The Sacrifice
Devon is panting for air. Her chest is heaving but there is a new sense of new emotion that she has just felt now.
Looking at her hands full of blood and the man unconscious on the dirt ground brought a different kind of euphoria and satisfaction she has just come to experience now.
“So is this the kind of feeling dad and Daemon are having on a daily basis?” She stared at the gun in her hand. “So this is power,” she muttered and emptily glanced at the man lying on his own blood.
She broke most of his bones already but it seemed like she wanted to do more. Of course she can do more. When Daemon showed her where he kept Joffrey, he basically gave her the permission to do anything she wanted to do with him. That includes even killing him now.
“Can I do it? Can I really kill a person?” she asked herself, her eyes going back from the man and the gun on her hand.
She aimed the gun at him and inhaled. “Come on, Devon. Kill him. He made your life a living hell. He’s a rapist. He doesn’t have much time left in his life anyway. Kill him. He should pay for his sins. You’re even giving his future victims a favor if you pull this trigger.”
She concentrated her trembling hands into hitting it. Just once. It would only take her a second to finish him for real. “Come on, Devon. Do it! Do it! Kill him!”
But she can’t do it in the end. She instead threw the gun away and screamed in her hands.
She sobbed loudly letting it all out, the hatred for years she kept sealed inside her heart.
“Why am I so weak?! Why can’t I even kill the one who caused me so much pain and suffering? Why am I so soft?”
It took her for a few minutes to get back up on her feet and to realize something.
She does not want to be like them. She only wanted justice and my baby, not another senseless killing. She wants to get even. He did not kill her physically so she will not kill his body too.
She will let him leave without being complete. She will confiscate his peace of mind. He will not be able to sleep soundly every night from now on.
She left the building having enough satisfaction to last her a lifetime.
“Ma’am Devon, what would you want us to do with Joffrey inside?” one of the guards asked her when she’s on the way out.
“Call the police. File all the cases from all the crimes he committed. I also want to hire personnel inside to do to him every nasty thing he did to all of his victims.”
“Alright, ma’am. I’ll take care of everything.”
“YOU’RE weak just like your father.”
He wanted to rip off his face that instant upon hearing that but he doesn’t have strength left to do it anymore.
He launched his attack on Gestoni calculating that he would win and come out of this alive back into his wife loving arms just like what he promised but looking at the things now, it seems like he can’t see her anymore.
“I’m sorry, Devon. I’m really sorry my love for not making it back alive for you,” he thought as he lay there in his own pool of blood inside Gestoni’s mansion.
All the men he brought lost their lives too. No one left for him in this cold place.
“Your old man Druft is a weak man, Daemon. He is a man of principle, he loves to parrot that, but he isn’t really one when I shot his head.”
He tried his very best to look up to him despite the cut on his eyes blurring his own vision.
“He is your best friend, Gestoni! He helped you out of that goddamn prison where you’re rotting for years! He gave you money so everything you have now; you owe them from my father!”
He coughed out blood and the deep wound he sustained on his chest throbbed but anger consumed him more than the physical pain. The memory of his father being slaughtered that night in the hands of his own best friend hurt him more.
Gestoni lowered himself down and belched out the smoke from his cigar on his face. “He begged me to spare your life that night so I have paid that debt. Best friend?” He scoffed after his body shook in an uncontrollable laughter. “He was never one I considered to be close enough for me. I just used him and your father fell for the act I put on. That means he’s weak like you. He refused to help me with a new business I wanted to put up so I killed him. As simple as that. I bet a man like you who had thought that you had formed a bond with someone can never do that.”
Daemon clenched his fists when he heard that again for the second time. He also told him that before, on that fateful night, with bloodied hands, he went up to his trembling body and told him the same thing while his father’s corpse lies on the same floor he’s been sitting on the whole time of the crime.
Gestoni spit out a phlegm on the side and took out a knife from his pocket.
“See, this is why you can’t defeat me. You hold people more dear in your hearts than money and power. You appear to be dangerous and malevolent but that is just your useless mask you miserably wear. Are you really a man? I am so disappointed to know that my daughter chose you over my family and my power.”
That’s right,” he thought. “Devon chose me over him so why do I’m losing hope when I’m still not dead yet? I’m sorry Devon and Emily for even thinking that.”
“You did not deserve Devon. You do not deserve such a kind daughter,” he said through gritted teeth. “Do you know how pure she is? Do you know she still cares for you despite what you’ve done to her? Do you know that she still loves you as her father even when you did not treat her like your own?!”
Daemon thought he saw a soft glow on his face but it seemed like it’s only his imagination because Gestoni is now grinning at him like all he said is a farce.
“You’re wrong, Daemon. Devon is very much like me. I made her to be that way. All the suffering she endured until now, I made it all. I designed it all so she could walk in the same path as me. She’s just like me, kind in the beginning but given a few of life's hurdles and bitterness, she will change for the better and will crave power just like me.”
Daemon shook his head fully knowing that will never happen. He will never let that happen to Devon. That's why he will do everything to keep her away from this.
“You were never kind, Gestoni. You were straight up evil from the moment you were born. Is it because you did not receive any love from your parents? Is that why you are jealous of my father who you deemed to be unfair? You clearly are envious of the love he was given, something that you never experienced all your life so now you are projecting that mentality to everyone.”
For the first time since Daemon treated him as his biggest enemy, he saw a shift in his emotion. His nostrils flared and an unbelievable hate couple with vulnerability are plastered on his face. He kicked his face and then stabbed his hand afterwards.
Daemon bit his mouth so he could imprison the sound of his screaming inside him. Gestoni has seen how he suffered in his hands. That is not enough. He will not give him another opportunity to see him take his beating again.
“Weak people will never have a chance to succeed in this cruel world, child. That’s what I’m teaching Devon. Being my daughter, having my name, is not enough for her to survive
“She doesn’t need all that. I will make sure to protect her.”
“How can you do that when you can’t even protect yourself? Can you still do that even when you’re dead?”
Before he could even react, Gestoni swung his bat and hit the side of his head. He grunted in too much pain before losing consciousness but not before seeing Devon’s face in his head.
Is this really it? Is this really the end for him? He hasn’t even found their daughter. He could have easily accepted death if he had even left her with Emily to keep her side for the rest of her life. He knows that’s her biggest wish. He hears her cry to sleep beside him wishing for her only daughter to come back.
“Daemon! Daemon! No!”
He thought he heard her call his name but that is just another one of his delusions, a phenomenon before death as you imagine your loved ones.
“Daemon! No! Daemon!” Devon bawled at the sight of her husband on the tiled floor of their mansion, wounded all over, bathing with blood, and unconscious after Gestoni hit his head.
She felt her own world crumbling together with all the hopes she has for this life. She promised herself she would lose anyone she has now, especially Daemon but look what happened now.
Her husband sacrificed everything for her, even his life.
“N-No… no… Daemon? My love?”
She touched his face and her heart stopped beating when she felt how cold he is. His head is leaking with blood from the hit he got from Gestoni’s bat with fresh blood dripping on it.
“Daemon, please wake up. I’m here now.” She took his hand and put it on her cheeks and into her hands squeezing against them giving them heat as if that will make him come back alive.
“Daemon, please! Daemon!” she shrieked and hugged his face against her trembling body. “Please don’t leave me, Daemon. Daemon!”
“You’re only wasting your tears for someone who will never come back.”
She froze on her spot and slowly looked up to meet her father’s cold eyes that’s full of judgment in them.
“He is just one of the many husbands you’ll have as my heir. You can have anyone you want. Pick from the list of men I’ll be giving you later.”
“You’re an evil person, Gestoni! You are a devil incarnate! I will never ever forgive for breaking me up like this! From now on, you are no longer my father! You did not treat me as your daughter so why not just let me be! Why do you always have to hurt me like this?! Why do you need to kill me in the most painful ways?!”
She looked at her lap where Daemon is lying.
“How could you take him from me?! How could you kill Daemon after you’ve stolen my child away from me?! Do you really hope to see your daughter die in front of you?!”
She reached for the gun on Daemon’s side and set it on the top of her head. “Here we go now! I’m killing myself in front of you!”
“No! Devon! Don’t do it!”
They both looked back to the stairs where Melena is running down from clutching tightly her cardigan, anguish in her face as she took a glance at Daemon on her lap.
She looked at her husband begging for sympathy.
“Gestoni, let’s stop this. I can’t live like this anymore. It’s time your daughter finds the truth.”
“Melena, shut up. Go back upstairs! Why are you still here? I told you to flee with Brian!”
She shook her head in defiance. “No, I won’t run away again. I will tell Devon everything.”
Devon gasped at her mother. “Mom, what are you talking about? Tell me. Tell me the truth. Please!”
