The Silent Memories
His eyes snapped open, the dilated iris went completely blank before they returned to normal, and a couple drops of sweat trickled down his temple.
Blinking once…twice…still the thoughts replayed over and over in his mind.
Reaching a hand up, he pushed his silver hair out of his eyes, his cold still blue eyes, couldn't focus for minutes, he just lay there, as to be lifeless, not a sound came from the dark room. The dark empty room.
Once filled with the laughter of two happy boys, two brothers.
Now only one half remained.
It would be lying if it was the lighter half to remain; no, both sides of the coin were heads.
Just like the coin Dante held in his hand.
Slowly, his lips began to whisper a name but no whisper came, just the movement of the name, but no sound. No sound at all.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep, but almost as he tried, he found sleep impossible, sleep hadn't been possible for a few nights now, for his inner strength could compensate and he could last without sleep for weeks, Dante still felt the waves of sleep catching up to him, breaking the rocks of wake in its path, but yet it never caught him.
His skin felt the gravity of sleep as his body tried to recover from the numbness, he found it useless to move his legs to get up.
A couple seconds into the drifting slumber, a sudden image appeared in his head, an image of a young boy, dressed in black jeans, and a shiny blue jacket, the invisible wind slightly blew the young boy's silver hair across his face and the shadow that covered his eyes, slowly began to ebb away to reveal ice cold dark blue eyes that gave the threatening look to anyone who dared to stare into the endless void.
Again he tried to whisper the name, but yet again, the name could not be heard, however, this time, Dante could feel the numbness fading; he painfully reached up his hand to the image.
Staring into those menacing eyes, Dante felt like resisting but he knew he couldn't, he didn't want to, for so long, those eyes had haunted him, those cold lifeless eyes, the eyes Vergil gave him the moment he died.
Vergil kept glaring at him yet, something was different, and Dante felt something that didn't feel like his brother, it was soft and gentle, maybe a bit too gentle for it to give Dante such a feeling of peace.
Only one other time he felt like this, a time when Vergil had fallen asleep on his legs, sleeping head and tails, Dante remembered the moment when he awoke to find him peacefully sleeping with his head resting against his legs, Dante couldn't help but cherish that moment. He never again felt that emotion of pure peace.
But this image represented the same emotion, but something was lacking. Only Dante couldn't figure out what it was.
Until…his lips moved along with his voice.
"Vergil" He managed to whisper.
Suddenly it clicked, the image was missing life, the image lacked the full energy that Vergil always emitted, the craving for power, the life that Vergil had when he was with Dante.
Dante felt his eyes water; it was like he was on the edge of bursting out into full blown tears, but only once he had actually cried. It was something that Dante had tried to savour but something in his mind, told him to reject the feeling.
It was his own demonic side fighting his human feelings; he knew his humanistic emotion of sadness was no match for his demonic hate.
Unbelievable hate against the demons that sent Vergil into oblivion, he wanted to kill every one of them. Kill them all.
It was going to be a long and never ending task, to eliminate every single demon walking between the human world and the demon world.
But he knew it was something he just had to do.
His hand still motionless in the air, reaching for an image that wasn't there, started to tingle and the waves of pins and needles started to wash over, in time he found he couldn't move his own fingers.
Even opening his eyes seemed like a painful task, but when they opened, a blue blur was there in front of him, for a second her thought he was still dreaming, he tried hard to focus on the blur, but before it could adjust, the blur disappeared.
The tingling stopped.
His whole body felt light again, no longer held down by gravity, it felt like he was flying.
"What was that just now?" He whispered to himself, finding his mouth was willing to cooperate this time.
Using his strength he managed to sit up, resting his head on his hand, he realized he was alone with his thoughts, no thoughts that gave any kind of happiness, just guilt. Sorrow.
Guilt.
Was there any way to stop these feelings??
Sometimes he just wanted to die, to forget all the memories, and forget the random images that haunted him every night.
Every night having similar dreams of him, but waking up to nothing, absolutely nothing.
The day he died, Dante wished it was him instead.
………………………………………………………………………………………...
The day was cold; the sky was covered by a blanket of grey, the frosty wind danced around its victims. But the young half devil didn't care; his body could easily withstand the icy temperatures that forced humans inside to their heaters.
He continued to walk down the footpath, not caring of the people looking out their windows wondering why a young boy like him would be walking outside on a freezing day like this unsupervised.
Dante knew he was alone, but only today, he truly FELT alone.
Before that day, it was always him and Vergil; they never needed their parents to look after them.
Sparda had disappeared ages ago and Dante's mother disappeared with him.
Dante was only left with the protection of his older twin brother, but that was the way Dante liked it. Vergil was the only other person in the world who he could trust, he wouldn't mind if Vergil never left his side, he didn't care if Vergil constantly played tricks on him, he couldn't have cared any less if Vergil always picked on him for fun.
He did care when Vergil wanted to sleep in another room for once.
He did mind when Vergil brought home a puppy and didn't give Dante any attention.
But being with his other side, made him stronger, he learnt to avoid Vergil's tricks, learnt to share the puppy and he learnt to accept the fact that Vergil couldn't sleep in the same room.
But Dante couldn't accept the fact that Vergil had gone, gone from life, the life that Dante had wanted to share with him.
They had shared everything between them, rooms, food, toys, looks, and life, but now it only felt like half a life…since Vergil had left it.
Dante stopped walking. He saw the playground where he and Vergil had played; it was like their place to go when they didn't have anyone but each other.
It looked so empty and dark, an eerie presence to it, almost as if their spirits never left and they are still playing there, oblivious to any danger at all.
A small smile appeared on his face, it was a forced smile, it took a lot of effort to smile, Dante knew it had been so long since he actually smile, but hearing their laughing souls playing on the swings and merry go round, made him feel remember.
"Go faster!!"
"We're faster than light!!"
"WHOOO!!"
"Wow, Dante, I'm dizzy!"
"FASTER!! Gotta get to the point when we throw up!"
"I think I already have!"
Dante smiled, both of them were so dizzy after that, they both fainted on the ground and were woken up by a stray dog licking their faces.
Vergil wanted to name the dog Thunder and Dante wanted to name the dog Jellybean.
Dante sighed; why the hell had he wanted to name the dog Jellybean?
Thunder was such a cool name, why had he been so stubborn?
He remembered that since neither of them had decided on one, they ended up calling the black stray Labrador Thunder-bean.
He was one good dog, he always met them by the playground and they'd walk him to the beach, and play Frisbee and go swimming with them.
The happy times that Dante knew he could never get back were coming back to him faster than the merry go round could ever go.
It made his eyes water.
He walked over to the slide and saw on the side of it, engraved letters,
"Brothers forever"
At that moment, Dante felt like crying, he remembered Vergil carving that in with a stick that Thunder-bean had wanted to play fetch with.
Vergil's handwriting was always so neat, unlike his own scribbles.
He remembered that he had gone off to get some ice cream and he found that Vergil had carved it in. He thought it was probably one of the nicest things Vergil had ever done for him.
Of course with every good thing, there was a sad thing, a couple days after that Thunder-bean had been run over by a van. He remembered Vergil and him were relaxing on the park seats enjoying possibly the only rays of sunlight for the centaury when they heard the scream of death.
They each came running to find Thunder-bean lying on the side of the road, with his side bleeding litres of blood.
"Oh my god! Dante let's get him to a vet!"
"Where's the nearest vet?"
"I don't know! Quick! He's dying!"
"Do you know any light magic to heal him?"
"NO! Do you?"
"NO!"
"Hang in there Thunder! We're gonna get you help!"
Dante remembered they did everything they could to save Thunder-bean from death, although they knew he was beyond saving, still they tried.
It was devastating when the vet came out and told them the bad news that he hadn't survived; there was too much blood loss.
Dante had cried on Vergil's shoulder, yet Vergil hadn't managed to even shed a tear, that was when Dante even wondered if Vergil cared, but his thoughts were interrupted by Vergil's attempts to calm him down.
It was back by the swings that they recalled the good times they had with that black dog.
"Vergil."
"Yes Dante?"
"I miss him"
"I know, I miss him too."
"Hey, do you think when Daddy comes back; he can bring him back from the dead?"
"Dante…"
"What? Do you think he can or NOT!?"
"Daddy's not coming back…"
"What!? Vergil, how can you say that?"
"He will never come back, why do you think we've been living this way?"
"…I thought he was just away on holiday…"
"Yeah, without us Dante. He's not coming back and there's no way to bring back Thunder-Bean. Okay? You got that? No dad, no Thunder, we've been left here on our own Dante! It's up to us, it's always been up to us, don't you see? We don't need anyone else but ourselves."
For some reason Vergil's words had really struck him hard, it was the moment he knew the truth that Vergil was the only person who he could truly depend on.
"Vergil? Is it just us forever?"
Vergil had turned around and it was the first time he had let actually hug him.
Dante figured that Vergil knew he needed one, for protection and for comfort, being alone with your brother as your only protection must have been scary.
Dante remembered he cried again, cried into his brother, but this time he felt a teardrop fall onto his forehead since Vergil was always a bit taller than he was, Dante was surprised to find that even Vergil could cry.
"Vergil? Are you crying?"
"Devil's don't cry Dante."
"You're wrong Vergil." Dante whispered as he sat down on the swing.
"Even a devil can cry for those he loves"
He started to slowly swing and he flipped the double sided coin for awhile just thinking, thinking about the fact that Vergil and him were never separated until that day.
Each day, they spent in a different place, he had feared going back to the playground, he feared he'd face the haunting memories; he'd miss the sound of Thunder's playful bark and the sound of Vergil's laugh.
Instead, the twins had explored other places around the neighbourhood, like the old church, down the corner from their fave convenience store. It was an abandoned church that no person had dared to go in because of the fact that it was occupied by a ghost.
Vergil had thought it was the silliest thing he had ever heard, of course Dante had no fear of ghosts but the thought of an actual ghost still kind of creeped him out.
"Vergil, we're not going to go in there are we?"
"What's wrong? You afraid Dante? Ghosts don't exist, even if we find one, don't worry, I'll protect you."
Vergil's words had calmed Dante right down, knowing that he had Vergil defending him made him feel so safe.
It was a feeling that he had kept hidden.
"Hey, I don't need your protection okay? I can protect myself okay?"
Vergil had just smiled.
They had both walked in and stayed there for hours and no sign of any ghost, they explored every nook and cranny yet only to find a coupe thousand spiders that Vergil liked to squish with his boots and a few rats that Dante liked to play chase with.
Around 9 at night, when the church was really dark, the devil twins were asleep on the church seats together, when came the sound of a low pitched howl.
It didn't sound any type of dog, or wolf…
Vergil was the first one to wake and explore the church looking for the sound again; he stood up and left Dante snoring slightly, he had a feeling not to drift to far from his little brother, just in case.
He was about to exit the room…
"VERGIL!!"
He ran back to find a demon, running with its long sharp talons across the ground, aiming straight for Dante!
An evil glare appeared on Vergil's face and he summoned a sharp sword out of thin air, the sword Sparda had given him, Yamato was its name.
The demon was almost about to dig its sharp pointy claws straight into Dante's vulnerable body, when it was stopped in its tracks, the sharp sword twisted the demon's insides making it writhe in pain.
"Don't even try to make my little brother a snack, you foul beast"
Dante was just petrified.
The demon stood there, with its life or lack of one flashing before its eyes, before Vergil pulled Yamato out and slashed its body into three different sections.
Each dissolving into the air, each creating the howling sound of a ghost.
Dante's horrified face looked up at Vergil in awe.
"It seems you do need my protection after all."
Dante just blushed.
But Vergil's protection for Dante cost him his life, in his last day, Vergil was more nicer than anyone else Dante had ever known,
Vergil had given him his ice cream when Dante's had fallen off the cone, the wind that day was a bit nippy so Vergil let Dante wear his jacket to keep him warm,
Yet Dante had felt a little bit guilty for not giving Vergil anything back in return.
Vergil didn't seem to care anyway.
The two decided to revisit the playground, just for old time's sake, even though Dante wasn't too sure about the whole thing, but Vergil had insisted on it.
It was twilight when they had arrived there, the shadows had creeped their way onto the cracks in the slide, the merry go round squeaked which made them both be alert for demon activity.
The swings were silent even the two boys decided to have a quick swing on them, Dante always tried to go higher than his brother, even to the point where he managed to do a full flip on the swing even though the swing wasn't designed for that.
He came falling to the ground with a loud thud.
"Dante! Are you okay!?" Vergil came running to his aid, and as Dante sat up, Vergil could see a little river of blood flowing down his face, along with a few pieces of bark jammed in his face.
"Owwie." He whispered.
Vergil smiled, he admired the fact that Dante was becoming stronger every day, if this happened to him a few weeks ago, he'd have the waterworks, but no, this time he had just a small smirk and the glint in his eye.
"That was quite a flip Dante, very impressive."
Dante looked up surprised and he felt proud of himself for impressing Vergil, or maybe he was just saying it to cheer him up?
"Thanks..."
Vergil had ripped off one of his sleeves and used it as a cloth to wipe off the blood trickling down his brother's face.
As he wiped the blood off, he saw Dante's silver hair become pink from the red blood pouring from his head.
"Oh god Dante, you've managed to crack your head open… by the looks of it,"
"That might be why it hurts so much,"
Vergil just smiled and ripped off the other sleeve to wrap it around Dante's head like a bandanna.
"Hopefully, that would stop the bleeding."
Dante just looked up at him, seeing the look that Vergil had occupied in his ice blue eyes, the feeling of the calm before the storm, he was alert all the time, but yet when he looked into Dante's eyes, what did he see?
Did he see an innocent lost puppy, scared for losing the things closest to him in life?
"Vergil? When you look into my eyes, what do you see?"
It seemed that Vergil was taken back by that question,
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, when I look into your eyes, I see a sea, on the edge to break into a brutal storm, so what do you see when you look into my eyes?"
"Dante…when I look into your eyes, I see my brother, the only person who I know will ever truly understand me, Dante, you understand me, and no one else has ever accomplished that. We are brothers Dante and we understand each other, no matter how many times I've been picked on anywhere, you've always been my antidote, my cure, the thing that kept me from dying, committing suicide.
Dante, you ask me to jump, I'll ask how high?
I see Understanding,"
Dante wasn't expecting such a deep answer, but his words were attached to his brain like glue, the tone that Vergil had used, made Dante feel so safe, he felt as if the whole underworld was to unleash its fury at that exact second, he'd have no fear, because he'd have Vergil by his side.
"I love you bro," the words escaped his mouth before he even had a chance to think.
Vergil looked stunned, but then he smiled, a pure smile.
"I love you to Dante."
HanHan