STIGMA 2: Memory
Chapter 8: This is not a dream.
"If you could go anywhere, where would you wanna go? Somewhere you know really well or somewhere you've never been before?"
Strands of silk embrace me and pull me into the abyss. A voice calls me further and further in.
"If you could go anywhere, where would you go?"
"Who asks?" I dare speak. I can see the visible echoes of my voice reflect on glass walls around me.
"I do." A child's voice replies loudly. Lariska swung on a rope from a tree that appeared out of nowhere. Her curls as always were tied back in pigtails. The ribbons matched her white dress. She jumped down and ran to me. I noticed I now sat in a gazebo overlooking the Sparda home.
"You didn't say your name last time. Are you a stranger here?"
I was a stranger in my own mindscape. I knew this place from the first time I had met the sons of Sparda. Yet it was alien to me. It was as if I had never been there at all.
"I'm still not sure."
"Everyone should know their own name." She took a seat next to me. "Vergil says my name is really pretty." She blushed. Did she care for him?
"It is a very pretty name." I said. She seemed so familiar and so alien all at once. The stirrings of something long buried called to me and a rush of thoughts and feelings hit me all at once.
"Do you know Vergil?" She asked, interrupting my train of thought.
"Yes."
"When I grow up, we're going to get married."
I smiled sadly. So young, so naïve. She would never know what kind of monster he truly was.
"What about Dante?"
Lariska giggled. "He smells funny. I can't marry a boy who smells funny. Vergil always smells nice."
I blushed at the memory of the first time I had been close to him. We were flying through a dusk lit sky to STIGMA. I had breathed in his scent as I fell asleep with him holding me close.
That scent permeated every fibre of my being as the gazebo faded out of view and the darkness took me once more. I stopped fighting my fate and relaxed as my strength left me and a familiar voice called in the black.
"Please don't let me be too late to save you."
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It had been an hour since Vergil had kicked us all out of Alex's room. I was sitting downstairs with Dante and Trish with a mug of black coffee in my hands. I had never been able to stomach milk in my coffee. It seemed like it diluted the purity of the taste. I sipped it slowly and looked out the window. It was still dark outside. Snow was starting to fall.
"How much longer do you think he'll be?" I asked nobody in particular. Dante only shrugged and said nothing.
"He has to be careful." Trish said quietly. "Any wrong move will destroy her mind completely. She would shut down and cease to exist."
"You seem to know a lot about this." I replied wryly.
"There aren't many cases of devils mating with humans. Tragedy has befallen many of those families because the minds of the mated human would collapse under the pressure of the mark. Your sister is a fighter but she's only human."
"Why would Vergil have done this to her?" I demanded. "If there was that amount of risk surrounding this then what was his reason?"
"If the ritual is successful then she'll become even stronger." Dante replied. "She's been able to borrow some of his abilities. If she survives she has the potential to become nearly unstoppable."
I heard a door open and footsteps come from upstairs. "Adrian, she's waking up."
I put the coffee down and dashed upstairs. Sure enough she was opening her eyes. I sighed with relief and sat at her side.
"Adrian," She sat up and clung to me. "Adrian, I was so scared. I thought I would never see you again. I was so lost." She buried her head in my chest. I stroked her head.
"I will never let anything happen to you ever again." I looked over to Vergil. But I was shocked at what I saw. An expression of guilt and sorrow adorned that usually emotionless face.
"Alex," Trish had a glass of a purple concoction. "This will help you sleep."
"No." She was crying. "I don't want to sleep. I'll just have nightmares like I always do."
"It's an old recipe for dreamless sleep." Trish pressed it into her hands. "You won't be seeing anything for a good eight hours."
Alex gingerly drank it down. She was out a few seconds later. I took the glass and lay her down on the pillow then pulled the covers up over her shoulders. Trish and Dante left the room. Vergil turned to leave. I shook my head and took pity on him.
"Hey did you want to stay with her?" I offered. "I need to get some sleep myself and someone should probably keep watch.
He walked back to her side and sat on one side of the bed. "I'll watch over her.. No harm will come to her while she rests.
I nodded. "Good. I'll be downstairs on the couch if you need me."
With that that I shut the door behind me. Then it opened again.
"Can we talk?"
"Sure."
Vergil followed me downstairs. I sat down. He didn't.
"I know that she will never forgive me what I have done to her. But you need to understand that it needed to be done. I will face her mistrust, her suspicions and her anger willingly if I know I can protect her."
I frowned. "What the hell are you talking about? I thought she was bound to you and that she would live as long you did."
"And I live as long as she does. You may want to get comfortable. This will take a long time."
"What will take a long time?"
"The truth?"
"About what?"
"About everything."
Author's note: That piece of weird dialogue at the start is actually from a song by Apollo Four Forty & Morphine which shares the same name as this chapter. Very inspiring piece of music.
Thanks for everyone's comments. Keep them coming.
Next Chapter: Breaking The Shell.