How fucked would it be that this entire time, Damien was just over twenty miles from home? He’s been right under our noses this entire fucking time, and we fell for all of their lies and tricks! We’ve been chasing leads all over this side of the country, and we just had to look right in our own backyard.
Chapter 43
Damien
‘Look To Windward’ – Sleep Token
It’s snowing. The flower petals are decaying and falling all around me. They’ve burned to ash like everything else, and the spiced scent fills the room. She secretly loved receiving those flowers. I never bought her enough. She should’ve always had a collection of them on our countertop, and now they’re dying with her. There’s so much more I should’ve done for her, and now I’ll never have the chance to make up for the time I’ve lost.
I’m almost there. The cold covers me like a blanket, and I’m letting it consume me. There’s nothing but darkness now. I’ve made it to space, only there’s no stars like I thought there would be. It’s dark—just a solid void. All of my fire has died out. The moment my wife left this universe, so did every other good thing in it.
The ashes have mixed with my tears and are caked to my face. With every twitch, my skin cracks and pulls, sending a wave ofrevulsion through me. Bugs continuously crawl under and along my flesh, and I’m both too hot and cold. My hair sticks to my face, and I can’t move to tear it away. Every nuisance just adds to the ticks. I’m silently begging for it all to end. I deserve to suffer, but fuck, I don’t want to anymore. It hurts too much. It all just fucking hurts…
“Damien!”
She keeps trying to break this spell. Just when I think I’ll finally sink low enough, her voice breaks me out of it.
“Damien, please! You have to snap out of this!” Victoria screams. “I need you! My sister needs you! Please! She’s only four years old. I can’t do this alone!”
She’s worried about herself. That’s all. None of them were concerned for my wife, or my baby. They all saw her as bait. The thought is infuriating. She dares to ask me for help when she is partially to blame? Just as I was thinking we could be cut from a similar cloth, she reminds me that hers is made of the finest materials. This may not be her fault, but I can’t look at her. She shouldn’t even want me to help her sister. It’s clear that I’m not useful to anyone. I can’t protect anyone.
The door slams open, and that forces me to open my eyes. DeLuca and Saconne both storm inside with a new fury lit under their asses. Saconne reaches out and grabs Victoria by the throat and then pulls her so close to his face that she grimaces.
“I knew it! You sneaky little cunt!” He spits in her face, then throws her to the ground. DeLuca’s eyes meet mine, and I hold her stare. The black void is morphing into a scarlet hatred, and hell’s fire blooms throughout my body. The devil has a plan for me before I leave this earth, and I’m looking right at it.
“Don’t look so disgusted,feccia. We’ll get back to your training as soon as we’re through with her. Perhaps we should let you do the honors and let you release some of that pent-up aggression.” She smirks wickedly then turns around to witness Victoria’sassault. Saconne is lashing out at her with all of his might. My fingers twitch with fury as I watch her receive hit after hit. She tries to fight back, and that only fuels my inferno.
My wife fought back. Every time someone laid a finger on her, she pulled out her claws and scratched, just to make sure they bled as well. Victoria is fighting much in the same way, even though she doesn’t have a chance in hell. That spirit is something to admire. It’s another testament to the strength of a woman. It barely holds a candle to the strength my wife possessed, though. They managed to extinguish her fire, but I’ll allow mine to rage in her place.
Her whimpers and groans echo between the walls, and they sound just like Ashia’s. Memories rush to the surface, and flashes of her flicker to life. Every moment she was in pain plays through my mind. Hugo. Cooper. Her screams after she realized I was gone. It’s their fault.Theydid this to us, and they continue to force their violence onto others. I try to jerk out of the chair, but the restraints don’t allow me to move very much. My body strains with the effort, and all I hear is that infuriating ‘tsk tsk’ from DeLuca.
“Oh, poor, poor,feccia. So desperate to save any soul he can. It’s too bad his wife was not one of them,” she taunts, and I snarl back at her.
My grief is forming into anger. Pure. Unadulterated. Hatred.Shecaused my wife weeks of agony before her painful death.Heratrocities spanned through the void and reached Ashia’s purity. My father suffered atherhands. My mother is forever scared by years of torment atherchoosing. Gianna DeLuca is a name etched into the walls of hell by the devil himself.Sheis the exact evil that generations of soldiers have fought to rid the world of.
I may not be able to deliver her eternity of suffering, but I will be the one that brings her to her cage. The beast that resides within me, the one that I’ve kept at bay for my love, has clawedits way out. My veins constrict with the call, and I can feel myself changing. She wanted me to become a monster, and now it’s heard her demand. I have a date with my wife in the afterlife, but I’ll be sure to finish my last assignment before I go.
Victoria screams as Saconne throws her against the wall. Her body collapses as she attempts to brace for the impact, but she hits so harshly that her head smacks against the stone. As she scrambles, her hands claw at the wall behind her. There’s not a chance for either one of us, but she’s fighting like there is. She’s stupid for thinking of it.
“You have tested us for the last time, Victoria!” Saconne screams at her. “You’ve only damned yourself and your sister by acting so irrationally! Your father has kept her hidden away. Just as he did for you! I may not be able to kill you yet, but I know just how to break you! I’ll see to it that you witness her in my grasp before you die!”
I start to tremble with rage. What’s left of my heart pounds in my ears, and the blood rushes to every inch of my body that it can. These vile, disgusting, demonic beings would threaten a four-year-old girl? They would simply use her as a toy? Of course they would. That’s another reason they were dropped on my plate. They were always meant to be my demise, but I was meant to deliver theirs in return. It’s now or never. Either I kill them today, or they walk the earth victorious, with my wife’s death as a trophy. I can’t let that happen.
Victoria’s eyes meet mine, and she gasps, like she saw her only salvation. She snaps her gaze back to the wall behind her, and I can see where she aims before she even reaches for it. The wall she leans against has just become our weapon—the wall with the stone button. The monster charges in my chest the moment her hand starts to move. My time has come.
“Damien, NOW!” She leaps to her knees and slams her hand on the button. The moment the cuffs release my wrists, I snapinto motion. I lash out and grasp DeLuca’s throat in my hand, feeling the strongest I have in weeks. She yelps and thrashes, trying to fight me off, but I don’t let up. It’s almost as if she weighs nothing when I lift her off the ground. I squeeze her boney neck like if I were to just break it, it’d change the torture I’ve endured. None of this would’ve ever happened. I’ll wake up from falling asleep at my desk, and I’ll be able to go home to my wife and baby.
Sinful!
The voices call to me again. My demons block everything else out. They’re no longer speaking to me. They’re demanding her sacrifice and bowing to their will as the most admirable thing I’ve ever committed.
Corrupt!
I squeeze even tighter, and watch as her face turns red. Her nails don’t penetrate my skin, and the kicks from her feet have no force behind them. I’m so hollow, so numb, that I don’t feel anything. My last moments are solely to end her pathetic life.
Foul!
I hear metal clanking behind me, and I briefly see a couple of bodies run into the room, but they’re too late. Nothing could possibly tear my hand away. She will see all of the pain she’s caused in my eyes before she meets her demise. My swirling vision will give her a glimpse of the torture she’ll endure in hell.
