Fan Fiction ❯ The Fine Art Of Falling Apart ❯ Moving Closer To Stupidity ( Chapter 2 )

*Warning: If you absolutely love Dante (I mean, seriously, love him.) and you don't like to see him hurt really badly, demoralized, or made to be insecure, don't read this. He will be pained greatly.*

"How much longer?"

"Only a few weeks. At the most…"

Lily looked at her, shocked. "But I thought that you said it would be months?"

"That was how long I wanted it to be. I wanted to think that he wouldn't have come here and that he wouldn't have found Dante until we were truly ready."

"He's quick."

"He's too quick. I don't know what we're gonna do."

Lily was Elise's best friend since grade school. They'd gotten in the devil hunting business at the same time. But Lily, she was a little reluctant. Although when she saw how Elise had picked up her first sword and destroyed her first demon she realized how much she could help the world. It kind of frightened her, though, seeing the enthralled look on Elise's face when she killed that demon. When Lily had taken up the job with her best friend she knew it was permanent. Once she got started it wouldn't stop. She knew that and she accepted it. Especially when she realized what Elise's motive was.

When she was a child her father had abused her. Her mother knew but wouldn't do anything for fear of her own safety. It was so clear to everyone who saw Elise but no one did anything to help her. So she helped herself on her thirteenth birthday. Being completely tired of the same routine beatings she got every night before bed she fought back. One dark and cold night Elise looked out her window at the full moon. Through her wall she could hear footsteps that she knew were her father's. She sighed and started to well up in tears but she fought them back, knowing that the moon would lend her strength enough to go through with her plan. Closing her eyes, she waited until her door was opened; her father walked over, and snapped the belt once so she would fear what was coming. But she didn't. He was used to hearing her crying by then but she was strangely calm. So, he went to actually whip her with the belt he'd brought. But she was quick and grabbed it before it was near her. Just in that same moment she was given strength by the gods and pulled the belt, pulling her father as well, and kneed him in the groin. He doubled over, clutching himself.

"You know sometimes, I wanna rip out your throat, Daddy." She brought up her knee to connect with his chin. And then kicked his legs out from under him. Her mother heard the noises and came back to look to see what he was doing. "What's that say about you? Because I've finally come to see that nothing is wrong with me, just you. And I'm so fucking sick of paying for all of your mistakes."

Her mother smiled, watching her husband get what he had coming. Elise brought her elbow down on his face and saw blood pour out of his nose. "Remember? I'm your creation. I'm your love, Daddy. And let me tell you this, if you ever, every lay a finger on me again I'll have your head. I promise you that. Punishment? I don't care. I'll do anything to let you feel what I've felt my entire life. And if that means going to jail, so be it. It'll be worth it."

Elise walked out with her bags, her white wolf-dog, Osta, and never came back again.

Lily brushed a strand of red hair back from her face and looked at Elise, who was staring out the window. "Are you okay?" She asked, seeing the distress in her eyes.

"What?" Elise replied, being lost in her own world. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking… old thoughts."

"Figured. But what about new thoughts?"

"Do you mean Dante thoughts?" She asked, her green eyes piercingly bright.

"Yeah. What's gonna happen with all of this?"

"Why are you coming to me for those answers? I know just as much as you do."

"No, you know more about this than I do. And you're not sharing this information." After a moment of silence from her friend, Lily looked over. Her gaze led to the glass door.

Curiosity and confusion prevailed, causing her to look over. Then she realized why Elise had been lost. Dante had just walked through the door, smiling for some unknown reason. He was wearing a "tight" black shirt, jeans, and black shoes. Lily looked back over at Elise to see her eyes transfixed on Dante. He walked past them, but not without a quick glance at Elise, and sat down at a small table near theirs. "Elise!"

Her head snapped up. The look on Lily's face made her smile embarrassedly. "I can't help it."

"I noticed."

"He called me last night."

"Who? Dante?"

"No! Sarlone. And he told me all the ways that he was gonna mess me up."

"How's he going to do that?" Elise motioned over at Dante. "You're kidding?"

"How I wish this was all just a joke. You know what happened to Oliver, I told you a thousand times, and you saw what happened after that. I don't wanna have to go through that again. Especially not with him. I don't want to see that happen to him."

Elise jumped as Dante pulled a chair out from their table and sat down. She turned away, knowing very well that he could have heard her. Letting her gaze slip to the floor, she made it even easier for him to know they'd been talking about him. "So, seen Sarlone lately?" Dante was smiling as she looked up, his eyes looking at only her.

Elise squeezed her eyes together as if he'd hurt her. "That's not something to joke around about."

He laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll stop. But… have you?"

"Not since last night, thank the Goddess." He nodded and lowered his head. "Why?"

"No reason."

Elise glared at him, catching Lily by surprise. "Why?" She asked more forcefully.

"Well, if you really wanna know, I have."

"Where?"

"I didn't technically see him. I heard him."

"In that case, when?" Dante laughed again at her persistence.

"Last night he-"

"Called you." She said, finishing his sentence.

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ."

"What?" He folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them.

"He called me, too."

"That can't be some kinda coincidence, can it?" Asked Lily.

"No way in Hell. What time did he call?"

Dante thought for a second. He had been busy the night before, busy enough not to look at the clock. "I'm not quite sure but I think it was sometime around midnight."

"Then he called you before me. What did he say?"

"Something about the end of the world. You know, the same old shit, then something about draining me," he rolled his eyes. "And finally, about how he was gonna make me pay for everything."

"Draining you…?"

"Yeah, you were right: he's fucked up."

"You have no idea what that means."

"Is it lingo that only you two know?"

"All it is is obvious."

"Then why don't you tell me, cause I'm not seeing it."

"I can't."

"Classic…" He said, leaning back into the chair and crossing his arms over his chest, clearly annoyed.

"Dante, I can't tell you what it means, I just can't, but I can tell you that no matter what you've done or trained for, you cannot defeat him. And I've seen you fight. You are strong, I'll give you that, but he's stronger. You're fast, but he's faster. You're agile, but he's more agile. You're smart, but he's smarter."

"Is there anywhere I've got him beat?"

"Yeah, but…"

"I think there are other more important things to discuss." Lily jumped in, saving Elise from saying something about Dante that she didn't want to say.

"I completely agree." Dante looked at Elise with some amount of desire and smiled a true smile, half knowing what she was going to say, but being too polite to assume anything.

"And what might that be? Let's try… why you were watching me." He asked, still looking at Elise who was returning his gaze for a short amount of time.

"I was not watching you." She forced, knowing perfectly well she had been.

"Fine, new topic. Again." He chuckled at Elise's attempts to cover up.

"Well, how about this war, then?"

She broke off his gaze and turned to Lily. "You do realize that this is just like a nice old game of chess, right?" Asked Elise, who was always looking for a metaphor.

Lily lowered an eyebrow, curiously. "No, so tell me why."

"It's being arranged and planned by a `king and queen' from the `black' side. They have their share of rooks, pawns, bishops, and knights. I assume there are more for them than for us. Which leaves us at a serious disadvantage."

"Who are the king and queen?"

Lily shook her head and responded. "We don't know. I think we'll only find out when it's all gone down. Or at least started. But we do know what they plan on doing. They're recruiting ample assassins and hunters to track down and kill everyone on our side who they think can do damage. They-"

"It's more than that, Lily." Elise butted in. "Much more… than that. They're gonna take out the ones who can adequately fight but, for those who could actually stop them, the punishment is going to be much worse."

"What'll it be?" Dante asked, officially interested.

"Briefly, it's something that no one should have to go through, no matter how they've sinned. It is the ultimate punishment and the ultimate way of breaking someone."

"Thanks. That helps." He said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, and now if you'll excuse us, I think Lily and I should be going home." She walked to the door behind Lily.

He watched her walk away then, in a quick action he didn't he know he was taking, he sprang up and grabbed her wrist. Dante turned her around pulled her closer to him so he didn't have to talk very loudly. "Listen, I know I don't know you very well but why don't you come with me?"

Elise gave him a questioning look. "What are you talking about?"

Lily already had left but was standing near the door, watching them.

"I don't even know." He said, obviously confused by emotions that had always been unknown to him. But there was something stronger there, something more powerful than emotion, destiny. "But why don't you? You said it yourself; I'm not safe with him around. And, if you really are stronger than me, wouldn't it be better having you there?"

"You want me to come back to your place with you?"

Dante swallowed hard. Elise noticed. "Yeah, that's it. I mean, clearly you're worried about me getting hurt so why don't you come and make sure that doesn't happen?" He asked, barely maintaining his coolness while other customers in the café were watching him and maintaining his lack of dependency even though he was asking her to live with him to "protect" him. Though, that wasn't truly his reason for asking.

Elise tilted her head, and then looked back at Lily who nodded, knowing exactly what was going on. "Okay but only to make sure he doesn't hurt your ass." Dante was smiling so broadly inside that he could barely keep himself from really smiling. "I've got to go home anyway, to get my stuff."

"Alright, go ahead." Elise got in her car with Lily and they drove off. Elise watched him climb onto his motorcycle and speed off in the mirror.

"So?" Lily asked.

"What?"

"Well, what's going on?"

"He did the very thing I was going to do."

"So you are going with him?"

"Absolutely!" She smiled and tried to correct herself. "You know, not absolutely in that sense, well, maybe just a little, but if I didn't Sarlone's chances would be even greater. And I vowed to do everything I could to protect him."

Not too much later Dante heard a car pull up behind him as he was cleaning his bike. A door opened then slammed shut and the car drove off. "That was quick." He said as he turned around to look at Elise. To his surprise, she only had three bags.

"I tried."

"Come on." He said as he walked over and lightened her load by two.

He was anxious to get her in because he was anxious to see what would happen. There was something between them, he knew, but he wasn't sure what. But then he stopped, realizing what he had done. He had asked Elise, a woman he barely knew, to come and stay with him. Not even caring about what her intentions were. She very easily could have lied to him to get close and she could be plotting his destruction in her head that very second. But, no, Dante was aware of that and if anything came up he'd take care of it; he didn't want to think she hated him and wanted to kill him. No matter how much he disliked admitting it he wanted a true ally, someone to fight by his side, and he finally thought he found someone.