The coffin's velvet interior rubbed heavily against his body. It would've been soft but Dio could only ignore that comforting sense and could only feel the hard wood and reinforcement underneath. It was ever present, reminding him of his wear abouts. Reminding him of the empty vast blue that lingered just beyond his confines.
His hands shakily swept across a familiar face laying close to his own. The blue hair no longer shimmered. Those eyes would never open again. This Dio knew. This Dio wouldn't forget. And though this lingered in his mind, Dio was ever surer of what he wanted.
But the more he stroked through the thick hair and followed the curves of Jojo's face, tears rolled down his own face. A shiver of cold ran through the body he'd taken. He reached rather cowardly towards his neck, gently feeling for the scar in the darkness. It was there. It was guiding his fingers up and down. He wept more and how this angered him.
But tears of frustration seemed ever constant as he bashed the bottom of the coffin with his fist. Dio was careful as to not touch Jojo's head again. He didn't want to be reminded of past events. He didn't want his mind to take him back to a time he could look into Jojo's eyes. Back to a time he felt his gentle hand and a sweet voice. Back to the time he felt grass beneath his fingers as he sat with Jojo under a tree amidst endless fields of green.
He opened his eyes to stop the memories.
He'd let himself slip again.
Every time he closed his eyes, Jojo was there. The Jojo he knew before the mask, before the bloodshed and zombies. Even going so far back to the time Jojo thought Dio to be innocent. That was the Jojo Dio wanted. But he had long left amongst the newly found bitterness and hatred Dio had encouraged within him.
"What was it like?" He mumbled. He had to stop his own thoughts again. He looked vaguely in the direction below where the body lay. He talked as if Jojo could hear him, as if the body could respond. But it lay dormant and only moving on Dio's command.
The tears subsided as his thoughts began to present 'what if's? 'What if he had done this? ''What if Jojo had?'
Dio stopped himself once more.
He looked up to only be met with darkness as he felt the padded velvet amoungst the fingers he now possessed. He listened to the noiseless echoes. The quiet nothings surrounding him. The odd creature call nearby broke such nothingness but it would soon pass. And Dio would bear the weight of crushing thoughts consuming his mind again. Thoughts that spoke of what was and what could have been. Broken relationships and twisted dreams. He had fallen asleep amidst the quiet whispers of the ocean.
His hand gently sat on Jojo's cheek. His body still as he'd hoped to wake to the early morning sun pouring through his window and an extravagant breakfast waiting with his late adoptive father. Jojo being late and getting scolded as they ate, birds chirping and the beautiful tastes of bacon, egg among other delights in his mouth. He'd go outside with Jojo to read under a tree or splash in the nearby stream. Sometimes with Erina, the three of them getting their best clothes dirty as the sun set and they said goodbye from a fun filled day in mud and water.
Dio never had liked Danny and ever since he left Jojo was never the same. For a long time, Dio had been over joyed at seeing Jojo suffer. But little did he know when it came round to him.
"Was this what it was like?" He muttered. Time had no meaning here. He woke in darkness and slept in darkness.
"Did you feel this way too?"
He woke and slept continuously as he waded through memories from so long ago. He recalled almost every memory his mind would allow. Even recent ones. But recent memories held not the comfort he sought. For he gazed into Jojo's fire filled eyes and only saw resentment. Except for the most recent memory. Jojo's eyes sparkled in the early morning sun as Dio begged Jojo to take his offer.
"Would you have taken it?" He muttered to himself. But he waited for a response, despite Jojo remaining perfectly still and eerily silent.
Dio's mind had been whirring for as long as he could recall. It was consistent and unrelenting.
'How would that work?' 'Would you wake or would I be wasting my energy?'
Dio considered the option of turning Jojo into a vampire regardless. Biting or digging his fingers into what remained of Jojo's neck to see. He gripped the rags of Jojo's lingering neck skin amoungst his nimble fingers but the tendons felt too fragile to pierce. The blood flow had stopped a while ago and Dio doubted Jojo would have stayed intact long enough for it to take effect.
He stroked Jojo's hair and pulled the head closer to his own. He kissed his forehead and pulled the head down to his chest. He hugged the head relentlessly and wept further. He wanted peace from this eternal torment of repeating memories and blurred emotions. And so, he did get peace.
He finally fell into a deeper slumber than before. His grip lighted as the years fell away. Dio's dreams filled with a new life. Being with Jojo again. Reliving his youth. And gradually not wanting to wake.
But the piercing night sky bewildered him as he lay under a sea of stars on his balcony. Jojo's head comfortably sat in its housing beside him.
"For a moment." He whispered into the night air.
"For a moment you were alive."
"And you shall live again."