Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
DOUBLE UPDATE UP IN THIS BITCH!!!!! sorry for my aggressiveness, I'M just excited.
                          
BTW - In case you didn't get a notification, I posted a chapter yesterday before this one. 
                          
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Damon's P.O.V 
                          
I look around the small expanse of fresh, green grass that laid below the sun's light, making up the park that was overflowing with families. 
                          
My legs remain stretched out beneath me, hand supporting my head as I watch with tired eyes. Following the happy families of attentive parents and cheerful children playing without a single concern for the eye to see, pain blistering through me from the sight of it.
                          
I pull my eyes away and focus them instead on my feet. I knock them together to distract myself, trying to make the knocking loud enough to drown out the laughter that echoed through my ears. 
                          
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I check it, the agony only doubling when I see it's another call from my parents. 
                          
I stare at the screen, heart thumping at the contact picture of dad and I. I was younger in this photo, I'd jumped on his back and he was running with me, his smile wide. Pops was behind us, chasing after us with Levi on his back, mouth parted in a warrior cry. My mind reels in a desperate attempt to equate the people in the photo to the ones who'd lied to me.
                          
The screen goes black as the phone dies in my hand and I don't miss the way my shoulders sag because of it. Relief flooding me at no longer having to see their calls without having the strength to answer them or decline them . I couldn't answer any of their calls, knowing everything would come rushing back in at full force the second that I did.
                          
I shove the dead phone back into my pocket and retake the position I was in before. Trying to focus on taking deep breathes to stop the misery from overflowing, trying to control my emotions, but they weren't willing to be tamed.
                          
I don't think we should be here - Theo voices after a moment, no doubt feeling a seed of anger begin to grow through my veins.
                          
I curl my toes in my shoes, a failed effort of cementing myself in this position. A failed effort to control myself as the torment bloomed, my emotions mixing to trigger a deadly effect, threatening the lives of everyone here. 
                          
He'll be here soon - I reply through my labored breaths. Just a few more minutes. 
                          
Theo decides to leave it alone, not arguing as much as he usually would. He'd been much quieter ever since that day, feeling just as lost as I did, but he had an easier time of keeping his hands clean than I did. 
                          
"Hey." 
                          
I sit up straighter when I see Mekhi approaching with a large duffel over his shoulders. He hoists it up a little higher, gesturing for me to stay seated when I begin to stand.
                          
He sets the bag on the floor gently before he takes the empty place on the bench, his brown eyes meeting mine to show unfamiliar compassion in them.
                          
"Hey," I reply when I find my voice, sure it won't crack with that one word.
                          
Dead air fills the space between us, neither of us saying a word as we sit and watch the families play, the children running and the trees swaying. I consider just taking the bag and leaving. I wasn't in the right state of mind to talk to anyone, let alone carry a conversation. 
                          
"Peter said to tell you that he didn't know," Mekhi says filling the silence, my eyes dart to him in alarm but he just shakes his head in dismissal. "I didn't tell him I was coming, didn't tell anyone about this. He's a smart kid and knew I'd find you eventually or vise-versa. He came to me and told me that if I saw you, to tell you that he didn't know and neither did the twins."