Chapter 33: Damion

Two weeks.

Two fucking weeks and not once have I caught even a glimpse of any of my mates in my dreams.

Zain would have got out of solitary a week ago.

And Amri…I have no clue why she wouldn't be there.

It's making me panic, and the last thing I need to do is panic. Today is my court hearing for the charges Melford has brought against me for sleeping with a patient. Apparently, I put their business reputation at stake due to the accusations Royce was making before he died.

Melford is bringing its case to me based on what Royce reported – that he saw me in a physical relationship with both Amri Glass and Zain Vaviri.

It's bullshit.

It's true, of course, but he never saw anything. All he had was speculation. But, since he told his ‘friends' - the ones that paid Melford a lot of money for him to be there, and then he got killed, Melford is now pressing charges for me being in a sexual relationship with patients who were apparently ‘incompetent'.

I don't know what pisses me off more, the fact that there are charges being pressed against me at all, or the fact that they're calling my mates incompetent.

"Damion." I look over to see my lawyer, Mr. Kikas, staring directly at me. "The judge has asked you three times now to get on the stand."

"Oh," I stand up, straightening out my suit and looking up to the judge. "I'm sorry, Your Honor."

"Please proceed to the witness stand, Mr. Blide." He motions to the seat beside him.

Well, shit. We're only twenty minutes into the hearing and already I've left a bad first impression with the man who will decide my fate.

I can't help it, though. With Jyl gone and being cut off from my mates, I've spent a lot of time in my head the past few weeks.

It's odd to be back to civilization at this point. I've had my groceries delivered, ordered food in, and have barely even gotten dressed. The only time I've even gone past my front porch in the last two weeks was to come here and to go to my sister's funeral.

It was a beautiful service, exactly what my sister would have wanted. It was small, though. Only a few family friends came. No family besides me to send her off, and no one from Melford wanted to come and fraternize with me due to my pending charges.

That was six days ago.

Shaking my thoughts free, I walk up to the witness stand and take a seat. They quickly swear me in, and the lawyer from Melford begins to approach.

"Mr. Blide, were you a nurse at Melford Mental Institution?"

I control the urge to roll my eyes. I know why they have to ask these sorts of questions. In fact, my lawyer prepared me for it. But they seem so redundant.

"Yes, I was."

The lawyer nods. "How long did you work there?"

"Four years."

He nods again. "And in that time, have you ever engaged in a romantic relationship with a patient?"

I sigh. Here come the questions that will make the jury look at me like I'm not even human. I was warned about these questions, too; and warned not to lie. They apparently were able to find video of Amri and me holding hands, me sneaking kisses with both Amri and Callyx and me going into both of their rooms, even though footage of me actually in the rooms can't be found.

"Yes, but – "

The lawyer holds up his hand. "That was a yes or no question, Mr. Blide. No buts needed." He clears his throat. "Did you ever engage in a romantic relationship with more than one patient?"

"Yes."

"And what were the names of these patients?"

Were? I echo my thoughts. "Don't you mean ‘are'? What are the names of these patients?"

I see him grimace, and the hairs on the back of my neck instantly rise. "No, Mr. Blide, I do not. Now, back to my question, what were the names of these patients?"

Why is he using the past tense? Did something happen? Is that just lawyer talk? I don't understand.

"Amri Glass and Zain Vaviri."

His lips flatten. "Do you think your actions with both patients affected them?"

I open my mouth and then close it, not knowing how to answer this question. I don't think my lawyer went over this line of questioning with me.

"What do you mean?"

He sighs. "Do you think your romantic relationship with Amri Glass and Zain Vaviri affected them in any way?"

"Well, yes. The relationship made us all happy."

The lawyer looks back at his team behind him before continuing his questions. "If that is true, why would they both commit ritualistic suicide? Don't you think, based on their actions, that you could have affected them so strongly, in such a negative way, that they both took their own lives?"

My heart pounds, echoing in my ears as the court waits for my response. But I don't have one.

Ritualistic suicide?

I would have known…they would have told me if they were planning something. I…was it all a lie?

I look to Mr. Kikas, wondering why the hell he didn't tell me about the suicides, but I find him flipping through his notes.

They didn't tell him, either.

Fuck this. I'm not waiting on some stuck-up lawyers to explain things.

I stand up, walking off the witness stand.

"Mr. Blide. If you leave this courtroom, you are forfeiting your right to a re-trial. I will not be sitting through your incompetence again."

There's that word again. I turn around, "If I'm incompetent, too, then this whole trial is fucked. "

The guards at the end of the walkway put their hands on their tasers, and I tense, immediately preparing for the worst, but my lawyer speaks up behind me.

"Your Honor, could we take a recess? My client was not prepared for this new information."

I don't wait for the judge's answer, I walk straight out the door, right past the two guards still palming their weapons. I turn to the left, heading for the doors that will take me outside. I need some air.

"Damion! Damion, wait!"

I turn to see Mr. Kikas following me. "I bought us a few minutes, but you have to go back in there. It will compromise your trial if you don't."

Shrugging, I turn and walk out the doors to the courthouse, "It doesn't matter anymore, Kikas."

I walk straight to my car, unlocking it, and sliding behind the wheel before pulling my phone out and searching for articles about Melford.

There we go. It's the very first article on the top.

"Leaked photos show double ritualistic suicide at Melford Mental Institution."

Fuck.

I click on the link and scroll down. It's not really an article, it's more of a photo gallery.

The first set of photos is Zain, or Callyx – who knows which one actually did it. There are circles filled with runes with him lying in the middle. There's blood…everywhere.

The second set...that's Amri.

Where Zain's drawings and death were bloody, but neat, hers is completely the opposite. There are drops of blood surrounding her, footsteps where she stepped on the same drawing that Zain was on. Her hair is wild around her and blood soaks through her Melford shirt. A closer look reveals what she used to take her life.

A pen. A fucking pen.

I can't help but chuckle. Of course, my wild, untamable mate, would use a fucking pen.

My heart speeds up as I see another drawing next to her head. One that wasn't in Zain's photos.

I zoom into the picture to read what she wrote, and when I do, I swear my heart stops completely.

Damion.

She wrote my name. She didn't forget about me. This is her message to me to follow her, to follow Zain. She wants me with them.

I scramble to put my keys in the ignition, starting up my car and slamming on the gas.

I have to get home. I have to find them.

I speed through town, running red lights and receiving many middle fingers from all the people I speed around, but none of it matters.

When I pull into my driveway, I shut off the car and run inside. I'm not as fearless as my mates are, so there's no way I'd be able to draw the circles and runes in my own blood. But I do have a marker. I just hope the blood doesn't matter as much.

Using the leaked photos as a guide, I draw out what of the ritual I can see, piecing different parts of Zain's and Amri's pictures until I have the full thing in front of me.

Now, all I have to do is die.

Again, I'm not as brave as my mates, and there's no way I could stab myself and bleed out. I don't own a gun, so that's out of the question. I doubt I could pull the trigger anyway.

I hit myself on the head with the palm of my hand over and over again. What do I do? What do I do?

And then it hits me. Sleeping pills.

Jyl had sleeping pills prescribed since she worked such odd hours and could never get a good sleep schedule set. I run into the back room where I have all of Jyl's things I collected from her apartment.

I search through the boxes, tossing them to the side until I find the one labeled from her bathroom.

Perfect.

I rip it open, digging through her belongings until I see the medicine all the way to the bottom. I pick up bottle after bottle until I finally find it.

Diazepam.

Grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen, I then run back into my living room where the circles and runes are drawn on my hardwood floor.

I open the medicine bottle, pouring what looks like almost the full thing into my mouth before I chug water to wash it down.

Laying down on the floor, in the same exact spot I saw Amri and Zain lay, my mind starts to get hazy. I wonder if death is painful.

I never considered suicide. Even with my parents dying when I was young, even with all the horrible foster parents Jyl and I suffered through, killing myself was never an option. I wanted to do better. I wanted to be the brother my sister needed. I wanted to be the son that would have made my parents proud.

And even though I'm doing this for love…even though I feel like I'm making the best decision for my heart…I can' t help but feel like I failed them.

I feel my eyes close as my heart begins to slow. The outside noises are going quiet as my body feels like it begins to float. I try to move my fingers, just to see if I can, but I'm too numb to know if it worked or not.

This is it. I'm dying.

I find the strength to open my eyes and find myself standing up instead of lying down like I thought I was.

What the…

"Well, this is a pitiful excuse of a ritual."

I turn around, shock filling me as I realize there's someone in my house. Someone I know. Someone unwelcome.

Balthazar.

He smirks, looking down to the floor instead of at me. I follow his gaze, gasping and stumbling back when I see my body on the floor.

I'm dead.

I move my hands, realizing I once again feel my fingers. Looking down at myself, I realize my body isn't a body at all. I'm light. A ball of pure light.

Balthazar looks up, his gaze finally finding me. "You missed quite a few runes. The ritual should have taken you directly to the Underworld, but, lucky for me, your soul needed collecting instead."

I don't say anything, trying to wrack my brain to figure out which runes I missed. I thought I got everything in the pictures, but it's possible I missed some from the angle of the pictures and all the blood.

"The other two of you have managed to slip by me, entering into the Underworld and then disappearing completely, but you...you're the key to getting them back."

That catches my attention. "What? "

He chuckles, "You will be the bait, dear boy. And when I finally have all three of you, I can show my son what happens when he tries to overthrow me."

I try to run, a lifetime on this Earth is clearly the better option than being Balthazar's prisoner, but it's no use. Balls of light don't run.

Instead, a black hole opens beside me, and I get sucked straight into it.