Hiraeth Chapter 78: Export, a devil may cry fanfic

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Export

I hope you all liked this chapter! This chapter was a little different than normal, but it's leading to something I'm really excited to write about. I know a lot of you were wondering when we would hear from Patty again, so something tells me that you might be interested in seeing where this is going! See you on Friday and in the comments section of you have anything you'd like to say, and I hope you have a good week! Bye Bye!

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It had come so suddenly, the changes almost not noticeable until the moment when none of them could deny that something strange was happening. The sky turned black with specs and trails of crimson as though red lightning and fire would rain down upon them from above if they stayed underneath its eerie gaze. But it never did, something that they were all very grateful for. But that didn't mean that things hadn't become stranger and entirely more dangerous as a result.

For several days there was simply nothing that happened. Most of the townspeople were keeping to themselves, lulled into a false sense of security by the idea that staying in their homes would keep them safe from whatever was going on outside. But then the sound of demons became impossible to ignore. And everything changed.

Anyone who looked out of their windows could see that the town was slowly becoming overrun. It was hard to go more than an hour or so without seeing at least a single demon, even if they weren't very powerful. But to see this level of demonic activity without an obvious source was disturbing to say the least. And dispatching the local military had proven to be a mostly useless waste of life and time back during Redgrave City, so no one was expecting that to change anytime soon.

And the meteorological reports weren't doing much to help settle the nerves of anyone who saw them. Or perhaps it was better to say the lack of reports. Foggy images of something on the top of a mountain was all they really had to go off of, the realization that the eye of the storm had settled over Lympha only making things worse. Whispers of how the town had been destroyed a few years back by a cult reemerged and had sent the entire region into an uproar, many people making the link between the obviously demonic sky and the location that it seemed to originate from. But no one was ready to jump to the conclusion that action needed to be taken just yet. After all, dropping a bomb on the area would probably only make it worse, right?

All around town everyone was clearly nervous. Grocery stores lacked even the most basic goods due to a severe shortage that resulted from a lack of people willing to come into town to even bring goods to the stores. Everyone had decided to just stay in their homes and stay as calm as they possibly could given the circumstances. The tides were also an issue, but larger vessels that went shorter distances such as to and from Fortuna were the only ones that were still in service. There was little in the way of trade going on, but at least some forms of transport were still viable.

Propaganda channels commingled with religious groups on the airwaves, creating a potent sense of disruption and paranoia that did very little to settle the minds or nerves of anyone who was unwise enough to listen in on them or to just happen upon them while trying to find an emergency station. Actions had been taken to try and quell the riots in pillaging before they started, but it seemed to be a quietly agreed upon fact that things would deteriorate quickly if they were not addressed at some point in the near future. And the government was genuinely stupefied, unsure as to how this had happened or what they were supposed to do. Besides the obvious step of sending in some armed forces and attempting to get emergency supplies to people in need, no one was prepared for a large-scale demon invasion.

Was this going to be Redgrave City all over again? And so soon? Had this wretched year not seen enough death just yet? Were they doomed to simply flee or stay and be killed? All of these things seem likely, and things seem to be growing more and more hopeless by the hour, the sheer volume and degree of dread that lingered in the general populace giving the demons something to grow stronger from and attracting them in even larger numbers. It was like a buffet and every demon in the area was happy to attend.

But just as soon as it started, someone took up arms against it. Reports on the news of three women who were doing battle against the demons and seemingly managing to drive them back somewhat began to air on the nightly news, and everyone in town silently hoped that these nameless women would be their saviors. Accounts from several other locations and cities in the nearby region of other women in hoods who came in shortly after, perhaps driven to assist them by the actions of the original. And despite not knowing who any of these women were, everyone in town silently hoped that they would somehow be saved by them, some even leaving gifts on their doorsteps in the form of small offerings of supplies to try and persuade them. None of these gifts were ever taken, but the sentiment was clear. Everyone needed a hero, and no one knew who that hero was despite the fact that they could see them. A few even tried to assist them more directly, but when they were quickly cut down or injured it became clear to the townspeople that it was going to take more than a few kitchen knives and gardening utensils to drive back the forces of hell. A commendable effort but a fruitless one, indeed. The hospitals were already overworked and overfull. No need to make things worse.

Things had made so much more sense just a short while ago…

For those who have been present in Redgrave city during the attack, the entire situation seemed all too familiar. The survivors recalled the desperate situations that had led to them fleeing their home, some of them even recalling the white haired young man in the black coat who had advised them to leave the epicenter of the attack and to get as far away as possible. Many of them left town as soon as the red skies appeared, and after no less than a week, a large portion of the rest of the region followed suit, evacuating to a much less actively cursed location. By the weekend only about a third of the city remained, spread out and indecisive. It had become too dangerous to go outside, and many regretted their decision to wait it out. Much like a hurricane, it seemed that this was the sort of disaster that required quick action and evacuation before the storm settled in. Was it just too late for those of them who were still there?

On the far side of town a young woman looked out of her window, now so very alone given the circumstances. Her mother had left town just a short while before all of this had happened on a business trip, and she herself had arrived home from a shopping trip just a few short hours before the red skies rolled in. She had been mostly prepared to play the long game and wait for her to return, but upon realizing how much demonic activity there was, she now felt the need to do something. Anything to feel less useless given the circumstances. And to feel safer.

Patty knew better than all of them exactly who those ladies were, and she knew that if they were out here but Dante wasn't that something major had happened. She remembered him telling her that he and the rest of his immediate family would be leaving town for a while to take care of something, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the timing was not a coincidence. Perhaps he had not expected this to happen? It was hard to say. She wasn't a mind reader.

She needed to make a phone call.

Making her way across the house to the phone in her mother's study, Patty made an earnest attempt to remember the number that she needed to call. She'd only called it once or twice before while looking for Dante, and she was certain that the owner of the number wouldn't be home if he wasn't, but this was probably the only thing that she could try. The longer she stayed here in the house, the more that she felt that she shouldn't. She needed to get somewhere safe. Fast. But there was somebody that she needed to check on first.

Grabbing the phone off the receiver, she took note of the way that the window rattled in the wind. It had been steadily picking up for the last hour or so, and it was yet another reason why she needed to get out of here. Some part of her was worried that the glass would fail sooner rather than later, and the last thing she wanted was to be in an old house with broken windows with demons roaming the roads outside. No, that was not how she wanted to go. She had survived so much worse. She refused to not take the hint and to simply sit and wait like the rest of the people in town. It for mother was safely outside of the confines of the city, then perhaps she needed to be, too. Fear would not be the death of her.

Dialing what she remembered to be the number, she cursed herself under her breath as she got an out of service signal. She tried the number again, altering one digit after she remembered that it was not correct, only to find that this new number was not either. Sighing and admittedly somewhat flustered by this minor inconvenience, she took a deep breath and exhaled before shuttering slightly, her body seemingly trying to physically shake off her growing anxiety. There were only 10 single digit numbers that she could pick from anyway. It had to be one of them. If she had to work down the list then so be it. It wasn't like she had anything better to do.

And she spent several minutes doing just that, quietly hoping that the storm had not knocked out the landlines in the area and that she would be able to reach who she needed to. She didn't even understand the appeal of still having a landline at this point, making a quiet promise to herself to buy an actual cell phone once all of this blew over. Every one she knew needed to. There was no reason that they should be working off of lines this inconsistent. Who the hell still used landlines anyway?! This was one of many reasons that they had fallen out of popularity in the first place! The last thing anybody needed was to be trapped in their home as a direct result of a power line giving up the ghost in the middle of a powerful storm! Or in this case, a demonic invasion.

"Come on, this is ridiculous! It has to be one of these numbers, right? I'm remembering it correctly… I think. I memorized at least most of this number. This has to be it." Patty thought to herself as she dialed in the last digit combination that she could come up with. Surely this had to be it, right? After all, she was pretty good at remembering numbers. She refused to believe that she had the number completely wrong. She could get through this. And if she couldn't, well… that plan was the last resort.

Listening intently as the phone began to ring this time, Patty attempted to manage her expectations. She knew that this was a long shot, but she needed to do this. She couldn't just go sit back in her living room and not do this. She had to be able to live with herself, and this was the only way that she saw that happening anytime soon. This place was no longer safe for anyone. If she was leaving, then they had to be leaving, too. She couldn't just leave them behind. They were more stuck than she was.

After what felt like a lifetime, the phone picked up and a familiar voice cleared their throat on the other end of the line, seemingly having been in the middle of something else before answering. But it wasn't the voice she expected. Not that she had truly believed that the person she had been hoping for would come to the phone in the first place. She knew better than to believe that any of them were actually in town. Dante had told her he wouldn't be, after all. But of all the young women to come to the phone, she hadn't been the one she'd expected.

"Hello? Who's this? How'd ya get this number? Never mind. It doesn't matter. Sorry to have to tell ya this in case you need help right now, but we're kinda close for business for a while. We can't send anybody to help ya out, so you're gonna have to call the cops and hope that whoever they send to help ya out actually knows how to shoot."

Patty made a mental note of the way that Nico had said that, the obvious sympathy for the caller's well-being evident in her voice. She seemed to genuinely regret not being able to do more to help them and the last thing she wanted to do was tell them that she couldn't help, but it wasn't like Nico could go out there and shoot all the demons herself. She just made the guns and the gadgets that other people use to kill the demons with. She knew how to use them to some degree and wasn't afraid to defend herself, but to actually fight a horde of demons and single combat? She imagined that Nico was just as optimistic about her odds as she was.

"Wait wait wait wait! Don't hang up! It's me, Patty! You remember me from the beach, right? We all went because Dante's older brother hassled him into finally making good on that promise to take me?" She couldn't even begin to hide how thrilled she was to be in contact with somebody who knew who she was. She hadn't realized until just then how alone she had felt this entire time. This was too big of a house to be in with demons prowling the streets. It was the kind of thing that made you go mad. "You're Nico, right? I think I recognize your voice. You're the only one around here that… Will you get what I mean? Where are you guys? Is Kyrie there? The kids?"

"Oh shit, Patty?! You all right over there? Did the people that they sent over to your house make it?" She waited for Patty to respond and once she got the negative confirmation that she was assuming she would, she sighed. She was hoping that things had gone better for Patty than they had for her, Kyrie, and the kids. "Yeah, the ones who were supposed to be coming over here didn't, either! They probably got caught up doing something else and just couldn't make it. I hear it's pretty crazy out there. I heard time isn't working right or something. It feels like it's been like a week, but I think it's only been a couple of hours. I don't even know anymore. Everything is a mess right now. None of this was part of the plan.!"

She took a moment to look over her shoulder. The wind outside was picking up and it almost seemed as though a storm was rolling in. That was an understatement. But she was willing to believe that there was something that could be done about this. Something that might just save them all. She couldn't stop the storm, but she could wait it out somewhere safer, even if they had to leave town to do it.

"Yeah, you can say that again. But let's not worry about it right now. What's important is that I actually called for a reason, and I'm hoping that I can do something to help. I get the feeling that you all need it just as much as I do." A look of determination came across her face as she looked over at the keys on the table, making a mental note of which car in the garage they went to. There was only one thing she could do at a time like this, and she was going to do it. As unwise as it might be to go outside, staying inside was just waiting for the inevitability of death. She was going to go down fighting. Hopefully, her mom wouldn't get mad about the car. "We need to all get somewhere safe. Do you know anywhere that might fit the bill? Because if you do, I think I can get us there! I just need to know where to meet you guys because I'm not leaving here by myself. It's pretty bad here on the mainland, but I can only imagine how bad it has to be on that horrible island. I heard the tide was getting worse and worse each day. I can't imagine that they're going to run that fairy too much longer. You have to get out of there before you're permanently trapped!"

Nico laughed at the statement but the young blonde girl had just made, shaking her head despite the fact that she knew she couldn't be seen. "Well, dontcha have perfect timing! We were just thinking about the same thing. There's no way that we can stay here for too much longer, so we were going to head to the only place that's probably still safe, even if we had to walk. You haven't been there, but trust me when I tell ya that nobody's getting in that place, demon or otherwise. I'm pretty sure they'll help us out, though. Do you think you can meet us at the docks?"

Looking over her shoulder again out of the window, she noticed that there was a demon lurking just outside of her field of view. She caught it shadow, but that was enough for her to be able to tell that it was quite big compared to the others that she had seen pass by. That thing could just break down the walls and invite itself in if it really wanted to, windows be damned. This was as good a time as any.

"Just tell me what port you'll be at and I'll be there. You can ditch the Van if you need to. You can all probably fit in my car. It's up to you."

Another laugh came from Nico, this time harder than the last and considerably longer. Patty wasn't sure what she had said that was so funny, but she was willing to bet that she knew what Nico's answer was going to be. And after the young mechanic finally stopped laughing, she managed to speak again, confirming her assumption.

"Oh don't worry about it, little missy. I think the van's going to be just fine. Stash that fancy little car of yours somewhere safe. Let's just say I got a plan, and I think you're going to like it."

The young woman with the blonde hair nodded, conviction in her eyes as she attempted to swallow her fear of the demons looking just outside of her home. She wasn't excited about the prospect of facing them down, but she couldn't stay here. She had known that she would have to leave the second that she had touched that phone. This was the only thing that she could do. Patty needed to get down to the garage as fast as she could. Nero's house wasn't very far from the docks. It wouldn't take them more than an hour to arrive, especially with how few people were probably coming into the mainland from Fortuna. This was their last chance to get to safety.

Dante wasn't here to save her for the big bad demons this time. Neither was Morrison or Lady or Trish. Even her mom was out of town. She was alone, but that didn't mean that she was forgotten or defenseless. She had made it through tough things on her own before, and this wasn't going to be the last time. Not if she had anything to say about it. And as far as she was concerned, she most certainly did.

She was a big girl. She could take care of herself now. Patty would get through this herself, and no one was going to stop her. All she had to do was get down to the pier, pick everybody up, and they could go literally anywhere away from here. All she had to do was get out of here before it was too late.

It was her turn to save someone.

"Good. I'm hoping so. I'll meet you there in 1 hour. Now let's get the hell out of here!"

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