Divine Carnival--Short Story

Retain My Paradise

Lethe Beattie is seen at a club, where she feels claustrophobic, so she leaves abruptly and goes to the upstairs dance area. The upstairs dance room is not so crowded and has an intimate scenario to it. Lethe dances to the music in her skimpy dress and decides to leave. She is seen back at home, she is a young lady that comes from a middle class family. Lethe begins to read Hilary Duff's debut novel, Elixir, and falls asleep on the two chapters from the book. The first dream displays her as a singer and Dante as a pianist. She leaves after belting out the last notes and received an enormous applause. Dante and her are reunited before talking about running away, just when they're about to kiss; Lethe wakes up from the dream. Lethe wonders why would she dream about Dante, she brushes aside but it's been on her mind. 

After reading three or four chapters of Elixir, Lethe fell asleep again & another dream begins. The second dream is where Lethe is seen in front of the mirror, where Dante presents her with a bouquet of roses. She shares a romantic moment with him and they embrace. Lethe wakes up from the dream again and she wonders why is this happening to her! The third dream is where she is in a boat with Dante, who is rowing it. They talk to each other of plans for the futures, before passionately kiss each other. One day, Dante and Lethe attend to a Brazilian themed Carnival, where they're having a good time. Dante is surprised to discover that Lethe is an excellent samba dancer as she & Dante go sight seeing before heading towards a bar however Lethe sees some dancing going on. 

"Wanna dance?" asked Lethe. Dante looks anxious, "I don't know how..." He start to say but Lethe takes his hand and smile, "Come on, I'll show you." she said. They wander to the sambaing party and join them. "OK, what do I do?" Dante shouting over the music. "Dance with the beat." called Lethe before moving her hips and arms to the beat. "Holy--I can't do that, I got two left feet!" Dante said as he dance frenziedly but Lethe puts a calm hand on him gently and said with a small laugh, "Easy, you're out of bounds. Here, I'll teach you." she shows him the steps in samba and Dante seems good at it. "See, you got it!" commented Lethe. She smiles as Dante flushes red at her beauty. "Phew." sighed Dante. "You OK? You're blushing." Lethe said. "Yeah, T-that was fun." Dante admits with a smile. "Wanna give it another try?" Lethe asked. "Hell yes!" exclaimed Dante and they start sambaing. But they were sambaing so much, they tripped and tumble over and Dante finds himself on top of Lethe. The two are blushing at this moment. "Dante." croaked Lethe. "Lethe, I--" Dante tried to explain but he saw her hollow cleavage and can see bruises across her ample bosom. He looked away from them but Lethe chokes out, "Dante, I have something to tell you..." she whispered. 

Paradisa runs into Virgil and they have an awkward encounter. Paradisa apologizes as she claims of losing her mind. After hanging out for a little while, Virgil & Paradisa have an intimate encounter in the indoor pool, but pulled away as they both discover they have fallen in love with each other! Watching them, The girl gets excited when she realize that the love triangle is becoming a love rectangle. In the mid-fall, Dante, Virgil, Paradisa, and Lethe are seen on their break, where they enjoy a great time at Marco Island. The girl is seen dancing and splashing in the shallow water of the beach. Her name turns out to be Sophie after Dante made a proper introduction to herself.   

The psychedelic experiences starts off with Paradisa & Lethe are seen lounging in their hotel room as they talk about their love for Dante. Realizing that they both love him; The girls come up with ways to win Dante McBethel's affections. Lethe comes up with the idea of psychedelic experiences of the usage of hallucinating drugs. Lethe reveals she has some in her Iridescent bag, Paradisa is unsure about this idea so the girls decide to think about it. In the afternoon; Paradisa and Lethe are seen in the swimming pool but are surprised to see Dante there too! While hanging out, The three of them go on doing crazy fun and scaring others. 

More psychedelic experiences cause them to go insane but Dante, Paradisa, and Lethe stop with the psychedelic after experiencing premonition-like nightmares of them suffering from K-hole & bad trips. They dispose of the drugs however they are haunted by disturbing images from their daydreams. That's when Paradisa discovers her period and is experiencing emotional mood swings. Dante is disturbed by the blood-stained underwear as Lethe briefly explains of the monthly cycle that a girl goes through and gives Paradisa tampons until she passed out after her cramps, bloating, and mood swings. Paradisa has a fear of being pregnant and takes a test but it says she is not so she is relieved and decides to be more careful.

Long ago, A young girl lived with her family in harmony but it all changed when their house is on fire by a thunderstorm. The girl and her family evacuated but her father goes back into the building house, despite his family's pleas. All of a sudden, the house blows up as the girl screams out for her father while tears stream down her face. The girl's life change when she was drowning until an aquatic Martian rescued her and experimented her; giving her powers to breathe underwater and to swim fast. One day, Boyd is a young adult/teen now as well as Hunter and Candice, even Adrienne is too. 

They seem to be attacked but Hunter and Adrienne escaped as Candice saves the day but Manny is nearly dying from the attack. "Boyd!" cried Manny. "Hang in there, Grandpa!" said Boyd. "Oh God, ugh! Please help me....Blood? blood! Oh dear Lord!" "Grandpa!" exclaimed Boyd, tears streaming down his face but the mysterious Candice has a syringe, saying: "Remain serene, you might feel a jab." "Wha--?" gasped Manny. However he is knocked out and wakes up by his grandson's voice, "Grandpa?" "Boyd? Am I OK?" Manny asked in a frazzled tone. "Um, yeah! Sort of..." Boyd replied nervously. Manny is relieved but he noticed that something is wrong: "Wha--What in blazes?! There's a tube in my arm? No, get it out!" Manny tried to pull it but Boyd stop him. "Grandpa, it's OK! Take it easy." Boyd said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "It's ok. It's not stuck, I'm giving you a blood transfusion. It was really hard, if I didn't give you the transfusion in time then you would've died of blood loss." rambled Candice.

Boyd and his grandpa questions Candice about how she knows all of this, "Oh, that part. It's complicated--" She said nervously. "Complicated?" asked Boyd. "There's some stuff I didn't tell you guys about, I was afraid you would consider me a total freak. I'm a--A--God, I don't know how to say it but--" stutters Candice. Finally; Candice blurts it out, "I'm a secret agent!" "What?" Boyd exclaimed however he is saved from a lackey. She smiles as Manny and Boyd look in awe. "Don't worry, don't reject me!" she cried. She helps Boyd and Manny escape as she tells them about her story. Boyd runs into a woman name Lady Nora Kosco and ask her about anyone that can help him out with finding Lost. 

"I know a pretty good smart chick. Sophie Kosco." Lady Kosco said with a smile. Boyd looked at her with disbelief, "You're joking right?" he said with a laugh. "No, she did some research on you, Candice, Hunter, and Adrienne." confirmed Lady Kosco. "What?" Boyd looked surprise. "She is quite unique. She calls herself 'Freak Girl' but she's more than just a freak, she's different in every way." said Lady Kosco with a confident glance. "Why would she research me? And Candice? And Adrienne and Hunter?" demanded Boyd. Lady Kosco shrugged her shoulders while replying, "Curiosity. She can't help it. Hey, do you know Sophos Brunon?" Boyd shook his head, "No." he said. "He is Sophie's manipulative, selfish, and bastard father....And my ex husband" Lady Kosco replied.

That's when the day comes: Virgil, Boyd, Hunter, Lethe, Paradisa, Candice, and Adrienne confront Lost as they uncover his identity as Dante McBethel! Before anything can happen, an explosion occurs however Virgil, Boyd, Hunter, Lethe, Paradisa, Candice, and Adrienne escape but there is no sign of Dante as the others gave him up for loss and call themselves Divine Carnival. Two weeks later; A 12 year old boy, Michael, and his talented yet attractive butler, Adam Hamilton. They are searching for Dante McBethel for a strange reason. Dante turns out to have survive from the explosion that happened and wakes up in a alternate reality. Virgil is an undercover agent to spy on Aeneus and what he is planning. But he is disturbed by his dysfunctional family members. The daughter, Jezebel, is a nymphomaniac while his brother name Samael is having an incestuous relationship with his mother, Lilith. 

At the same time; Lost's army are now part of society as respected civilians that don't need Lost anymore since he is now gone. In the meantime, Dante hacks into Aeneus's stuff with help from Adam but they get hacked by Plutus. Angry that he'll never see his friends again, Dante screams out Virgil's name, who hears it and learns that Dante is alive before talking to him telepathically. Virgil tells Paradisa, Boyd, Adrienne, Candice, Hunter, Lethe, and Sordello of what he discovered. Michael uses a technological virus to kill Plutus and congratulate Dante, who demands to know who is Michael. Young Michael begins to sob a little as he reveals to be Dante's younger brother. Dante is shocked as he apologizes before embracing his own brother in a reunion as Adam smiles at this touching moment as the McBethel Brothers are back together again. 

In the meantime, Raphael makes a deal to Aeneus that he will be the imprisonment slave to Aeneus but it all change when Raphael meets Gretel. Raphael plans to break the deal with Aeneus, who finds out and tries to murder Rapahel however Gretel sets Raphael free from Aeneus's grasp. Later, Aeneus killed his family after learning the incestuous affair between his son and wife. He is confronted by Virgil, who has someone with him: Dante. Dante fights his uncle while learning his true intentions that Aeneus raped Lady McBethel and finally killed her but Eve witnessed this. She and Dante went off to escape. That's when, Aeneus fears of being arrested for his crime and sent his loyal servant, Plutus, to murder Eve. Enraged; Dante murder his uncle with potassium chloride syringe. Once it is over, Dante and Virgil forgive each other and decide to settle the score later. They walk away.