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Dante held his eyes in place and tried to think of a place to go. His mind couldn't think of anything as he continued to look at Victoria. After standing silently for a few minutes, he stumbled for words, until something that sounded like a sentence finally came out. "We could, um. We could go to that one place down the street I guess." He laughed at himself for what he just said and tried to not beat himself up for it. He turned his head away from Victoria and yawned again. After he had finished, Dante walked down the stairs and sat on the couch, hoping that Victoria would follow him. He sat down on the couch that faced the window. He looked outside and hoped that he would see someone. He wanted to at least know that people lived next to him. He figured that his neighbors probably went on vacation all the time since they had to have money. He laughed at the idea because to him it didn't seem plausible. Dante leaned against the pillow and arm of the couch and rested his head on it.

A small smile could be seen on Dante's heavy face. He truly was tired, but he didn't want to disappoint Victoria and not spend time with her. He shook his head, "I'm fine really." he yawned as he kept his head on the pillow. His eyes kept closing and opening as he sat there. He yawned one last time before looking over at Victoria. "Maybe a nap is needed. But I don't want you to leave." Dante lifted up his head and turned towards her. "Just stay here. I'll nap for a little bit. There's a spare bedroom too if you want to sleep. Or what ever you want." He stood up and looked out the window and around the house. He smiled again at Victoria. He reached down and held her hand and kissed it. "Promise you'll stay?" he said as he gazed into her eyes. In his head, Dante was hoping she would stay, but he understood if she wanted to go home.

Dante kissed Victoria's forehead and began to walk away, let her hand slowly slip from his, but still looking over his shoulder at her. He climbed the stairs and turned to go in the room on his right, as he hoped for something inside, but not entirely sure what it was. He made his way over to the new bed and slid his hand across the new blankets. He smiled and his hopes began to soar as he imagined it's comfort. He got into the bed and curled up underneath the blankets as his mind still raced with thoughts. He tried to push them away, most of which left, but a few happened to stick in place. He told himself that they were foolish and selfish. Dante laid there staring at the ceiling as he wished for the thoughts to go away so he could sleep.

"Son, he's dead. We tired all that we could."
"You couldn't have! Don't you have some sort of magical surgery?'
"He died in your hands son. It's too late. Maybe if we showed up in time-"
"Then why didn't you! Someone called when he showed up!"
"We couldn't risk the lives of our officers over some senseless gang violence. We get calls like this all the time. You should be used to it already. I'm sure this isn't the only person you lost because of this reason."
"You could've saved a life you piece of s**t. You could've stopped this. But you didn't."
"You watch your mouth son. I'm not afraid to arrest you."
"But you're afraid of that thug? You're a ******** pig. You're just a piece of s**t cop who takes the easy rode."
"Put your hands behind your back."
"Get the hell off of me."
"Oh so now you want to be charged with assault on a police officer too huh?"

"I said let me go!" Dante screamed as he tossed and turned in the bed. His eyes quickly opened as he shot up in bed. Sweat was pouring down his face now as he tried to shake the words from his head. He took off his shirt and used it to wipe away the sweat and threw it on the floor. He turned and sat on the edge of the bed as his feet dangling over the edge. He reached over to the Jack from his fridge, but realized that he wasn't at his mom's house anymore. Dante hit the end table next to his bed with his fist, knocking the new lamp to the floor, but he didn't care at that moment. He began to feel rage as he sat quietly. He wished that the memory would just leave. He wished that it would stop haunting him in his sleep. But it never did. He let out a muffled yell and hit the bed. All he wanted was a drink right now. He just wanted to forget about what had just happened, like he was used to doing, but he knew his butt would be chewed out by everyone. Dante just sat there staring at the floor, trying to forget the horrible memory in which he had just dreamt and trying to push the urge to drink aside.

Dante looked over at the door, frustration puffing out of his cheeks still, and he saw Victoria standing there innocently. She looked shaken and her knee had blood running down it. As he looked in her direction, the frustration and anger began to overwhelmed by compassion and worry, and he stood up off the bed. "A bad dream." He picked his shirt up off the floor and walked over to Victoria and knelled down in front of her. He wiped the blood off her knew with the shirt as he looked up at her. "What happened to you?" Dante asked, shifting his head back down, so that he could see what he was doing. He held the shirt there and applied pressure, hoping to stop the bleeding, so that he could see how bad it was. He looked back up at her and met her eyes. He didn't stay focused for long because he was more worried about the cut on her leg.

Dante walked over to the broken lamp. He stepped in front of Victoria, "I'll take car of this. Take a seat on the bed." Dante said as he turned towards her. He went back over and grabbed the shirt off the ground and looked at it. The grey fabric was now darker in some spots from the blood. Dante shrugged and went over in front of Victoria knelling once again. He ripped the shirt in half and wrapped on half around her hand and made sure it was tight. He wanted to control that, while he attended to her knee. "Have you ever had a bad memory turn into a dream?" Dante asked as he wrapped the shirt around her knee. He laughed at the thought. How could a memory turn into a dream? He didn't know how but it did. "It sucks. And it especially sucks when you wake yourself up screaming the last line of the memory." Dante sat down next to Victoria on the bed. He placed his hands in his lap and continued. "The lamp," Dante paused. "I hit the table out of anger. That's why the lamp fell." Dante looked over at Victoria. He wasn't used to sitting in the same bed with a girl without something happening. He began to think back to his past experiences, and he mentally punched himself, as he stood up to check on her hand and knee again. It had stopped bleeding, but the needed to wrapped with a gauze pad eventually. He smiled, "At least you won't need stitches.", he said as he sat back down next to her.

Dante laughed and partly smiled. "And so are you." He said he as he sat there trying to alleviate the awkwardness between them. He scooted closer to Victoria, but not too close, in fear that she would get the wrong impression. He looked over at her, but her attention was drawn to her knee. An overwhelming sensation to turn into his old self taunted him. His mind kept telling him to make a move. That she was just like the other ones. But he refused to fall victim. He laughed a little about that. He found it ironic that he considered himself a victim, when ever other time he was the victimizing people. He told himself that he wouldn't treat Victoria like the girls in the past. He would wait for her to make the move...if that ever happened. Dante put his hand on top of hers and took in the moment. His eyes slightly wandered to his watch to check the time. The group would be coming to his house soon, but he refused to break what was happening, even if it wasn't special or deep. Dante soon began to think about past few days. He realized that the attention wasn't on him as usual, perfectly shown just a few hours back. He started to long for attention and people wanting to be in his presence. He started to get angry at himself and thought that he must have done something. He pushed that aside and tried to turn his attention back to Victoria.