Ethereal Encounter (Dante)

[Evie Perroy]

It took several days for Evie to return to Dante's graveside after her initial visit at his funeral. Arthur had orchestrated the whole affair, and Evie supposed it was a good thing. The burning pyre at her father's death was burnt into her memory, and she had been a little afraid of flames every since.

She knelt down by Dante's grave gingerly, her skirts spreading out around her legs. After only sitting in this position for a moment, her back began to ache, and Evie readjusted herself twice before finally settling on lying down on her back alongside the grave. One hand lolled to the side, and her fingers dug into the freshly piled earth.

She closed her eyes for a second, allowing herself to imagine she was lying beside Dante, holding his hand. Fresh tears wet her eyelashes as they fluttered open. Evie lay very still watching the clouds, her other hand clutched to her chest, subconsciously resting over her heart.

[Dante Grixis]

A shadow moved on a nearby tree. Evie could not see from where she was laying the figure beginning to form from a light blue glow until it was fully a person. The figure was partially transparent and when he spoke his voice sounded distant, like an echo of an echo.

In life the figure had been Dante Grixis, master assassin and Evie's lover. He was dressed in the same bloodstained clothes he had died in, the etherial armor casting a dim glow, his other-worldly blades resting in their sheath. His soul had been cursed by whatever force there was to walk the Earth amongst the living. It pained Dante greatly for now he was forced to see the suffering he caused, through those he killed and through his pride driven death.

The spirit walked, though it appeared as more of a glide, over to the laying figure of Evie. The spirit laid down on his own grave and interlocked his fingers with Evie's. Though he was a spirit he was still tangible to some extent, although she may not feel his fingers but an icy aura in her hand.

"Why does one as beautiful as you cry?" He asked in his strange sounding voice. His eyes had not seen her for what seemed like decades and a small smile came to his face when he looked upon her.

[Evie Perroy]

The wispy clouds seemed to sculpt themselves into odd shapes before her eyes, and Evie blinked away the tears to watch them more clearly. Little meaningless tasks like this settled her mind. She let the dirt crumble through her fingers as a cool feeling came over her hand, almost as if she'd dipped it in water. The cool tingling feeling spread, and the barely visible blond hairs on the back of her arms stood on end.

"Why does one as beautiful as you cry?"

Evie allowed herself to bathe in the voice that she thought she was imagining. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on it, and remember.

"No, Evie." she whispered, berating herself. This was dangerous territory. It was only a temporary relief. It hurt all over again when she stopped pretending. She bit her lip and opening her eyes, let her head roll to the side.

"Shit!" Evie lurched away from the grave when she caught sight of the ghost form beside her. She scrambled onto all fours a little way off, and from that position she recognised who the shimmering haze resembled. "Dante?" she breathed, her voice cracked. She hardly dared to believe her eyes.

[Dante Grixis]

Dante stood and faced Evie. "I was." He replied simply. He wondered if she would be happy to see him of if he should have just remained out of sight. He loved Evie and he wanted to tell her again. But he would wait to see her reaction.

He took a gliding step forward and said, "I am what is left of Dante Grixis. But in essence I am the same Dante you knew." He couldn't remember dying, he knew how and when he died, but somewhere between worlds he had forgotten how it felt. He only knew that he wasn't fully Dante Grixis, just the part that would never rest in the Earth.

[Evie Perroy]

Evie remained on all fours as what appeared to be Dante floated toward her. All kinds of thoughts flew through her mind: shock, happiness, curiosity, distrust... but most overwhelmingly, relief.

"I never thought I'd see you again." Evie breathed, her chest rising and falling wildly as she stood upright, still keeping a distance between them. She took a small step forward uncertainly, "How, how are you here?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "What will happen if I touch you?"

[Dante Grixis]

Dante held his arms open. "You will feel quite cold, but you won't pass through me or anything like that." He never though he'd see her again in truth. He was always pretty sure death was the end. But he had been proven wrong before.

"I'm...well I'm not sure how it is that I'm here." He really wasn't. All Dante could remember was a flash of light and he was a ghost walking through the graveyard. He had been wandering around for two days trying to remember who he was, or how he got there. It all came back to him when he saw a headstone with the name Dante Grixis carved into it. When he saw that all the memories of his life came flooding back. He remembered his life as an assassin, he remembered his death, he remembered Evie.

[Evie Perroy]

Evie stood still as Dante spoke and watched him open his arms to her. She took the first few steps towards him hesitantly, then built up pace and flung her arms around him with a gasp. It was an odd sensation, but Dante was definitely a solid entity, and a cold one at that. Evie shuddered, not from the thought that she was hugging somebody who had died, but from the icy coldness that emanated from him. She didn't let go, but buried her warm face into Dante's neck.

"I don't understand how you're here." Evie pulled away, still holding his cold hands. She shook her blonde hair, "But I don't care." She was seeing an animated Dante before her, something she never expected to see except in her wildest dreams. And yet here he was. "Can you live like this?" she asked eagerly, "Well not live, but stay like this? Stay with me? We'll find a mage, they could make you warm again..." she squeezed his hands, her eyes swimming with tears of happiness and hope.

[Dante Grixis]

Dante smiled a pained smile. It felt so good to hug Evie again, but he knew it couldn't last forever. He wondered if spirits could cry, he felt like sheding tears of joy but he didn't know if he had the capibility.

After Evie spoke he found out he did indeed have the capibility. A single tear rolled from his eye, down the valley of his scar and dropped off his cheek and disappeared before it hit the ground. "I wish that I could my love. I have no control over my time on this Earth, a being more powerful than I does." He smiled at her. "But I feel that I still have some time yet, care to walk with me?" He asked and held his hand out, waiting for her to hold it.

[Evie Perroy]

Evie leaned back from Dante, watching him as he spoke. His words confirmed her fears that he couldn't last, even in this form. She took his hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Lets walk." she agreed, and began to lead Dante away from his grave. She wondered if any onlookers were watching, and whether or not they could see the ghost Dante.
"I've missed you so much." she began, the words tumbling out of her mouth like a sigh, "I've felt so sick every day since you... left." Evie didn't want to make Dante feel guilty, it was just nice to talk to someone about how odd she had been feeling these past few days.

[Dante Grixis]

"I'm sorry Evie." He said. He gripped her hand a little tighter than he had been and looked at her. "What kind of sick?" He asked. Something seemed different about her. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but something was changed. Perhaps being a specter gave him some kind of sixth sense about these things.

They walked out of the graveyard and onto a path that led into the nearby forest. The forest was thin here and broken light shone through the trees. It was peaceful, and much more comforting than a graveyard.

[Evie Perroy]

It felt more comfortable in the forest, the soft leafy branches blocked the view of the couple as they walked hand in hand along a little dirt path. Evie replied to Dante lightly, as if she had forgotten that she was talking to the ghost of her former lover, and this was just an ordinary meeting on an ordinary day.

"Oh it's nothing too serious." she cast a sideways glance at Dante and smiled, "I just feel terrible in the mornings, nausea and sickness... but it always fades and I'm really hungry again for the rest of the day." Evie wasn't sure how to put into words how different she felt, physically and mentally since Dante passed on. It probably had a lot to do with shock and grief, but there was something else, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on...

"Look at me wasting our time together complaining." she continued with a little sigh, "Besides you've suffered a lot worse." She ran her thumb over the back of his hand as she spoke noticing the opalescent glow that Dante's skin gave off had a green tinge now that they were in the forest.

[Dante Grixis]

He heard Evie tell him of her sickness and he immediately thought that it was more then grief. He looked at her for a moment then decided to try something. He wasn't sure that it would work, but it was worth a shot. He kissed her hand and let go and laid a hand across her stomach.

He pulled his hand away quickly and stared first at his hand then at her stomach with a frantic look on his face. It couldn't be. He didn't want to believe it. But he couldn't deny it. He couldn't explain the sensation he felt, but the best he could put it was that there were two heartbeats. He looked at Evie's eyes. He opened his mouth but could not speak. He was too shocked.

[Evie Perroy]

The corner of Evie's mouth tugged into a smile when Dante kissed the back of her hand. It was a slightly cold sensation, and she could barely feel it, but she was so caught up in having some sort of contact with Dante that she could still feel her heart quicken. She let him move his hand down to her stomach with a bemused look on her face, and laughed lightly, unsure of what he was doing.

Evie's laugh fell short when she noticed the expression on his face. He was shocked, that she could tell. But why? She clasped her own hands over her stomach in an almost defensive way.

"What? What is it?" she asked, taking a step away from him, and looking down at her abdomen. Her eyes widened with fear. Maybe in this form Dante could sense things she couldn't... Maybe he could sense death? Maybe this illness was worse than she had thought.

"Tell me." Evie asked in a small voice, looking up at his open mouth that wasn't speaking. "Dante, what is it?"

[Dante Grixis]

He shook his head and looked at the ground. He couldn't quite find words for it, but he knew that he had to tell her. "Evie, you're...you're pregnant." He said and looked at her.

He didn't want to believe it but he had to. He couldn't deny what he had just felt. Being a spirit seemed to give him a better sense of life and of death. And this one was most defiantly life. He swallowed hard and spoke quietly, "I'm...I'm sorry, Evie."

What would she do? She would have to raise the child alone, and worst of all it was his child. And now he couldn't help her.

[Evie Perroy]

"What?" Evie replied numbly. She couldn't look away from Dante's face. He looked... upset? Evie wasn't sure how she felt about this revelation. It made sense to her, almost as if something had clicked into place, but the relief of understanding was replaced with the even bigger worry of uncertainty.

A baby. Was she really in any state to have a baby? Physically, she was a young woman in her prime... But socially? She was an unmarried ex-prostitute living in the slums. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind when Dante spoke again.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Evie."

She didn't comprehend the reason he was so sorry, her mind was all over the place.

"It's yours, of course it's yours." she began, confusing his worry for her, as worry over the paternity, "I never... I promise it's yours." Evie started crying, hating herself for doing it at the same time. She never usually cried, Dante's death had been an exception, and now hormones were affecting her as well. Her head dropped from Dante's gaze and looked down at her lower half, shaking her head, her face was screened by long messy locks of blonde hair. A few tears dropped to the dirt path.