When Dante emerged again from the shadows he was in a vacant lot inbetween the buildings of the city.  To the left was a fort made of boxes with a tarp thrown over it.  At the center was a small fire pit.  Nightmare had to break the concrete to make it.  It was noon so the area was bathed in sunlight giving it almost a holy appearance as though it were something amazing like some kind of sanctuary.  A young girl with greezy blonde hair and a dirty face ran out from the fort.  She looked to be around seven or six and she skipped as she ran.  “Yay Dante your home!”  The girl danced around him.  Twirling like a ballerina her hands locked above her head.  Dante didn’t say anything simply reached inside the bag and removed an orange.  Using his thumb he tore large sections of the orange skin away until the vulnerable meat inside was completely exposed.  The girl Rose took it and devored it before it could escape her.  She giggled as she licked her hands.  “Can I have another?”  Dante sat down by the fire pit on an old red milk crate.  He pulled out a long wooden board and set it on the shelf made over the pit for grilling.  Then he drew a bag of bread from the bag and set out two pieces on the board.  Next he removed a can yanked the lid off of the container of tuna and smeared it onto the bread.  Dante handed Rose the sandwhich and even though she ate it she complained about the taste the entire time.  Telling him how awful it tasted in between mouthfuls.  “What an annoying little child.”  Nightmare said as he listened to the girls whinning.  Dante didn’t say anything as he took a plastic spoon from the grocery bag and at the rest of the tuna.  Since they had no way to keep it cold the food had to be eaten immediately after being opened.  “Dante we should leave here soon.”  The devil approached him and gentle lay his hand on his shoulder.  “We have business in Europe.”  Dante didn’t respond.  He stood up and put the remaining groceries in the box fort and disappeared back into the shadows.

                Dante roamed the alleys aimlessly.  Flipping trashcans and peering in dumpsters as he went.  He was looking for something.  After about half an hour of searching he finally left the back alleys and entered the main street that was crowded with people.  “Bless me dark father I have sinned I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”  The song was being played from a stereo in a window display at one of the stores they passed.  “Where are we going Dante?”  Nightmare asked, that devilish smile across his face.  Dante turned in a store doorway, and came back out minutes later with a large blue cooler in his hands.  Just like before he slipped back into the shadowed alley.

                Rose lay on the ground of his sanctuary dead.  A large pool of blood under her tiny body.  “What happened here I wonder.”  Nightmare said with that same devilish grin.  He loved when humans killed one another.  It was something he had loved since he was last summoned during the crusades of Europe.  One man was standing over her body.  He was about 5’9 and was wearing a black T shirt with Saints written across it in big red letters.  In his hand he held a silver and black Sig Sauer, .45 ACP, P220 Semi Automatic Pistol.  The gun was now aimed at Dante.  Who hadn’t even noticed yet, his attention was focused solely on the body of the lifeless girl.  “Shouldn’t of f***ed with the Saints kid,”  said another man who was leaning against a wall next to the box fort.  He was smoking a cigarette.  “Kill the dip shit.”  The gun in the mans hand standing over Rose jerked back as the 9mm round bolted out of the barrel.  On a direct path with an inevitable collision against his skull,  the bullet stopped.  It merely stood there floating in midair.  The gangster stared at the spectacle his mouth a gape.  They didn’t know it but Nightmare had caught the bullet.  It fell to the ground and Dante finally jumped into action.  He was fast as he zigged from side to side closing the gap between him and the gunmen.  The gangster snapping out of his puzzled and amazed state shot again.  This time it hit off of something and ricocheted past him.  “What the hell!”  He took aim again.  Dante was now right on top of him, and grabbed the barrel with his hand and jerked it to the right.  The man screamed as his finger twisted out of the socket.  Dante used his left hand to reposition the gun into his right hand.  He clenched his jaw tight but it didn’t help.  Dante jammed the Pistol into his mouth.  Forcing it through the row of teeth in his jaw,  The shell exploded in the short barrel of the Sauer.  The man screamed as he pulled away.  His jaw hung limply on the right side as blood gushed from his mouth.  The man’s head disappeared and a fontain of blood spouted from his neck.  Nightmare stood behind him.  Holding his head by the turf of his hair;  the remaining gangster stared at the scene with a mixture of horror and surprise.  He smiled as he drew a Walther PP .22 Caliber Semi Automatic Pistol.  The shell darted out of the Walthers’ barrel but it was blocked by an invisible Nightmare.  The Sauer went off and the remaining gangster collapsed to the ground hugging his right knee.  He sobbed uncontrollable from the pain.  “What a baby”  Laughed Nightmare  “just put the miserable fool out of his misery.  He isn’t even desearving to live a moment longer.”  Dante approached closer and crouched down infront of the man.  The man looked at him through teary eyes.  A black throwing knife dug deep into his ankle and tore up along his leg all the way to the knee.  He shrieked out in pain , and Dante grabbed him by his hair and jerked him away from the wall.  The man spilled onto the ground  The knife dug into his back barely missing one of his kidneys.  He screamed again, but this time was silenced as a 9mm round cracked his skull open bathing Dante in his victims blood and other bodily materials.  His head tilted back, the sun was still high in the sky.  So much for sanctuary.

                Dante stood by a small mound of dirt.  A wooden board stuck out of the tiny hill.  The name Rose carved into the wood.  Nightmare stood behind him still smiling from the events he had seen.  His summoner had just killed a person, and he did it brutally.  The grave was under a small oak tree.  The sounds of the city and the interstate highway could be heard in the distance.  “We should move east to the coast.”  Dante said.  As he walked away from the grave,  His face dead showing no expression.