I wanted to cry, and hurl, and kill something. I didn't resist when Dante helped me onto his bike, didn't ask where we were going or what we were going to do. We shared the same sentiments – we had to get as far away as we possibly could.

Time was untraceable at night. I don't know what time we'd left home, only that we had stopped twice to refuel the bike, and that dawn was breaking on the horizon when we finally pulled into a motel in an unknown town.

The motel room was small and simple with a large bed in the centre and an en suite bathroom. Dante crashed on the bed. I sank down into the rickety arm chair beside the bed and switched the TV on. News. I sat staring at it blindly, thoughts rushing through my head on the many ways I could kill Vergil. Or wanted to kill him. Practically, I knew there wasn't much I could do to him, but emotionally I wanted to tear him apart.

Dante's breathing eventually changed. I picked up on it, and glanced over to see he had finally fallen asleep. The room was quiet aside from the soothing sound. I watched him, and knew, deep down, that I had lost the only good thing left in my life.

I finally went to take a hot shower. I figured it'd be creepy if Dante woke up to find that I'd been sitting there for hours, watching him. I stood in the small cubicle, eyes closed, long after the water had gone from hot to cold. It felt good not to think. Focussed on nothing but the water running across my skin, and the sound of it raining down against the glass walls.

I could hear Dante walking toward the bathroom before he reached the door. I turned off the water and was reaching for a towel just as he opened the door ajar. I clutched the towel to me, but he didn't come inside.

"Are you okay in there?"

I chewed on my lip, and wrapped the towel tightly around me. "I don't know anymore."

"I'm going out to get us something to eat." Then he was gone.

Food. Oh, Dante. It really was his first and main concern, aside from sleep. I sighed and slowly got dressed. I was sitting cross legged on the bed, still towelling my hair, when he got back.

"That was quick," I snapped suspiciously.

"The motel's got a restaurant," Dante said, and paused to stare back at me. He hesitated a second. "It's me, Cora."

"I know," I said, tearing my gaze from his to glare at the TV. "Sorry."

"I don't blame you." He sank down beside me on the bed and put the bag of takeaways in front of us. "Have you gotten any sleep in?"

"Can't sleep," I said. I haven't been able to sleep since we got back. No. Since Vergil and I got back. I felt my stomach knot.

"Hungry?"

I shook my head. We both stared at the TV for a while. Dante finally sighed and got up from the bed. "We've gotta go."

"Where?"

"Doesn't matter where. Vergil is on his way."

I balked at him. "What?"

"Let's go, Cora."

He didn't need to tell me twice. We were back on the road a short time later. I kept waiting to hear Vergil's bike coming up behind us, but it never did. I didn't know where we were or where we were headed, but I started to have my doubts whether Vergil really was chasing after us. Maybe Dante was paranoid. We pulled up at a gas station for the third time that day, in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing but miles and miles of desert all around us. The thing about the desert, of course, is that it hits freezing point at night.

Dante didn't pull right up to the station, though. He stopped just out of reach of the floodlights, idling. "Get off."

I slipped off the bike behind him and stood, uncertain.

"See that dumpster there?"

I surveyed the station and spotted the big dumpster beside the toilet door. "Yeah?"

Dante turned to look at me. "Get in. Hide. Don't come out until I come get you out myself."

Grosssssssssss.

"Stick to the shadows. Don't let anyone see you. Stay out of range of the cameras."

I stood motionless when he revved the bike and slowly pulled into the station. Then I did as he said, moving as fast and quiet as I could. I couldn't lift the heavy lid of the dumpster, but the gap was wide enough for me to squeeze through. The dumpster was loaded with massive boxes and crates and glass. I tried to dig deeper, lowering myself into the trash until I found a large box on its side. I tried to push the waste and garbage bags aside as best I could and wiggled myself into the shelter of the box.

When I finally stopped moving, I heard his voice. I felt my eyes bulge in disbelief, straining my ears in denial. No. It couldn't be. How?

"I will find her."

"Go fuck yourself."

"It's mine, Dante. Tell me where she is."

"No. What're you going to do, make me?"

"This is foolishness! You don't understand the implications-"

"I don't understand the implications? You're one to talk, taking advantage of my girl-"

"Dante!"

"- and desecrating her with your dick!"

"Well. I wouldn't put it that way."

"Oh, really?"

"In order for me to desecrate her, she would have had to be unwilling…"

"If she had known it was you to start with-"

"What makes you think she didn't?"

"She's not like that!"

"Dante, you know, power attracts power."

"What the hell are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying it's her demonic side that is attracted to my power. I've seen her blank out countless times when the demon will take over. She'd have no memory of what happened afterwards."

"So you took advantage of that?"

"I did no such thing. She advanced on me."

"Yeah, right."

"You can't blame me. You know I've been fond of her long before you ever saw her as more than the annoying brat next door."

"There's one flaw in your story."

"What's that?"

"I'm stronger than you."

There was a long pause, and then Vergil's furious voice. "I will find her."

"Then go. Do whatever the fuck you want. You won't find her."

A motorbike started up, and sped off. I sat, breathless, terrified and freezing, listening to it fade into the distance until, finally, there was nothing but the sound of crickets and the steady hum of the lights. I don't know how long I was there for. I know that the lid of the dumpster lifted once or twice and new bags of rubbish were chucked inside, far above me.

It started raining, and soon that died down. The numbness of my skin soaked through to my core. I was just starting to believe that Dante had abandoned me when the lid flew off and I drowned in sunlight. A second later, a hand broke through the rubbish around me, took hold of my arm, and pulled me toward the surface.

"Sorry I took so long," Dante said softly, helping me from the dumpster.

"It's okay."

And it was okay. He'd come back for me, and when I looked around, there was no sign of Vergil.

"I lost him, for now," Dante said, taking note. "I'm taking you to your relatives."

"Won't he find me there?" I asked as we walked across the gravel lot to his bike.

"He's already been there twice. He won't go looking for you there again," Dante muttered, and pulled me onto the bike behind him.

"What about you? Won't he be able to track you down?"

Dante didn't answer as we peeled out of the gas station. I buried my face against his back and hung on tight to him, trying to make sense of how we were going to pull this off. It was then, by the time that we reached the enormous city of Prosperity, that I realised that Dante wasn't going to stick around. He couldn't. It would make it too easy for Vergil to find us. To find me. I was trying to make peace with this realisation, already thinking ahead on what my options were, when we stopped outside my aunt and uncle's apartment block.

Dante went inside with me. It was weird, seeing my relatives again after so many years. Aunt Babe looked a lot like Mom. The apartment had two bedrooms, and it was modestly decorated. They were overjoyed to see me. Aunt Babe promised to take me shopping when she noted my lack of luggage. I got to take a nice hot bath without anyone pointing out that I smelled like road kill. I put on an old dress that, Aunt Babe said, used to belong to my mom.

When I went to find Dante, he was chatting to Uncle Dill. Aunt Babe had made sandwiches and a cup of tea was waiting for me. They were so warm and welcoming to both of us. It wasn't until Aunt Babe asked if Dante would stay for dinner that he started heading for the door.

"Will I ever see you again?" I asked once my aunt and uncle went back inside. We were standing at his bike, facing each other almost awkwardly.

"You think I'm bailing on you?" Dante asked, indignant.

"Aren't you?"

"Of course not." Dante swung his leg over the bike, and turned to face me. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"Like what?" I asked blankly.

He gave me a look, and I felt my plans crumble into dust around me. "You're not serious?"

"I know-"

"No, I'm getting rid of it, Dante. You can't expect me to go through with this. I can't do it."

Dante opened his mouth, and I could see his thoughts swarming through his gaze. He closed his mouth and sat back on the bike, looking at me tiredly. "I won't force you," he finally said. "I'll come back for you."

I was dragging myself back into the apartment when Aunt Babe said, "What a nice young man. Will we be seeing more of him?"