Chapter 2: Losing Everything, a monster awakens [Part 1]

"Nothing could be done, all the contracts have been notarized already and the transfer is already underway"

Damien listened to his secretary inform him of everything, the company he spent years building. The hard work, the sleepless nights-

*BANG!*

"You heard the man, get out bitch!"

A flashily dressed man forcefully entered the office, he looked less like a businessman and more like a thug.

"Robert..."

"Sup Nerd"

Damien wanted to say something, the usage of a teenage insult was something that would have received criticism but now...

"Hm? What are you still doing here you worthless bastard?"

Following behind the flashily dressed man was a familiar woman, the same woman who gave Damien a purpose to push through even the toughest times...

"Andrea..."

"Tsk! Don’t you say my name, worthless brokie!"

The woman who came in after Robert, Andrea, walked towards the desk where Damien sat. She grabbed a glass sculpture and-

*shatter*

*drip*

She dropped it onto the table but Damien reached out to try and catch it, he did save the sculpture but Robert rushed forward grabbed it out of Damien’s hands and smashed it on his head.

"..."

"Get out"

Robert said those cold words and Damien could do nothing but silently get carted away by security.

He could only stare as Robert dragged Andrea to the sofa and proceeded to strip her clothes off.

...

Damien sat alone in the darkest spot in the park, time had passed and it was already the dead of the night. No one noticed him and he didn’t care, the man, now empty, sat alone next to the water as he stared at a small box.

The only thing left on him that was of value.

"They’ll probably hunt me down tomorrow, they’re sure to find the receipts... Andrea..."

He recalled the countless times where he suspected her, the moments when things were obviously wrong but-

"I’m a fucking idiot..."

They weren’t married, there was no way for Andrea to scam him out of money. He was willing to take it slow and wait until she gave up on their relationship or choose to truly love him.

But...

The documents were all signed by Damien, a transfer of assets, various contracts that left him with nothing.

All of them were signed by him, using his stamp... there was nothing he could do about it.

Moreover, there was a quiet yet sizable rumor that he was going crazy, that he had schizophrenia and that he couldn’t lead the company anymore.

"Just when we were about to go public..."

Damien understood what had happened, but it was something that he never saw coming. He thought that Andrea would at worst try to scam him into a marriage through pregnancy or something else but-

She instead moved to destroy his name, steal away his fortune and make it appear as if he was not in a good state.

"She probably accumulated evidence to turn me into an abuser..."

Just as he thought about it, his phone rang and the message that came in was as he expected.

<Brother, this you?>

A friend of his asked while sending a video, it was a pure black screen but the voices in the background were the highlight.

"Stop! Please! I don’t want this!"

"SHUT UP YOU WHORE! I TOOK YOU IN TO BEND OVER NOT ACT LIKE A KID!"

"NOOO!!!"

The sound that echoed in the recording was Damien’s voice, a loud demanding voice and what followed was the horrific sound of assault.

Andrea cried as the sound of flesh slapping loudly accompanied her pleas. The loud echoes of actual slaps, the derogatory language spoken by Damien. All of it proved an abusive relationship.

"I’ve never slept with her ever since we got together..."

Damien ignored the message and instead turned towards the rings-

"There is nothing more dangerous in society than a man with nothing to lose"

Damien smirked as he said those words, he stood up from where he sat and threw his phone into the lake.

"Playtimes over"

His shadow melded into the darkness as he left the bark, hours later, police sirens echoed as the park was swarmed by officers who rushed to the lake.

The darkness masked many things but the trace they had of their target ended in the middle of the manmade lake.

"Let’s wait for morning, the madman probably jumped in already"

"Tsk... bastard, that’s too easy of an ending for an abuser"

"Let it go Brad, we can’t do anything to a dead man"

While the cops were surrounding an empty park, Damien was already on the move.

He arrived at a quiet suburban neighborhood on a motorbike he had kept in a private storage locker.

Aware of Andrea’s antics, he was already prepared for a fight but he never expected her to destroy her own image just to turn the world against him.

Even the lawyers he had already prepared before would likely avoid him at this point.

Andrea did not just let out vague comments, she provided evidence and not to a judge or jury but to the whole world.

Damien’s reputation was already gone, anything he says, no matter how rational, would now be drowned out by the idiots who side with Andrea just because she’s a woman.

"To think they’d use my own technology to destroy me"

He cursed as he entered the small unassuming house.

This was not a property that had any connection to Damien, in fact, it was something like an "unofficial gift" he received from a kind old lady.

It sounds fake, but the reality was right before him.

An old lady who died alone, before her death, she met with Damien as he was inspecting the land for the data center his company was going to put up.

It was then when the old lady asked him to leave the area alone, for some reason, Damien felt like he needed to help her. He bought out the land and gave it to the old lady, the data center was established in another land far away.

Only later did he learn that the land was donated by the old lady to an non-government organization that claimed it as ancestral land for a tribe of native Americans. After the land was passed on, the old lady visited Damien and passed onto him the deed to a small suburban property she owned.

"To think that such a small act would be my only saving grace at this point"

Damien had never entered this house, the moment he did, the dust and cobwebs he expected did not appear.

"Huh? Are there squatters living here?"

He muttered while checking for any sign of life but he found none.

In fact, the house looked like it had just been recently vacated.

Then, as he was going through the living room, the main door which he did not close suddenly slammed shut-

*BANG*

"WHOSE THERE?!"

Damien pulled out a gun, a glock that was loaded with hollow points.

"Come out!"

He demanded as he pointed the gun towards the direction of the front door-

*thud* *thud* *thud*

He heard the sound of steps on the second floor and with his gun at the ready, he slowly went up the stairs-

"Stop! This is private property! If you try to do anything I won’t hesitate to shoot!"

Damien was unfamiliar with this situation, he had experienced poverty, success and everything in between but this was something he never experienced. A home invasion... no, maybe a requisition?

In any case, the person whose moving about should be the illegal tenant that decided to make this place their home since no one seems to bother caring for it.

He moved methodically, copying the movements of the soldiers he recalled seeing in those youtube videos for military room clearing operations.

It was not good but it was better than moving blindly, he did have a bit of understanding on how to ensure his own safety.

That said, he wanted to dump all his rounds in every room before checking them but doing so would only waste bullets and that was something he can’t do with actual danger just around the corner.

*Bang*

He kicked a door open, he saw a bookshelf but the darkness made it hard to make out everything.

Even so, he still found some weird items within the room, the sight of such items made him lose focus for a moment and-

*shove*

"FUCK!"

Damien cursed as he was pushed into the dark room and as he turned around-

*SLAM*

The door was closed but Damien did not see anyone by the door so-

"SHIT! DON’T FUCKING MOVE!"

He declared while pointing shakily at the door, he can’t see for shit but he knew that the person was likely next to the door. He didn’t hear any movement so whoever closed the door was still there.

All Damien could see was black but the rough outlines of the door were still visible.

Straining his eyes, Damien tried to make out anything in his line of sight but the darkness was just too much.

Then, as he was focused on looking for the perpetrator-

[I see... a child of — ]

"What?!"

A voice had echoed in his mind, not his ear, his mind. Damien understood this immediately, but he didn’t want to. He felt it was too unnatural- something that should not have happened and yet.

[Interesting, so the fate of — still persist to this day]

"The hell?"

[Child, do you wish to obtain the power to overcome all your woes?]

"..."