Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or its characters, Just my OC’s.
Recap: The girl giggled again. “Emma.” She replied in a bubbly voice that sounded like wind chimes. Chris’s alarmed senses seem to ease as the little girl talked more, he felt more… entranced.
“So Emma, what are you doing in the bathroom here? Where’s your family?”
Emma giggled sadly then grabbed ahold of Chris’s hand and tugged. “I’ll show you.” And then dragged him back through the back room door. Chris offered no resistance, instead he followed her willingly, a smile spreading across his face as they exited through the emergency exit. As they walked outside and along a dirt trail that lead into the woods behind the diner, all Chris thought was, ‘Why do I feel so sad?’
As Chris walked further away from the diner, he began to feel heavy, the feeling was brought on by some unknown thing to him, but it felt as if someone placed a thousand years of tears on him, and all those tears were nothing but sorrow.
“Emma, where are we going?” He asked the little girl that was pulling him along. She stopped and turned around to stare up at him, her hazel eyes looking shocked.
Emma stepped back from Chris and let his hand fall to his side. “You’re not supposed to talk.” She whispered silently. The moment that she let go of Chris, the heavy sorrow was lifted, which caused him to stagger ever so slightly.
Chris felt something inside him stir, and it was something that he didn’t want to let out. He looked at her and glared. “Emma, where were you leading me?”
She stumbled backwards and started to stammer. “Y….you sho….should have just stayed quiet!”
Chris took a step towards her and leaned down. “And why is that?” his face was emotionless but held a soft undertone of anger, if Dante was there he’d remark on how similar it was with Vergil’s usual stoic look.
“Because it would have hurt less.” She whispered softly, and then her face started to change. Her features started to sink inward and loose color; she started to appear more corpses like.
Chris took a small step backward out of awareness. “I should have known.” He told himself. He then took out Judith and flicked open the lid. “I must say though, you are quite the enchantress.”
“Why didn’t you just stay quiet?” she asked, her voice sounding choked. “The others kept quiet, why couldn’t you?!” she screamed, a rustle sounded in the area, causing Chris to pivot his head around to look and see what was happening.
“Emma, are you the one who has been causing problems around the mine?” he asked her as he continued to survey the surrounds. Shadowed forms crept from behind one tree to another, a hushed whisper started to run around the air.
“I didn’t want too.” She sniffed, then sat down and brought up her knees to her chest, her bunny rabbit doll stuck out slightly. “I didn’t want to go down there, I hate it down there.”
Chris stopped looking around and stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
Emma didn’t answer; instead she sniffed and curled up deeper into a ball. “It’s so dark down there, why did you make me go down there?” she started crying by then, her voice growing higher and strained, more piteous. “Mommy, Daddy? Why’d you make me go?” she sobbed louder that time, and a branch cracked inside the woods. “WHYYYYYY!!!!” Emma cried aloud that time, and then the forms burst forth from the trees.
-At the diner –
“What the hell do you mean by ‘the miners’?” Marlo demanded as she goes up and glared at Bethany.
The waitress leaned up against the counter and sighed. “The monsters you’re all here to get rid of, that’s whom I’m talking about.”
Trish narrowed her gaze and looked at Dante. “Are you saying that the miners that died in the tunnels have come back to this town and started to kidnap children?”
Bethany nodded her head. “Yes, though I’m also sure that they are also the ones behind the disappearances of some of the town’s people.”
“Look, I don’t care if a few miners, hell I wouldn’t care if Hitler is behind this,” Dante said, and then leaned over the counter, his face blank but angry. “I just want to know where the hell my son is, so give me some goddamn answers I could use.” He growled, not even bothering with the fact that he declared Chris as his son.
“Screw this.” Marlo said, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
“No service out here.” Bethany told her. Marlo glowered at her and slide the phone back into her pocket. “Look, you wanted answers, I gave you answers. If there’s any one to blame here it’s Koret and his whole damned family.”
“Figures.” Marlo muttered. “But still, what the hell does this have to do with Chris?”
“Why the hell did these bastards decide to take anyone?” Bethany countered. “All I know is, a year ago they cleared out one of the old collapsed tunnels, and then people started disappearing. If you think this town looks like a shithole now, imagine it a little bit better with a few more people.”
“Then Chris was right in some way.” Trish mused. “When he said that the parents left with their kids, they were doing it because they were afraid that theirs would be taken like the others.”
The waitress shook her head yes. “Exactly, the few remaining people here are just grieving parents or spouses hoping their loved ones will come back.” She then bent down and began rifling through the countertops hidden depths, when she came back up she placed a professional grade walkie talkie on the counter. “This belonged to Cal’s son; he was a foreman at the mine and was the first to disappear.” She looks to the back and past the serving window at the cook. “He still turns it on every now and then in hopes he’ll hear his son calling him.”
Dante and Trish looked at each other knowingly, Marlo reached forward and picked up the talkie and pressed the side button, only to hear bits of static, she set it back down and RoRa whined.
Bethany then wiped her eyes and stared at them. “When they take someone, they leave behind that persons most used possession, and I think that is your sons lighter at the window.” She said, and then pointed at the window, causing everyone to quickly turn to where she was pointing. Sure enough, a semi-shiny zippo lighter was on the outside the window, sitting on the edge.
Marlo’s eyes widened, she then bolted out of the diner and went to the window to pick it up. She stared at it in her hand, her face solemn and stony as she turned it over and clutched in tightly. She looked through the glass window and nodded her head at Dante and Trish, whose faces had turned cold.
Dante whirled around and reached across the countertop, then grabbed Bethany by her uniform and pulled her closer to him. “Where the fuck do they go when they take people?”
Bethany looked down sadly at the floor and placed her hand on his wrist. “None of us know for sure, but the best bet is the mine.” She then looked up into his eyes, a burning hatred behind her own. “But if you want better information, I suggest you go find that bastard Sephio, he was the one that ordered the collapsed tunnel be dug up, so start there.” She spat.
Dante looked thoughtful about it, then let go of Bethany and started walking towards the door, RoRa at his side. Trish sighed and turned to the waitress. “Where is his house?”
Bethany pulled out a notepad and began scribbling down a map with directions; she then tore it out of the pad and handed it to her. “It’s the oldest damn place in this godforsaken town, you’ll find it by following this map, you can’t miss it if you all are heading towards the mine, it’s the big mansion at the front gate.” Trish nodded and took the paper and began to walk to the door, Dante and RoRa had joined Marlo and were getting ready to leave. “The Koret’s are, and have always been a bunch of narcissistic bastards who love attention. They have an entire room dedicated to the history of the mine and the town, pictures included.” Bethany said to her, causing Trish to stop and listen. “I suggest that you start with the accident, the one that shut the mine down all those years ago.” Bethany then picked up the talkie and threw it at her.
Trish turned her and caught the device easily. “Take it, I have a feeling you’ll have a better use for it than Cal and I.” Trish shook her head and turned around and began to walk out, once she opened the door though, a change overtook the diner. Trish turned around suddenly and stared through the open door, only to find the diner empty. The countertop that had once been spotless was now chipped and dusty. The barstools that they had been sitting were know worn out, holes in the faux leather seats allowed spongy fibers to stick out. The diner no longer looked used or welcome as it did when they walked in. Instead the entire diner looked to have been closed down for a long time, cobwebs covered the seats that seemed to have seen better days, and the floor was dusty and dirty. But on the counter where all of them sat were there plates of food and cups of coffee and an empty sundae dish, the food still gave off warm steam.
Trish stared at the inside, then shook her head and closed the door, the talkie still in her hand. She stepped closer to Dante and Marlo, who were looking into the diner through the now dusty and cracked window.
“What happened? Beth-” Marlo started, but Dante put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head and started to walk off. “But-”
“We’ll talk about it later sweetie.” Trish said, then walked past her and draped an arm around her shoulder. “For now though, we need answers.” She then watched as Dante got into the car and started it up. She opened the other door and pulled back the chair and motioned for RoRa and her to get it. They did just that, and Trish situated herself into the car behind the dash, unfolding the notepad paper that held the directions. Scribbled on the bottom of the paper was, ‘End this nightmare – Bethany’. Trish turned around and handed the talkie to Marlo, “Hold on to this.” And off they went in search of the man that had brought them all to this town, in search of the answers that would hopefully save the younger twin.
-With Chris-
Chris groaned and pushed himself up and opened his eye, only to find darkness. He quickly did a check of himself in order to find any form of injury on his person, finding none he sighed and started searching his pockets.
When he didn’t find Judith, he cursed loudly, and then sighed happily when he found his cell phone. He brought it out of his pocket and flipped it open, but frowned when the screen showed that he had now service, and half battery life. “What a fine kettle of fish this is.” He remarked dowerly, then sat up and used the phones light to light up the area around him.
He was in a tunnel of some sorts, wooden support beams lined the walls at intervals, some looked to have been eaten away while others looked as if they were about to collapse under the weight of the stone ceiling above. Chris slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off with one hand, the other he waved the phone around to allow him to see through the darkness. Littered on the floor where loose rocks and puddles of dirty water, “Could be worse, at least they won’t leave me to die of dehydration.” He said aloud wryly. He then swiveled behind him, bringing up his phone to shine the light upon the glistening walls, and found a small opening in a wall of rocks. “Interesting.” He remarked as he got down on his hands and knees to look down the opening, and finding a tunnel that was too small to fit through, well at least for him.
Chris got back up on his feet and turned around, expecting something yet finding nothing but an empty tunnel. “There has to be a way out of here, cause I know I didn’t fit inside that tunnel.” He mused aloud, and then started towards the other end of the shaft. ‘Oh really, rats can go anywhere if they can fit their heads into the space, whats so different from you?’ Chris stiffened violently as he heard a whisper through the air. He knew that voice, knew it all too well, it belonged to something that he had buried deep within him long ago. The whisper turned into a malevolent cackle that echoed off the walls. “Stupid rat! Did you think that I could be held back like that?” The voice was growing sounder, more real, lest raspy and clearer than before.
Chris snarled, then took a depth breath and tried to calm himself. “Oh, does the little rat think he can keep out me?” the voice mocked. “Shut up.” Chris relied calmly, and then continued on down the mine shaft. “Either you shut up or do something useful Shcri.”
“You’re in no position to order me around.” Shcri growled his voice no longer raspy or wavering, it was real now and real meant that he no longer was held back by all the barriers that Chris had practiced years to build up. Chris growled deeply and shook his head from side to side as he took a right turn down another tunnel.
“How the hell are you awake?” Chris demanded, then cursed as the phone went to sleep mode. He hit the button again as Shcri cackled again.
“Do you not feel it rat? The power in this place, the energy. It taste so sweet, so much… like freedom.”
Chris stopped in his tracks because the light revealed something, multiple something, skeletons. “What the hell happened here?” he asked as his cell phone light went out, allowing the darkness to swallow him again.
Shcri’s laughter was heard throughout the tunnel. “Something that you’re familiar with rat, killing.” Then the temperature dropped suddenly, and Chris felt a spike of power surge through him.
Chris stiffened as a chill went up his spine when he felt an arm wrap around his waist and another that slide down his right arm towards the his hand that held the phone. Chris whimpered as he felt a familiar warm breath against his neck and a presence he hadn’t felt in years press up against his back. The hand wrapped around his and pressed a button on the phone, illuminating the space around Chris, and showing another figure behind him. The figure looked exactly like Chris except for the black in the hair where his face should be white, and the right eye was missing instead of the left.
“Shcri,” Chris whispered softly full of fear, “please.” He hadn’t been this afraid in years, he hadn’t felt the presence of Shcri using his doppelganger power in that time, and he was scared.
The copy, Shcri, laughed darkly as he breathed up against Chris and squeezed the arm wrapped around his waist, causing Chris to sob as a hand snaked its way down the front of his pants. “Oh Chris, I’ve missed you.” He then snapped the cell phone shut, shutting off the light. Chris screamed as Shcri laughed.
-With the others-
“Well, I think we’re here.” Marlo mused as she stepped out of the car and closed the door as RoRa exited it.
In front of them was a large mansion that looked its age, that is, old. It sprawled across the land it rested upon, with a clearing of land around it, and a pathway that stood to the side with a gate that closed it off. On top of the gate it read ‘Koret Coal Mine’, the sign was old and faded, worn and just barely hung on.
Dante didn’t say anything; instead he slammed his car door and walked quickly to the mansion, his feet stomping on the barren grass. Trish and Marlo raced after him with RoRa already on his heels. When he got to the steps, he took them two at a time and then reached the door with long strides, Trish and Marlo got to the steps as he pounded his fist on the door. “Koret! Get your ass out here now!” Marlo shouted. Then they heard the ratcheting of a shotgun, and the door opened a crack, a hollow barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun stuck out.
“What do you want?” Koret hissed from inside. “Have you killed them yet?”
Dante didn’t say anything except nod his head at Trish towards the barrel. Trish smirked dangerously and cracked her knuckles, stepped forward and grabbed ahold of the barrel, then sent a bolt of lightning down the metal tube. Koret let out a shout of pain, and Dante kicked the door, causing the barrel of the shotgun to point off to the side and fire. Dante then grabbed ahold of the door and yanked it backwards, taking it off the hinges slightly as it slammed against the outside of the house.
RoRa ran forward and pounced on Sephio, knocking him to the floor. Sephio groaned and tried to raise his head, but RoRa pushed him back down with her paws and growled low and primordially.
Marlo bent down and picked up the shotgun then pumped another round into it, then placed the barrel end on Sephio’s kneecap. “Hey Sep, mind if we ask you a few questions?”
“What the fuck are you peopling doing?!” Sephio screamed at them, his voice cracking at the high note. RoRa growled deeper till Dante put his hand on her head to calm her down.
Trish moved off into the lobby and found a set of closed doors. “Tell me, is this the room that I may be looking for?” she asked as she tested the handles, finding them locked.
“Get-” he started, but Dante put his boot on his face and pressed down slowly.
“You don’t get a say in this, now answer the fucking question.” He told him darkly.
Trish smirked, then with a flick of her hands, the handles snapped off and the doors swooned inward slight. She pushed them open and walked inward, then whistled. “My, my. What a lovely little collection you have here.”
Dante took his boot off Sephio’s face and snapped his fingers for RoRa to get off him. The wolf slowly stepped off, and then Marlo pulled back the shotgun and motioned with it. “Get up asshole.” She ordered, the butt of the shotgun tucked snugly into the pit of her arm, her eye down the barrel, focused on his face.
Sephio slowly got to his feet, all the while glaring at them. Marlo motioned with the shotgun again, her finger on the trigger and her arm steady. “Move.” And he did, as he moved through the doorway, Trish flipped a light switch and a chandelier hanging in the middle of the room flickered to life.
Inside the room where glass cabinets and counters with items showing behind and beneath the glass. Pictures and documents that looked to be hundreds of years old, all of them showed grim faced people; almost all looked as if they were the classic images of miners. All seemed to force even the slightest sense of willingness to actually be in the photo. Trish walked towards the far side of the room, and then stopped and stared at one picture in particular. She plucked it off the wall and brought it closer to view it. “What year did Chris say that the mine collapsed?”
“1892, he said 20 years after it opened.” Marlo answered. “Why?”
Trish didn’t answer her; instead she turned the photo around and showed it to them all. In the photo was a group of around 60 people, 40 of which were men that looked older than they were, the other 20 where all children that couldn’t have been more than 7, in the bottom center was a little girl that held a bunny rabbit doll. The photo was black and white with burned edges, and on the bottom was penciled in letters written 12/8/1892, August twelfth, eighteen ninety two.
“Wait, they actually used children as miners?” Marlo asked in disbelief.
“Yes,” Trish answered softly. “They could reach places where older miners couldn’t without losing time.”
“Then that means that when the mine collapsed, those kids were probably further down than anyone else.” Dante said as he shook his head. “What are the chances that your family paid all those grieving parents for their kids lives?”
Sephio didn’t say anything, instead he just glared at all of them. “Probably nothing at all,” Trish answered for him, “Or it they did, it was something less than 10 dollars.”
Marlo stepped closer to Sephio and pressed the barrel of the shotgun into his back. “So, what happened a year ago? What caused this place to become a fucking ghost town?”
“Why should you care?” Sephio barked back at her over his shoulder. Marlo and RoRa growled, but it was Dante that stepped forward and grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up to his eye level.
“Listen you little shit.” He growled, his eyes changing color, closer to triggering the more time he spent talking as Chris’s life was possibly in the balance. “You better tell me what the fuck you did, because my son could be in danger down in your damn tunnels. I don’t care if he comes out of them smiling and skipping to the fucking wizard of goddamn oz, I will still show you a glimpse of hell.” He then threw Sephio into the case next to him. “Now, start talking.” He warned, his voice changing, becoming more and more demonic by the minute.
Sephio glared and then straightened his suit out and cleared his throat. “I did what I needed to do to keep this mine alive. So, I decided to… implement a few measures that my family hasn’t used in a few generations.”
Trish’s eyes widened as she put two and two together, she stepped forward towards him, electricity cackling off her arms. “Bastard, you used children! You used them to open up the tunnels that caved in all those years ago.” Dante stepped in between her and Sephio, she glared at him but didn’t make an attempt to go any further.
“I found a way for their families to earn money.” Sephio countered. “Besides, they were the only ones able to fit down there, and we needed to access the coal veins.” He argued.
“Wait, the article Chris read said that this town was filled with coal veins.” Marlo protested. “Why the hell couldn’t you have just gone under the town, not like there’s that much business down there as it is.”
Sephio sighed and slide down to the floor. “Apparently that was a total lie, there is no more coal left this side of the mountain, it’s all further underneath it, and the only way to get down there is to reopen the tunnels. But, the ground down there was too unstable, one wrong step or even a sneeze, could bring everything down.”
“So you decided to use children to go down there, mine the coal, and then bring it back up.” Trish said disgustedly.
“Tell us what happened a year ago.” Dante ordered, his voice more normal than before, but his blue eyes still wavered to red.
Sephio groaned at that order. “Everything was fine, we had a great success rate, hell I was getting more money in a few months than in a span of six years, something about the further down we got the better quality of coal we came across, it seemed to last longer and longer, and that there was even more to take its place. Then we hit tunnel 16 and everything went to hell.”
“We’ll show you hell if you don’t get to the fucking point.” Marlo growled, she had a feeling in the pit of her stomach and it wasn’t the pancakes she had a while earlier. Outside, it was growing darker and darker, and it was only 3 in the afternoon.
“Fine then.” He snapped at her. “It was in august last year that we actually found that damn tunnel, the one where all those other kids had died back then. My ‘foreman’ as I called the lead kid, some little shit named Bradley, he was the one who went in there first, then he starts yelling through the damn talkie that there’s a little girl down there, and then nothing.”
Something knocked against the window of the room, causing everyone to go on the defensive. “And that’s when people started disappearing here isn’t it.” Trish demanded as she drew out Luce and Umbra.
Sephio shook his head, then reached into his coat and withdrew a flask. “No one wanted to go back into the mine after Bradley disappeared down there. All the kids had told the others that they heard his screams, then the kids started to disappear, then their families. Slowly but surely, everyone in the damn town disappeared, but they didn’t stay gone.”
Marlo stared at him as she finally realized what happened at the diner. “That’s why you were so uneasy back there, that’s why everyone in there left. You knew that they were ghost and that they blamed you.” She stepped forward and smashed the butt of the shotgun into his stomach. “You killed this entire town, you and your damn greed!”
Sephio started to gag, he then turned to his side and threw up on the floor. He looked up at Marlo with scorn in his eyes. Creaking from around the house sounded, RoRa growled lowly as she looked around and moved closer to the door. “I tried to save this town!”
“No, you condemned it.” Trish told him, then stepped closer to the doorway. “And you deserve everything that is coming to you.” Then the windows all exploded inward, and ghoulish forms jumped in.
Marlo quickly pivoted to the first ghoul and fired, the blast hit it in the shoulder and knocked it back, but it stumbled forward and cried out a ragged screech that hurt her ears.
Marlo pumped the shotgun again and got ready to fire again, but Dante placed a hand on her shoulder and gripped it slightly. She turned up to look at him, but he only pointed at the doorway, she followed his finger and stared at a little girl in the doorway with Trish pointing Luce at her head, RoRa growling.
The little girl with brown hair and a rabbit doll ignored the gun, instead she set her eyes upon Sephio and glared. “Found you.” She said in a sing song like voice. Sephio squealed like a stuck pig and started scrambling away from the case behind him, only to run into a ghoul.
The ghoul wore tatters of the same style clothing the little girl wore, except it looked less human and more feral. “Kooooorrrrrreeeeettttt” it hissed slowly. He screamed as the ghoul lunged at him, but Marlo dropped it with a well placed round from the shotgun.
“STOP IT!” the girl screamed, drawing Marlo’s attention, she brought around the shotgun and pumped another round into it.
“Stow it bitch, now where’s my brother?” she demanded of the girl, her gaze held nothing but coldness.
The girl whimpered as she finally saw the weapons pointed at her. “I didn’t want to be alone, I just wanted someone to be with.” She whispered sadly.
“Then why didn’t you just stop at Bradley?” Dante asked, he saw a ghoul move suddenly outside the window, pulled out Ivory and shot the ghoul right as it jumped into the window frame.
The girl screamed and went down to her knees, tears of blood welling up in her eyes. “He didn’t make it.” She said as the blood flowed down her face. “So I went after the other kids, but every time I touched them, they…they turned into them.” She curled up into a ball and sobbed. “But I still wanted him to suffer,” she meant Sephio, “but still, I was so alone down there, its so dark.” she
“Damn right its dark down here.” A voice quipped over static. Marlo stiffened as she heard the voice, ‘no’ she thought. “And I must say, this walkie talkie is amazing, its like a fucking speaker phone, I just heard everything you guys said perfectly clear.”
Marlo lowered the shotgun and pulled out the talkie in her coat pocket and glared at it. “Shcri,” She growled into it. “Where the hell is Chris?”
Shcri laughed over the device, it sounded watery and gritty at the same time. “Your such a bad older sister Marlbro, not even greeting her younger brother after all this time.”
Marlo and RoRa growled as Dante looked at Trish with an eyebrow cocked. “Am I missing something here?”
Trish sighed but kept her gun aimed at the girl, Emma. “Think Gilver, except it’s your son instead of your brother.”
Dante’s jaw dropped and his eyes bulged. “Shit.”
“Shcri, where the fuck is Chris?” Marlo demanded again, then raised up her shotgun and fired from her hip at a ghoul that poked its head through the window and blew it off, Emma screamed again. “Or if you’d like me to rephrase it, are you in control or just split up like last time.”
Shcri cackled this time, it sounded sadistic and beyond maniacal. “Oh, we were split up, then we joined together.” Another cackle came through the device again. “He’s still the screamer I remember him to be.”
Marlo’s eyes widened, then instantly narrowed in anger. “YOU SICK FUCK!” she screamed into the device.
“Marlo, what the hell is he talking about?” Dante asked worriedly, then shot another ghoul, causing Emma to wail even louder as it dropped. He pointed Ivory at her head, “Shut the hell up or I’ll end you.”
“Can’t do that from up there.” Shcri sung through the device. “Oh by the way, Hello Daddy!” he sang aloud. “How’s it feel to know your sons a freak?”
Dante stopped and look at the device. “Trust me kid, your going to need more than some fucked up split personality to be classified as a freak in my opinion, besides, your uncle kinda desensitized me in that field.”
“….You’re lying.” Shcri whispered softly, he sounded hurt beyond all reprieve.
“Look Shcri,” Marlo interrupted after she fired at another ghoul, again Emma shrieked. “I don’t have time for your bipolar bullshit, now here is the situation as it stands. You are in a cave probably around 400 feet below the surface of the earth, and the chances of you getting out now if you keep pissing us off, is slim. So tell us what the fuck you know, or shut up.”
After a slight pause, Shcri came back on. “You’re no fun. I found the corpse of a demon down here, and the still flesh and blood body of a little girl that is supposed to be dead for well over a 100 years. Oh, and this cool helmet and walkie talkie as a souvenir I got off this dead guy whose I.D says Bradley Crast.”
“There’s our problem.” Trish declared.
“What?” Marlo asked.
“Dumb bitch.” Shcri said. “Since when have you ever seen the corpse of a demon? You haven’t is the answer, because they disappear after they die if uninterrupted.”
“Then that means the demon was sealed away into the mountain where it eventually died.” Dante theorized. “That’s why the coal here is super charged.”
“And the reason why our darling little Emma’s real body is still alive down here,” Shcri concluded. “The demons leftover will and energy leaked into her body as she lay dying down here, its kept her body alive but in a comatose state, when shit head over there,” he meant Koret, “made dear dead Bradley come down here and dig it up. It unleashed her spirit onto dear old Bradley here, and the rest is history.”
Dante fired at three more ghouls as they tried to climb it. “So how the hell do we put an end to this night of the walking dead?”
“Oh, I’d say I’d just have to cut out little Emma’s heart with this little pick axe I found.” Shcri said, “But I’m not sure about the other kids.”
“Please!” Sephio wailed. “Get rid of the little bastards for me, and I’ll pay you anything, anything you guys want.”
Dante and Marlo stared at him, then looked at each other and sighed. “Shcri is it?”
“Yes Daddy?” he asked in a purring manner that made the three of them all gag. “Do you want me to kill her?”
Dante turned to Marlo, his brows up high on his forehead. “Is he always like this?”
“You haven’t seen jack shit yet.” Marlo said, then fired at another ghoul and tried to cycle the shotgun but cursed. “Damn, empty.”
“Do you want me to kill this bitch or not?” Shcri demanded.
Dante looked at Marlo and Trish, then to Emma as she still wailed on the floor.
“Do it.” Trish said, her face taught, but her eyes showed how she truly felt, miserable.
“Put her out of her misery.” Dante said grimly.
“Fine then.” Shcri said with glee, a crunch was heard, and then a manic giggle followed by the sound of a object cutting through air and striking something hollow. Emma stilled violently, a blossom of blood on her chest spread. Another whack came through the device, and more and more that were followed by giggles. The ghouls outside started shrieking as one, Emma only grew more and more still, her skin sunk deep into her body, she soon grew pale and her hair started thinning. Finally, one last wack was heard, then “Finished.” Shcri giggled gleefully.
Emma’s body quickly started to wither away as soon as the words were spoken, then finally she grew transparent and disappeared. The ghouls let loose a wail and more started to pout in through the windows. Dante and Trish started to fire at all of them, Marlo ordered RoRa to split forms, and Shcri laughed as he heard the echo’s of gunfire. The ghouls didn’t stand a chance.
-three hours later-
Dante, Trish and Marlo leaned against the hood of Dante’s car and looked at the opening of the mine. They were all covered in entrails and smelled of ancient decay, as well as puke, courtesy of Sephio. It was almost seven and the sun was halfway set. Sephio had paid after they had killed all of the ghouls that had assaulted the mansion in revenge of their creator, but they had been weakened so they were much easier to kill.
They had taken more money from Sephio than originally agreed upon, but he didn’t protest much after Marlo had shot his right foot, he gladly handed over the check after they put him in his car, allowing him to drive himself to the nearest hospital, two hours away.
Shcri had called after the shooting and slashing was done to give them an update on his progress of digging his way out of the tunnel. He had started the minute he heard the gunfire, claiming he didn’t want to stay down there forever. He had called back 40 minutes ago to say that he was through the other side, and was making his way up to them, but it would take a little bit.
“Anything that we should be warned about?” Dante asked, he looked tired and gloom. Marlo hadn’t told him much about his ‘other’ son, just that he was the usual extra member of the Sparda family, I.E, a psychotic bipolar lunatic with a very fucked up sense of possession and personal space.
“Well, he can act pretty well, though its easy for me to spot it. He’s highly unpredictable, nothing surprising if you ask me,” Marlo said, Rod in one hand with Ran on her back. “Oh wait, he does have an ability that belongs to him instead of Chris.”
“How’s that work out?” Dante asked as he turned to look at Trish and Marlo.
Trish shrugged and looked at Marlo, who mimicked Trish’s former gesture. “Don’t ask me, all I know is that Chris can’t do it and he can.”
“What exactly is this ability?” Trish asked intrigued, she needed to check with Vergil to see if he knew of anything like this.
“He can create a doppelganger of Chris’s body and personalize it.”
Dante and Trish shared a wide eyed look. “Was he always able to use this ability, or did he get it from a demon?” Trish asked.
“He learned it.” Marlo replied, her gaze narrow as she stared at the mine. “When we were 7, me and Chris got separated and sent to different homes. His foster dad, well, lets just say that Shcri was the one that came out and stopped the son of a bitch from going any further.”
Dante stiffened with anger and clenched his fist, Trish contemplated calling Lady and finding out the bastards name, when Marlo continued her story. “Chris told me that it was the first time he ever saw someone get castrated by a wooden spoon.” Dante and Trish doubled over in laughter, their moods elevated at the story. But the mood was quickly put down like ol yeller when Marlo leaned forward and started walking towards the mouth of the mine.
Dante and Trish watched as Chris walked out of the mine, his black jacket dirty and frayed in some places, his face bruised and covered in coal dust, on his head was a yellow miners helmet with a light attached to the top. Marlo told them what she was going to do, but still, it took a lot not to stop her.
Chris’s face lit up when he saw Marlo, but his eye started to well up in tears. “Mar, you don’t know how glad I am to see you, you,” he choked and let a tear escape down his cheek. “You wouldn’t believe what he did-” Then Marlo raised Rod and shot him in the stomach, sending him backwards.
“You’re out of practice Shcri, something that we’ve both beat in to each other is not to cry when others are around, no matter how well those people mean.” Marlo said as she stepped closer to Shcri, who laughed and spit out blood. She stopped a foot away from him as he pushed his upper body up with his hands and glared at her, a evil smirk in place. “You should have stayed locked up.”
“Bitch.” Shcri said to her, using his own voice, then spat blood onto the ground. “Guess you’re still sore about last time huh?”
Anger flared through Marlo’s face, “Shut up.” She hissed at him.
Shcri sneered at her. “What’s the matter Marlbro,” he leaned closer to her and she pressed the barrel of Rod into his forehead. “Are you really angry that you didn’t save him that time? that I was the one to take care of him while you left him to die?”
“S-h-u-t t-h-e F-U-C-K U-P!” she shouted at him.
Shcri only laughed at her wryly. “He’s mine, always has been and always will be. I’ll never give him up. So bite me bitch.”
“Woof Woof.” Marlo said, then pulled the trigger.
-10 minutes later-
“So how long will he be like this?” Dante asked as he was about to reach the main street, it was now dark and raining. It took them a good five minutes to put Chris inside the car to where he could be comfortable. RoRa had snuggled up to him to keep him warm as he slept.
Marlo had her phone out and was inspecting the helmet that Shcri had picked up, she flipped it over to peer inside. “Oh, at least 30 minutes, at most an hour and twenty. Though its been about four years since the last time Shcri showed up, so its in the ballpark.”
“Well, I say that we drive till we hit the nearest five star hotel.” Trish said as she rubbed a spot on her back. “We could all use a good shower and some good food.”
“To damn expensive,” Dante replied automatically. “Besides, were in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, where the hell do you expect to find a god damn five star hotel.”
“Dante, stop here.” Marlo said quickly. Without another word, Dante pressed on the brake and came to a abrupt halt. “Let me out real quick will ya?”
“What the hell are doing?” Dante asked, Marlo pointed outside the car to the left, both him and Trish turned to see what she was pointing at and saw an old chain link fence that surrounded a mid-sized cemetery. “So?”
Marlo put her hand into the helmet, and pulled it back out with something in her grasp, she then held it out to Dante. He took it and turned on the light above him to get a better look. It was a small photograph that showed three people in it, a young boy of about 13, he had red hair and a big smile. Behind him where two older people, a man with an equal smile and tan skin, the woman had the boys red hair and an equal smile, she looked familiar to Dante.
“I think that they at least deserve to see their son one last time.” Marlo said softly.
“You guys go on ahead.” Trish said, then moved forward her seat to allow Marlo to exit the car. “I’ll stay and look after Chris.”
“Thanks.” They both said to her as they got out of the car, Dante had pulled a mag light out of the glove compartment. They closed the doors and began to walk towards the cemetery, they hopped the chain link fence and began to march through the grounds, Dante shining the light on the head stones.
Marlo looked around with the helmet in her hands, until she spotted the right stone. “Here it is.” She exclaimed. Dante came over to her and shined the line onto the stones. “Loving parents, devoted couple.” She said softly reading the lines underneath the names.
“Says that they died within days of each other.” Dante read aloud.
Marlo sniffed softly and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Is odd to grow sentimental to someone you barely even knew?” she asked him.
Dante smiled down at her and placed an arm around her shoulder and hugged him to her. “Not when they make as good food as they did.” He remarked.
Marlo let out a bark of laughter, then slowly bent down and placed the helmet in the middle of the two graves. “Hope this helps, he wanted to be with you guys till the end, I’m sure of it.” She sniffed and leaned back up, Dante patted her on her back and hugged her to him once more.
“Go on to the car, I’ll be there a sec.” he said. Marlo nodded her head and wiped her eyes, then turned and trotted off towards the car. Dante smiled sadly as he watched her hop the fence, then sighed and put the flashlight under the crook of his arm, allowing the light to shine backwards. He reached under his jacket and pulled out Ebony. He pulled the slide back and a .45 bullet popped out, he quickly caught it in his head, then put Ebony back under his coat. “You know, that was the best damn strawberry sundae I’ve had in a long while.” He said, then leaned over and placed the photo in front of the gravestone on the right, then put the bullet on top to pin it down.
He quickly snapped back up and turned around, the light still shining behind him as he walked. ‘Thank you.’ The wind seemed to whisper as he left. Dante smirked and right before he hopped his fence, he placed two fingers on his forehead and did a salute. “Your welcome babe, enjoy the afterlife.” He then leaped over the fence and walked to the car.
As he walked, the light of the flashlight shone back into the graveyard, flashing slightly over the grave stones that he and his daughter had visited. In the light it caught the names of the occupants of the graves. On the left it read Calvin Crast, on the right it read Bethany Crast.
Alucardismaster: you know, for some reason the ending of this chapter brought tears to my eyes, which I find beyond strange to me. Huh, maybe I am just some sap. Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this chapter, cause I feel sick for writing it. Leave a comment or Review, because I know someone is going to complain about what I did with Shcri and Chris. Well, anyway, tell me how you feel.