Demon

Lady Mars

Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry or Inhale. Inhale belongs to Stone Sour. I hope you enjoy it.

***

Come one and all and see the broken man talking to himself.

He sits and waits for something better; he'll never find it here.

The people touch his hair and pinch his cheek; he can't even feel it.

The child sat in one of the many dark corners of the building. This sight had become familiar to him; it happened almost everyday. These people would come in, gloss over him, choose another child, and go on their merry way. He had seen it over and over again for the two years he had been there. 'I should have known,' he thought to himself. 'I'm too weird for anyone. No one would ever want me.' He pulled his knees up under his chin and watched the other children around him.

There was something about those other children, something that he couldn't harness. They all had a certain innocence to them, a certain aura that he didn't have.  It was an aura that he would never have again. The child like innocence had melted away in the pool of blood that his mother died in. Nothing could bring back that light in his eyes, the laughter in his soul. He was too far gone for anyone's help.

There it goes again, he's listening to someone;

He hears the bitter laughter

And all he wants to know is...

Why--does any of it matter? I can't take it anymore.

You've gotta try--the inhale that makes the exhale so much better.

The darkness was his only friend; there he could while away the hours without anyone noticing that he was there or not.

'You're worthless, you know that kid?' He shifted nervously, trying to get away from the voice that echoed in his head. This wasn't a voice he liked. 'No one wants you; no one would ever love you. You're too much of a freak to be accepted. Embrace it kid; the darkness can help you escape it all.' He shook his head, trying to get the voice to leave him alone. 'It's not so bad here kid, we can help you escape all the pain you've ever felt.' The boy scooted out of the corner and into the fading afternoon light. The red pendant that hung around his neck glittered in the sunlight. He watched in horror as something he vaguely recognized started to slither out of the dark corner he had come from. The beast's paws caused the boards beneath it to creak. 'Come on kid, it's not so bad.' The boy scooted back further into the sunlight. This action caused the beast to come into the light slightly.

The child froze in terror; this was no ordinary being. This was the same thing that had invaded his house and killed his mother and brother. This was not the most pleasant creature in the world and the last thing he wanted to do was go with it. He was afraid that the creature would attack him, but it didn't move. Something was holding the beast back. Something was keeping it from attacking. The creature looked afraid. The pair exchanged glances before the beast retreated back into its blackened lair. 'One day,' the voice echoed in the boy's head. 'One day I will be back for you.'

He wipes his hands on anything in reach, he never feels clean.

He shakes at night because his nerve is gone, every muscle hurts.

Come one and all and see what happened...that broken man is me.

He sat on the thin railing that was surrounding the balcony of one of the library watching the kids play below him. As it had always been before, he watched from the outside with keen eyes and sharp ears for things normal people never needed to see. But this time he was no longer a child being passed up, he was a teenager who got strange looks from everyone who came through the door. 'An exile by name and by nature,' his mind gloated. 'The further you stay away from them, the less damage will be done in the long run.' He had become a ward of the state at 13, but stayed put. 'Where's the sense in me going anywhere?' he spat at the state's representative for child and family services. 'Nobody wants me anyway, why can I just stay here where no one knows I exist anyway?'  The argument had ended in his favor; he remained at the orphanage until he was 18 and legally an adult. 'It's not like I'm a juvenile delinquent. Not that they would catch me even if I was.'

His gaze lingered back to the children below him. They were all of different ages and back rounds, but had no qualms with each other. But, it seemed, they would always fear him. There was something strikingly different about him. They had never said it to his face, but the word had floated past their lips quite a few times. 'Weird.' He started down at the kids. 'I know what it feels like to be called that, people called me that every single day of my life. But now, now I'm starting to believe it. There's something just not right about me, but what is it? What makes me so different then all the rest of them?' His gaze floated among the girls and boys stopping when one of the children waved at him. He smiled back at the girl. 'Charlotte. The only one who understands me.' He had befriended the child one night when she had awoken from a nightmare. The two were the isolates of the group, not like anyone else and destined never to have anyone who loved them.

He looked back up to the small grove of trees that surrounded the back side of the building. There was something unnerving about the area, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The aura seemed evil, more evil than anything he had ever experienced in his whole life. And then it stuck him. 'He's come back. He's come back for me.' He had barely swung his legs over the railing when the first scream rang out.

He stared as the first Cerberus slowly crept out of the trees. This wasn't the one who he had seen before, but it was the same breed. He kept his eyes locked on the first Cerberus as the second crept out. The second was most surely the same on he had seen before.  The same creepy voice echoed through his head again. 'Now, now, now children; there isn't anything to be afraid. We are just here to take you to a better place.' His eyes narrowed at the request.

"Not on your lives," he hissed quietly.  He jumped down from the third story balcony and gracefully landed on his feet. His sword was under his bed on the fourth floor and that was where it was going to stay. But in the back of his head he knew going into a fight like this was extremely dangerous; common sense told him that. The children stood between him and the Cerberi, but once he got going, they would scatter quicker than leaves on a brisk fall day.

He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily out his nose. This wasn't going to be easy, nor was it going to be fun. He reached into his combat boots and pulled two sets of delicately carve knives out. Fighting anything was a danger to him, but fighting with the knives made it that much more dangerous. But these intruders needed to be disposed of and he was the only one who could handle it.

He stood to full height and took a steadying breath before throwing the first knife. The blade wedged itself tightly in the flesh of the second Cerberus' front foot. The hound of hell let loose a painful wail as it tried to dislodge the knife.

"The more you struggle, the worse it is going to get." The beast's three heads turned to look at the speaker.

'Well, well, well. Look who it is,' the demon's voice rang coolly in his head, despite the obvious pain he had caused.  'My favorite little scardy cat has grown a backbone.' He snorted at the remark.

"It's more than you'll ever have," he retorted back coldly. "Attacking defenseless children? I would have thought that you'd be above that by now, but I guess I was wrong. Now why don't you leave them alone and go after some meat that can actually bite back." The beast cocked his head at the boy.

'Are you foolish boy? Do you have any idea what you would be going up against? Why don't you take your plastic knives and go play off in that corner of yours and let us finish our work here?'

"The blood you're spilling seems to say I'm not hurling plastic around. And you can finish your work once you step over my cold, lifeless corpse."

'Awfully big words from a little man. So you really want to fight the hounds of hell do you? Well then, aren't we playing with fire?' the beast crooned back.

"I don't 'play' with fire," he spat back, growing agitated with the creature. Small arcs of lighting danced around his arms and bounced off of the blades in his hands. "I prefer lightning." The rest of the Cerberus pack had emerged from the woods and was alternating glances between their leader and the man.

'Lightning? There aren't too many who dabble in that art anymore. What do they call you boy?' The other smiled back.

"Dante," he replied coolly. "Dante Sparda." All the Cerberi froze at the utterance of his last name. They had all heard of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda, but the entire underworld had figured the assassins had killed all the Spardas. Despite all of the gloating by the assassins, one had survived. "Something wrong over there? You seem to have lost all of your spark all of a sudden."  The beast all growled at once; Sparda or not, no one insulted them and got away with it.

With a blood curdling howl, the lead Cerberus tore free from the knife and lunged forward. Dante nimbly jumped out of the way and hurled another knife at the beast. The lightning crackled as it came in contact with flesh. The beast wailed as it tried to pull the blade from its eye. Dante landed behind it, keeping a weary eye on the others who still waited in the woods.

"You sure you want to do this? It seems to be more painful for you than me." The beast finally pulled the blade from his eye and turned to Dante, blood pouring from the wound.

'You win this time Sparda, but next time you won't be so lucky.'  The Cerberi disappeared into the woods, leaving Dante and a puddle of blood behind.

Dante turned slowly to the children who were now huddled together for protection. He went to go check to see if they were all right when the hollow scream of one of the girls stopped him dead in his tracks.

"DEMON!"

There is goes again, I can hear it louder.

It doesn't feel good anymore

And all I want to know is...

Why--does any of it matter? (I can't take it anymore)

You've gotta try--the inhale that makes the exhale so much better.

Dante sat on his bed, his knees tucked under his chin, trying to banish the word from his conscious thought. He had heard the word uttered before, but never directly at him. 'I've been called every variation of that word,' he thought. 'But why does the actual word itself hurt so much? It is only a word after all.' Dante didn't notice as his door slowly opened and one of the owners walked in.

The woman walked slowly into his room and set his throwing knives on the bedside table.

"You really shouldn't leave these lying around dear," she said quietly. "You could loose them or someone could get hurt." She turned to speak to him more, but stopped when she noticed that he wasn't listening. "Dante? Dante?" Dante didn't respond. The woman sat down on the edge of the bed. "Is there something wrong dear?"

"Wrong?" Dante mumbled. "Isn't there ALWAYS something wrong?" The woman sighed; this was going to be harder than she had originally thought.

"What's wrong now?" Dante shifted a little, trying to figure out how to put it.

"It's a word." The woman sighed.

"How many times do I have to tell you that they don't mean it when they call you a freak?"
"It's not that word Emma," Dante replied. "They called me a demon." Emma stared at him.

"They actually called you a.?"

"A demon." Emma sighed. She wasn't really sure how to handle this one.

"Dante, you know as well as I do that they're kids and they don't understand what they're saying."

"I know, but that still doesn't take the sting out of it." Emma sighed again.

"I don't know what to tell you Dante." Dante nodded.

"I know. I never expected you too. No one really understands what it's like to be me." Emma smiled gently and got up from her spot.

"That's what makes you unique. I know I haven't been any help, but you know where to find me if you want to talk about it some more." Dante nodded and watched her exit his room. 'I know she does it because she cares, but it doesn't really help.' He slowly uncurled and picked up one of the intricately carved knives. Each handle was carved in the likeness of some sort of demon, except for the two largest ones.  Those two were two beings Dante had never seen before; not even the ancient tomes of the library could tell him what they were of. The one handle was a deep violet with a winged person carved into the front. The back was laced with lightning. The other had another person sitting with flames carved all around it. Dante vaguely remembered his father telling him that they were a gift from a friend of his, but he couldn't remember anything beyond that.

He would have continued to stare at the blade, but a shrill shriek cut through the air like a knife. Dante launched himself off of the bed, grabbing his knives as he passed, and skidded to his window. He stuck his head out, scanning the area.

The Cerberi had returned in full force. 'They don't ever give up, do they?' He creatures were circling and Dante's heart stopped as he saw what they were after. 'CHARLOTTE!' This made his blood boil.

He sung out of the window and sat on the ledge, keeping a close eye on the Cerberi. They were waiting for something, but Dante had no desire to wait and find out for himself.
He launched five blades down towards the creatures. The five blades wedged themselves in the ground, surrounding the thoroughly frightened girl. The lead Cerberus, now minus one eye, looked up at him.

'Well look who has come back for round two. But it doesn't do you much good to throw those at us if you don't hit us.' Dante snorted.

"Who said I wanted to hit you?" he spat back bitterly. The Cerberus looked at him for a moment then turned to the blades. With a gentle flick of one of its heads, the leader signaled for one of the others to investigate. One of the creatures tentatively crept up to a blade and went to touch it. Before it could get within an inch if the handle a blood red pentacle ignited on the ground. The beast jumped back with a howl of pain.

'A demon ward, how clever. But it will take a lot more than that to stop us.' Dante snorted.

"Try as you might, you'll never get past that." The Cerberus snorted. "Don't mock me demon, I am NOT in a good mood." The beast stared at him. "You've got two choices, leave or stay and never live to see tomorrow." The beast snorted. "Fine, it's your death." Dante pushed off of the window and landed in the grass like it wasn't the fourth floor he had just jumped from. He stared at the Cerberi. "Last chance to run." None of them moved. "Fine."

Dante made no move to get closer to the beasts; he didn't need to be any closer to them. The arcs of lightning that had once been small were now dancing around him, striking the ground. The Cerberi watched warily; something about this didn't seem right. With sudden lethality, a bolt of lightning struck the lead Cerberus, cutting all three of his heads off in one clean sweep. The other Cerberi took off running; the last thing they wanted was to end up like their leader. Dante slowly clamed down, bringing the raining lightning to a halt. He slowly walked over to where the frightened girl stood and began to pry the knives out of the ground. Charlotte watched him apprehensively.

Once finished, Dante turned back to the girl, knives still in his hand.

"Well?" he asked tentatively. "Are you gonna run from me like everyone else or stand there and stare at me for the rest of the day?" Without warning, Charlotte ran forward and clung to his leg. Dante stumbled back a few steps to prevent himself from crashing into the ground. The child clung to his leg, crying hysterically. Dante ran his fingers through his hair, not really sure what to do. He dropped the knives to the ground and gently pried the child's hands from his leg. He squatted down to her level and gently brushed the tears from her face. "Charlotte." He whispered. "There's no reason to cry; they're gone now, they can't hurt you anymore." Charlotte sniffled a few times. "The nasty things won't bother you ever again."

"You promise?" she asked between sniffles.

"I promise." She smiled at him and threw her arms around his neck. Dante scooped his knives up in one hand and, supporting Charlotte in the other, stood up and walked back into the building. 'Maybe being a demon isn't so bad. It does give me a bit of an edge over the competition. And any edge I have over them is better for the people I'm trying to protect. No mortal needs to suffer at the hands of those monsters; no one.'

NOW I KNOW I DISAPPEAR!

I CAN'T FIND MY WAY OUT OF HERE!

EVERYTHING IS FADING ON ME!

SOMEONE TELL ME. Someone tell me.

Dante gripped Alistor loosely, stepping over the fallen bodies of the Cerberi. 'Damn things. You would think after all of these years they would have given up on killing me. But some things are just stupid like that.' He walked slowly back up the sidewalk to where he had left the frightened woman.

It was pure luck that he had come across her. He had been coming home from another job and sensed the demons in the area. Trusting his sense to lead him, he ended up on the dark road with a scared woman and a familiar pack of Cerberi. He had used his knives to increase the distance between the hounds and the woman before going after the beasts. 'At least I won't have to deal with them again.'

Dante watched the woman inspecting one of his knives as he approached.

"You ok there ma'am?" he asked. The woman's head snapped up at the question. 'My god. She can't be more than 15.'  "Didn't mean to frighten you there." She smiled gently.

"It's ok," she replied quietly.

"You ok?" She nodded. "That's good. Those things aren't exactly the friendliest of creatures."

"I know," she replied quietly. "I've seen them before."

"You have?" She nodded, turning the blade over in her hands.

"Yeah, the last time I saw them was back when I was a kid." A small silence hung between the pair.

"May I?" The girl looked up startled at Dante's simple request.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry." She handed the knife back to him. Dante slid it into his coat next to its brothers. "It's just. I knew someone with knives like that, but I haven't seen him in years." Dante smiled.

"I hope you find him." She smiled gently.

"I hope I do too." Dante reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a card. He meekly handed it to her.

"Don't be afraid to call if anything like this happens again." He smiled at her one last time and began walking away. The girl idly read the card and then it dawned on her who the man was.

"DANTE!" Dante stopped and turned back to the girl. "Thank you." Dante smiled.

"I try Charlotte, I try."

Why--does any of it matter? (I can't take it anymore)

You've gotta try--the inhale that makes the exhale so much better.

WHY?! YOU'VE GOTTA TRY!!

***

I know that nowhere in the game does Dante use throwing knives, but that's just me taking my artistic liberties.