Flowers. Flowers everywhere.
Dante stood alone within a glade of honeysuckle, the gentle breeze around him pushing its overwhelming scent, and he could do nought but accept it into his system as he breathed in and out hesitantly. Dante slowly took a full 360-turn, licked his lips and parted them; the silence of the scenery, belied only by the young man's voice as he slowly spoke.
"What in the shitting hell is this?"
Returning silence, then nothing more. Dante clenched his fists gently, rubbing his fingers into his palms as he considered his options carefully - he called out for Vergil, and for Kat, but there came no reply from either. 'How the hell am I supposed to leave this damn place', he thought. Only one option stood out, and it seemed to be the most likely - seek the truth Vergil alluded to.
He sighed, shrugging his shoulders and shoving his hands into his pockets; his boots made for heavy footsteps through the glade, caring little for the scenery as crushed honeysuckle created a trail back for him. Out of the corner of his eye, approaching a thick and gloomy forest ahead of him, he thought he saw a small figure moving quickly through the tall grass.
The shaded trees produced no wind on the road taken by Dante, who kicked stones to pass the time as he walked. At one point, he had crossed a bridge, and took a brief pause to throw a nearby twig down into the river below him, watching it float from one end before moving to the other side and catching it's reappearance. He smirked to himself, though he knew not why, and continued along the endless trail.
He ran his fingers through his messy hair, yawning aloud to himself - or, so he had originally believed, to be himself alone. There came, however, several short instances where he thought he could hear a rustling amongst the grass. On a few occasions, he even diverted from his path to investigate, but each distraction produced no result other than the motivation to press forward.
Eventually the trail led to a small clearing, and as he emerged he was greeted by a small house, silhouetted by the gradually sinking sunlight, casting a sharp orange over the forest; a small sign hung above an old-fashioned doorbell, reading 'MR SANDERS'. Dante regarded this as he scraped the underside of his boots against the slightly thicker twigs that littered the small campfire out front. "Mr Sanders, huh? Hope he's got some chicken cooking." He paced forward and turned the doorknob. "I'm starving."
He opened the door and slowly entered the homely space. The house was much darker on the inside than the slow twilight would allow to reveal, and it seemed as if nothing had been used in a while; a thin coat of dust covered the dining table and wall-shelves, honey pots scattered lidless in small clusters, and especially in a somewhat larger pile by the only bed in the house, sitting neatly beside the front window. Dante moved in and dragged his fingertip nonchalantly across a small section of the table, idly rubbing it between his fingers as he stared curiously at the pile of honeypots.
"Y-Y-You shouldn't be here." A small voice shuddered behind the young man, who turned quickly and, in doing so, had drawn the ebony twin of his dual firearms and pointed it at the doorway. Only light shone through, and the glare of it forced Dante's eyes to squint. They relaxed as they became used to the sight, and as they drew fully open Dante noticed a tiny figure in the doorway - it appeared to be a pig, though it was considerably thin and standing on its hind legs. Dante pointed his gun towards it and the creature stepped back cautiously, whimpering behind its hands as it stared innocently up at him. "Oh d-d-d-dear, you don't r-r-remember me, d-do you?" Dante raised an eyebrow - it wasn't the strangest thing he'd come across that day, but this was certainly a turn for the books. He slowly withdrew his gun and returned it to its holster, recognising the piglet's timidity.
"Who are you, little...pig...thing?"
It shuffled forward nervously towards Dante, never breaking contact with him as it stretched a small arm out, lightly tugging on his trouser leg as he stared up. "O-Oh my, y-y-you've grown quite a b-bit." The small animal chuckled nervously, then yelped and promptly backed away as the human knelt onto one knee to have a closer look.
"You...Why do you look so familiar?"
"Y-Y-You used to play with me, remember?" The small creature replied, which spurred a slight look of disgust from the young man, and so the little piglet continued. "You and your b-brother used to sword fight, a-and you'd pretend we'd all b-be watching-"
"Woah woah woah, back up!" Dante created a time-out signal with his hands, halting the animal in its tracks. "Did you just say 'my brother'? What brother?"
The piglet stammered as it tried to express its thoughts, although the question was indeed a peculiar one, and not particularly easy to answer. "Y-Y-You don't r-remember you have a brother?"
The male glanced away in thought. "That must have been what Vergil was talking about."
"Th-That's him!"
Dante glanced back at the creature. "What's him?" He replied. The pink-coloured creature jumped up and down with a joy that felt somewhat held-back.
"Vergil's your b-b-brother!"
Dante was taken aback, and his eyes widened slightly at the remark. "W-What are you..." Suddenly, a flood of images swam through his mind, and his head became heavy as his hands struggled to keep it up. Eyes clenched, Dante snarled through the strange sensation filling his head, but throughout it all, fragments of scattered memories came back to him; an image of the young animal - 'Piglet' - and two young boys, hair of black and hair of white, duelling with wooden swords as they laughed, parrying and lunging at each other with each strike.
Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the memories faded away and he returned to the dank, clustered space of Mr Sanders' residence. He stared at the animal trembling before him, slowly smiling. "You're Piglet."
Piglet peeked carefully from behind its hands, soon bringing them down and twiddling them together with a hopeful smile. "Y-You remember me?"
Dante nodded. "Yeah, I remember you. And Vergil...Vergil is my-" A sudden, vicious rumble echoed around the house, causing the furniture to shake; honeypots fell and broke upon the floor, and as one rolled across towards the two beings, a bony yellow arm stretched out and swiftly grabbed Piglet by its legs, dragging him across the floor. Dante stretched an arm out as Piglet cried out, but his small voice was soon extinguished by the darkness of the honeypot as the bony hand dragged him in fully. Dante looked on in shock; he felt the ground vibrate beneath him, and without warning it crumbled beneath his fingertips and opened up to nothingness. He sank quickly into the abyss, crying out for his companions - for his family.
