7.

To close to Insanity

My head pounded like crazy. I heard my heart beat in my ears, and my breathing came in pants. I opened my eyes to a spinning, blurry world. Where was I? I was lying on the cold ground, my back ached from the rigid alignment, and I felt heavy shackles on my ankles, blistering the skin.

I groaned as I shut my eyes tight and turned my head, shielding my eyes against the dim lights with a curtain of my hair. What the hell happened?

I remembered being outside…then being attacked by a demon. Of course…I had been abducted. Perfect.

There was a sound, a creaking noise. I looked up, raising myself slightly on my arms to see a large, stone door opening. In walked a girl in white and gold, her face shadowed, but I knew who it was at once, "Kyrie!" I croaked my voice cracking and weak.

Kyrie moved slowly towards me, then knelt down. She placed a tray in front of me, and I blinked rapidly to make out her face. I held my breath. She wasn't Kyrie. I mean, she was, but her eyes…there was no iris, no pupil, it was just white, blank of anything…soulless. She left the tray, saying not a word, and turned away from me, walking back out of the room and the door closing with a load, echoing bang.

I looked at the tray. Food, a simple egg-salad sandwich, and a brass pitcher of water with a small cup. I narrowed my eyes. I hate egg-salad.

--

I lost track. I didn't have a watch, but it must've been at least eighteen hours I spent in there, alone. There was no light but a flickering oil-lamp that was so out-dated. After I forced down the revolting sandwich and washed it down with water, I tested the chains around my feet.

They were simple iron, at least they were rusted. When I got to the end, I could reach out with my hand, but there was at least five feet between me and the door still. It wasn't much in reality, but it felt like acres to me now.

I could reach all the other walls of the strange round room except the door. There was a pile of straw that I guess was suppose to serve as my bed, with a thread-bear wool blanket. There was also a small, covered hole in left corner or the room. It smelled vile, and I knew what it was used for. I was a captive, but I wasn't about to become a desperate captive.

I didn't even know why I was here. In all the movies and video games I've seen, it's normally within a few moments of the captive waking up that the bad-guy comes in to gloat about their plan. Either this bad-guy didn't get the rule book, or video games, once again, lied to me.

I liked to pretend a lot that I was really tough-willed and minded. I mean, what person doesn't want to be the hero of their own story, right? And I was living with Dante and Nero, for God sake, I should have some back-bone, right? Well, it may have only been a day and a half or so, but I was ready to break. I was freaked out, scared, and ready to give them whatever they wanted. I'd spill all of my secrets, sell my soul, dance on my family's grave, whatever they wanted, as long as I got out of here.

I know this sounds overly dramatic, but I could hear it. Whispers, demonic whispers saying my name…speaking even in a voice that sounded like my mom's, or my dad's, all telling me to die. I could almost feel the darkness, almost taste the evil, and I knew right away…I was near a pathway to hell.

I sat in a corner, rocking myself back and forth, my arms wrapped around my legs with my chin between my knees. I hadn't slept, I hadn't dared to close my eyes longer than to blink, and even then I was afraid to. The smell of this place became rank, like rotting human flesh, and I swear I was going crazy, because whenever I heard a sound like dripping water echoing through a sewer drain, I pictured blood.

Something was wrong with me to. My head wouldn't stop pounding. It was like drums were beating in my head. It wasn't a heartbeat, it was like the drums you would hear when someone was being led to the gallows in the old western movies. The thudda-thudda-thudda-tump, like a drum roll. And it wouldn't go away. Not only that, but I constantly felt sick, violently sick. I wanted to vomit at the slightest things.

Between the whispers, the drum roll, the visions, the smells…I was ready to give up. I wanted it to end, I didn't care how, I just wanted it to all go away. This was a nightmare. It was a dream for a while, with Nero and Dante protecting me, taking care of me, being my friends…but now it was a nightmare. I didn't want to stay here anymore. I wanted to wake up, I wanted to hug my mom, I wanted to hug her until my arms were sore. I'd never fight with her again, I just wanted it all to be over, so I didn't have to deal with this anymore.

I jumped as the door opened, my eyes darting over as the shell of Kyrie walked in like she did every three hours. She placed a tray in the same spot on the floor, then turned and started to walk out.

"Kyrie!" I called out, scrambling to my feet. She had stopped, and my hopes came back. Maybe she wasn't completely gone. I went over to her and stood at her side, "Kyrie, what's going on, where am I?"

"You are safe," she said in a empty, monotone voice. Then she started to walk away.

"Kyrie!" I reached out, grabbing her wrist and making her stop, "S-Safe!? Are you kidding me?! This place is horrible! I don't want to stay here! Get me out!"

"I cannot," she said, never looking back at me, "It is not as the master wishes."

"Master?" I repeated, looking at her.

"The master gives us everything," she said, "We must all love the master. You will love him too, before you are devoured."

My body froze, and I let her wrists slip from my fingers. The door closed with that same echoing sound that seemed to make the "trapped" feeling final. I fell to my knees, overturning the tray and leaving it to spill the water all across my jeans and knees.

Devoured…I was going to be eaten…

My world went black and I had the feeling of gravity as I fell to the side.

--

Three more days past. Kyrie came in, left the food, and never said a word. How did I know how many days past? Because Kyrie was prompt. Every three hours, she left food. Always a sandwich of some kind and water. Nothing else. I stopped eating after she told me I was going to be eaten myself.

I slept only when I was exhausted and passed out. I drank only water when I couldn't stand it anymore. And I cried often. I was as good as dead at this point. I'd never see home again, never see my mom or dad again. I'd never see anything again. This room began to feel like my tomb. The rotting flesh I smelled would soon be my flesh, and the blood-visions were probably of my own fate.

I wasn't sure what made me give up. I always considered myself a truly stubborn person. But this time, I didn't feel the need to fight. I was like this room sucked everything but fear, sorrow, and despair out of me.

I would use a burnt stick to draw on the walls. For a while, I was trying to count the days. But, as I looked at the walls all these days later, I realized that as far as my arms could reach were words scrawled in a strange text I didn't realize I knew. But they were the words that were whispered to me in my head now. No more threats or demands of my death, but strange language messages that I felt compelled to scribble on the walls whenever a new one crossed my mind. If a new one didn't, then I'd repeat the old one, just to try and make it go away, at least for a while.

I still rocked myself back at forth, staring at the oil-lamp that never seemed to go out. It's small, flickering flame seemed to grow dimmer though with each passing day, and I began to think that it was a symbol for my sanity. As I lost hold of that, the flame got closer and closer to going out. From what I could tell, the flame would last a day, two at the least. With the light would go whatever hold I had left on myself.

The fire…it glowed with a strange aura…it seemed almost…green…

Green…green glow…comic books…comic books…radioactive…green lightening.

My eyes opened wider, "Green Lightening!"

Suddenly, all those words I scribbled on the wall in that strange language made sense. As they flashed in front of my eyes, I saw their meanings. The Green Lightening was a sign. A symbol that mean there was a whole in the rift that kept all the different dimensions apart, so that they didn't collide together like two high-speed continents smashing into one, causing an explosion that would result in the destruction of both dimensions. Not only that, but though there were multiple, possibly hundreds of dimensions, there was only one Heaven and Hell, that was shared through them all. Sure, it was called different things, but they were all the same. The Devil had left loose something…something that was eating away the barriers that acted like retracting magnets to keep the dimensions away…

A name kept repeating in my head now, whispered harshly to me until I understood it.

"The Time-Eater!" I cried, "The Time-Eater!!" I screamed.

The door suddenly exploded open and I ducked down, covering my head and shoving myself as close as possible to the wall.

"Sydney!!" Nero came rushing over to me, grabbing my shoulder, "Are you okay!?"

I felt tears in my eyes. The moment the door was smashed and I heard Nero's voice, the feeling of doom and the voices and the smells, they all went away. I felt like me again…I felt light and free, even with the chains on my ankles.

"Nero!" I sobbed and collapsed into his arms, resting my brow on his chest as I cried. I sobbed loudly, nearly screaming, and he tried to comfort me, saying everything was okay now, he was here to save me. But I kept crying until my head's spinning became too much and I had to push away to vomit.

After I finished, he used his Devil Bringer to rip the chains apart, though I still had to live with the shackles on my ankles with bits of chain hanging from them. He gathered me in his arms and carried me over the rubble of the door and part of the wall that he had blown apart until we got outside

I saw that what I was in what resembled a wine cellar, and it was littered with demon bodies. With Red-Queen over his back and me in his arms, he wouldn't be able to fight, but it looked like he took care of them all already.

Nero didn't say anything as we walked around, and I rested my head against his neck and shoulder as he walked. The sound of his breathing…his pulse…the way he smelled…it made me feel at peace. I closed my eyes and, for the first time in what felt like ages, fell into a deep, comforting sleep.

--

I didn't know what woke me first, the sound of voices, or movement. I opened my eyes slowly, wanting to know where I was and what was happening. I was very aware of being in someone's arms. When I opened my eyes fully, I nearly screamed. A demon was charging at me!!

I covered my eyes just as a flash of silver and red pasted by and the demon let out a shrill sound, coupled with the slicing of its skin and the feeling of being covered in sand and dust. I heard another voice before Nero answered, "I know! What are you doing, you old fart!?"

I peeked through my fingers to see that I was still in Nero's arms, and he was struggling to protect me. He had to hold me against him so he could use his sword, but it was hard for him, since I wasn't small enough to be properly held by just one arm. When a group started to jump down on him, I didn't really think, I just acted.

With a simple movement of my legs and a push on his chest, I slipped from his arms and fell to his feet. I curled into a ball as I heard him curse and use Devil Bringer to bring all three of them down with a frustrated shout that he was famous for.

"Get up!" he demanded, grabbing my arm before pulling me behind him as he ran. I had to force my still sleepy legs to work as I struggled to keep up with him. I saw Dante not far off, defending us as we ran. We were on what looked like a street-bridge over a large river, the red-dusk sun giving the water the appearance of being filled with blood.

As we ran, I managed to force out, "What's going on!?"

"We were going to ask you that, babe!" Dante called as he appeared next to me just in time to put a bullet in the head of a demon I hadn't even notice sneak up on my other side. He grinned at me as he said, "Mine telling us what's going on here? What did you do to piss these guys off?"

"I have no idea!" I answered. Nero stopped abruptly and pushed me back onto the ground, covering my body with his and wrapping his arms around my head as there was a loud explosion and I felt the entire bridge shake.

"Shit," Nero breathed, getting up and pulling me with him, "Come on! Keep running! They're trying to blow the bridge!"

My heart pounded harder as I forced my legs to go faster. I was never on the track team, I could barely make the mile in time in normal PE classes, but I was going a lot faster than I remember ever going. I guess that shows you what adrenaline and the threat of death will do to a person.

"Dante!" Nero suddenly yelled as he grabbed me, nearly throwing me to Dante, who spun me around in a fluid movement and had me on my back, holding my ankle tight until I got the message to hang on. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs tight around his waist as he darted off much faster than they had been before with me running.

I was a little disappointed that it turned out that they were holding back to keep up with me. I had thought for a moment that I had been keeping up with them pretty well. I was dead wrong.

It was still not enough though. I could see them now, demon birds flying over, dropping strange devices that exploded all around us. I could see the shifting of the bridge, some cars that had been abandoned long before I probably woke up began to slip and fall with chucks of concrete and wire into the water, making it splash and spray up like a geyser of dark water.

We'd never make it! I'd get them both killed! I couldn't see them die because of me! I couldn't let them die! 'Someone,' I prayed, 'Help me!'

A flash of green blurred my vision, and I had to blink. Only a split second later, when the world came back into view, we were on the empty, wood-lined highway on the other side of the bridge. Dante skidded to a halt, along with Nero, the two panting as they looked at each other with wide eyes.

All three of us looked back as we heard a loud, deafening crack and a loud boom. In an explosion of white and red light and the sound that reminded me of an earth-quake destroying a mountain, we watched the bridge fall into pieces into the water. I saw, with horror, that it was the bridge to Fortuna City.

"Nero…" I whispered, looking back at him.

He didn't even give me time to say anything, to offer an apology or something, before he said sharply, "We've got to keep going. There's bound to be more."

Dante dropped me from his back and Nero came over, gathering me up in his arms and holding me against his chest.

"I-I can walk," I said to him.

"Not where we're going, babe," Dante said with a grin, "You'll be a lot safer this way. Let's go, lover-boy," Dante said, waving for him to follow. Something about how Dante said 'lover-boy' seemed almost venomous…

Nero didn't take any notice, but I remembered, "Nero…" I grabbed his collar, "I saw Kyrie! She—"

"She's not Kyrie anymore," Nero said, not looking at me. His expression became almost annoyed, his lips pressed hard together and his eyebrows narrowed. "Kyrie's gone…just forget about it."

Sparks seemed to be flying off Nero's very skin, and I couldn't help but feel like he was ice cold now. The peace and calm and safety I felt when he saved me from the strange demon-cell I was kept in was gone…and I felt guilty. Of what, I didn't know. But I felt...I felt like his pain was my fault.

--

A/N: I know, I know, this isn't as funny as the rest of my chapters. I promise more humor soon, how long do you think Dante can go without being his normal sarcastic self? Anyway, this chapter was really to set up the whole "bad-guy" plot thingy. Gotta get an adventure in here, y'know? ^-^

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to all you Kyrie/Nero fans for this chapter. I hope that you understand it's all for the good of the plot! Please keep reading and enjoy it, even though Kyrie is (technically) gone.

Review please! I love hearing from you all!

-Alma Theresa