Chapter 8 - Shadows

One o'clock in the morning.

Five and a half hours to go before the sun came up again.

Then they'd leave him be.

It always started at night. If you weren't inside by then, you'd fall victim to their activities, that is, unless, you converted yourself, and even that wasn't a guarantee at all. But that wasn't an option for him anyway. He couldn't turn back now. He wouldn't. His wife and kid, they were somewhere, hiding in this town, he had to find them. But for the moment, he had to make sure he survived first so that he could.

The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard as they made their way swiftly down the dim alleyway, leaving footprints in to melting snow, in their wake quickly made wisps of wind followed in behind the running individual chaotically, shadows flashing over the cement from the streetlight outside of the alleyway that was on the roadside.

The man found the door at the end of the alleyway and he looked back, hearing their sounds, knowing their paths, having dealt with them for several days now, and he gripped the doorknob tightly, jerking on it to try and get the stubborn thing to open, the noise growing closer and closer until the door finally budged, allowing him in and out of harms way for the moment with a loud slam behind himself.

The room inside was pitch black, the one place they couldn't get to him; the darkness. Shadows needed light to exist, and he'd been blinded and alone like this before, feeling his way through the all encompassing darkness of a room, hearing only the deafening silence, and preventing himself from using the flashlight on his belt to create a buffer of darkness between himself and the demonic Shadows following him. They couldn't get through it, wouldn't be able to reach him in it, and he'd have another chance at finding his family.

Moving his way slowly through the room now, a squeak sounded when he placed his foot down again after a few steps, and gasping, knowing it was a rat, the man cringed and lifted his foot back up quickly. Sweat and a bit of blood stained his forehead from a previous engagement, and thinking back to the path he'd taken to get away, he finally remembered the location he was in. West Springs Bar. Only damned bar he'd ever heard of that closed at ten. Right now, he was wondering through the back room of the place where most of the drinks were kept, and hoping that whenever he emerged on the other side, he'd be safe for a little while until he could find more clues pertaining to his missing loved ones.

His gloved hands were sliding across the wall, he slowly felt his way along, a few wires pinned up here and there and a couple of pipes lined against it. Finally, he felt a stop, and he turned against the new wall, moving until he found the doorway into the next room the bar room, which he finally found and used slowly, quietly, standing behind the counter now. He shut the door behind him and then he turned the light switch on next to the door, brown eyes glancing around quickly to make sure nothing was there that could harm him.

Sadly, there was, but not the kind that he could protect himself against by turning the light back out.

"Marvin," came the voice of a man standing at the front of five of the townspeople in the bar, "we've been looking for you, why do you keep running?"

Marvin shook his head, pulling his gun out and aiming it at them even though they were, from what it looked like, unarmed. But looks could be deceiving, Marvin knew that all too well. The gun caused them to back down slightly, the one standing before them who'd been speaking raising his hand as if to try and calm Marvin down. "Put it down, Marvin, we're not here to try and hurt you, just to talk some sense into you."

"I don't believe you, Ed," Marvin replied, his aim on the men and women in front of him never faltering once. "Maybe you should tell that to Vanessa and Linda," his voice had gotten a bit more dramatic, "you remember, don't you? You sister and your niece!?"

Ed took a slow step toward his brother-in-law and shook his head slowly, "I don't know where they are, Marvin, I haven't seen them."

"Liar! You're just like the rest of them!" Marvin yelled angrily. "You don't give a shit about anyone anymore if they don't see things your way! What were those screams in the warehouse, huh? Where's Todd and Tony? Where's Mrs. Cogburn? I wanna know why I keep hearing things in that warehouse at night and why these people keep disappearing! I wanna know why I can't talk sense into you to help me before it's too fucking late!?"

Marvin couldn't help but become irate. This was the first sign of life he'd seen at night since the strange occurrences in the town had began, and when he was ready to get the fuck out of this happy hell hole because of it, his wife and child had gone missing. Marvin started rounding himself about the people to the door so he could leave before anything happened to him at their hands, gun still trained on them. Ed stepped forward again as Marvin did this, shaking his head, "Marvin, don't do this, it won't help anything, and it won't stop him from coming, you know that!"

"I don't know shit anymore, Ed! Fuck all of you!" With that, Marvin turned and shoved the door open, pushing his way through it as the men and women came running up to the door behind him. Ed held out his hands though to stop them, watching the figure of his brother-in-law disappearing down the street. "Let him go," he told them, "the Shadows will get him eventually."

Marvin made his way quickly down the snowy road, the old police precinct that had been moved the year before, where he used to work. It was one of the safest places around, being abandoned now such as it was, the new precinct still in use and currently open, the only place that was this time of night. As he reached the doors, he heard a wisp near the street lights above him. Turning, he looked up to see the familiar swirl of blackness, the shadows that had been chasing him all along, and Marvin could feel his adrenaline pumping harder, his fear of the things obvious on his face. But it only took him a moment to remember that he had to move, to do something, and in that moment, he reached down for his nightstick. Normally he might've used his gun, but he'd been empty all along.

Marvin grabbed it quickly as the shadows above him grew more strength, making a demonic sound that couldn't be explained with words, chilling and grotesque even. Turning quickly before the shadows could make any offensive movements, the policeman hurled the nightstick up at the light the shadows were swarming around. It flew toward the streetlight with a precise measure and hit it dead on, busting it completely, causing Marvin to rear back as the glass came shattering down along with the unhappy screeches and screams of the shadows fading away into the darkness of the human world. His nightstick was one of the last things to land again with a clunk against the sidewalk and the snow as the glass continued shattering downwards for another few moments.

Sighing in the now darkened area, looking up and down the street warily, Marvin retrieved his nightstick and then backed up to the wall slowly. With his gloved hand he felt behind himself to find the doorknob, then grabbed it and pulled the door open with a determined motion before going inside.

The place was devoid of furniture, dusty, and dark, the way Marvin liked it. The darker, the better. Too bad he didn't have a pair of night vision goggles, he'd thought for the umpteenth time over the course of the past few days, with all of the lights he'd destroyed at night only to be replaced the next day by the towns people. Still, he'd done more damage than they'd been able to fix, and thinking to himself, he only wondered what tomorrow would hold now that Ed had found him again, found out that he was the one who'd been causing all of the damage.

Walking into the old precinct, as he stepped, Marvin heard a jingling sounding on the floor, one of a childs toy, a familiar childs toy. He turned and looked down, unable to see in the darkness much, but as he reached for it, his hand met an object that was soft and furry, and he could tell just by touching it that it was a teddy bear that belonged to his daughter. He fell to his knee as he lifted it up, a weight baring him down that he felt he could no longer carry, the need to find his wife and child eating away at his heart, his eyes filling with tears.

Pulling the belled teddy bear up to himself, to his face, he could catch the fragrance of peppermint, his daughters favorite candy, staining the item. "Linda," he whispered to himself, the anger inside him growing at an unprecidented rate until he was crying out her name loudly, "Linda!"

Tears streamed down the mans cheeks for his lost daughter, and he clutched the toy in his hands tightly, staring at its outline in the darkness. Even while feeling he complete grief he did, in the form of this toy he knew somehow that there was hope. He'd found something of his family left here, the first thing he'd seen since they'd gone missing. They were still alive...he knew it. Somewhere, in this town...wait for me, he thought out to them, standing back up, just wait for me, I'll be there, I promise. Then we'll leave together. I won't leave without you.

Lights flashed into the room from the outside of the precinct. Marvin held up his hand and turned toward the blinding light even though he was trying to shield his eyes from it. Beyond the window, however, he could see a car, the headlights on high beams, and as soon as he realized that, he heard that swirling of blackness behind him. Marvin turned around to face it, backing away. He shook his head slowly, then took a deep, startled breath.

Outside of the precinct, a loud yell could be heard, and eventually, all fell into silence.

--

Talk about unfriendly.

Dante looked down the streets as he made his way through the town, quietly strolling along, having taken Regan's advice and waited until morning before he'd departed for the small town named West Springs. It hadn't taken him long to get there either, only long enough to blink really, and he'd parked his car outside of town, feeling like taking a walk instead of driving.

He'd seen a few people from time to time, and throwing his hand up, he'd wave and say hello, seeming, however, to only result in their sudden disappearance, as in, they'd move into the nearest building quickly and go inside.

"I thought these small towns were known for their hospitality," Dante muttered with a slight shrug of his shoulders, turning down another road and heading on down the way.

All in all, the town was nicely kept, looked like something out of an all American novel about a sweet, quiet little place where people could retire to and just get some peace and quiet for once, the kind of place where children were allowed to stay out later because everyone knew everyone else, and if there were any strangers around, everyone would know about it, even bring out the welcome wagon to newcomers. Lugging his guitar case around with him now, instead of having hauled it up in the trunk as it had been for the past few days, Dante considered that as he made his way, shoving his free hand into his pocket, looking just down the street.

West Springs Bar. Good place to start, he figured.

Taking a step forward, Dante heard the crunch of glass, and he glanced down, seeing a broken lamp shade. After that he looked up to see that a street light had been busted, and it was the millionth one he'd come across. "Heh, figures people wouldn't worry about streetlights in a town that goes to bed with the dusk." Shrugging over it, he moved on down the road, toward the place he wanted to get started at.

The door to the bar had a set of bells attached to it, something that let Dante know right off the bat that this definitely wasn't a wild and crazy place. Seeing the closing hours of ten o'clock, he wondered who the hell could live in this town unless they were a really old person, and he moved on into the small pub and grille which was relatively empty save for a few employees, including a waitress, bartender, and cook behind the counter, who'd all looked up from their chatting when Dante had walked in.

They stared at him silently. Dante looked behind himself, then around the room, and when he didn't see anyone else, he asked them sarcastically, "You lookin' at me?," quoting Robert Dinero.

The cook turned around and walked into the back of the bar without a second word or thought seemingly after Dante spoke, and the waitress began to busy herself with cleaning a few things. Dante strolled over to the bar, set his guitar case down next to a stool, and folded his arms over the bar counter. The bartender was still standing there, wiping down a glass, and Dante told him, "You know, you guys sure seem to know how to make a guy feel welcome."

The bartender stopped wiping the glass down and looked over at the newcomer. Without a word, he turned the glass and set it down on the counter, then leaned on it, asking him, "What can I get you, stranger?"

Dante sat back, never looking at the man standing before him, his hair creating a curtain over his eyes almost that seemed to cast a shadow over them, making the icy blue color they were stand out even more. The man looked his hair over, seeming to either not care about the odd coloring of it, or to just be keeping his thoughts to himself. "Got a beer?" Dante asked finally.

"Yeah, what kind?"

"As long as it's not light, I really don't give a shit."

With a nod, the bartender turned and went to the fridge he kept behind the bar counter, reaching into the door after pulling it open, and he grabbed one. Dante glanced over at the waitress who'd come back behind the bar, filling some brandy glasses with matches, keeping her face turned away from Dante at all times. That's when a beer was sat down before him. "That'll be six bucks," the bartender informed Dante.

"Add it to my tab," Dante replied to the tender, "I'm gonna be hangin' around here for a while. The name's Tony."

"Tony?" The guy asked.

Finally, after opening the beer, Dante gave the guy a glance and lifted his brow, "Yeah, Tony, something wrong with that name?"

"Not a damned thing," the man replied, shrugging, taking a rag to his counter that really didn't look like it needed any cleaning at all.

Snorting slightly at the mans reply, Dante really couldn't help but act a bit defensive due to the whole aura of the place, Dante looked around the empty dining room, chugging a bit of his beer as he did so; he was gonna need it if this kind of boring shit kept up. Pulling the beer away from his lips, he asked without looking at the man, "Don't get much business, huh?"

"Not on Wednesdays."

"Maybe if you changed your business tactics you might get some more. That was the best welcome I've gotten from a bar in a long damned time."

The two men did exchange a glance then. The bartender didn't seem to be too offended, but he did seem to be a slight bit annoyed. "We don't take very kindly to strangers," he explained, "they make most people around here nervous."

"Well I just introduced myself, so does that still make us strangers?"

"Yep."

"Well fuckin' a, Bob," Dante called him since he didn't know the guys name, "I'm just an average Joe lookin' for a good drink. Where's the harm in that?"

"My name's Daniel," the guy told him in a somewhat annoyed tone of voice, "and there's no harm, we're just quiet folk is all."

Dante shrugged. "I kinda like Bob better. So anyway, think you could point me to your nearest establishment of worship?"

Daniel had turned around, but he stopped what he was doing for a moment as if curious of the question Dante had just asked, then told him, "Up the road, turn on Sunset street, last building on the right. You a holy man?"

"Hallelujah," Dante replied, "and all that good shit. What about you? Find yourself worshiping a lot?"

Daniel had turned back around, set a few more glasses down which looked as if they needed to be cleaned too, and he replied, "Yep."

"And everyone else around here?"

"Definitely," Daniel said without hesitation. "You've gotta have some type of faith, don't you?"

Dante didn't make much of a reply to that statement. Instead, he just drank more of his beer and shrugged a bit. He would have flat out asked what they worshiped if he wasn't waiting on something in particular, but he also knew even if he did ask, it wouldn't get him a straight or truthful answer, so he had two reasons not to really. For now, he was just going to have to wait a little bit longer.

What a boring fucking place, he thought to himself. But if this kind of shit was going to keep up, Dante got the feeling he could breeze through this town like a duck breezed through the water. It'd be no problem for him at all. The conversation between the bartender and himself seemed to die off after that as well, and Dante just stuck around for a little while longer to wait and see what would happen. After all, he had a friend coming to see him. The bar would be the first place they'd come, knowing Dante's habits.

The bells on the door jingled a few times during the course of his stay there. He considered everything he could do, places he could go, things he could see about, and as a few new people came in and out of the bar, Dante greeted them without care to their nervousness or possible paranoia of him. He just made himself right at home and treated every face he saw like he'd seen it a million times before. He continued to use his pseudonym, Tony Redgrave, with everyone, and even if they didn't make a response to him, which seemed to be the case, he persisted on as if they'd responded, probably making them think he was crazy, not that he gave a shit in particular. May as well do something, he thought to himself, especially if he were going to be bored like this.

A total of five customers had ended up walking into the bar over the first hour he was there, the last being a police officer wearing a helmet and a pair of shades who looked over the room quietly, then headed to a seat in the back. Dante caught the sight of his badge on his jacket, the name of which read 'Officer M. Holt", and Dante only paid attention to him because, after a short while, he realized the man had been watching him without thinking he had noticed.

That was just a bit shady.

Nothing else particularly noteworthy happened though at the quiet joint after that which Dante would have remembered later, just the same old shit over and over again. But when he heard the doors opening once more, he looked back, ready to see another of the 'village people' as he'd come to think of them as, when he noticed Lady.

'Bout damned time, he thought to himself and grumbled.

Moving over to the bar, Lady leaned on it beside Dante and she tilted her head, "Been drinking long?"

"Hour and a half."

"Good, then you're not too drunk. Ready to beat it?"

"Always," Dante replied to her, ready to get the fuck out of there, standing up and pulling his guitar case off of the floor, the sun beginning to set outside. He noticed the cop at that moment, sitting at his table, putting a few things away, and wondered to himself if the man thought he was going to follow them now. Dante hoped he did. At least then he'd really have something to do. Seeing Dante's line of site, Lady glanced over that way as well, noticed the cop, but said nothing as she simply turned around to leave. Dante moved on in behind her, and as he left the bar with her.

The cop also stood up to leave.

"So, what's with the cop in there?" Lady asked Dante as they walked along the roadside outside of the pub, "And why the hell are people so damned weird around here?"

Dante was quiet for just a moment before he replied, "Fuck if I know, but the cop was watching me, I think we might have a stalker, or at least I might anyway."

"Sounds like fun," Lady told him sarcastically. Dante had called her the night before to meet him here today, and he'd told her what he thought was going on as far as the demon worshipers were concerned. Hearing what he was looking for, Lady came on up to look into it. She'd arrived about forty five minutes ago and finally found the one place she knew Dante would probably go to and park first; the bar.

As they walked along, and the sun drew down in the sky more and more, they noticed how people were running to their houses, even without having been greeted, and how shop owners had turned signs in the windows of businesses to say "Sorry, we're closed". They were much more urgent than before when they'd simply been greeted, and as they all seemingly ran for their lives, Lady told Dante out of context, "You were right about the stalker."

She'd meant, of course, the cop that Dante had spoken of earlier. With all of the people chaotically running about to their homes, it really wasn't all that hard to notice him. "Yeah, seems like the only person who's not ready to tuck tale and run because of the sun going down. Maybe he's a," Dante glanced at her, knowing Lady would understand that he meant Democrite.

"Maybe," she told him. "You wanna meet him?"

"Sure thing," Dante replied before turning down a road, all up for meeting a fan of his, and they both turned into an alleyway.

The officer who'd been following them both moved around the roadside just in time to see Dante's red trench coat disappearing into an alleyway before him and around the street corner. Slowly, he moved toward it, stepping around the entrance where the man he'd been following had gone. But as he turned the corner, he didn't see anyone standing there, as if they'd both just up and vanished in the wind.

Narrowing his brows, the officer stepped further into the alleyway, then he looked up at the sky for just a brief moment when he noticed the coloring of it. It was almost dark, almost time for another segment of bullshit. With a sigh, he continued further into the area between the buildings that stretched out along side of dumpsters and garbage cans, looking about carefully. As he searched each possible hiding place he'd come across so far for his targets, he suddenly saw a shadow coming from behind himself, resulting in a quickly given spin. Coming face to gun with Dante, the officer held up his hands, quickly saying, "No, wait, I'm not what you think I am."

Dante's brows narrowed, and the officer heard a click from behind him as well. Glancing back, he saw Lady standing there holding him at gunpoint as well, not directly behind him, but standing a bit off to the side. The officer reached up and took his shades off as this new turn of events came to light, then looked back at Dante again when the devil hunter asked, "And what do we think you are?"

"A demon worshiper? The only damned thing left in this town?"

"Yeah, heard those kind of lines before, buddy, doesn't mean I buy 'em any easier."

The officer groaned, then he told Dante in reply, "Look, my name's Marvin Holt, and I'm unarmed, my gun's empty, but we've got to get inside, where it's dark, the sun's almost down."

"Good, it'll be dark out here then once it does. So if you're not a demon worshiper, then who are you?"

Marvin started stepping to the side, shaking his head at both of them, his movements obviously leading him to a door on the side of the alleyway. "I'm not staying out here so you won't listen to me and then get all three of us killed. I haven't gone though the shit I have to let that happen. Stay out here if you want, but I followed you because I thought you might be able to help me."

An unearthly sound started in the distance as the streetlights began coming on, one by one, slowly, down the streets. There was one streetlight outside of the alleyway, and when Marvin heard the sound off in the distance, it was apparent that he'd become a bit more nervous because he'd began sweating a bit. "Shit," he cussed, "you can't kill them, I've tried, it won't work."

Dante could tell the sound was demonic, and with Lady standing there, he made a decision somewhat quickly, telling her, "Get him inside." This guy was telling the truth, Dante just knew it. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have started sweating when the demonic sounds had been made. So now it was just a matter of taking care of these demons, and then finding out what the fuck was going on in this place.

Marvin shook his head and he reached out, grabbing Dante's arm as the devil hunter had turned back around, causing Dante to look back at him, "They're just shadows. You can't hurt them. The only thing that works is complete darkness, they need light to be able to move."

Dante was about to make a response when the streetlight at the end of the alleyway came on. Both men looked up at it, and Lady did as well standing behind them, seeing a swirling of blackness forming around the now glowing lantern, growing in intensity and strength. Marvin cussed, backing away to the door located just behind himself and he opened it quickly before getting inside and looking back, "Come on!"

At that moment, the Shadows began to move, against the walls from the street light, coming down the alleyway toward Dante and Lady at a swift pace. Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory and started shooting at them, Lady using her own handguns, hitting the wall as they went, the cement, the trashcans, noticing that Marvin was right, and they weren't stopping. Cussing, Dante, put his guns back up and stepped back. What was he supposed to do next, stab Rebellion into the pavement?

"Fuck," Dante grumbled in simple annoyance, then he turned and grabbed his guitar case and Lady's arm, pulling her toward the door. Lady got inside without a problem, and Dante moved in just as the Shadows made their way through the door because of the light from the street lamp shining just inside of the room. They passed onto Marvin's arm, and he slammed the door shut to block all of the light out as the Shadows encompassed his appendage for only a brief moment.

"Fuck!" Marvin yelled, his entire hand and arm up to nearly his elbow stinging like crazy. He'd been hit by them before though, knew it didn't do any physical damage if you weren't cast in the Shadows long enough, but it sure as fuck hurt like a bitch.

"You okay?" Lady asked, unable to see anything in the darkness.

"Yeah, it just stings at first, but they really tear you up the longer they have you. I saw it happen the first night this went down. It's not a pretty picture," he sighed softly. "It's been this way for about three nights now."

"And you're a cop, why haven't you called in some reinforcements, back up, reported it, some shit like that," Dante asked the guy, able to see just a bit better than the two of them, and able to see Marvin holding his arm now, trying to rub the sting out of it.

Marvin tried to find Dante in the darkness with his own eyes, but could only see a faint outline of the two of them though as he answered, "Because all of the cops around here are in that cult. I'm one of the only ones left who isn't."

"Then why don't you leave?" Lady asked the next obvious question.

"Because my wife and kid are here, Vanessa and Linda. We got separated the first night this shit started, driving down the road to head out of town, when something formed in the headlights of my car, and the Shadows, as I slammed on my breaks in the middle of the road, killed someone across the street from us. I got out of the car and tried to help the person, not knowing what the fuck was going on, when another car came down the road and Shadows from their headlights began attacking my own car. The driver of the opposite car was apparently being killed as well because he crashed and put up a barrier between me and the car my family was in."

Marvin stopped for only a moment, shaking his head with a deep breath that sounded as if he wished none of this story he was telling had ever happened. "Vanessa didn't have a choice, those Shadows were about, so she grabbed Linda and called my name. I told her to run to safety, that I'd find her. It was three nights ago, and I haven't been able to find anything of them except my daughter's teddy bear since. But as soon as I do find them," he emphasized, "you'd better fucking believe I'm gettin' the hell out of Dodge, and I'm not lookin' back."

Marvin took a breath after telling them that, then he turned away slightly and leaned against the wall, "Once I figured out that darkness seems to stop those things, I spent the first night in it, scared out of my mind almost, and I kept hearing these terrible screams coming from a warehouse just down the road a ways. I decided to leave near daybreak to see if I could find anything, but they'd locked the place up tight."

"Who did?" Dante asked him, looking back from where he'd stood at the doorway after he'd walked over to it while listening to Marvin telling his story, realizing they were in the back room of a small convenience store. Marvin's words had proved to be very interesting so far, this was the kind of information that Dante needed, and he was all up for hearing it.

"Those cultists. It's weird, they seemed to just appear out of no where one night. But there's been some creepy shit going on around this place for a while, that's why I was gonna leave when I lost my family."

Lady narrowed her brows, hearing a scratching sound at the door, and when she did, she heard Marvin telling them, "Don't worry, it's kind of creepy, but they stay at it until you leave or there's no more sound."

"That's fucked up," Lady spoke a bit uncharacteristically, but it was, to hear those things scratching at the door just outside, waiting for them. Grumbling, she turned around, "Dante, did anyone say anything to you in that bar back there?"

"Not a damned thing. It was like pulling teeth to get anyone to talk at all. They mostly avoided me."

"Yeah," Marvin replied, rolling his eyes and kicking the door, yelling, "Shutup, assholes, get over it," before he sighed as if he were annoyed at all of the scratching. The movement and the comment made Dante smirk a bit, and he turned back toward them, listening as Marvin continued, "This place used to be pretty friendly, but then there came these reports of men in black cloaks terrorizing people about a month ago, but the police didn't take it seriously. A journalist who lives out in the country on Rosecrest Road, I think it is, wrote a letter to the press not long after that and got a lot of people scared. Not long later, the chief and his wife went missing, and so did a few others, which I still haven't found, and I doubt anyone else is even looking for them anymore. But I think whatever happened to them has to do with what I heard in the warehouse that night. But to be honest, I think they're scared of outsiders because of what they're up to, whatever it is they're doing in that warehouse."

"Where's the warehouse," Dante asked, curious as hell now.

Marvin pushed himself away from the wall and he started thinking aloud, "I don't know, we're at White's Grocery, I think it's on the other side of town. It's hard as hell to travel anywhere around here at night, and during the day, the place is locked up tighter than a nun's chastity belt."

Dante had pulled his guitar case up as he turned to the door again and, without a care in the world, he said, "Then I guess it's time to sully some nun's. There is one more thing I wanna know though, Marv."

"What's that?" Marvin asked, smirking at the use of the nickname.

"Why the hell aren't you one of 'em?"

Dante heard Marvin's snort of amusement, and Marvin, having found his way to the door, told Dante in reply, "I guess I'm just too smart for 'em. They've tried to convert me, but even then, it doesn't protect you from the goddamned Shadows. That's why everyone was running inside tonight. Otherwise I would've pretended to be one of them or some shit. The Shadows go away in the sunlight, kind of weird since they need light to even exist, but during the day, when the people are out, they usually just treat me indifferently. They don't really know who or what I am, and finding a person who's not a cultist in this town nowadays is like finding a needle in a haystack. It's why I haven't been able to get much done during the daylight hours, I'm only one man, and who the hell can I trust?"

"Well, now you're three," Lady informed him, "and you can trust us. Just lead us to this warehouse. We'll get in and find out what's going on."

Marvin couldn't help his relieved sigh over her words, knowing she had no idea how comforting they'd been without even meaning them to be. But instead of saying anything about it, he only asked them, "Who are you two anyway?"

"I'm Lady, that's Dante. We're devil hunters."

"Devil hunters, huh?" Marvin snorted, "I think you came to the right fucking place then."

"Damn skippy," Dante muttered. And it's about fucking time too, he thought with no lack of annoyance over the whole situation. While he'd found out a lot so far, he still wasn't anywhere near as far along as he thought he should be.

"You guys don't have any extra clips do you?," came Marvin's curiously asked question. After all, he'd been out of ammo for a few days now.

"I do," Lady replied, "what model do ya carry?"

".45 Calibur."

"Perfect," she smirked, reaching into her satchel to grab her ammo by memory since she couldn't see very well and pulling out a clip for him, "Can't go to the police station to reload I'm guessing."

"Nope," Marvin replied, "they'll try to take me in." He took the clip from her and started loading it into his gun in the dark, having done it so many times before he could do it with his eyes shut he knew for a fact.

Shaking her head, Lady looked up toward the very dim light coming from the door they were now standing near in the room. "So, what do we do about the demon worshipers if they get in the way, Dante?"

No answer.

"Dante?"

"Betcha thought I was gone didn't you?" They heard an amused voice.

Lady rolled her eyes, "Dante, stop being immature."

Marvin had started chuckling, "Guy with a sense of humor. I like that."

"You'll like Dante's brand plenty then," Lady told him, "but be serious for a split second, would ya? They're only human, and if they get in the way, they could be a problem."

"It's doubtful," Marvin interjected, "the majority of them don't come out at night, but if they do, I'll take us through the back ways if you guys really wanna avoid them."

Dante stepped away from them and he opened his guitar case, pulling Rebellion from its hiding spot within the confines of the leather and velvet lining, "No, I want you to take the fastest route, no matter what we run into. We'll just shoot out lights on the way there," he added before settling Rebellion onto his back.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Marvin sighed, "I wanna get there as soon as possible."

"Well, then lead the way," Lady waved her hand, taking up the rear as Marvin nodded and started along to the door of the shop at the front. Once they reached it, Marvin unlocked it and pushed it open quietly, sticking his head out. Dante just moseyed out onto the side walk past him and looked around, aiming with one hand and shooting the nearest streetlight, then turning the other over his arm and shooting a second. For good measure, he even shot out a glowing sign across the road that currently read 'closed', and looked back. "Okay, the light's taken care of, no problem."

Marvin smirked and stepped out of the shop with Lady, then he said, "Well, right this way, I'll give ya the dime tour."