Dante huddled in a corner. For days he lay there, clinging on to the notion his mother would come for him. He had his hand over the amulet she gave him and his brother for their birthday.

The redness of the amulet glowed for a second, as if his mother were there with him.

He hadn't anything to eat in days. He was starving and for a child his size, it would have killed him and nearly did. He barely drank anything and barely crawled out of his space.

He wanted to die.

He was too much of a coward to commit suicide.

He felt something inside him pleading to live; something inside him wanted to live for something he couldn't name, but nevertheless he clung on to the hope of his mother's existence.

It was his mother that he loved most of all.

They lived in a hovel: him, his brother and his mother all in squalor and hard times. This is what they were reduced to after his wealthy biological father left.

There were moments when he recalled his mother saying: Dante, your father was a good man, and he fought against evil, against his own kind. You should be proud of him.

But he wasn't.

He resented him. Why? Because Sparda left them to die. What good is the use to protect your family when you're not even around?

He raged at his father in the wind: You stupid sonofabitch! If you were alive, I would kill you with my own hands.

That's when he found the love of friends and distant relatives. He found them in Enzo and Aisha. Aisha became his step mother, but she died too, because demons found their way to her and killed her, but that Enzo, that friend of his was too much of a wily and crafty dude to die. Enzo was a coward, but with that cowardness, there was extreme loyalty.

Enzo knew how to get the girls despite his ugly looks, and Enzo knew how to use Dante by getting those girls. When the time came when Enzo used his connection and cash to get the women, he just needed Dante when the big demon guys would come along. Dante always had the superhuman quality that even Enzo envied.

Once, Enzo spied Dante's mother's photo on the desk and asked: Who's the gorgeous knock out?

It was the last time Enzo asked about Dante's mother in such a way. He didn't want to get his face smashed in.

"Dude, you are way too sensitive!" Enzo had shakingly yelled back at him, "You need to chill!" Enzo being the chubbier, less fit young man at the time heaved a great sigh and ran his chubby fingers through his dark curly head, "Tell you what? How about we get us a detective job going, just you and me and you can get all your aggression out that way?"

It was a match made in heaven.

Dante was a specialist and had it in him for killing; at least killing for hire, like an assassin, now that was the best thing ever to have happened to him.

His mother's song came back at him: My young seeds once again will look up to the sky

Dante was good with women and with the drink. He liked to do both, but most of all he loved to kill.

In his blood, just like his father, there lies the need for killing. The only thing that made him human was his mother.

And he loved her most of all. With the amulet in his cold hands, with the memory of her beautiful face and loving nature; he knew that he could not give up hope.

But time does have its sorrow and then he had his nightmares.

He did lose hope.

And found that hope again in the form of another woman he renamed: Lady.

She was just like his mother in character and fire. He would never forget her, because it was she who brought him back to remember his mother and father. He would remember that evil must remain far away from humans and that what his brother did was repulsive and cruel. He had to put a stop to it no matter what the cost.

His mother would have approved.

His mother would be very disappointed in his brother. Truly. Because his brother was now the evil twin; a man who resembled his father before he turned.

He cried out for his mother in the rain: Mother! I know what it is you would want for me.

Dante held on to the amulet with such force that his fingers bled.

Eva was alive in his heart.