Heavensblackcat: This chapter was inspired by Flyleaf's Arise. So happy reading and please review!
Chapter Four: Arise
Tell the swine
We will make it out alive
There's a note in the pages of a book
So sleep tonight
We'll sleep dreamlessly this time
When we Awake we'll know that everything's alright
Dante had to admit, the kid had some good information, even though it came at a price.
And that price was waking up at two in the God damned morning, listening to her drone on and on about useless facts, and making a mess of his office.
Sitting on his desk, left leg limply hanging off the edge and right knee bent the studs on her shoe lightly touching the edge of his telephone. She had made herself at home. Red glasses sat on her nose, a bright blue eye absorbing the information that she had gathered. Blonde hair covered her face.
"As I was saying, Mr. Dante, it would be better to look into Aria's former residence. She's probably at the place she feels that her son will come back to her." Her eye never left the paper.
"Hey kid, its Dante. Cut the formality crap." He lounged on his chair, his boots barely touching the girl's thigh.
"Of course, my apologies Mr. Dante," She sighed and turned the page.
Dante raised a sliver eyebrow. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to listen to your elders?" The girl stiffened.
"I don't have parents, so I had no one to teach me." She replied slowly, eyes trailing down the page.
Dante sighed. Well shit, that was bad. He should have known not to bring up parents. "Look Kid, I'm sorry…" He really didn't want to deal with a crying girl. He was never good with crying girls.
"It's fine." She said too quickly. "Besides you didn't know. We've just met a few days ago." She turned around and forced a smile at him.
Dante knew this was all he was getting out of her. "Of course," he smiled cheekily at her.
She raised an eyebrow. In the light it looked almost white. Dante shook his head. It was only his imagination. "Anyway, Mr. Dante, I suggest we get back to work."
"It's Dante."
"Of course, Mr. Dante."
The slayer could already tell it was the start of a beautiful partnership.
Late morning Nero had dozed off on the couch, belly was full of food and no work today. Kyrie had gone out for something or other and would be back later. There was nothing to do till then.
Unbidden, he laid his head down on the couch and slowly his eyes began to close, and he was sleeping. Arms tucked tightly against his toned chest. Peacefully, his chest rose up and down as his breath evened out.
The mansion was the same one as his dream.
Nero was sure of it, but it was different somehow.
It seemed that a malicious type of darkness clung to the corners and reached out to kill the light with weak tendrils.
Nero stepped forward into the foyer. It was lavishly decorated, rich reds, blues, and purples. The whole place vaguely reminded him of Fortuna Castle, only smaller.
Shivering at the coldness, he took more steps forward.
"Brother!"
Senses on full alert, the slayer glanced around. Nothing, there was nothing. Nothing around,
"Big brother!" A transparent shade ran out into the front room. It was a size of a small child and its voice was high and slightly feminine.
Nero watched as the shade ran around looking for its brother. It didn't seem to notice him. Instead it yelled and looked everywhere.
"Shush Child!" Nero could clearly see the woman at the bottom of the stairs, hands on her hips, and wearing a beautiful dress that clung to her body.
She stepped off the stairs and crossed the room where the child stood frozen in place. "Stop making so much noise. Big brother," She seemed to be mocking the child as she spoke, "is studying."
The child nodded her head. "Ye-yes Mother." Her eyes stayed glued to the ground, never looking into the woman's eyes.
She scoffed. "Filthy child, I'm not your mother. Don't you dare call me mother again!" She shrank so she was eye to eye with her. Her voice was so low that Nero strained to hear her. A ghostly pale hand dug its hand into the girl's hair and pulled.
"Aria, what are you doing?" A shadow of a man stood on the staircase, next to him was another featureless child shade, and another woman.
Aria patted the girl's head. Her hand gentle and caring, "Lea was wondering where everybody was. Shush no need to cry, dear. Mama's here." Her voice was slick and sweet like honey.
Lea looked at the woman to the man. It seemed that she tried to convey something to him, but after a while she nodded and her small hand reached out and clung to the woman's dress. "Yes, Papa, Mama's right."
The man turned and walked up the stairs, the child and the woman following him, the woman almost reluctantly and regretfully. But after a few seconds she left, leaving Aria alone with Lea. Nero shivered as the scene faded and he was suddenly in the white room he was once in with Noel.
It was cold. Hair rose on the back of Kyrie's neck and arms. She shivered as the wind picked up. On the very edge of her conscious, she felt that something was…off.
Her pulse beat uncomfortably, and she began to quicken her pace.
I shouldn't have come here. The thought bounced repeatedly around in her head.
But she couldn't resist.
She heard Nero talking in his sleep. He spoke something about Noel. Kyrie naturally assumed it was about the old grave overlooking the ocean. Maybe the answers to his nightmares could be the mystery that was Miss Noel.
The maid whom committed suicide, and because of not wanting to be bothered by such trivial means the Lady of the house paid for a quick funeral. So quick that she didn't even allow Sanctus to say a prayer for the maid. The young Kyrie had overheard from Credo that the priest was angered that the woman had dared defied the Savior's Word, and the chance to try and save this poor woman's soul from Hell.
Since all life was valuable and precious. Suicide was the coward's way out and a terrible sin.
It wasn't surprising at all when rumors started about the grave being haunted the woman's spirit.
Horrible rumors that spoke of a woman wearing a white dress, crying blood and convincing pure young men and women to join her fate. They ran so rampant that even the adults had believed in the stories.
But Credo had never taken any truth in the rumors. In fact, Kyrie remembered quite a few times where she would find him voicing his thoughts out loud to the marble grave.
At first she thought him mad. What happens if the spirit decides to come out and kill him?
Then she asked him why he visited the grave.
Kyrie remembers that he had smiled at her and put his warm hand on her head, and said, "Don't worry, I'm just keeping an old soul company."
She never got what he meant by that.
Shaking her head, she noticed the hunched over figure. Dirty white hair hung limply around his face. A torn navy traveling cloak hung limply over his gaunt body. The man swayed back and forth in an unseen breeze. Kyrie blinked. "Excuse me sir, but are you okay?" The old man turned around. The singer had to hold back a gasped of shock.
"Dante?" She asked of her own accorded.
The man's hollow blue eyes stared into her hazel, his lips twitched slightly into a smirk. "It seems you've mistaken me for somebody else."
Kyrie shivered at the look in his eyes, she didn't like where this was going to go one bit.
The plants in the room were beginning to wilt, and a kind of darkness echoed throughout. Nero felt naked and exposed as a shadow took shape into a deformed woman.
Framed by long silky auburn tresses, was a face covered with a patchwork of thin white scars. All of them looked like they were once deep cuts. Her shoulders were slumped and her spine curved gently upwards. Her hands were covered with calluses, some were scabbed over and yellow, others were bleeding and infected. At the end of her long bleeding yet elegant fingers, were longed hooked claws. Her hair was a long lackluster auburn. Her legs were knobby and twitched with effort to stay standing. Swollen ankles and feet helped little.
She smiled at him, and Nero noticed that her hazel eyes glittered beautifully in happiness. "My precious Nero," Her voice was a rich soprano, and rang with aristocrat grace.
It caught the demon slayer off guard. He never seen such a scary and off balanced person…thing…monster? He wasn't really sure what to call her…it.
Swallowing, Nero gained his a fragment of his courage. "Who are you?"
Cracked and peeling lips frowned. "Don't you remember Nero? Don't you remember me?" A deep sense of unease sunk into him. The voice he could place someplace in the past, but otherwise he had nothing.
The teen shook his head. The frown grew deeper and those beautifully out of place eyes blazed. "I see, no wonder the connections hadn't been working." She muttered. "I know they wouldn't with her, but I thought with Nero…" She trailed off then noticing he was there, she tried to straighten her curved back. "Don't worry." She walked closer, almost predatory, but despite her swollen feet and wobbly legs, she had the grace of a lady.
Nero stood frozen, in what either could be called a trance or fear. The woman stood in front of him now. Her clawed hand lay on his cheek. Infected blood dripped slowly down his check, tickling it. "I'll be home soon Nero."
And in a bout to childish glee she spun around in small circle and into the shadows, "Then we can be a family again."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Dante." Lea smirked as an annoyed look crossed his face.
The exhausted demon slayer glared playfully at the kid. "Yeah, yeah, just get the hell out of my office." He spoke closing his eyes for a well-deserved nap.
The door shut thudded gently shut.
Silence, how he enjoyed of what little of it he had. And after a hard day's work. Dante deserved it. Breathing deeply, he was just on the edge of sleep.
When that damned door burst open.
"Dante! What are you doing still sleeping? It's almost noon." The annoying childish voice that was Patty echoed within his eardrums.
Dante pretended to be asleep. Maybe if he stayed like this long enough she'd go away.
"Dante! This place is a mess again! How come every time I come here it's a total pigsty?" Dante popped an eye open and saw her hands on her hips. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the gloomy atmosphere of the office. The pastel green dress seemed to give off its on light.
"Shouldn't you be home?" Dante picked up a folder on his desk that was forgotten by Lea.
"Well I can't exactly leave this place like it is. What would the customers think?" Dante ignored her in favor of scanning the contents of the folder.
The file was obviously her personal notes. Each page was painstakingly labeled and numbered. Sub-categories were written in orange pen. The curved letters were printed across the page for easier reading.
"Dante, listening to me?"
"Nope," His eyes skimmed the page, trying to pick out key phrases or words.
Flipping the page, several pictures were haphazardly clipped along the top and bottom of the page. Words were scrawled along the white edges. One caught his eye. Well, he thought, this could get interesting.
Six flights, down the hall, and the last door on the left. The teen slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open. The door gave way into her dusty apartment.
Lea threw her keys on the table. They made a loud clack as they landed on a few forgotten plates. A few steps in she noticed the answering machine blinking.
Sighing, she pressed the red number.
First message sent today at 8:55 A.M.
"Lea this is Ms. Johnson, about your academic-"
Message deleted.
Next message sent today at 9:15 A.M.
"Hey Lea, I know you're not home, but if you could call me back before you-"
Message deleted.
Next message sent today at 10:47 A.M.
"Lea, this is Sam call me back. I have some important-"
Message deleted.
Next message sent today at 12:50 P.M.
"Hey kid, it's Dante. You left a file at the shop, and judging from what I'm reading there's something you've haven't told me. Call me back, bye."
Message deleted.
Heavensblackcat: As always please review!