Chapter 69: Chapter Sixty-nine: Damien’s Story IX: Not all heroes wear capes.
A few hours ago~~
The air in the chamber grew thick, and for a second, little Damien forgot how to breathe. His heart pounded against his small chest and his small hands that held the vase trembled as Cassian slowly rose from his crouched position. The unnatural twist of his brother’s head, turned fully backward, made Damien’s throat tighten in terror.
"Brother..." he whispered shakily. "Stop... you’re scaring me."
Cassian’s lips stretched into a grin too wide for his face. His eyes, once warm and bright like the sunrise, were now deep pools of black. "Scaring you?" he chuckled darkly, straightening his spine until his bones cracked audibly with his head still fully backwards. "Oh, sweet little brother... you have no idea what fear even feels like yet."
Damien’s breathing grew ragged. The vase in his hand quivered as his fingers fought to keep their grip. Cassian tilted his head the other way, his neck bending too far below his shoulders.
"You’re not my brother," Damien muttered under his breath again this time with tears brimming in his eyes. "You’re not him so don’t call me that!"
Cassian’s grin quivered in amusement then his expression fell into something chilling and colder. His feet moved on their own towards him. "Then who am I, Damien?" he asked softly, voice laced with venom. "A nightmare? A monster? Or maybe..." He crouched low, bringing his face close enough for Damien to feel his breath. "Maybe I’ve always been this way, and you were too blind to see it."
That did it.
"Stay away from me!" Damien yelled, flinging the vase with all his strength. It smashed against Cassian’s face, sending shards scattering across the marble floor. Cassian barely flinched; a single line of blood trickled down his cheek from his eye that now looked too unnerving to see.
He smirked.
"Oh, that stings," Cassian said mockingly running his hand over his eye in fear and licking the blood from his lips. "But if you wanted to play, little brother... all you had to do was ask."
Damien instinctively turned and dashed toward the window, his heart thundering so loudly he could barely hear himself think. Behind him, Cassian’s laughter rose again maniacally, echoing against the walls like the sound of a thousand demons.
"Run, little brother! Run! Let’s see how far you get!"
Damien didn’t look back. He leapt onto the window sill, shoved it open, and dove out just as Cassian lunged for him. The night air struck his face, and before he knew it, he was tumbling through the bushes below, scraping his arms and knees. Pain flared across his body, but he didn’t stop. He pushed himself up and ran with one shoe missing across the cold grass as the palace lights vanishing behind him.
The woods loomed ahead of him and he took off his other shoe. It was dark and endless, whispering unheard sounds to his ears. He darted into them, his small figure disappearing between the twisted trees. His lungs burned, and every step felt heavier than the last, but the sound behind him kept him going.
Cassian was following him.
"Damien..." his voice came, deep and smooth, calling through the forest like a haunting lullaby. "Don’t hide from me. You know I’ll find you."
Tears rolled down Damien’s cheeks as he stumbled over a root, nearly falling face-first into the dirt. He pushed up, panting and clutching his side. His heart was breaking—not just from fear, but confusion. That voice, that face—it was still his brother’s. The same brother who used to carry him on his shoulders and drag him all around to play.
But now... that same brother wanted him dead.
He heard a branch snap behind him and froze.
"Found you."
Cassian’s voice came out, right behind his ear.
Damien spun around, but before Cassian could grab him, something heavy crashed into the him, knocking him sideways. A streak of silver blurred past then the sound of steel against bone echoed through the area.
Cassian snarled, rolling across the ground. Standing over him was a small, cloaked figure with covered hair that revealed a piece of it glinting faintly under the moon. In his hand was a big stick that he had just used to knock him out.
"Stay back." the little boy said calmly to Damien without looking his way. "Go! Now!"
Damien stumbled backward, gasping. "Who—who are you?"
But the boy didn’t answer. Cassian rose slowly from the dirt, laughter dripping from his lips. "Ah...aren’t you the ragball mother picked up from the streets? Jesse was it?"
He still said nothing. Instead, he growled at him, spinning the stick in his hand and lunging forward.
The clash was like thunder. Cassian’s eyes flashed as he blocked the strike with his bare arm. The impact sliced his sleeve and revealed his soft baby flesh where blood flowed unrestrained from it.
"Still playing hero, aren’t you? This isn’t a way to repay the person who helped you is it?" Cassian sneered, not bothered by his torn flesh. It wasn’t its body but he could still feel the pain inflicted on it. "Big mistake I’m afraid. You should’ve stayed in your hole."
Jesse’s face remained blank and for the very first time, emotions appeared all over his face. "And let you touch him? Over my dead body."
Cassian’s grin widened. "If you insist."
He lunged, faster than a blink this time with his elongated fingers stretched out in front of him. He took a deep swipe at him, clawing his fingers deeper into his skin. Jesse barely had time to parry. The force sent him sliding back across the ground and landing in front of a tree. Cassian pressed forward with unnatural strength, landing blows heavier and faster as he battered the boy’s body. A diabolical, crazed smile graces his features as he inflicted pain on the little boy. Soon, Jesse’s arm began to tremble under the strain.
Damien, who had been running in confusion constantly, peeking behind him as sparks illuminated the forest around them. He couldn’t even turn back fully or stop running out of fear that his brother might catch up to him. His brother wasn’t human anymore. Every movement he made cracked the ground and rippled the air with heat. The smell of burning filled Damien’s nose, sending a strange sensation of confusion and fear over him.
"You should have stayed when I told you to, you poor rodent." Cassian said with contempt as he shot his foot into Jesse’s stomach and spat on his face. He turned around and made to leave when he felt a weak hand on his ankle.
Jesse wasn’t going down that easily. He spun sideways, picked up his stick and slashed across Cassian’s chest, drawing a streak of blood. What damned stick was that?! For a moment, Cassian hissed in pain but then his wound began to heal before Jesse’s eyes, the flesh stitching back together in seconds through his torn shirt.
"You can’t kill me," Cassian said darkly. "You can’t even slow me down."
"Maybe not," Jesse spat, "but I can still make you feel pain."
He lunged again, this time going lower, aiming for Cassian’s legs. But Cassian anticipated it and caught the stick mid-swing, gripping the sharp edges with his bare hand which burnt it black. Then, with a savage twist, he snapped the stick in half like a twig and drove a knee into Severin’s ribs.
The sound was sickening.
Jesse flew back, hitting a tree hard enough to crack the trunk. He fell to the ground, clutching his left arm that hung limp against his side, twisted unnaturally. "Aggh..." he hissed softly through gritted teeth.
Cassian walked slowly toward him, the moonlight washing his bloodied face in tree shadows. His grin was gone now, replaced by something worse than cold amusement. "You shouldn’t have interfered."
He raised a hand, and black mist began to gather around his palm, swirling like liquid smoke. The ground beneath them cracked, and the air pulsed with dark energy.
Jesse grabbed one end of the broken stick and threw it at Cassian with all his strength. It hit Cassian’s shoulder, doing absolutely nothing but it broke his focus for a second.
Jesse used that second. He rolled to the side, grabbing his free, clawed hand, and stabbed it upward—straight into Cassian’s shoulder.
Cassian roared in fury and he staggered back, blood dripping down his arm. Jesse didn’t wait for him to recover. He grabbed his arm and vanished from his sight while Cassian was still busy with his hand.
Damien who was still running, stopped in his tracks when he heard sounds too brutal to belong to any person. He was a monster, but that was still his brother. He almost gave into the urge of turning back when behind him appeared Jesse with a bloodied arm and clothes.
Damien looked at him in shock. What the actual hell?!
"Who are—"
"Run!" he shouted, moving closer to him with his hand over his injured arm. "Go, Damien! Run and don’t look back!"
"But—"
"Go!"
Damien hesitated, then turned and continued running, tears streaming down his face. Jesse released his battered arm, took Damien’s hand, swung it over his back and transformed all in the same second. The forest blurred past them speedily as Jesse’s hinds moved faster than ever before. The world around them grew darker and darker as they dived deeper into the forest.
Damien didn’t even have the time to think or notice anything around him. One minute he was on his feet, the next he was flying through the haunted forest on the back of an animal! He almost fainted from the amount of air blowing on his frightened face.
Behind him, Cassian’s voice echoed through the trees.
"Bastards!" he growled out angrily. He looked around him and tried to sniff them out but their scent had long grown cold from time.
"Run all you want, little brother... You can’t escape blood. You can’t escape me." With that, he unknowingly leapt towards the opposite direction, away from where Jesse and Damien had taken.
Jesse didn’t stop running until the voices were gone and the night fell completely silent.
When he eventually stopped, Damien collapsed beside a huge rock with his chest heaving and his hands and knees scraped raw beyond recognition. He looked down at his reflection on the shining rock and saw a trembling, terrified boy staring back at him.
Hot tears fell down his cheeks and he longed to be held by his mother again, "Why...mama please where are you?"
By the time he turned to meet his helper, he was already gone.
Jesse, having made sure that Damien was far away from Cassian’s reach, leaned his tired, small body against a tree. He was weak and completely worn out from excessive loss of blood and starvation.
After the queen had dropped them off at the inn, they had been given food and fresh clothes to wear. Nighttime came but sleep didn’t follow. He knew how dangerous their king was and was felt unsettled knowing that and doing nothing. So he followed them all through. It was after Mira left the ballroom that he had gone to check on the boys, assuming she would be able to handle herself. He had been watching the two brothers from a tree in the palace but when Damien had jumped down, running into the forest, he changed location.
A wry grin quivered on his lips at the thought of what he had just done. He wasn’t one to render help even if doing the bare minimum was all it took to save the life. No one had done it to him, so why should he? Although his older brother saw differently, he just couldn’t reason with him on that matter. As his mind drifted away, his eyes closed gently, sending him into a river of unconsciousness.