Predator

37.

Sean went back to Rose's house to see her holding her stomach, her face scrunched up in pain. "What happened?" There was nothing around the house damaged, but it looked to Sean that his aunt was just attacked.

"Something happened to Damien!" She yelled through gritted teeth. Soon enough, everyone on Rose's property was hunched over in pain and anguish. Except for Caleb. Physically, he had no pain, but he could feel mental pain from his family.

~~

Damien knocked on the front door of Gigi's quaint home to which she opened the door. "Damien?" She asked in shock and hurried to embrace her older brother, "we thought you left! Where have you been?" Questions began to pour from her mouth as she led Damien inside her home, some of his nieces and nephews going to greet him.

After he made sure that none of her children were around, Damien finally spoke up. "You weren't in on it?" He asked with his hands stuffed inside the pockets of his suit. "What? In on what?"

Damien took one hand out of his pocket and caressed his slightly stubbly chin, he just had to find the right words. "Then I'm guessing it was only Gerald. He turned Ryan in for hurting Neela, that's why we left," Gigi's eyes opened wide, in shock. That told Damien right away that her ignorance was genuine. "Please don't tell me-"

"He's still here if that's what you're asking, Genevieve. After many weeks, my boy had been found innocent." He continued to rub his chin, not able to meet his sister's eyes, "after not seeing Neela for weeks, no contact. After I had to put her in a psych ward because I thought he was going to be damned. That girl has suffered more than any of us have and she's only human."

Before his sister could express her sorrow, a voice called from upstairs, "darling, who's at the door?" Gerald's voice filled Damien's ears. He quickly turned around and made he way to the tv room to stand at the bottom of the staircase. "Why'd you do it, Gerald?"

He was in utter shock at Damien's presence. How did Damien know that he was the one who turned Ryan in? "Do what?" He tried to claim innocence but the hardness in his voice told Damien otherwise. "Try to damn my son, that's fucking what," Damien spat. Usually, he didn't really have much of a temper, but that was setting him off.

"My sister loves you. My whole family brought you in as a brother and you broke all of the trust and respect that my family had for you." Gerald completely disregarded what Damien had said and just asked a simple question, "does everyone else know about it?"

He scoffed, "so you've just admitted to it, thank you for that, I don't have to beat it out of you now. And they don't yet, but once I'm finished here, they will. And you will experience a fate worse than Rin's." Damien looked over at Gigi to see her quiet, not able to look at either of the two men, "anything you'd like to say, Genevieve?" She looked up while taking a breath in, "why have you done it? You could've spoken to Damien about it, Gerald! That's my nephew!"

"So now what? You're going to turn on me as well?" Gerald threw his arms in the air, baffled. "You're acting like I've turned on you first. You've turned your back on me, our marriage, and our children when you've decided to make one-sided decisions. You know we have never done that." Genevieve sighed and turned to Damien, "I would like for my children and I to go to your house and to apologize to Ryan and Neela, perhaps stay for a bit."

As the two turned away to leave, Damien was suddenly flung against a wall. "Gerald!" Gigi yelled as she went to Damien and try to break him free, "let him go! Now!" She was screaming at her husband as he descended down the staircase.

Gerald completely ignored everything that Gigi yelled at him and kept his focus on Damien, "I refuse to let you take away my family." He seethed his words out. His words made Damien think back to the time that he told Egin about his book of life running low on pages.

It was time. The boys would be in good hands. He would be able to see Rin once again, touch her, love her again. But poor Neela—he just got her back. She would miss him terribly and her powers would let her see Damien's death. He could only hope that he would be able to see Neela as a spirit, or even in the afterlife.

Damien took one last look at Genevieve crying hysterically as Gerald ripped a piece of Damien's neck skin off with his teeth and just smiled. "It doesn't hurt anymore," were the last words of Damien Soptic before having his torso punched opened by his brother in law.

~~

Genevieve didn't know what to do. She just kept running and screaming, looking over her shoulder every now and then. She did this all the way to Rose's house.

Neela had calmed down soon after the dream, but got right back to being in hysterics after realizing that all of the family around her was in shock. They weren't yelling anymore, they were just frozen. She was in distress because she didn't know what to do. "Neela!" Gigi basically screamed when she made it into the home.

Neela was begging Gigi with her eyes when she turned around to face her aunt, "I-I don't know what happened! Please help them!" She went on and on, telling the whole chain of events until Gigi had to stop her by grabbing Neela's shoulders and gave her a slight shake.

"Damien is dead. Gerald killed him with no emotion or remorse." Just before Neela could show any emotion towards the intensity of the situation, Gigi yelled again, "Ryan, no, don't!"