Chapter Twenty Six

It was almost noon when she woke up. She turned and saw Damian beside her. She groaned and turned to face him

“You’re back” she said
“Yes I am. I couldn’t stay another day with you and Justin kept calling me to come back home. I couldn’t stay away any longer” Damian said
“Did you just say Justin?” Anna asked
“Yes beautiful. Why?” He asked
“That lying son of a bitch. He said he had no way of getting in touch with you”
“I asked him to”
“Lie to me?” Anna asked
“It was the only way to get you focused. I needed you to stop looking for me but you are stubborn and strong headed so I had to come back home myself” he said
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to be glad that you’re back or I’m supposed to be mad” she said
“You have every reason to be mad at me for leaving. I shouldn’t have left you like that” he said
“Yeah, you shouldn’t !” she snapped at him
“Do you remember anything from last night?” he asked her
“Your dad. He drugged me and I don’t remember what happened after that. Did something happen?” she asked scared.
“Nothing did. I got here in time. How do you feel?” he asked
“A little trippy but I think I’ll be good after a while. Why are you here? You said you needed space and time away from all this. I wasn’t sure if you were going to see me until we returned back to school” she said
“Why wouldn’t I see you until then?” he asked her
“I don’t know. You said you needed space” she reminded him
“And I’m back now, I don’t think that should be an issue” he said
“I didn’t say it was. I’m just curious about how your father attacks me and you show up at the same time” she said
“I am here now and that’s all that matters. Stop asking questions that have no answers. I just have to make sure you’re safe from now on. I am not letting you out of my sight and if you have an issue with it, then you can stay in this room all day with a barrier spell around it because you wouldn’t be going anywhere without an escort. You were right and I have underestimated my father. I don’t know if he killed your mother but he was attracted to her and I think he has that same attraction towards you”
“What do you mean?” Anna asked him
“I read that” he said, motioning to the diary on the bedside table.
“I wanted to tell you…”
“Tell me what exactly? That your father is alive or that you have plans to kill my father” he said
“Both. Your father asked me to be with him so that he doesn’t kill my father and I have to find him before your father decides to get ugly. That is why you shouldn’t be here, so you don’t piss him off”
“That may be too late already. I already pissed him off and I have asked him to leave the house” Damian said
“What did you do?” Anna demanded
“I did a lot”
“Why?”
“What do you mean by why? I came in here and found him on you! What was I supposed to do? Give him a thumbs up and tell him to go ahead?” he said
“I would have been fine!” She said
“No, you would not have been fine! Stop being this way. I understand that you’re mad at me and you want to find your father bit this isn’t the way to go about it! You will get yourself hurt and even your father will not approve of it!” he said
“Well, my father is not here to make that decision for me now and I have to make it myself” she said
“I am not letting you! You are my responsibility and I’m not going to sit back and watch you get yourself killed. Until I can find a way to take my father, you are under my watch whether you like it or not and I wasn’t even asking for your opinion” Damian said

They heard a knock and he got up to open the door. It was Sally

“What?” he snapped at her
“You need to come down, the both of you. You need to come down now!” she said

Damian looked at Anna and spend down. She followed him and when they got down, they met Phillip and someone that looked like a combination of Anna and Alex

“Let him go!” Alex screamed at him
“I gave you a choice! She either picks me and have her father or she picks Damian and loses her father”
“My father?” she repeated

It was at that moment she understood what he was saying. She looked at the man he held captive and she could see the resemblance. It was her father. Her heart skipped a couple of beats and she felt her heart squeeze inside her chest

“Let him go Dad. He has done nothing to deserve this! Let him go, now!” Damian ordered
“I gave you a choice Annabelle You either pick me and let your father live or you pick him and your father dies. You chose your father’s death. I was willing to do everything for you and give you the life you wanted but that wasn’t part of your plans! Was it?” he screamed at her
“Let him go! Anna screamed at him
“You made your choice!” Phillip screamed back. “This is your fault, all of this is your fault!”
“Anna, look at me. I’ve been dead for a long time now and I am glad that I finally got to see you. What ever happens here today isn’t your fault. I am so proud of the person you have become and I am sure that your mother is proud too. I want you and your brother to stick together and love each other. I want you to always take care of each other and never let each other go. I want you to stay away from trouble and always remember that I love you more than anything in the world. I want you to know that….”

He was interrupted by Phillip. Phillip struck at his heart and pulled it out, dropping what was left of his body on the floor. Anna was shocked to her bone marrows. She couldn’t speak. She only stood there with tears trickling down he face as she watched the body of her father fall to the ground. She ran for Phillip but a fog cake don right in the house and she couldn’t see. It stung her eyes, all their eyes and when the fog cleared, he was gone.

It was hours after her dad was killed. She sat in the veranda of Damian’s living room. She was too shaken to speak. Damian couldn’t reach out to her. He couldn’t get to her. A part of him blamed himself. He wasn’t around and when he returned, the first thing he did was to through his father down the stairs. Damian knew that the one thing his father hated was being humiliated in any way and was what Damian had done. He stood a few feet behind, watching Anna, just incase she decided to do something unreasonable. Alex walked up to him and Damian could tell that he had been crying his eyes out.

“Is she okay?” Alex asked
“I have no idea. I’ve not talked to her yet. I just feel like she needs space”
“At least, now you would believe that your father is a monster” Alex said as he turned to leave
“I always knew he was a monster Alex, that was not a debatable conclusion. My father is a monster”
“And?” Alex asked
“I just didn’t know how far he was willing to go. I didn’t he had something for Anna. If I did, I would have left her here, alone” he said
“It makes no difference where you left her and if she was alone. Your father needs to be stopped, one way or another and we have to stop him. I know he’s your father bit he just took mine from me and I can’t let him go scot-free. He killed the one parent I had. I have to kill him, one way or another” Alex said
“I am not letting him go scot free, I just need more time before you remove his head from his body. I need more time. There are a lot of things I don’t know, a lot of things I should have known and I need to know the truth before he dies because the only person that knows the truth is him and the dead doesn’t speak!” he said
“The dead does speak, you just have to find a way to speak to them I don’t know how much time I can give you because right now, I am not the one you should be talking to. It is Annabelle and I don’t think you or anybody can talk her out of killing him” Alex said