DREAM SEQUENCE:

"Have you ever thought of the future, Dante?"

Her voice, clear and strong rang in his ears though the senses of smell and vision were muddled in a confused state of nonreality. He had his head upon the greenest of grasses.

The skies overhead were covered in floating scents of roses.

Her fragrance smells like the raw edge of spring and honey.

Did he fail to notice that before?

She was questioning him and her voice floats in his mind like the sweetest of wine.

"Not really."

Taking a long breath, he chances a glance at her. She was always there in his dreams.

Taking his breath away. He had cried when she left.

The tears echoed in his memories and the brother he hardly knew laughed in his face.

How odd that his face took on something older than his youth.

Does taking a darker side do that to a man?

"Dante, what are you thinking?"

Smiling, he replies, "About you." and with a slight pause, he offers, "And about Vergil."

Laughing, she turns to him and her pale hair floats in the breeze and he catches the perfume in the air like the raw edge of spring and honey.

"Oh Dante. Such things. You already know the answers to the past. Why dwell on them?"

"Because they can't be erased."

He contemplates on that and pulls out a stem of grass, placing it in between his teeth.

"How will you be able to face your brother in the future, Dante?"

Did the scenery change? It seems as if the clouds were threatening with hot electricity.

Is there a storm in my dream?-- he questions to himself.

"I'll take care of him. I promised you."

"Oh Dante, such things! You don't even know the answers to that."

The fragrant smells are like the raw edge of spring and honey and they strengthened around him. Dante looks overhead at the horizon and notes the extreme change.

"I think I should be going."

"Where do you suppose you'll be heading out next?"

"I don't know. I thought maybe you could tell me."

She gives him a slight smile and the sadness there was evident.

"Oh Dante. Such things I do know the answers to."

He looks straight into her eyes.

All the emotions of someone he once knew, cared for, and loved took his soul away.

Even in death, she smelled like the raw edge of spring and honey.