Note: Here's chapter seven. Enjoy.
I see light through my closed eyes. Would they have really allowed me to go to heaven? I haven't done any good, not for god in any case. Why is it so bright?
"Open your eyes," the same voice from before. Could it really be her?
"Mother?" I whisper as I struggle with the bright light flooding into my hesitant eyes.
The voice giggles, a sound I haven't heard for years.
My eyes finally adjust to the brightness, allowing me to see the familiar face hovering above me.
"So long you have fought, Virgil." She says as she brushes her long bright hair back behind her ear. "So long have you fallen."
"Mother, I…" I try to speak before she shushes me like she had done when I was a child.
"I know. The world never was welcoming to you." She stands and turns away from me. "I came to help you see what she sees in you. You aren't the monster you became. You are more than that, my son. Look." She points off in the distance to two small figures kneeling beside a makeshift cross.
"You had always distanced yourself from the world. Yet she was the only one that could make you want you should have been. I had always dreamed you would remain who you were when with her, but her parents…" I watched as a lone tear drifted down her cheek.
"She was the only one that could make me forget." I whisper.
"Forget what?"
"The pain of life." I hesitate as the later memories of Dawn revealed themselves. "I would meet her out on the street for that reason; because I wanted to forget. She would always be there, waiting. Until the day her parents had found out. I was with her when they took her away. She tried to fight her father, but she was too small, too weak. And I just stood there and watched him carry her away. So many years, so long before I saw her again."
I feel my mother comfortingly place a hand on my shoulder.
"You were only a boy, only seven. You can't blame yourself for any of it."
I turn to her, anger suddenly taking over. "I could have stopped them." I speak in a low voice. "She was all I had after you… I could have kept her close. But I didn't. I watched her crying as he carried her away. I listened to her as she plead for me to be strong. Look what being strong for her has done to me."
"Virgil." My mother whispers as she tries to enfold me in her arms.
Without thought, I pull away. "So what was it that she was to have seen in me?" I ask.
She suddenly grows serious as she speaks. I know I've hurt her.
"The moment she first saw you, she saw your soul." My mother turns away to hide tears that I know have begun to fall. "She saw pain and darkness. And in the center of it all, a single flame of hope, such a small flame of hope that you normally hid from everyone. She knew that, because of this, your last deed would be great. That's why you made that promise to her. Deep down you knew what she saw." She stops and waits for my response.
I ponder all she has said. What am I suppose to do that will be so great. How can I when my life-less body lies in Dawn's arms.
"It's time for you to go back."
"What?" I look at her, confused about what she meant.
"Your promise won't let you die. Dante can't win the fight on his own; he grows weak from the fight. And Dawn doesn't have the physical strength to fight. They need you. Can't you hear her pleas?"
I could hear them. I could hear Dawn begging for me to come back and keep my promise.
"How do I go back?" I ask. I am now anxious to go back and fight. To save the one person that ever really mattered to me.
I watch my mother point somewhere behind me. I turn to see a doorway of light. I run through without concern for what lies on the other side for I already know.
"Virgil, please wake up." I hear Dawn say as I return to consciousness. Her tears are still flowing. Each one shed for me. I consider them each a gift.
I open my eyes to see her crying eyes smile.
Without words, I gently caress her cheek.
The sight of Dante flying over her head, something I would have normally relished, brings the memory back of what I had to do.
Soon, I am up. My wounds are healed and I am ready for the battle.
I try to think of how I can defeat the demon. What weakness could he possibly have?
'Look to the eyes, my son.' My mother's voice whispers in my mind.
His eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and the doorway through which the soul can be released from its fleshy prison.
"You rise again. I'll have the pleasure of killing you both at once." The devil taunts.
"Not if you die first." I whisper before launching myself into the air.
While above him, I search for a weapon to use for each of his eyes. Unexpectedly, my eyes direct themselves to Dawn's knives. What would be better than something that had been forged in hell, most likely by the devil's own hands.
I hit the ground and roll to the side, dodging a powerful stomp from the devil. My hands immediately find the knives.
"Now you die." No thoughts run through my mind as I lunge and dodge. I twist and slam the first knife into his left eye, receiving a pain filled roar in return. He stumbles back in pain and fear. I know the fear is of me.
I launch myself into the air again, my mind is still clear.
I close my eyes as the last knife slides into his right eye.
I now stand before him as he clutches at his face, attempting to pull out the knives, though it is too late. He has grown too weak. Blood pours from the two wounds, covering his hands and face as he drifts to the floor.
"It's over." Dawn calmly says behind me. But why is everything so calm and still? Why isn't hell collapsing?
"Come on." I say as I turn and walk to the door.
Dawn, while supporting Dante, struggles to follow me out.