ECHOES THAT DON’T DIEThe room was quiet, perfect for the thoughts that had begun to brood in his head. Damien sat at the edge of the hospital bed, his frame leaning forward and elbows resting on his knees. He bowed his head slightly but his eyes remained on the bandage wrapped around his knuckles. It has begun to stain through, small dots of red seeping past the white like cracks on concrete. He stared at it for a long moment, his fingers running over the stitches the nurse had given him as the silence pressed in from all around. The distant beeping of machines somewhere down the hall mixed with the faint hum of the hospital's air-conditioning broke through the quiet from time to time. The entire thing should've felt peaceful, but it didn't. No matter how quiet the room was or how hushed everything felt, his head was the perfect contrast to it all. A fucking chaos. “You don't get to fucking beg…”His jaw tightened slightly as he rubbed his chin softly. The voice wasn't real, tha

HOLD YOUR BREATHDamien's statement hung in the air, ugly and unavoidable. The truth, clear as glass, yet had to swallow. That got a reaction out of Elara and Damien caught it instantly–the bob of her throat as she swallowed, the fidgeting of her fingers. But still, she never took her eyes off him. So he continued. “Yeah, I know how that sounds," he said, shaking his head as he sighed. “I know what that makes me. I know how you see me to be. How every fucking person sees me to be." “We don't see you as a monster, Damien," Elara said softly. She moved closer, slipping her hand between Damien's as she licked her lips. "I do not see you as a monster. You don't have to–”"Just stop with the patronizing,” Damien cut in as he pulled his hands away from hers. "Please stop. You know exactly that this is different. I wanted to see a man die and you believe that doesn't make me a monster?”Elara paused for a moment, her gaze searching Damien's. She kept the stare for a second too long befor

BLOOD AND BREATH 1“NO!”The word tore out of Damien's throat before he could stop it. It left him raw and violent, the sound tearing through the thundering snap of bullets gifting drywall as though it could undo the chaos that had just happened. Before he could make a single move, Elara's body hit the floor hard and the sound instantly rooted him to the spot. For a split second, everything slowed and the entire world dulled to a little hum. The whirring in his ears muffled the sound of gunfire, swallowing the shouts outside until all that remained was just her body laying there… still. His breath left him and for once, he didn't care to duck or dodge the hits that were being directed at him. But then, he watched her chest heave slightly and reality instantly slammed him back into focus. “Shit!" he cursed out loud as he dropped back down. The moment he moved, another shot cracked through the room, the bullet snapping past the space where his head had been a second ago and slammi

BLOOD AND BREATH 3For a long moment, Damien just stood there, the gun hanging loosely in his gto as he stared out the window. His chest heaved heavily with tired breaths as the weight of everything that had happened came crashing down on him. The deafening silence the gunfire had left in the room didn't last, as it was immediately broken by reality. First came the loud screaming from the people below as they all huddled around the body, mixed with the wailing of sirens that cut through the halls, sharp and frantic. Footsteps boomed past the corridor outside, commanding voices overlapping as they shouted orders with panic bleeding through their tone. And at the center of it all stood Damien. He was numb, blinking slowly as he tried to pull himself out of the gaze settling over him. That's true… they were still bleeding. The thought immediately snapped him back into focus and he spun fast. Immediately, he dropped to his knees behind Elara again, dropping a hand over the cut the bu