An annoyingly bright ray of light forces its way into the dark and dingy room Mona is sleeping in. Her eyes force themselves open and the unforgiving light burns them harshly before she allows them to slowly look around the room, taking in her surroundings. The room is dark and messy, books and magazines are stacked haphazardly around the area. An inch of dust seems to cover everything, and cobwebs dangle down from the ceiling. The sound of her wheezing fills her ears and other than that, the room is silent. Weakly, Mona tries to sit up: that's when she notices the immense pains all throughout her body. Her head feels like it was hit by a semi, her ribs feel broken and bruised, and her throat tastes of blood and is extremely raw, even her hair hurts.
"You should be sleeping," a man says quietly as he crosses the room to decapitate the ray of light.
Mona jumps and whimpers. She tries to ask him who he is, to move away, but nothing seems to want to work for her.
"You overworked your vocal cords. I heard you screaming six blocks away. I'm shocked the cops weren't called." He pulls a chair up to the side of the bed and sits backward on it. "I'm Dante, your savior. No need to thank me, all part of the job description." He smiles perfect teeth at her. "Saving pretty dames that is. I hope you don't mind I took a look through the bag I found with you. Your name is Mona?" She nods and he continues. "I also took twenty bucks to buy a pizza. That's payment enough for saving you. Trish is bringing you things from your apartment."
The younger woman surveys him openly, only slightly annoyed at him rifling through her things. She's never seen a man with silver hair or eyes quite that blue before. He catches her gaze and smirks when she blushes. One could hardly blame her. Dante is an exceptionally attractive man: strong jaw, gorgeous cheekbones, sexy stubble, not to mention the bedroom eyes currently making love to her.
"I know. I'm irresistible, but try to focus. You won't be going back to your apartment for a while," he explains slowly.
She gives him a 'no shit' face and winces.
He chuckles. "You won't be making faces without pain for a while. You won't be moving much for a while either." Dante reaches beside himself and picks up two pills from the nightstand. "Here. Take these. They're vicoden. I would give you Tylenol, but you need something stronger."
Without question, she takes the pills from him and puts them in her mouth. She takes a glass from his outstretched and swallows. Her throat feels tight when she swallows and all she can taste is blood.
"You should stay in bed for a while. You went through a lot." He takes the glass from her and deposits it back on the stand. "Honestly, I'm surprised you–" Dante trails off when he sees she's sunk back down into the pillows, her eyes closed in a peaceful sleep. He smiles, pulls the blankets up around her shoulders, and takes a seat on the unfortunate chair again.
Mona is slammed harshly against the wall of a dark cave. She turns her head sharply to the side, heck straining from the extension of it. A woman with pitch-black skin leans in close to her, their lips almost touching. Her breath feels scalding against Mona's soft skin. Oddly, despite her expectations, it smells sweet: lilacs, chocolate, mint, boiling sugar, and caramel.
"You stupid little worm. Do you really think that he can keep you from me?" Her eerie laugh echoes throughout the empty space around them. "Please. He's not even a pawn in this chess game I've started. You have no one to protect you." She wraps long fingers around Mona's neck. "I will squash Dante like a bug. Under. My. Heel." Each word is accentuated by her tightening the grip she has on Mona's throat.
She turns Mona's head back so she's forced to look at her: eyes completely white settled close to cheekbones that jut out sharply. They looked like they could cut Mona if she tried to touch them. Her lips are thin so chapped they're covered with deep cracks. Her long nails dig into the side of Mona's neck. She screams as blood splatters her face.
"Mona! Mona, wake up!"
Hazel eyes jerk open. She's screaming loudly into a dark bedroom that isn't her own. Dante is leaning over her, his hands cupping the sides of her face. Her hands clutch at his wrists, letting her nails dig into his skin. Her ribs burn with every breath she takes in and exhales.
"Jesus, baby, you're going to get the cops called on us." He strokes her cheek with his right hand and brushes her hair back out of her face. "It was just a dream. No one would try and hurt you here. They'd have to be an idiot."
Mona swallows and keeps her grip on his wrists. "She–she said," the words are hoarse when they come out of her throat.
The white man above her narrows his eyes in concentration. "Who said?" When Mona tries and fails to speak he continues. "Sweets it was a dream. Nothing more than a dream. Try and calm down, okay?"
"What did you do to her?" Another man asks as he walks into the room.
He has the same silver hair as Dante, the same eye color as well only brighter. He looks to be a little shorter than Dante, not as broad in the shoulders. The longer Mona looks at him, the blurrier her vision gets. Slowly and sleepily her eyes travel down his body, taking him in. She pauses at his right arm, knowing something is off, but not what.
"I did nothing to her. She had a nightmare and woke up screaming." He brushed more hair out of her face. "It's really not that strange since some demonic little shit tried to kill her. I think a freak out is expected."
The boy sees Mona looking at him with confusion. "My name is Nero. I'm an acquaintance of Dante's."
"Mona," she whispers hoarsely.
Nero grimaces.
Dante whistles and leaves back from her. "Damn, baby. You sound like a sixty-year-old woman who's been smoking all her life. Hold on and I'll go get something for it." He stands up out of his seat and waltzes past Nero, closing the door softly behind him.
After a few moments, Nero sits down in the chair Dante was just occupying. His gaze is sympathetic. He sits there quietly for a few moments, letting Mona look at him before he finally speaks to her.
"Trish got back with your things… I can bring them to you if you wish."
Mona nods her head and winces. "How long have I been out?" The pain accompanying speaking is enough to make her want to vomit.
"Three days. Wait," he interrupts, "don't talk again." He gets up from his seat and walks over to an end table in the corner. He picks up a yellow legal pad and an old pen that may or may not work. "Use this."
Mona takes the pad and rests it against the splint on her left arm. What exactly happened? And who put the cast on me? Have I been to a hospital?
Nero reads the sentence aloud and scratches the back of his head. Finally, he tries to explain what happened. "You were attacked, but I think you knew that. Basically, you pulled a stupid move, didn't listen to your instincts, and nearly got yourself made into a demonic vessel. As for the hospital, no. Dante had an old client that's a doctor who owed him a favor. Snuck you into his small practice and cleaned you up."
She stares at him blankly in shock. He has to be crazy. And yet, if he is, that surely means that she is too. Mona can't deny what she saw, what happened to her. Especially not when she stares down at her hand and blanches at the bloody bandages on her arms. She can feel Nero watching her face carefully, trying to see how she's going to process it. It could all have been a hallucination. Maybe Dante had orchestrated all of it. He could have grabbed her outside the studio and given her something. She swallows hard and looks back to Nero.
"You're not going to deny all this happened, or go insane, are you?"
He waits patiently as she writes out her response.
No? I'm just– I honestly didn't think those things were real. I just thought that they were something the religious nuts made up to get you to go to church like a good little believer. I'm not really sure if I'm an atheist anymore.
"I get it. Has to be a bit… much for you. I assume Dante has told you that you'll be here until we can figure out why it wanted you specifically."
Mona holds up her pad of paper, interrupting his explanation.
I had a dream about her.
"Her? Her who?" There's a confused look on his face as he reads her script.
The, she hesitates to write the word, Demon. I guess you could call her that. Dante did. In the first dream, she told me that Dante couldn't stop her. She said she would squash him like a bug. The second dream I had of her, she told me her name was Matrem. She also said that no one could keep me from her. I know you're not supposed to be able to feel pain in your dreams. I did. When she was hurting me, I felt it. I could FEEL her in my head.
Nero frowns and narrows his eyes when he finishes reading. Before he can open his mouth to ask more questions, to confirm his fear, Dante walks in the room. The younger man stands, grabs a smiling Dante by the collar, and drags him out of the room. The door slams quietly behind them. In the dingy hall he pushes Dante slightly away from him.
"Why did you save her?" Nero doesn't bother to keep his voice down.
"Uh," Dante straightens his jacket, "why wouldn't I have? I saved her so Susie Sunshine wouldn't redecorate the place with her blood. Seemed like a pretty solid idea. What's your damage?" He crosses his arms and leans against the wall opposite the pain in his ass.
"She's dreaming about her, old man," Nero spits out. "The 'Matrem' demon has a connection with her now. And where exactly do you think this girl is going to lead her, Dante?" He waits a few moments and when Dante doesn't make a move to say anything, he speaks. "Here."
Dante smiles brightly and stands back up away from the wall. "I hate having to go looking for trouble. It's so much easier when it's delivered." He sighed and rolled his eyes when Nero glared harder. "Calm your tits: the bitch isn't coming back. I killed demonic Shirley Temple, remember?" Dante pats Nero's shoulder and heads back towards Nero's room.
"It knows your name, Dante." Nero looks sideways at Dante, hoping the information will shock him into some kind of action or preventative measures.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that," Dante says as he shuts Mona's door behind him.
"You knew?" Nero yelled loudly as he turned to face the door.