Hope came again, but it was years later. Much much later. In fact, it took nearly a decade when it happened.
This time, in the form of an unlikely woman: Trish.
She had scuttled her leather butt over to Enzo's new bar, where Enzo had done well for himself and provided lots of information for Dante's future jobs directly and indirectly.
Even when Dante had fired him years before. Still, friends were friends and Enzo was one of the few friends he had in this world; although with Enzo's knowledge and his connections, it also meant that he would find himself with people that wanted Dante's head.
Trish had walked into that dark bar and her dark sunglasses became such a laughing stock inside such a place, but the men eyed her up and down with lust while the women were definitely feeling jealous.
"I need information on a boy named Dante….you know him?"
She leaned over, took the whisky in her hand and downed it with one gulp.
"What's it to you?" Enzo said to her, his big bulky yet muscular body had made him a huge target and he didn't mind the least bit. Gone was the youthful cowardly look he once had. Gone was the fear and years of honing his meager skills made him what he was: A valuable informer.
It's not unusual for women to come looking for Dante, but he was wary of this one. She looked vaguely familiar.
Hope did come in surprising packages, even when they tended to kick your ass with a motorcycle and a kick in the groin.
"NO! Not the bike!" Dante wanted to kill the bitch.
She wasn't done. She took off her glasses and then everything was over. She was his mother all over again: Blonde hair, blue eyes, same facial structure, but sadly, he knew his mother died years ago.
To evil. To a monstrous hand that gave him nightmares for many years.
Hope did come in surprising ways, even when it was his mother's image. She was the walking mother-come-back-from-the-dead.
And he loved her, because she proved her worth to him and became good. She cried the tears of a human being.
She was human not in body, but in soul and in heart.
His mother returned back to him and he cried tears of joy and happiness.
The nightmares were over.