Devil May Cry - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Attack of the Demon Dinosaur ❯ Things that go Bump in the Night ( Chapter 3 )

Things that go Bump in the Night

Vergil's eyes shot open to a faint `thump' sound. “Mm?” He sat up on his bed and rubbed at his eyes. “Dante?” he called out, “that you?” He blinked a few times, a little surprised that his eyes had to get used to the darkness. He'd expected it to be morning already.

Thump!

Vergil woke up fully with a start. What was that noise? He looked to his left at the bed next to his, and found a person-sized lump laying there, covered from head to toe in the bed sheets. “Dante?” Vergil repeated. No response. Vergil reached out to his brother's bed and shook him a little. “Not awake, are you?”

Thump!

Vergil looked around again. No, seriously, he thought, that noise needs to stop. He kicked his feet off the bed, and stood up. But as he got to his feet, he was suddenly stricken with a wave of nausea. His vision was swimming and he felt dizzy. So hard to keep balance! Uneasy, he tried to right himself by leaning on the headboard. “What… What was that?” Vergil mumbled under his breath.

Thump!

Not trusting himself enough to let go, he reached again for Dante and shook him again. “Come on, wake up, there's no way you could be sleeping through this...” Still no response. Vergil felt another wave, but not of nausea. His face flushed with anger. “Dante, seriously!” He grabbed the covers and yanked them away.

The sight before him made his stomach heave. He held his breath.

Dante lay there, staring at the ceiling. Rigid as a board, arms to his sides, his skin was a pale green and his fingers were twisted as if he was clutching at something that wasn't there. He looked dead of fright. His mouth was open in a scream, and his eyes were glazed over, like a dead man.

Like he had been dead for hours.

Vergil didn't believe his own eyes. “Wha—Dante—what—?“ he stammered. He stared at the corpse before him. How could he have slept through his brother dying right next to him!? “This—this doesn't make any sense!” he cried, and ran towards the door. He nearly ran into the door, he was so panicked, but he made it. He slammed the door open and stepped out into the hall.

Once again, the nausea crept up, making Vergil's stomach do a flip and the hallway start to spin. He steadied himself on the wall. He shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. He looked down the hallway. “M-Mom…? Mother…?” he called out. Holding onto the wall like his life depended on it—which wasn't far off, because his balance certainly did—he made his way farther down, to his mother's room. The door was open. Vergil held in his breath again, leaning over slightly to peer in rather than just going ahead. “Mom?” he called out, wanting to make sure.

“Yes? What's wrong, dear?” Eva was standing in front of her full-length mirror, her back turned to him. “Did something happen?”

Vergil gulped. “Mother, Dante's—“ Dante is dead and I slept right through it and I need your help because I don't know what's going on! “…There's… there's something wrong… with Dante,” he said shakily.

“Oh? Is he sick?” Eva was brushing her hair absentmindedly.

“No, he's—“ No, he's dead and I can't figure out how! Help me! “…Yeah, he's sick. Maybe you could… help?”

“Oh…. I'm so sorry, dear…”

Vergil blinked. “Sorry? Mom, what's going on?”

“I'm so sorry…” Eva repeated. Then she bowed her head, and her shoulders were shaking. “I'm sorry, Vergil… I'm so sorry…” she dropped her brush and covered her face in her hands, sobbing.

Vergil's heart skipped a beat. “Mom— what happened!?” he cried. No way… “Dante's— He's—“

“Dante is dead, Vergil!” Eva cut him off. “He's dead and gone… just like you'll be…” she intoned in a low voice.

Vergil's breath caught in his throat. It's like he woke up to a horror movie, a horrible nightmare he couldn't wake from when he realized it. “Mother…” he whispered, and the thought flashed through his mind that he had to run away, run away far and fast before he became the next victim—but what happened next completely caught him off guard.

Eva turned around to face him, and he nearly screamed at the sight. Whatever bit of skin she had left was tinged a sickening pale green, and her pure-white nightgown was stained red with blood. Her face was twisted into an expression of excruciating pain, and her eyes were rolled back into her sockets.

Blood spewed out of her mouth, further staining the once-lovely gown. “Just like… you'll be…” The thing that used to be Eva repeated, and slowly took a step towards Vergil. The voice in his head screamed at him to run, and he had no trouble following that order. He bolted down the hall, but then— Vergil swore loudly. Where the end of the hallway was supposed to be was just shrouded in ink-black darkness. He could hardly see two feet into the stuff.

How was he supposed to run away if there was no place to go!?

Damnit! He thought. There's no place to go to, I can't get out!

To make things worse, the darkness had a corporeal form, apparently. Its tendrils crept along the walls, covering more of the hallway than Vergil would have liked. He took a step back, then two steps. Knowing that he was more-likely-than-not going to back right into the animated cadaver of his mother, maybe even his brother if fate had it in for him, he turned around to see if either of the two were there. They were present, but lying on the floor, neither one moving, identical looks of “Oh-My-God-I'm-Dead” on their faces.

But something else farther down that end of the hallway caught his eye. Something he couldn't see was shifting around. He squinted his eyes to focus his sight on whatever it was. The unknown creature came out into the light—or at least, what could count as light in the abysmal near-darkness of Vergil's piece of the hall.

It was purple, fuzzy, green-bellied and yellow-toed, a total mockery of a Tyrannosaurus-Rex…

Vergil gave an `OMG-WTF!' gasp.

It was Barney.

And if at any point up until now, you were reading this and wondered if I updated this story with the wrong chapter off something else I might have been working on, shame on you.

No, really, shame on you.

Seriously, though, back to the story.

Vergil gave an `OMG-WTF!' gasp. “YOU!” he pointed at the dinosaur. “You did this! You—“ Vergil stopped, and blanked out for a moment. “Er… what did you do?” he asked, scratching the side of his face.

Barney just looked nonplussed. Never in anyone's wildest dreams did he think a victim who `knew too much' would ask him, `What did you do?'

“I… uh… ate their souls?”

Vergil stared on.

Barney stared back. “Don't tell me I got the wrong one…”

Then Vergil screamed. Like he'd JUST remembered what was going on.

“Aaaaahhhh!! That's right! You—you ate their souls, that's why—“ he paused to stifle a sob, “that's why they're like that…”

“Yes, it's true! I took their souls, and YOU'RE next! Mwahahaha!!” the dinosaur threw its head back and went into a bout of maniacal laughter, and he laughed that way for a couple of minutes when he noticed something was off. He looked around and noticed Vergil was nowhere to be found. “Oh, what the crap!”

Vergil was trying to make his way through the darkness that a few moments ago was blotting out his means of escape from the hall. If he just remembered what the rest of his place looked like—his foot snagged on something and he found himself losing his footing. He toppled over forwards and landed on his face. “Oww…” he got up and dusted himself off, turning around to look at the space he'd left. Yup, giant void of darkness, tentacles lashing out at him… and here he was, standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the common room. “Wow, it's not as bad as I thought.”

“Oh no, human, it's MUCH WORSE!!”

“Oh shit!” Vergil jumped up, startled. For a moment he forgot he was supposed to be on the run from a monster, and not dilly-dallying about some weird and very pointless infestation on the top floor. He practically dove down the flight of steps and landed perfectly at the bottom. His eyes darted around. He needed to find a weapon, fast. He made a mad dash for the kitchen and once there, opened the drawers. What to do, what to do…

“Mwahahahahahaha!!” Barney lumbered slowly towards Vergil— but he stopped, noticing his victim wasn't going to take flight anymore. “What's wrong? Too scared to move?” he growled menacingly. How pleasing, to know that his victim realized it was hopeless to escape.

“Actually,” Vergil said calmly, to Barney's surprise, “I'm not the one who should be running.”

One could swear a question mark showed up on Barney's head. “??”

Vergil turned around, and he had an evil smirk on his face. In his hand, he held a butcher knife with steady grip. He was neither shaking nor scared. “Today's the day that you DIE!” he declared, and charged at the hapless evil dinosaur. He slammed the knife into Barney's gut, wrenched it in then out, the dinosaur doll's cotton spewing out like blood. Vergil repeated the motion with even greater ferocity, stabbing every part of the demon like his life depended on it. “This is for mom—and Dante—and for RUINING MY LIFE!! DIE, YOU BLASTED PURPLE DINOSAUR FROM HELL!!” he screamed, slashing and stabbing away until the demon was just a pile of cotton remains and other things.

He stopped then, gasping a breath, knife still in hand. There was little left. He looked at the pile, saddened. Is that what it took to take down a monster? The souls of his brother and mother? He held back a sob. Letting the knife fall and clatter to the floor, he made his way back to the foot of the stairs. He looked to the top sadly, the dark whatever-it-was-with-tentacles making its way down the stairs. There was really nothing to be scared of, he'd made it past that on what was the worst moment in his life. But in order not to scare off the visitors for the coming morning, he supposed he'd have to call an exorcist or the like to get rid of it.

Just as he was going to take a step—

“Don't think you have gotten rid of me that easily!”

Vergil stopped right in his tracks. His face paled. No friggin' way… “You should be dead,” he said aloud. There was no way that thing was still alive for another round. He turned around to find Barney reforming himself out of the pieces that were left behind.

Vergil grimaced. What did it take to kill this thing!? Only one more thing, maybe just one more—he sprinted back up the steps and through the darkness, the dead bodies were gone now—he kicked down the door to the only other room that could help him.

The weapons room.

Usually the door was locked, but for some reason, as if fate knew of his plight against the demon dinosaur, it had been easy to break through. Quickly, he snatched up a western-style shotgun from the wall opposite him and pointed it back at the open space leading to the hallway. I'll just wait, and when he shows up he'll NEVER know what hit him! Vergil thought, knowing that the weapons stored in the room were specifically for taking out creatures like Barney.

He waited. Anytime now… there it was!

Vergil pulled the trigger and blasted the purple dinosaur's head clean off. “Haha!! Mess with me now!!” he circled the decapitated dinosaur, shooting its legs out from under it, then its arms. Through its gut, and a few more times at what was left. But then there was nothing left to shoot, so he ceased fire, and took the time to examine the shotgun. Sweet… I could use this later on if I wanted to… he thought to himself with a smirk. He wanted to laugh, then, even in knowing he was the only one left of the family—it caused him a great deal of relief in being the one to avenge his twin and mother. He wanted to laugh, then.

“Haha… ahahahahaha!!”

Vergil's blood ran cold in his veins. Of course he'd wanted to laugh, but… that wasn't him. He wasn't the one laughing right then. He looked at the pile of practically nothing on the floor before him. How was it possible!? Even after being stabbed and shot, it was still—

“What is the matter? Your weapons are no match for me, HUMAN!!”

Vergil gasped, and stumbled backwards. Barney reformed himself yet again. The mechanics of it were mind-boggling, how something appeared from nothing the way he did! Vergil stared on, speechless. Stabbing didn't work, shooting it didn't work, and the swords—he turned to look at them and found empty space. Where were they? Something, something, anything—his eyes darted back and forth. Where were the rest of the weapons!? Fate was having a good laugh with the others somewhere up above, jeering at Vergil's misfortune. The gods had smiled down on him, only given him that once chance, that illusion of victory, simply for their own vain amusement.

Vergil was grabbed a hold of by the wrists. It would be over soon, he knew it now, there would be no more fighting, no more escape—he shut his eyes, and even against his will, he screamed.

And woke himself up.

He sat upright on his bed with a start, waking up in a cold sweat, panting and gasping for air. His hands shot up to his face, wiping away the rivulets of tears that were going down. He then looked himself over. No wounds? No injuries? No forceful removal of his soul? He instinctively looked at Dante's bed next to his, and it was empty. Vergil's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Oh God, no, Dante— he got up from his bed, ran right out of the room—

And crashed right into his brother, who'd just came back on a trip to the bathroom.

Dante fell over and landed on his bottom. “Geez, Vergil, one minute I hear you screaming your head off, and the next—watch where you're going next time!” he grumbled.

Vergil just stared at him. “You're… alive.”

Dante looked up from his makeshift seat. “I was dead? Since when?”

“Since—“ Since I had that weird dream that you and mom were dead and Barney showed up and I stabbed him and shot him and nothing worked and I was gonna die! “….Oh, never mind. I.. I just had this weird dream…”

“You had a dream where I died.” Dante made it sound like more of a statement than a question.

“…Uh huh.”

“I just gotta ask, but I'm afraid of the answer here… was it Barney?”

Vergil bit his lip. He didn't want to necessarily admit that nightmares of a purple dinosaur were plaguing him at night, but then again… “Yes, it was?” It sounded like more of a question than a statement.

Dante just nodded half-heartedly.

“What, you don't believe me?”

“No, I think… maybe you should go sleep with Mom or something.”

Now that was adding an insult to injury to Vergil's pride. “There's no way,” he hissed, “that I'll go sleep in her room over that… it wasn't a big deal at all! I can handle myself just fine!” Part of that was a lie.

Dante got up from the floor and made it a habit to brush himself off. “Not a big deal huh? Then you wouldn'ta made a fuss about it a minute ago.” He craned his neck back, adding, “I really think you need help.”

Vergil gave Dante a look like he'd just called their mother a skank. “Help— help—is that what you think?” he sputtered. “That I'm some—some nutjob who needs to get sent to the crazy home?”

Dante turned his head away, and his reply was rather nonchalant. “Not what I said, but hey, if you think so, then…”

Vergil gritted his teeth in order to express his frustration in a non-violent manner. “Maybe... you should… go back to sleep now…” he said in a low voice.

Dante looked back at him and noticed the look he had on his face. “What, you're not coming?”

“No, I think I'd rather stay right here.”

Dante shrugged, “Right, okay.” He slipped right past Vergil and into their room, closing the door on his way in.

Vergil stood by himself in the empty hallway, trying to fight back more tears. What I need… isn't help… what I need is power… he held his right hand in front of him, and clenched it into a fist, swearing upon Sparda that he would attain power, no matter what the cost, to protect his family from Barney.

Dante reached a hand under his bed and grabbed the Barney plushie, yanking it out from its `hiding place'. He held it close and whispered almost to himself, “Poor Vergil, he thinks you're alive or something, that you're gonna eat his soul.” He held the plushie at arm's length, looking it right in the eyes. He glared, and it stared, then he smirked. “You did good. Or maybe, I did good?” Arms no longer outstretched, he dug a hand into the plushie's back and pulled out… a walkie talkie! (dun dun duuuunnnnnn!) He snickered. “Didn't wanna scare him too bad, but he got what was coming to him. Insulting you like that.”

He heard a creaking noise and hurriedly stuffed the plush toy again and tossed it back under his bed. He jumped onto the top and pulled the covers over his head before Vergil actually opened the door.

Vergil toddled to his bed, uneasy with sleep and mumbling something under his breath, but Dante didn't catch what it was. The younger twin nearly let out a sigh of relief; if Vergil had opened the door any quicker, he would've been caught right in the act.

He heard a shuffle, then a rustle of sheets. “Verge, that you?” he asked in a soft voice, feigning sleep.

“...Yeah.”

“…Kay then, good night.”

“…Uh huh, you too.” Vergil pulled the covers up to his head and closed his eyes.

Dante thought Vergil was asleep, and let slip a giggle. Vergil caught it, but dismissed it as something in his little brother's sleep he might have found funny.

A/N: Oh man, this chapter was just full of tricks, huh? Dante's so evil, ever the prankster!

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