NEW GODS: The Awakening

The Saviours

Damian spent the rest of the day feeling like a rag that was thrown away in the garbage, sinking in this dark blue melancholy.

What he had once loved, people, noise, vibrant colors were now muted to him. He wished that the Void would just consume him already.

Not even Xiris’s stories about the different reasons he got tossed out of class were enough to cheer him up.

“What is wrong with that Klaus guy? Has he ever been to the Abyss? Monsters are crawling all over the place. Kind of hard to have a normal, healthy childhood when a hellhound might jump out of nowhere and rip your head off,” he had complained and his heart soared because it was rare that someone agreed with him but then he remembered disappointed dark gazes and any semblance of spark died.

Eventually, they separated because Damian had to go home. At least that is what he told him. Really, he just wanted to be completely alone for a while.
Soon as he was home, he went straight into his room, locked the door.

His bedroom admittedly looked childish. He had simply never bothered to change much after puberty.

The four walls were a very soft shade of yellow but it was mostly covered underneath paintings upon painting of animals Damian had stumbled upon in his trips to the forest and decided to draw.

Some of the drawings he was actually quite proud of. Like the cat with the pure white fur that sat on top of his window. Its heterochromatic eyes had taken a century to draw right, one a bright shade of baby blue and the other a dark, sly green.

Others just looking at them made him cringe. Such as the pigeon beside his bed which pretty much did not have an anatomy. He had been like eleven when he made it but still. There was no excuse for such hideousness.

Even the desk-which he had not used for its intended purpose, studying, in forever- was filled with doodles and random notes or lyrics that had randomly popped up in his brain. He had used a different colored pen for most of them so his desk looked like a rainbow going through a mental breakdown.

His feet got lost in the fuzzy white carpet as he moved over to sit at his bed, covering his legs with the heavy baby blue blanket.

The one feet tall plushy on his bed was not helping his case much either. But that had been a gift from Leon for his sixth birthday seventh birthday and he would die before he allowed it to he thrown in a garbage can or a dark closet.

He had no idea why it was an eagle of all things. But it had a large beak and golden wings and warm brown eyes and most importantly it was a gift from Leon.

He breathed in and out. He had forgotten how that feeling felt. He stared up at the ceiling and pondered over what to tell Leon.

His hands- as if they were sentient- grasped the child toy and held it close to his chest.

He was only a few seconds away from running back to the monastery and falling down on his knees to beg for forgiveness when he accepted he should figure it out as he goes.

The bird stared back at him.

Oh, by the Gods, he would go insane if he did not do something!

Suddenly, he remembered how one time Leon had been upset with him for some reason he could not remember and he drew him a snake-his favorite animal- as an apology. The eagle smiled back at him.

Did he really believe this would work? No. But every second that passed by, he could sense his sanity rotting and he needed absolutely any distraction he could find…

His hands were shaking as he sketched the line art. He had no way of knowing how it was turning out because he could hardly see over his hazy gaze. But it did an alright job of keeping him temporarily distracted.