STIGMA 2: Memory
Chapter 6: Ophelia's Descent Part 2
Rookwood Cemetery was one of those places I didn't know existed just off the highway. It had probably never been noted for any major supernatural activity unless one accounted for the typical apparitions and spirits that haunted every cemetery I'd ever been to. But even those were more or less harmless. But it wasn't the lingering spirits that I was concerned with. It was the five or so male vampires that were desecrating an unmarked grave.
"What the hell are they doing?" I whispered to Dante as we hid in the bushes. "I can't see any human corpses here. There's no one being attacked."
"Beats me. Vamps usually go for something fresher than what's going to be in that box they're digging up." He drew Ivory. "Let's go find out."
"Dante, wait." I hissed. "I can't kill them. It would violate the treaty."
"Who said anything about killing them? I was just planning on beating the shit out of them."
"Oh." I paused. "Well in that case," I withdrew Diabolique. "Let's play!"
"Stay close to me. They're a lot faster than you are."
"Got it." I then paused. "Wait, does that mean you let me win the first time we met?"
"Maybe."
"What do you mean MAYBE?"
The vampires stopped and focused their stares on our location.
"Oh shit."
Faster than I could see a hand came at me and grabbed my throat.
"Well this feels familiar." My voice was strained from lack of oxygen.
"Tell me," The vampire who was currently choking me said, "What is a filthy human whore and a devil doing trespassing on vampire ground?"
I was pushed back to the ground. I looked up to the see the vampire hitting a nearby tree.
"How's about you explain what you're doing excavating a corpse?" Dante was rubbing his fist. "Damn that bastard has a face made of concrete! I thought blood suckers liked their food supply a little less dead."
I coughed. My vision wasn't blurring from lack of oxygen which was strange. Even stranger, the colours changed. And I could see every movement Dante and the vamps made. It was as if time had slowed down for everyone else except me.
I watched as Dante raised Ivory. But his movements weren't in one single blur. His arm still blurred but it was if someone had hit the slow motion button and the blur had been played out one frame at a time.
"What the hell?" I muttered. Was the mark affecting me more than I thought possible? Time to test that theory.
I stood and ran to the nearest vamp and punched him.
"Ow! Damn his face is like concrete!"
My vision reverted to normal. The vamp backhanded me and I went sailing backwards into the nearest slab of stone. Dante devil triggered and went to work. One by one each vamp went flying in directions, hitting grave markers.
"One good turn deserves another." Dante proclaimed as he shifted back to his human form. "Now you can either tell us what you were doing here or I can wipe you off the face off the earth right now. It's your choice."
"If you kill us you violate the treaty." One of them hissed. He was of Asian appearance with dark spiky hair."
"What you bastards haven't quite figured out is that I'm not human. The treaty doesn't apply to me."
But you're half human I thought, wincing from the pain in my right shoulder.
Just play along Dante's voice echoed in my head. I stifled a gasp.
"So gentlemen, what'll it be?" Dante stood there waiting patiently; Ivory drawn and ready to fire. I raised Diabolique, even though firing it could potentially cost me my life and Vergil's.
"I sense human blood in you, Devil." A Spanish sounding vampire echoed three metres across from Dante. His black hair was pulled off his face in a braid. "Could you be the legendary son of Sparda who kills his own kind?"
Is there any hell spawn who doesn't know who you are? I thought. But I didn't know if Dante had heard me or not. He didn't answer.
"If so then the treaty does apply to you. We will now take our leave." He motioned for the rest of the vampires to come with him.
"The name's Claudio, son of Sparda. Remember it well. My master will be watching." One of them reached into the crypt and pulled out something. It was too dark to see what it was.
"Well that was a waste of time." I muttered. "Did Trish say who our tip off was."
Dante walked over and offered his hand. "No. But we should check the coffin to see if there's any clues. Come on."
The coffin was empty but there was a strange symbol on the base. It was similar to a cartouche but had a glyphic twist to it.
"What the hell is that?"
"I've never seen anything like it." Dante reached in and traced a hand over it.
I snapped a picture of it with my headset camera and put it away. "I'll need to send this back to HQ."
"It can wait. Let's get back to the office first."
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
Devil May Cry was almost exactly as I had remembered it to be; minus the gaping hole where the land cruiser that had belonged to me and my brother had landed after being thrown around by scare crows.
As I walked in the front door Trish was the first to greet us. "How it go?"
"Interesting." Dante answered.
"No one was being attacked. There were vamps in Rookwood Cemetery digging up a grave that had no body in it. They took something but I don't know what." I took a seat on the couch and booted up my laptop. "Who ordered the job?"
Trish shrugged. "It was a woman, the voice was European. They'd already wired the money to our account. I saw no reason for us to turn it down."
"We found one clue. A symbol in the coffin floor." I connected the headset to the laptop and uploaded the picture. "Trish, do you recognise this symbol in any way?"
Trish took a seat next to me. "Hmmm. From the design alone I can tell that this dates back as far as the Roman Empire. Many of the vampiric warlords used that type of art to create their own symbols of power. Mundus once told me a story of a particular vampire warlord named Krases. Krases once ruled the vampire council alone and he did it with an iron fist." She paused
"Anyone who defied him was put to death without trial. This continued for three hundred years until the other vampire elders united to take him down. That was the first time ever that the vampire elders had ever put their differences aside to defeat a common enemy."
"And then?" I questioned.
"They knew they could never kill him in combat so he was imprisoned for all of time. Where he is buried is unknown to anyone except the current vampire council. Council member Vakos as I understand it was particularly prominent in the rebellion against Krases."
"Vakos." I whispered. "Trish, how well do you know her?"
"Mostly by reputation. But we have met once. She's a very powerful woman."
"No doubt." I transmitted the image to STIGMA with a message that detailed the evening's events. I encrypted the message and sent it by Priority One channel. What happened from there was anybody's guess.
My stomach growled. "Dante, any chance of getting some food?"
"When was the last time you ate?" He walked to his desk and picked up the phone.
My voice was barely a whisper. "Since it happened."
"Are you avoiding food?" Trish asked. I shook my head.
"No. I've just had no appetite. I've been drinking a lot of water though. Do you think it's a result of the mark?"
"More likely you've been in a state of shock."
"Something happened to me at the cemetery, Dante. I could see you and those vampires in slow motion. It was if time had slowed down for everyone else except for me. And I could hear you in my head. What the hell is happening to me?"
"I'm not sure. The only other human who's been marked post ban was my mother and that happened before I was born. If I had to guess I say you've been able to channel some of Vergil's abilities."
"Great. What else should I be expecting? Will I be turning blue and scaly anytime soon?" My hands were shaking as I remembered my dream.
"I don't think so. Dante, get her something to eat before she passes out. I'm surprised you're still conscious."
"Yeah so am I."
"Hey Alex," Dante called. "What do you want on your pizza?"
"Just get a margarita pizza for me, Dante. There's money in my wallet if you want it."
"Got it."
"I'll be upstairs. I need a shower."
When I got upstairs into the guest room I dumped my travel bag on my bed and pulled out a pair of pyjamas. I undressed and went into the adjacent bathroom for a shower.
As I looked into the mirror, I breathed sharply. Bruising had crept up my right shoulder. I turned around to get a better look at the damage. My right shoulder blade was purple, blue and grey.
"Damn. I need to be more careful."
The hot water of my shower helped to relieve some of the pain but it still made me grit my teeth every time I raised my arm. It was a shame I couldn't have channelled some of Vergil's fast healing abilities as well as his speed and telepathy.
After showering I changed into my pyjamas which consisted of long light blue cotton pants and a white singlet. I looked at it again in the mirror and grimaced.
"Why would Vergil want someone like me when he could get someone like Trish?" I muttered.
"Because unlike me, you don't look like his dead mother." Trish's voice came from behind me and it was only then that I made the connection between her haunting beauty and that of the woman in my dreams, Sparda's wife Eva.
"I never noticed before. You do look exactly like Eva."
"You knew her?"
I shook my head. "Only in my dreams. I seem to have absorbed some of Vergil's memories. I know so much about him but very little about my own past. Ain't life a bitch?"
"Dinner's ready. Come downstairs." She left. I tied my hair back and followed her downstairs. Dante was setting the table. There were pizza boxes in the middle and some beers.
"How can you drink that crap?" I asked him.
Dante laughed quietly. "God you sound just like my brother."
My heart skipped a beat thinking of the spiky haired half-breed and I suddenly wished he was beside me.
"Alex, you okay over there?" Dante stood there looking quizzically at me.
I blinked. "Sorry I just zoned out for a second."
"Come on. Let's eat."
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
After dinner Trish and Dante had gone to bed. No more calls for job offers came in that night. I sat in the chair next to my bed looking out the window, unable to sleep. All I could think about was him. And the pain was far worse than the one in my shoulder.
Eventually I moved to my bed and tried to sleep. But after that failed I put my headphones on and switched on some music.
"Mommy, mommy wake up. Please wake up." Lariska was crying. Little Lawrence was curled up in a ball on the front seat of the broken down car they were trapped in.
"Mommy, please wake up." Lariska pushed at her mother. As she pulled her hand away, she screamed. It was covered in blood.
I gasped as I woke up. I was drenched in sweat. I threw the covers off me and ran to the bathroom.
I turned the tap on and washed my face and splashed water on my neck. I stood there for a few moments, head hanging low trying to get the image of a screaming child out of my head. Those images were becoming more vivid every time I dreamed them.
I raised my head to look in the mirror. But instead of my reflection a blue dragon stared back at me. I jumped backwards and nearly screamed.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
It spoke in a harsh tone. "I am what you will become." And then like back in my dreams, it opened it's mouth and swallowed me whole.
As it took me, I screamed.
In the abyss of my mind, I was a prisoner. A thousand people surrounded me but none of them could hear me scream to them.
"None of them can hear you." A child like voice from beside me said. "It's okay, Lariska. I'll protect you."
I looked at the boy next to me. "Vergil? What are you doing in here? It's me Alex?"
"Who is Alex?"
My surroundings changed. I was back in the gym at STIGMA. Vergil had me pinned against the wall.
"All you are is a burden to me." And he closed in for the kill. My last thoughts were of the only person I knew might be able to hear me.
"Micah, help me." I yelled as I disappeared into the darkness. Then I was no more.
Author's note: The next chapter will be a little bit different than the previous ones. You'll see when it gets posted.
Thanks for everyone's comments and reviews. Please keep them coming.
Next chapter: Thicker Than Water.