold in a seat that's highly secured.

"Why is he strapped up like that?" I ask.

"Well, turns out the infection did spread over to him. Don't worry though, we're heading to get it taken care of as we speak," Ethan explains. I sigh in relief and nod my head in acceptance.