Eldritch May Cry

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

…

I broke into a sprint and noticed the doppelgänger did the same. Reaching my room, I opened the door, stepped inside, and shut the door behind me.

I thanked God that my door had a lock on it as I turned the lock. I needed to get out of here quickly.

My room was very basic in hindsight. A bed, desk, gaming computer, closet, and drawers.

I quickly ran toward my window and opened it as wide as I could. As I did so, I heard the doppelgänger banging on the door.

…

(Third POV:)

*BANG*

The misshapen doppelgänger kicked down the door. Its long tongue slithering out of its mouth to lick its teeth as it did so.

With the door broken, it looked around the room and instantly noticed the open window.

Running up to the window, it smelled the base of the window. It could smell its target on the window; the smell was far greater than just a touch.

Its prey must have taken time to crawl through the opening, and as the doppelgänger looked out the window, it noticed toilet paper gliding through the air.

That was all it needed as the doppelgänger slowly began going through the window head first.

*SQUELCH*

"AEUUUGHHHH!!" The doppelgänger screamed. The back of both its knees had been cut.

An instant later, the doppelgänger was pushed headfirst out the window.

*THUD*

The sound of its body hitting the concrete below sounded out. Dante smirked as he looked out the window.

With both knives in hand, Dante jumped from the window. He landed feet first on the back of the twitching doppelgänger.

"You fucked up! You chose the wrong house, motherfucker!!" Dante screamed as he brought a knife down to the back of the head of the doppelgänger.

The doppelgänger's movement instantly stopped as the knife met the back of its head. Red blood gushed out the back of its head.

"Hah. Hah. Hahh." Dante panted, but quickly, his eyes widened. He quickly raised the knife he didn't stab the doppelgänger with. "Double tap! Double tap! DOUBLE TAP!!!"

The doppelgänger twitched multiple times, indicating it was still alive, as Dante repeatedly stabbed his knife into its back.

Only when he stabbed at its throat and completely drove the knife into the side of its windpipe did the doppelgänger stop showing reactions.

"Hehe... HAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Dante laughed like a madman, relief washing over his very being.

Taking both knives out of the creature, Dante stood up.

'Using the toilet paper, I wiped underneath my armpits and dragged the paper around the base of the window. I knew I couldn't keep the paper, so I threw it out the window and hid in the closet.

The window was wide open, and from what I know of doppelgängers, they hate losing their prey and will chase after them. Once I saw the doppelgänger try and go headfirst through the window, I knew it was time to act. My plan was flawless.' Dante thought with a smirk.

Taking a key from his pocket, Dante unlocked the front door and opened it. The darkness was no longer bothering him as he turned on the living room light and then shut his front door.

Going up to his room, Dante sat in the chair next to his desk that held the gaming computer.

'These doppelgängers seem to be heavily resistant to bodily harm and use any means necessary, even playing dead, to lure their prey into a false sense of security.' Dante thought as he frowned.

One thing didn't make sense to Dante, no matter how much he thought about it. His original mother seemed to not be in the house.

He didn't know if this world even had a version of his mother in it, and if he was truly Dante in this world, then where was Vergil?

'Hahaha. If there was a Vergil in this world, then wouldn't that mean there would be...' Dante froze that thought.

'Dante and Vergil are twins and look exactly the same.' Dante thought, with a hint of horror starting to graze his face.

'That means,' Dante thought, looking at the black monitor in front of him as his thoughts connected the dots. 'There would be two identical doppelgängers.'

While Dante contemplated this, a second face that was identical to his own appeared in the reflected darkness of the monitor.

Its face was identical to his, with only a lipless, crooked smile and too many teeth giving it away.

It stood not too far away, behind him, as if waiting to pounce on him.

Dante cringed as he realized he didn't have his knives. They had blood on them, and he didn't want them to stain anything. It would be terrible if he got blood on his shirts or pants and didn't notice until someone pointed it out.

In the next instant, everything changed. Dante stood up from his seat as quickly as he could, kicking the chair away as he did so.

The doppelgänger ran towards him as he got into a boxing stance. It tried to grab Dante. However, he swiftly slipped under its grasp and punched it in the face.

As the doppelgänger recoiled, Dante changed his position in the room to give himself more room to move around.

Both Dante and the doppelgänger began to circle each other. One holds an angry expression, and the other has a crooked, ever-present smile.

"You both are very unlucky," Dante grew another smirk as he spoke. "I took and still take Muay Thai and boxing as a sport. You probably can't even understand me, so it doesn't matter."

As soon as Dante finished speaking, the doppelgänger rushed him. It threw a jap that Dante slipped under.

Another two jabs came at Dante, in which he slipped under the first one and stepped back for the last one.

The doppelgänger left itself open with the final jab it threw, and Dante wasn't one to let an opening go.

Quickly stepping in to take up space in the doppelgänger's guard, Dante gave the creature a hard liver punch. The creature visibly recoiled from the hit and took a step back.

Dante once again took advantage and gave the creature two precise jabs to the face.

The creature stumbled as Dante then grabbed it by the shirt and pushed it into the hallway.

'The thing about these horror doppelgängers,' Dante thought as he stepped to the side and tilted his head to dodge a punch aimed at his face. 'They might be abnormally durable, but they're still human in a sense, so beat the shit out of them like they are one!'

With the doppelgänger fully open, Dante sent a devastating punch to its chin.

The doppelgänger once again recoiled. The doppelgänger's back hit the railing on the second floor.

Dante ran in, his fist flying toward the face of the doppelgänger with rage written across his face.

As the punch landed, Dante threw more and more punches. The doppelgänger could do nothing but try and hold its hands up to protect its face.

"What's wrong?! WHAT'S WRONG?!!!" Dante screamed as he lay punch after punch into the creature.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR SMILE?!" Dante once again screamed as he threw lefts and rights straight into the supernaturally durable doppelgänger.

Dante threw a hard punch into its stomach, causing it to almost collapse forward. Giving the creature an uppercut, Dante gave it two more punches to the chest.

The doppelgänger's face once again faced Dante's direction as he gave a left hook into a punch directly into the creature's throat.

The creature grabbed at its throat as Dante pulled his fist back far and punched it in the face so hard it flew over the railing and fell down the stairs.

Dante felt something click inside him but just jumped over the railing and onto the stairs.

Before the doppelgänger could get up, Dante jumped over its body and ran to the kitchen. Grabbing a knife, Dante gritted his teeth and ran back to the doppelgänger.

The doppelgänger was now standing as Dante rushed toward it.

"You enter my house!" Dante screamed as he dodged a wavering punch the doppelgänger threw out.

Dante slashed the arm of the doppelgänger. It once again visibly recoiled and pulled its bleeding arm back.

"You attack me!" Dante continued screaming as he stabbed into the now defensive doppelgänger.

"AND YOU TRY TO STEAL MY IDENTITY?!" Dante's knife was pulled from the wound of the doppelgänger as he screamed.

Breaking into the guard of the doppelgänger, Dante aimed the knife at its neck, and due to its wounds, its inability in hand-to-hand combat, and its lack of intelligence, Dante's knife struck true.

As the doppelgänger choked on the knife, Dante began walking forward, which caused the doppelgänger to walk backward due to the knife in its throat.

Dante quickly reached his front door, opened it, and walked the doppelgänger outside his house.

"Doppelgängers are only as dangerous as you allow them to be. They're no more than zombies if you fight back. They only become intelligent when they take over a person's identity. That's why in all media that have doppelgängers as the main enemy, they have to have a group of them with at least one having at least human intelligence." Dante said as he began twisting the knife.

The doppelgänger quickly began crumpling, but Dante didn't believe it as he quickly pulled out the knife only to stab into its body over and over. Once he was done, he stabbed into its skull.

Taking the knife out, Dante walked back inside, shutting and locking the door behind him. Making sure to wash the knives, Dante went back to his room.

Picking up the chair that had been overturned due to the fighting, Dante sat in it.

"Hahh." Dante let out a sigh as he sat in the chair. "What do I do now?"

It was a question that came from his soul. What should he do? All he knew was gone—his family, friends, and even reality.

Was this world really eldritch-infested, or was it just a couple of different cryptids?

Dante didn't know, and unlike Dante from Devil May Cry, he didn't have any of the special abilities, so he couldn't set up "Eldritch May Cry."

"Maybe I should try and set up shop? Eldritch May Cry doesn't sound half bad."