-Somewhere deep in the forest-
Torches of fire were aligned along the cave way, lighting up the dark hallway. Footsteps echoed through it when a woman wearing a white hood walks along it. Entering an archway inside the cave, she saw a man in his mid 40s wearing knight armor. He has a wavy, medium-length hazel hair and brown eyes with full beard on his chin.
"This way my Lady," he was actually expecting her arrivals.
The woman in the hood nodded once and followed the man. Upon entering another archway, there is a stream of river with a boat waiting for them. The woman entered the boat together with the man in the armor and they started to sail through the guarded gates at every checkpoint.
"The Master has been expecting you," the armored man glanced at the woman who is currently sitting in front of him.
"Yes. I was well informed. How is the preparation?" she answered without looking back at the man.
"It is going very well according to plan. All we need is 'the key' from you," he said as he clasped his hand behind his back.
After a few minutes of silence, the boat finally halted, arriving at its destination. Both of them left the boat and make their way through the hallway that was surrounded with blue flames torching the side of the cave walls. Arriving in front of a thick cemented door with engravings on it, the door swung open on its own as if it knows someone has arrived. Standing in the middle of the place, both of them faced a huge, gigantic statue that somehow looked familiar. Glancing over the place, they knelt on one knee when they saw a dark figure wearing a black cloak and hood sitting in front of the statue.
"Is there anything of importance that you have awakened me during my sleep?" the man growled, resting his right leg over his left.
Under the hood, his thin lips and strong jaw lines were the only thing that was revealed. His voice is a little bit husky but quiet charming and sexy though.
"Master, I apologize for waking you under such circumstances. But I'm afraid the plans turned out to be quite a bit…unexpected," the woman bowed.
Tilting his face up a little, he raised his right knuckles and rested his chin on it, leaning his arms against the side of the statue.
"Each of our minions that we have sent was easily slaughtered. HE was with her," the woman continued.
Frowning, the man clenched his teeth, "Dante."
"Yes. Who would have expected that he was hired to protect her," the woman raised her face, glancing at the man in the black hood.
The man now deepened his smirk, "This has gotten interesting."
The man chuckled and stood, walking slowly towards the woman and the man in the armor. Raising his knuckles in the air, he fixed his black leathered fingerless glove as he brushed past them.
"Master?" the woman stood, facing him.
"It is time," the man glanced over his shoulder and grins.
Sighing heavily, you flopped onto your bed with your face buried into your pillow. You were back in your not-so-peaceful apartment. Everyday, you would hear your neighbor argued; husband and wife argued about cheating on one another or sometimes, they would blame each other for not being a good parent. Shaking your head, you turned your body around, grabbing your medium sized pillow and hug it. The wind was blowing soothingly through your opened window. Calming yourself, you closed your eyes gently, remembering bits of your memories when you first saw Giles.
**Flashbacks**
Panting heavily, you were running in the forest, looking for a hiding spot. You were scared by the shrieking sound behind you. Glancing over for a few times, there were dark figures jumping around the trees, following you. Whimpering softly, you tried to hold back your voice from crying out loud. Stumbling over a huge root, you grunted. One of the demons that were following you suddenly appeared in front of you. It tilted its head and tried to grab you. Before its hand reaches you, you stood quickly and picked up a piece of wood that was near your hand. Swinging it as hard as you can, you managed to hit its head. As the demon shrieked in pain, you ran deeper into the forest, not knowing which way to go.
After a few moments of running, you finally halted when you reached the end of a cliff. Turning around, the demons were already behind you. They stood in line, waiting for a chance to snatch you away. Thinking of a way to escape from them, you can feel your tears dripping down your cheeks. You thought that you were going to die. You were scared because you didn't know what happened to you and you don't want to die not knowing of anything. Sniffing at the thought of you dying, you felt your knees shaking. Giving up, you felt like jumping off the cliff. As you slowly walked backwards, you closed your eyes letting your tears trailing down your cheeks. Slowly reaching the edge of the cliff, you suddenly heard the demons yelped in pain.
Opening your eyes, you saw a man fighting off the demons with a katana in his hand. His messy slicked brown hair and his slightly messy grey suit was the one thing that catches your attention. He swung his katana over to every demon that attacked him and he easily killed them. His moves are perfect just like a very skillful and experienced samurai except that he looks weak as if his energy has drained off. Hearing another howl behind you, you turned and saw a demon spreading its wing, trying to grab hold of you.
Moving away from the cliff, you gasped and tried to avoid its claw from snatching you away. Before the demon could grab you, a small blade pierced through its chest, turning it into a dust. Falling onto your bum, you panted and felt your arm grabbed from behind. Yelping a little, you tilted your head and saw the man's green eyes.
"Come," he pulled you as he walks into the woods.
"Where am I? W-What happened? Wha-What are they?" you asked, not believing whatever it is that you saw earlier.
"I'll…tell you everything once we're settled," he answered as he pulled you, fastening his pace without looking at you.
Shaking your head, you pulled your arm away from his grasp and shot a questioning look at him, "Who are you?"
Both of you halted your feet as he turned to face you and sighed, "My name is Giles…and I'm a demon hunter."
**End of Flashbacks**
Shooting your eyes open, the voice of your neighbors arguing snapped you away from your thoughts. Sighing heavily, you pushed yourself away from the bed and walks into the kitchen, thinking of cooking yourself a dinner. Opening your fridge, there is nothing much for you to cook. All you have left is a piece of cheese, an egg and cotton of milk. Closing your fridge furiously, you decided to walk to your favorite restaurant and order a take out.
_*my mind blanked out, so….le time skip?*_
It was already 7pm and you still haven't decided what to eat yet. Walking along the streets, you pull up your hood and placed your hands in your pockets. Turning into the corner of the streets, you finally reached your favorite restaurant.
"Well, it's time to feed this hungry beast," you told yourself when your stomach started to grumble.
"Mind if I join in babe?" you turned to see Dante smirking behind you.
"Dante," you chuckled. "When did you get here?"
"A little while ago," he crossed his arms. "Mind if I accompany you into feeding the beast?"
You blushed when you realized that he actually heard you talking to your own stomach, "Uh.. Y-Yeah sure."
Settling yourself in the restaurant, both of you had your dinner. Well, hardly saying anything. It was awkward and Dante kept looking at you as if he wanted to ask you questions.
"Dante?" you tried to break the awkward atmosphere. "Is there something you wanted to ask?"
"Why'd you ask?" he tilted his head, biting down his sweet strawberry sundae.
"You..well. You look like you have something on your mind," you shrugged, swirling your fork over your leftover food on your plate.
Before Dante answered you, he smirked as he leans closer to you and whispered, "I was thinking of 'sleeping' over at your apartment tonight."
Taken aback by his words, you shoot your face from your plates to his face, staring into his icy, blue eyes. You were speechless and the atmosphere just got more awkward. You've never had any guy coming over to your apartment; not to mention 'sleep' at your place. After a few moments of silence, you opened your mouth to say something but nothing came out. Dante laughed, shaking his head as he took another bite of his sundae. Looking back at you, he smirked again.
"Chill babe. I was just joking," he throws his spoon into his now empty sundae glass.
Instead of saying anything, you stared at him blankly and gave him a questioning look.
"What I wanted to say is that I need to keep an eye on you," he chuckled and smiled.
"I'm fine Dante. You don't have to worry about me. Really." You laughed softly, looking away from him.
"It's not about what happened today. It's about….something else," Dante said as his smile disappeared and turned into a deep frown.
"What do you mean?" you asked.
"Nothing. At least let me walk you back home. Is that okay?" he said as he stood.
Smiling at him, you nodded. Leaving the place, both of you walked side by side along the busy streets. Without a word, you slowed your pace and decided to walk slightly behind Dante. With him in front of you, you glanced at his back. You don't know why, but somehow your heart would pounce a little bit faster at his presence. You wanted to hold his hand or wrap your arms around him or even jump onto his back! Blushing at the thoughts, you smiled to yourself and chuckled softly.
"What's so funny?" Dante smirked glancing over his shoulder. He realized that you were not right next to him, so he stopped and waited for you.
"Um, nothing. Just something playing around in my mind," you said as you brushed past him.
Dante raised his eyebrows and chuckled to himself.
"Let's go through here. It's a shortcut," you pointed to the alley that somehow looked thrashed, silent and empty. It looks like one of those alleys where it is haunted with serial killer or rapist. It is quite dark; the moon and a few flickering light was the only thing that lightens up the alley way.
"You sure you wanna go through here?" Dante asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah. Since you're here with me, I think going through the alley is not really much of a problem," you said as you walked backwards, facing him.
Dante didn't say anything, but he stared at you and deepens his smirk. Both of you walked silently and what you didn't notice is that there is a huge shadow following you. Hearing a metal clanking, both of you halted your feet. You felt shivers running down your spine and you quickly turned to face Dante when you saw a shadow emerging from the wall on Dante's side.
"Dante!" you yelled.
Before Dante could turn, an arm pinned him against the opposite wall, causing him to grunt. The arm was quiet huge. Widening your eyes, you saw half of the demon's face sticking against the wall. Its teeth were sharp, eyes are yellow but you couldn't find its pupil. Its face somehow resembles the make up of a clown. It was smiling or should you say, grinning. Hearing it laughed, its voice was deep and you gasped when it turned to look at you.
"What do we have here? A late dinner for me?" the demon said as it pinned Dante deeper against the wall.
"Let him go!" you screamed. Summoning one of your swords, it flew up to the sky and pierced through the demon's arm.
It didn't let go of its grip on Dante but it shrieked for a while. Not too long after that it bursts, laughing out a sick laugh.
"I see. YOU are the one I've been looking for," the demon emerged from the wall, revealing its upper form.
"Hey pal, we're not looking to play hide-and-seek," Dante suddenly voiced out. He must've been passed out for a while when the demon attacked him surprisingly.
The demon stopped and turned its face towards Dante. Suddenly, the sound of the gun echoed through the alley way, sending few bullets through the demon's palm. As it yelped in pain, it submerged back into the wall.
Dante jumped over in front of you and smirked, "Sorry bout that. I was 'sleeping' for a while."
Smiling at him, you shook your head slightly, "Well, it's not bed time yet."
Staring at each other, the ground started to shake.
"DANTE!" the demon screamed furiously as it pushed its hand from the underground and grabbed Dante, squishing him under its firm grip. Grunting, Dante tried to loose himself as you quickly motioned your sword to cut through the demons grip. Before the sword could pierce through, you felt your head pounded. It hurts a lot, causing you to fall onto your knees. Your sword falls onto the ground and the demon started to laugh.
"Just stay there and be a good girl. I will come pick you up after I squash this little pest in my hand," it said as it tightens its grip on Dante. "Master will be thrilled if I could bring you with my own hand, girl."
Suddenly, Dante emits a red glow from his body and his pupil somehow changed. Dante grabbed his guns again and slipped his arms out from the demons gripping hand. Shooting it on its right eye, it yelped and threw Dante over to the wall in front.
You shoot your face towards him but your vision was blurry. The only thing that you saw was Dante fighting against the demon. Standing over it, he sliced its head in half. Before your body stumbled onto the ground, Dante grabbed you, kneeling and wrapping his arms around your body.
"(y/n)? Can you hear me? You alright?" his voice was so distant. All you could see was his blurry image, looking at you worriedly.
"Dante?" your voice was so soft that he could barely hear it. Not able to gain your visions back, you started to see blackness around you and all you could hear is Dante's voice calling out your name.
**End of Chapter 8**