CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Failure, that was the perfect word for how Damien felt. He pushed the flower vase that was on the counter on the floor and broke everything that he could lay his hands on. His silverware was the next, why couldn’t he just get anything right!

He slid to the floor, his hands digging into the broken glass, but the pain was exactly what he wanted, craved, and welcomed.

He ignored the blood that was running down the side of his hands. he picked up his phone that laid a few feet away from him. he put a call through his parents, he needed them to calm him down and help him think properly and he was yet to inform them what had happened to Lauren. Was Nathan even searching for her?

His mother picked up on the second ring but he wasn’t able to talk. He put the phone on the loudspeaker, just staring at it.

“Damme?” His phone called, using the name she used to call when he was little. He missed it, missed how he didn’t have anything to worry about as a kid.

“I’m here,” he finally answered, his voice cracking. Paula knew immediately that something was wrong.

“What happened?” she asked, concern and worry marring her voice.

Damien looked for the right words to tell her what had happened, he didn’t want his mother of all people blaming him for what had happened. There was just so much that was surrounding him.

“Lauren is dead,” he finally said, ripping the band-aid off, there was no need going round and round. It was better to just deal with it—that was what he’d told himself—but when his mother gasped, he knew they were the wrong words.

It was her turn to be quiet. She didn’t say anything to him for ten agonizing minutes. They just were there, listening to each other’s silence, neither of them knowing how to carry on with the conversation.

“How?” she finally asked, her voice unsteady and cracking, like it was a broken cord.

“She was on her way back when the jet blew up,” he answered and held his breath waiting for her reaction. He only heard her heavy breathing but no single word from her. he pushed his hair away from his face, realizing how long it had grown from neglect, he was going to cut it.

He was about to hang up when she spoke “Why an explosion?” she asked but he knew he wasn’t meant to answer.

“She was such a lovely girl, Damien. What you had was so beautiful and…” She broke off, sobbing so much that she wasn’t able to say another few words. He heard her blow her nose before she continued.

“I took her as a daughter, who would be so heartless to kill her,” she cried, Damien wished he was there to console her when in the actual sense he was the one that needed consoling the most. He heard a noise in the background and then his father’s voice.

“What did you tell her?” Gad asked, his voice stern.

“Lauren is dead,” Damien croaked, hating that he had to say it again.

His father said nothing but the silence didn’t hurt as much as his mother’s. his father was rather a rational man that deals more with logic than his feelings. That is why he was perfect with his emotional mother. their union was the true depiction of a perfect couple, they complimented themselves in more ways than one.

“Who do you think is behind this?” His father asked. Damien sighed in relief, his father immediately thought someone was playing in the scene instead of accusing him of her death. It meant so much to him.

“My best guess is Nathan, who took Harry a few days ago and I’ve been trying to find his location. What I don’t understand is why he would kill Lauren who he claimed to have loved so much,” Damien voiced his confusion to his father.

“Something does not feel right here,” his father said, “Many things are not adding up. Why go through the trouble of marring Lauren, only to kill her. I mean, he has wanted her for so long, why to end her now?”

“I keep asking myself the same,” Damien said, finally someone was reasoning with him.

“Unless…” his father broke off, deep in thought as he considered all the possible cases before he drew a conclusion that didn’t make sense, but it also seemed to be the only option that they were left with.

“She’s not dead,” Gab concluded.

“What?” Damien asked, surprised. He had expected his father to say many things but not this. She might have been dead, after all, he had watched the jet explode, right in front of him so to believe that she wasn’t dead was impossible for him.

“It can’t be,” he said to his father “I was there when it happened. The jet exploded right in front of me, a couple of feet from where I was standing. It isn’t possible that she survived that explosion,” he argued, trying to make his father see reason.

“I don’t know what happened Damien, I wasn’t there but one thing is for sure, that kid is still alive, I can feel it. It’s this hunch that I have.”

“And what if I believe you, and at the end of the day she turns up dead… I can’t go through that pain a second-time father,” he said, trying to keep his voice straight and tears at bay.

“Let’s lean towards the positive now, shall we? You have to focus on finding Harry, God knows what the poor boy is going through.”

“I’m on that. If I find Harry, hopefully I can get answers from Nathan about what happened with Lauren.”

Gab hummed “You should do that. Before I hang up, Nathan was here yesterday.”

“What?”

“Walked in on him and your mother having a conversation, she wouldn’t be what that was about but he blamed you for Jane’s murder.”

“Did he threaten you?” Damien asked.

“He wouldn’t dare, he knows just exactly who we are. He’d be stupid to cross us Damien but you, my boy, is our weakness. Be careful,” Gab said.

Damien nodded even though he knew Gab couldn’t see him. this was his way of saying ’I love you. Damien didn’t mind, he would take whatever he could get.

“Be careful too,” Damien said before hanging up.

*****

A figure outside the house watched Damien stand up and leave his kitchen, following him till he ended up in his bathroom. He watched Damien stare at himself in the mirror before grabbing a pair of scissors from the cabinet.

He held out his hair and just cut it, doing it haphazardly, making the strands of his hair uneven and blunt to the touch. When he was done it looked relatively better, considering that he was no professional at cutting hair.

He waited for him to step into the shower before going to the other side of the house and entering through the back door. He navigated carefully through the broken glass on the floor before entering Damien’s room to make sure he wasn’t coming out of anything soon.

He exited the room and looked at it from the inside before getting down to business, this should be easy for him. he walked through the house, letting his hand glide against the walls of the house. He hated what he was about to do but he had no choice, this was purely business for him.

A lot was at stake, it was either Damien’s life or that of his family. It was quite obvious which one he chose for even though he worshipped Damien and would do anything for him, his family mattered more to him.

He brought out a box that had been carefully hidden in his clothes and opened it. A black powdery substance was in it, the scent making him choke and cover his mouth so Damien wouldn’t hear him cough, not as he could anyway.

In a way he was helping Damien, relieving him of the pain that his life had become so he thought of it that way, he was helping an old friend not murdering him, which suited his conscience better.

With his glove-clad hand, he took a handful of powder from the box and sprinkled it along the lines of the walls. He started from the sitting room, making sure that it covered every corner before entering the storage room, then he stopped in front of the room Lauren had been staying at, God bless her soul.

He opened it slowly, careful not to make a sound, and entered inside. He smelt the sheets, sniffing in the slight smell of a rose that was her. He gripped the sheets, fisting them in his hand, and brought them up to his nose.

Wonderful. She had smelt wonderful. He dropped the sheet on the floor remembering that he wasn’t here for her. he sprinkled the powder on the bed, then on the sheets that were laying on the floor.

When he was sure that the entire house was covered, he made for the door when he heard Damien’s bathroom door open. He stilled, afraid to move and bust his cover. He heard him move around in the room before he heard his doorknob jiggle.

He moved swiftly to the kitchen where he hid behind the counter and waited for Damien to pass. He saw his feet from where he was hiding as he cleaned the mess of glass that he had created earlier. He watched closely as he disposed of the dirt.

He stood up to leave when Damien entered again, and in his haste, he fell back on his knees, scrapping them in the process. A piece of glass that had fallen there, pierced through his skin. He put his hand over his mouth to keep a scream from coming out due to the pain from the injury he just sustained.

He listened to Damien as he went back to his room. He took the opportunity and went back into the sitting room where he hid beside the couch. From there he had a clear view of the hallway. He only had to wait a little while to leave and accomplish the mission he was sent to do.

*****

Damien scrunched his nose. There was a foul smell in the air, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He already cleaned out the kitchen and took out the garbage but the stench smell was still in the air. he picked up his phone and called Luke who didn’t answer his call.

This was the first time, all the while he knew Luke that he didn’t pick his call. His heart started racing, thinking that something bad might have happened to him. He called his number again and listened to it go straight to voicemail. Something had to be wrong.

He pulled a shirt over his head and put on a pair of pants before finally pulling a cap over his head. The state of his hair wasn’t what he wanted to deal with at the moment, nor did he care how he looked.

If Luke wasn’t going to pick up, he had to go over and find out what was wrong. he already had a bad feeling about it.

He was passing the kitchen when he saw stains on the white tile. They were like little drops of blood that trailed from the kitchen to the sitting room. He searched the kitchen first and saw that it started from behind the counter.

His heart thudded as he followed the trail into the sitting room and beside the couch. He was around to look over it when someone sprung up and punched him in the face.

He acted fast. He dodged the next blow as he tacked the masked one to the ground. Something like some sort of remote fell from his hand and slid against the floor. Nathan must have sent someone to kill him, he thought.

They both scurried towards the device and struggled for it on the floor. In a bid to take it out of Damien’s hand, the man pressed the red button. Damien could see the regret in the man’s eyes and wondered what that button was for.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out for in a few seconds, his house exploded.