Awakening From Ashes

Chapter 4: A Path to Revenge

Lucas entered the morgue a damaged but somewhat clothed man ever since he woke up in the hospital room.

The nurse led him towards the slab under the bright lights in the middle of the room. The same slab that had a covered dead body under it and somehow made the room of death seem even more daunting. 

Lucas winced at the slight pain he felt from his surgery stitches but he still pressed on. If the body under there was who he thought it was, then he had no time to stop. He needed to see her.

*****

Lucas made his way back to his home in town without anyone knowing. It was not like he was avoiding thanking the villagers for what they did for him and his mum. It was just that Lucas didn’t want any of them to know that he had been released from the hospital or, better yet, that he was still alive. He trusted them but Emilia or even Nicole might have someone in the town watching out for him and Lucas couldn’t have them coming after him when he was still in rough shape. 

He slunk back into his house through the back door and was met with the scene from the last time he was there. The dining table was still somewhat set, but the chairs were overturned and blood still stained the hardwood floor. 

Images of what had happened in that room flashed through his mind and he closed his eyes, willing them to go away. Once he managed to get them under control, he went to his room. He needed to get some things before he moved on with his plan, which was to find Nicole.

Lucas entered his room and went to the sock drawer, pulling it open and fumbling around for the money that he had routinely saved up for years for the purpose of a wedding to Nicole. 

Now, he scoffed thinking of the irony, but it didn’t stop him from finding the bundles he had stashed there and shoving them into the backpack he carried with him.

After that, Lucas grabbed a duffle bag from his closet and packed some clothes. Not much, but enough to get him through two weeks without laundry. He went to his mother’s room next, his feet stopping just shy of her door when guilt hit him. 

Lucas turned the handle and walked inside, feeling a wave of nausea. Her room was perfect, and every single corner was arranged neatly like it always was. The room also smelled of lavender, just like her. 

He swallowed his emotions and went to her closet, knowing that she also kept some savings in the shoe box at the bottom of her shoe rack. Lucas found the box and took the money inside before glancing around her room for the last time. 

His eyes settled on her vanity and that was where he saw it. His mother's blue water drop shaped pendant. The same one she wore almost every day. 

Lucas closed the gap between him and the vanity and picked the pendant up, feeling the cold metal on his skin. He winced as the image of his mother with the pendant on, encroached his mind but he repressed the memory and wore the pendant, wanting to keep a piece of her with him despite how he felt.

With all that done and with one last look at the house he once called home, Lucas left the building and walked towards the closest major road, looking for a cab to take him to where he needed to go.

It took some time, but then a cab stopped for Lucas and he got in. He wore the cap in his bag to keep his face hidden.

“Where to?” the man asked as he adjusted his visor to get a good look at Lucas.

“New York.” 

The man eyed Lucas from the visor. 

“It’s going to take some time, sir, and the fare will be expensive too.”

“I’m good for it,” he said to the man, stopping him from saying anything further. 

He shrugged and started the car again and, just like that, Lucas was on his way back to New York. The place Nicole told him she was from. The place he had once called home. To where it all started.

                                                                                      •••••

Lucas arrived in New York about two hours later and the car pulled up in front of the Holiday Inn on Wall Street. Lucas paid the man in full, to which he gave him a thankful nod, and then he got down from the car. 

The driver zoomed off, leaving him on a busy street with two bags looking up at the massive building. Just from the look of it, he knew it was expensive to even book a room for a night. He also knew that he had the money for about a two-week stay, give or take, but that wasn’t what he needed right now. Lucas knew that he had to keep a low profile, especially since he was a bit closer to what he wanted to accomplish.

He turned away from the building and went into the one right next to it. It was a tourist spot that he hadn’t seen before when he was in the city. The Big Apple Stay, the name read. The name was how he knew it was for tourists. Lucas went in with all his bags and headed straight to the receptionist's desk.

“Good day, sir. What can I help you with today?” the lady at the desk asked him.

“Room and board,” Lucas replied, angling his face so that the woman didn't take too much notice of him.

“One bed, I suppose, or are you expecting anyone later on?” she asked, but not in a prying manner. It seemed like she asked everyone that same question as a policy of some sort. 

He shook his head. 

“No. Just me,” he replied.

“Well, then, I’ll just need your name and a credit card, and I’ll set you up. A room for a night is thirty dollars.”

Lucas was even a bit surprised at how cheap it was, but he didn’t question it. 

“I have cash. I’ll pay for a whole week.” he told her as he took the money out.

“And my name is Damien Knox.” Lucas lied through his teeth.

The woman took the money without any question and clicked away on her computer before reaching into her desk and handing him a room key.

“No problem. There you go, sir. You’re in room eleven on the second floor. In case you’re interested, we will do a tour around the city for tourists like you. I was wondering if.”

“I won’t be joining you. I’m not a tourist. Thanks for the room,” he cut her off with a small smile as he began to walk away, leaving her to her thoughts.

Lucas went up the stairs as he was told, and he saw his room almost immediately. He jabbed the key in, unlocked the door, and went in. The room was small but not too shabby and the bathroom was alright. It was enough to start a new life here. 

He dropped his things on the bed and took out the things he had gotten on his way here. Hair dye, a pair of scissors, some contact lenses, and a crisp suit with complimentary shoes. Lucas set all the things out on the bed before he grabbed the dye, scissors, and contact lenses and went into the bathroom, ready to be a new man.

It took him almost three hours of MeTube videos and trying not to cut his ear off before he ended up with a manageable hairstyle in a complimenting shade. He ran his fingers through his short and dry but messy blonde hair, straightening out the curls that had formed and giving them some shape. His mother always wanted him to get rid of his hair. He had finally done what she wanted. A feeling of guilt washed over him for the second time that day when his mind went back to that fateful night. He shrugged it off, looking into the mirror with the sense that he was going to be the one to make them pay for what they did. He was going to avenge his mother.

Lucas’s now gray eyes stared back at him from the bathroom mirror in shock. He was still the same person, but to anyone else, he would have looked like a completely different person. A gray-eyed, blonde-haired man who had his whole life ahead of him. Not some brown-haired runt who almost died because of false love.

Lucas stood up straight and acted his new identity out. 

"Hi. I'm Damien. Damien Knox." He said out loud, shaking his head when he realized that he was laying the Hollywood act on too thick.

“Hi, my name is Damien Knox. I’m from Idaho. Nice to meet you,” he said to himself with a winning smile and his hand outstretched like he was about to shake someone. 

Lucas paused and stopped smiling, thinking that he needed to tone down some of his enthusiasm, for when the time came, but apart from that, the look he had was good. 

So he pulled out his contact lens, cleaned up the bathroom, and went into the bedroom where he plopped down on the bed and pulled out his phone. It had been years, so now, he had to find out what his old family or even Nicole had been up to. It would be a bit hard to find Nicole now when she was in the wind, and he had never even been to her house before, but his old family was a different problem.

The tags for the Graham family popped up on Lucas’s screen when he searched for them.

Mark Graham remarries after the scandalous affair of his wife is exposed.

The last daughter of the Lockhart family marries into the Graham family.

Where is the ex-wife of Mark Graham, and what is she doing now?

The various headlines popped up reminding Lucas of how his father abandoned him and his mother and then twisted the story to the press and public. He sucked on my teeth but still scrolled through the filth of the internet until he came across something interesting.

Surprisingly, there was a job opening. A bodyguard role for his former family specifically. He clicked on the link and read up on all of it, not wanting to miss any useful information that was there. In the end, he was going to try out for the position. It was better than waiting for Nicole to pop up somewhere in the nearest future.

Lucas was sure that his new identity would hold and there was no harm in getting closer to them. Plus, he'll bid his time. He needed to find Nicole first, but if he couldn't, then the family was the next best thing. After all, Troy had been destroyed from the inside out. He had to try

They reached the slab and the nurse turned to him with sadness in her eyes. She bit her lip but still spoke to Lucas.

“I asked for you to see her alone. Well, not alone since I’m here as your chaperon in the hospital. Is that okay?”

Lucas gave her a nod, his eyes trained on the sight before him.

“Are you ready or do you need some time?” she asked Lucas as she gripped one side of the sheet.

“I’m ready,” he answered her, bracing himself for the revelation and at the same time hoping against hope that this was all a joke. A sick prank. 

Lucas really hoped that his mother would bound through those doors with a laugh and shout ‘got you’ while she hugged him and smiled. He prayed that she was still alive and that this was all a figment of his twisted imagination. Or a freaking nightmare, even. 

But all those hopes shattered when the nurse lifted the sheets and the sight of his pale and very dead mother seared itself into his eyes. 

The nurse slunk away leaving Lucas to deal with his emotions. He stared at his mother and at the still red gap in her delicate neck and gritted his teeth. Black veins mapped her body like she was an object to be thrown away. 

Lucas huffed and licked his lips, still in disbelief at what he was seeing. His hands went up and moved to touch her hand but he hesitated. Then he took a deep breath and went through with it. 

His fingers touched her cold and stiff ones. Even when he crossed his fingers with hers and held her tight, they didn’t move. She didn’t smile at him like she always did. She didn’t tell him that she loved him. 

Lucas’s breath got stuck in his throat and his eyes began to tear up. He curled his free hand on the even colder slab as the tears had their way and fell freely, unchecked, and relentlessly as the sense of loss settled in his soul.

He cried. For the first time in a long time, Lucas cried. His chest heaved with each sob and without any help from his brain, his mouth opened and a raw guttural scream echoed through the almost empty room. 

He clutched at his chest as if trying to keep himself from falling apart inside. Then he opened his eyes just to see a blur of the world around him, but his mother looked so prominent in the fog of his mind. 

Through his tears, Lucas rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand like she had done a million times to calm him down. He sniffled and leaned down to her before placing a kiss on her forehead. 

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you. I tried but I was too weak.”

He stood up straight and looked at her face again. His free hand touched her cheek and determination swelled up in his heart.

“I swear it to you, Mom, I will avenge you. Those bastards will pay for what they did to you even if they have to die by my own hand. I will kill them for this,” Lucas vowed out loud before breaking down again. 

The people that killed his mother, Emilia, and Nicole, however deep the river of death ran, he would find them and he would destroy them and everything they held dear, but that would be later. Right now, he needed to mourn. Mourn and beg for his mother’s forgiveness. 

                                                                        •••••

Lucas spent hours in the morgue just clinging on to his mother’s hand before the nurse had to step in and quite literally pry him away from her. His head was raised high but his heart was still broken. He might have been looking put together outwardly but apart from his sadness, he was boiling on the inside. His mind was like an inferno that he desperately wanted to let loose on the people who did this to him.

He had two choices to make. It was either he followed the nurse back to his room and stayed here for another week or so or he left right now and made those bastards pay. With no hesitation, Lucas’s mind was already made up. 

He arrived at the lobby that they had to pass to get from his room to the morgue before he stopped abruptly, causing the nurse to stop with him and face him worriedly.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Cole?” she asked Lucas, moving to put her hands on him to check his body. 

But Lucas stopped her before she could. 

“I’m fine. I want to leave.”

“Sir, I know we said that you were doing well but you are in no shape to leave the hospital just yet. If you leave the hospital right now, you could still die. You still need rest and some drugs to keep the pain at a certain level and even with that we still need to…” she rattled on but he stepped close to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

As their eyes connected, Lucas knew that he had to make her understand. 

“I need to leave this place,” he told her, his stand not changing because of what she said.

She eyed him for a moment and slumped her shoulders, caving. She knew that he wouldn’t change my mind about this. Plus, he wasn't a teenager so she could keep him at the hospital. 

“Very well. The doctor and I can get you the drugs you need for now. Come with me,” she said, agreeing before they continued to walk farther into the building. 

As they moved she asked Lucas another question. 

“What about your mother?”

His jaw ticked for a second as the image of his mother entered his mind but he still gave the nurse an answer. 

“I’ll bury her. I just need to go and make preparations for that.”

“That’s why you’re leaving?”

“Yes.” He gave her a monotonous and more or less truthful answer. He was actually going to do that and so much more when he left this place.

After that, they both walked in silence all the way to the doctor’s office. She knocked and when the voice of a man beckoned her to enter, she turned the knob of the door and opened it so that they could both go in.

It was the doctor from before. The same one who had told Lucas what happened to his mother. Lucas glanced at the plaque on his desk. It read “Doctor Richard Finch.”

“Mr. Cole,” he said with slight shock.

“He wants to leave the facility, Doctor,” the nurse said.

“I don’t think that’s wise. Nurse Dorothy, did you tell him that…” Doctor Richard started but the nurse stopped him with an explanation and a raise of her hand.

“I already told him but he still insisted on this. He knows the risk.”

“So you know that you still stand a risk of dying if you aren’t careful?” Doctor Richard asked Lucas and he gave him a nod. 

The doctor sighed and frowned at his impatience. Then he turned around and rummaged through the large cupboard above his desk looking for drugs, Lucas presumed. Just as he thought, a minute later, Doctor Richard placed two vials and three prescriptions of drugs on the desk and eyed Lucas sternly while he spoke.

“Take all of this twice each day and take them consistently. Never overshoot or undershoot the dosage, if not it could upset your rehabilitation. Do you understand?” he warned Lucas.

“I do,” Lucas said as he scooped up the bag the Doctor had placed the drugs in and held onto it.

“About the payment…” he began. Lucas knew that even though this place was meant to help people, they still collected payment for everything they did.

“Don’t worry about it. The bill’s already been covered.” Doctor Richard waved Lucas’s words away.

“By who?”

“The people who brought you here. They said they were friends of your family. Since you’ve been out of it, they’ve contributed to keeping you alive. You people must really have a tight-knit community over there,” Nurse Dorothy said.

Lucas stood there, shocked that the people he had seen and interacted with for years had come together to save him. He inwardly smiled and thanked them.

“Lastly, if anyone comes here to ask of me, tell them that I died,” Lucas said.

“I don’t understand,” Nurse Dorothy stated, confused at the request. 

Doctor Richard furrowed his brows and leaned on his desk, already coming to terms about the situation he have gotten himself in.

“What sort of trouble are you in?”

Lucas waved his question away. 

“Don’t worry about it. Just tell them exactly that. Thank you, both of you,” he said to them finally before he opened the door and left the room, leaving them to stand in silence. 

Lucas walked out of the hospital building a broken but changed man. Even though he wasn’t physically changed, Lucas’s mind was shattered as the memory of what he had lived through was going to haunt him forever. 

He took a deep breath and set off, ready to begin on his path of revenge.