Maximilian’s jaw hung slack, full of shock. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what was happening. This simply could not be reality.
His head snapped left, finding an empty hallway.
He snapped it right, seeing just concrete and rust.
No guards.
No voices.
Nothing.
His pulse skyrocketed.
"GUARDS!" he shrieked, his voice breaking immediately. "GUARDS! This is death row! CONTACT BETWEEN INMATES IS FORBIDDEN! DO YOUR FUCKING JOBS!"
His screams ricocheted off the walls, desperate, panicked, and beyond humiliating. But in this moment, the man couldn’t care less.
Dante didn’t even flinch.
Instead, the giant lifted both hands... and began moving his fingers through the air.
Slow, precise motions.
As if he were conducting an orchestra,only he could hear.
His eyes slid closed, head tilting back slightly, savoring the sound of Maximilian’s terror like a man absorbing a symphony.
They kept going on like this for nearly a whole minute.
But then, having run out of air, Vice sucked in a ragged breath, pausing only to inhale.
"Aaahh..." Dante murmured, lips curling into bliss. "Music to my ears."
Maximilian’s throat burned. He staggered back, staring at the man, at the mountain of dark flesh in front of him. Dante was smiling.
Actually smiling.
Enjoying every second of his screams.
Vice’s panic doubled.
He opened his mouth and kept screaming, higher, more frantic, so much so that his throat began tearing with the strain. And Dante continued conducting, fingers flicking left, rising right, wrist turning with the elegance of a maestro drawing out a crescendo.
"I’ll pay you anything! ANYTHING! I still have friends! I still got people in high places! I’ll set you up with jobs away from this dead-end SHIT! JUST COME AND GET THIS MAN AWAY!"
Suddenly, Dante’s hand stilled.
He opened his eyes.
And the look that entered them shut Maximilian’s mouth instantly.
"Okay," Dante said calmly. "That is enough. I no longer find it amusing."
He stepped forward.
Just one step.
But inside that narrow steel stall, it was like a tank rolling into a closet. The air compressed around them. The walls seemed to close in. Maximilian’s spine flattened against the cold concrete as Dante’s presence swallowed the space.
In blind panic, Vice fumbled the bar of soap in his hand.
It slipped.
Time slowed.
Dante’s eyes tracked it...
A slow, downward glide...
Spinning once...
Twice...
Then...
*Tap.*
It hit the wet concrete with a soft clatter, bouncing once before settling in a small puddle between their feet.
The giant’s gaze followed it all the way down.
So did Maximilian’s. And on their way down, the recently sentenced man’s eyes noticed something. A slumbering, serpentine monster was staring back.
Maximilian couldn’t tear his eyes away. Every single memory he ever experienced was rushing past his head in a single moment, as if he were dying.
Then, slowly... very slowly... Dante lifted his head and saw the face Maximilian was making.
And the expression that spread across Dante’s face... Starting as a small twitch at the corner of his lips. Then stretching wider and wider...
Until it became a full, predatory, knowing grin.
"It’s rude to stare, y’know?" Dante mused, forcing Maximilian’s expression to snap up to his face.
"H–how... how is this happening...?" he stammered, voice paper-thin.
Dante chuckled, releasing a low and rolling sound.
"Thought you’d be safe in here, hmm? Thought the rules, the walls, the guards... Thought all that was gon’ keep the big bad wolves outta your little cage."
He tilted his head, that predatory grin never fading.
"Shoulda known better."
Maximilian pressed himself harder into the concrete, trembling.


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