It had been almost three days since Cheryl found out the truth, and she did exactly what Dante expected she would do, she became a hermit again. Living the day on the couch and the nights on her bed. She was yet to touch her laptop, the depression slowly sinking into her bones,to make a permanent home in her soul. She refused to see her mother, refused to eat or function, and Dante was getting restless. He needed to close his deal sooner. The deal he made with her father, Morphius. He had to deliver seven souls, the more stained, the better. So he left her alone in her apartment, knowing that Ace wouldn't dare come near her, for the safety of that kid Jimmy. He knew that threating him with the kid was the perfect plan, he cared about that kid almost as much as he cared for his little puddin' and that was the reason why he was about to make a visit to the last remaining member of his former band, Sinner's for Pleasure. The bassists, Johnny Dust, was living to his name. Watching him throughout his window, past out on the couch with a beer on his hand and cocaine on his coffee table, brought him memories that made him ashamed of himself. Ashamed how he let himself in the past be drivin by his depression, and do things so grotesque, that if Cheryl ever find out, will surely want him out of her life.
Dante entreated right thru the window, and saw the woman beaten black and blue at the foot of the couch. Unfortunately, Johnny was a hunter, like he used to be, before he ended with a shot though his brains. And that poor woman was probably a witch that he found. His whole band was full of hunters, before he delivered everyone of them to Morphius. Every time he left Cheryl's side, he would be on the job. And now he was almost over. After this damned soul, he would need only one, and Morphius will give him back his sack of bones.
The witch stirred while he moved next to her, but she was on the last strained of life. Tortured beyond repair. Sadly, he couldn't do anything to help her for now. But he could give her poor soul a taste of revenge.
"Missed me, you piece of shitt?" Whispering in his right ear, he got a sense of satisfaction, when Johnny woke up startled, looking everywhere around him. The scumbag knew his voice, they had countless arguments of the way he did his 'hunting job'. They were in this cover-up band for ten years, Dante's voice couldn't be forgotten so easy.
"Dante...? Fuck, I think I went overboard with the coke again..." He was mumbling, looking through his messy apartment, but couldn't see him anywhere, although Dante was right next to him, on the couch.
"Boo, motherfucker!" Shouting in his face, he wrapped his bony hand around his neck squishing his windpipe and when he started to turn blue he let go. The fun just started, and Johnny had alot of explaining to do.
"Tell me Dusty, did you tell anyone about my little sister in the past?"
"I think I'm losing my mind... What the fuck was in that coke?!" With his hand still on his throat he looked blindly everywhere, scared shittless.
"If you answer your sins, you will be free, Johnny..." Taunting him with gentle whispers,made the poor bastard to pee his jeans.
"I knew I will be haunted by that creep. I just knew I shouldn't have spill the beans about the kid." He was hugging himself, rocking back and forth, like a lunatic.
"What is your deepest secret, Dusty?"
All that was heard was his uneven breathing and his rapid heartbeat. Dante knew in that moment that he would never regret what he was about to do. The rage was awakening his animal. That animal that he surprased all his life. Tonight it was the beginning of his hunger. Tonight he will be a free animal.
"Bro' if that's you and not the coke, just know that I was young and stupid, and a addicted. I just wanted a quick fix, and that dude said he will give me if I say the name of your sister. It was just the name bro' at that age I didn't think, didn't know what he would do."
"All this time...you knew and you still called yourself my friend?" He was hissing like a thousand snakes, and his soul was starting to shape next to Johnny. Making the man pissing his pants again.
"Fuck Dante, you're really here..."
"Yeah, Johnny and that's not even the slightest bit scary, but what I'm about to do to you... Ow, you will rott in the pits of hell, and you won't feel a thing compared to this."
His mouth got larger than normal, his teeth disappearing and two deadly canines took over, along with his venomous split tougue, made him more then terrifying and Johnny was shaking with all his being, crying for his life.
"Please Dante, please, I'm sorry! I was young and stupid, I didn't know! And after I found out, I was too afraid of you, to tell anything!"
"You were right to be afraid. You broke the one rule I inflicted upon all of you, losers. Never. Tell. Anybody. That. I. Have. A. Sister."
He said every word while he spitt acid on his face, watching him scream, the burning of his flesh bringing his animal more to the front. He wanted to give him the most horrifying death possible, and the more damage he done, the more he craved.
After three excruciating hours, his Viper retreat back in the depths of his souls. And Dante still wasn't satieted, so he took a seat in the armchair facing the couch, where Johnny was a melting bloody mess and rested his hand under his chin. Watching how he struggled to breathe through his only lung, that was still functional. He left it on purpose like that, he wanted his former bassist and so called friend, to suffer. To feel his skin and blood on the same couch that he tortured that witch a while ago, the one that died by his feet hours ago.
Dante lighted a cigarette from the table, enjoying the smoke, even if he didn't feel anything in his lungs. He smoked his cigar with a sinister smile on his now normal lips, and when he saw that last glimer of life dusting away from the fucker's only eye left, he stretched his long limbs, and squashed the bud in his eye.
"Six checked, one more to go."