Songs

Jade had slept so heavily that she couldn't even remember her dream when she woke up. Her eyes fluttered softly open to the pale morning light. She felt at ease laying there in the center of the cotton sheets in the warm room with frost lacing the window. Slowly she sat up and then all warm feelings froze away. There sat Damien sitting in the chair at the end of the room glaring at her. It frightened her to see him there, unexpected, but she had learned to calm her nerves quickly. She vaguely remembered having a discussion with him before she fell asleep, but she could hardly remember what it was about. She met his eyes evenly nonetheless and he was forced to look down as he said lowly, "Good morning."


"Is it though?" Jade half asked herself, rolling her eyes. Why had he stayed the whole night sitting there?


"There's something," he paused to lookup at her with dark eyes, "that we need to discuss."


Jade glanced to her right out the window at the rising sun, "What's that Damien?"


He gave out an eerie laugh, sending chills up and down Jade's spine before saying, "Do you think it odd that I'm only a few years older than Drake?"


"A few years?" Jade shook her head, confused. "You're thirty-three."


He laughed even harder at that, "Who told you that lie, my precious?"


"Dane," she muttered with a sigh. What was all of this about? She wanted to speak with Erik not Damien.


"I'm twenty-four" he growled darkly.


That caught her attention, "You can't be! That would mean-"


"That I'm not his father?" He questioned her, almost mockingly, "Precisely."


Slowly in the background a deep melody began to crescendo. Someone downstairs was playing the piano. It was an eerie but beautiful song as the deep chords were countered by light trills. It was the song that had burst out of that music box she had found in Drake's coat pocket a month or so ago.


"That bastard," Damien hissed angrily, "playing that song at a time like this. He lives to torment me."


"What?" Jade asked, completely lost.


"Nothing," Damien replied quickly, but refusing to look at her. A loud chord banged it's way into the room followed by and ever soft fluttering of notes, making Damien leap up as if he was suddenly afraid. Jade stared at him wide eyed. The hair on his head almost looked like it was standing straight up and the look in his eyes . . .


"Damien, what's going on?" She said, feeling fear creeping into her own chest.



"I-," he paused as the music built up again, then wearing a grimace spoke very stiffly, "Drake is not my son," he was speaking so monotonously and in such choppy phrases, "I-we," he cleared his throat seeming to regain himself as he put on a smile, "we are the same person. He is me."


Jade continued to stare at him. He had gone crazy. Something had happened while she was gone to tip him over the edge. She could just hear Drake's thoughts slowly becoming audible in the back of her head.


"Don't listen to him, don't hear him," Damien commanded her, "I," he paused again as the song began to pick up speed blossoming like a flower, "I just can't!" he shouted loud enough for everyone in the whole house to hear him, running his hand through his hair in frustration. The piano stopped playing. He looked up at her, studying her with those dark eyes, but there wasn't hate in them. "For you I would destroy myself, Jade, but I cannot do this."



Slowly the door creaked open and the man who had been eerily watching her from the corner past night stepped in, flashing the light into her eyes with the golden rims of his glasses. He gave her one look and then stepped towards the trembling Damien with an outstretched arm which he tried to wrap around Damien like a blanket. However Damien took a shaky step back and took his shaking hand away from his mouth to whimper, "No, I know you're playing with my head you demon! I have to do this! I've been waiting-you cannot take this away from me!"


The man with the dark hair smiled gently at Damien muttering, "It's all right your words have no sway over me when your in a state like this. Let me take this burden from you," he tried once more to wrap his arm around Damien who had the same look in his eye as a crazed animal.


"You're a demon and a monster!" Damien shouted louder, gnashing his teeth with each word taking one more step back. He was now cornered, pinned to the wall like a fly under a swatter.


"Jade," the man said coldly, seeming to forget about Damien as he tuned towards her, "don't you hate him? Look how pathetic he is. Just say it. After all the things he's put you through."


Jade eyed him not amused by whatever he was trying to accomplish by tormenting Damien. She had never seen him like this and she was guessing that this man was the cause. "Who are you?"


"Your brother," he grinned and then rolling his eyes corrected himself, "or well rather Lyra's brother, but you're the same person so therefore I, Jade, am your brother."


Damien stopped breathing hard, sending the man with the glasses turning back to glance at him. Slowly he began to hum the tune again with a crooked smile. "Enough is enough," Damien spoke darkly. It was as if the entire thing had been an act, like Damien had never actually been frozen with fear. "Emerson shut up," the humming stopped, "you know where my fear was and you struck hard. Well, done, but you're wrong in thinking that I'm subject to fear," he smiled. Why did he like to play these games? "I've had worse nightmares than whatever you throw at me, besides I have to do this no matter how much you don't me want to. I have to end it all. So I'm not going to pretend to lie down and let you do this for me. I'm doing this. Get out!"


 Emerson smiled and looked at Damien with a slight respect in his eyes and with a nod he took a step towards the door, but Damien held him back with one more command, "And stop playing that accursed song."

Comment