A/N: Hey guys, it's been forever, right? In all honesty, I've been crunching my textbooks hard the past three weeks solid. It hurt my brain. Severely. But the payoff is sweet. I still have the almighty finals coming up, but I'm totally prepared and ready to take those betches on. Also...just fyi...cause I figgered you guys would want to know...it's like...my birthday today. Yeah.
Disclaimer: Devil May Cry and its characters belong to Capcom.
Warnings: For this prologue, just mentions of violence and blood...and a rotten cliffy. You should all note that, while this is going to be a story with Dante and Nero, it is NOT going to be slash. Wtf? Yeah. I'm trying out something new for me. Bear with it.
Dedications: This is for all of those random lurkers who decided to send me fanmail over the course of my absence. It was incredibly weird to hear from people who've never reviewed, but cool at the same time. It's also for all you veterans who I'm sure have been pretty busy lately too, I love you all so much, I squeak my zombie rubber duck in gratitude.
Prologue: Scream
The screams wouldn't stop. Curling up in the darkened corner under the bed, he peeked between his small fingers, daring to look out to the pale slice of moonlight that illuminated the wooden floor beyond the cover of his bed. Out beyond his hiding place were the screams. They just wouldn't stop, instead growing louder, coming closer. The instant one was cut off, another would begin.
He jumped when he heard the door splintering open. A shrill scream began, right there in the room with him, dying off into a wet gurgle as bright red splashed across the moonlit floor. He couldn't help a small gasp and quickly covered his mouth to stifle anymore sounds, wide eyes locked on the colorful stain not more than two or so feet from him. Holding his breath to remain undetected, he squeezed his eyes shut on the sight of the blood. He didn't want it to be there, didn't want to know who it came from…didn't want to see what had made it come out like that.
Then came the heavy breaths. Something was still in the room. He didn't know if the screams he was still hearing were actually real or if they were just burned into his mind and it kept replaying them. Something heavy shuffled closer to the bed and he could see its massive shadow blocking out the faint light from the window he knew was above his bed. His heart pounded so hard it hurt, lungs screaming for air as fear choked him, but he forced the panic down. He had to stay quiet.
The monster in the room gave a snort as it crept closer to the bed. His chest tightened further when an almost human looking hand slid under the bed frame, elongated fingers that were darker than the shadows he was hiding in inching forward, reaching, searching; searching for him. Somehow, though he'd stayed quiet, it knew he was there and it wanted to do the same thing to him as it did to all those people who'd screamed.
As the hand came closer, he tucked his good arm behind him, palm pressed to the wall. He drew his knees up to his chest, squeezing himself into the corner as hard as he could, attempting to be as small as possible while ignoring the way his other arm dug into his chest and legs from the tight compaction.
The hand was coming closer, the arm stretching in such a way that it could reach him, sharp claws catching at the floor barely an inch from his bare toes and scraping through the wood that gave a small squeak in protest at being carved. The hand paused its searching before the arm vanished and the shadow seemed to disappear with it. He finally allowed a small breath to escape, taking in a short inhale to try and clear the faint, dizzy feeling he suddenly had. He was so relieved that the monster seemed to have passed him up that he eased out of his huddled position and slowly, cautiously, crawled away from the wall.
He'd barely started to move when the bed was suddenly flipped over and off of him, leaving him completely exposed. His head jerked up and wide blue eyes locked onto pair of burning red orbs and a flash of an unnaturally wide, shark-like smile.
No point in being quiet now.
He screamed.