Rune System: The Crimson Knight

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s my fault. It’s all my fault…”

Dominic had no idea how long he’d been walking and mumbling to himself.

With slow steps, he dragged his legs as he limped forward, his head and eyes cast downwards to the ground. Without meaning to, memories of his life from years ago assailed his mind, inadvertently reminding him of the only moments when he truly felt happy and fulfilled.

“My little soldier,” his father had proudly told him on the morning of his high school graduation, about eight years ago. He’d ruffled his hair and tickled his nose, causing Dominic to giggle and grin widely at him.

“This is just the beginning of your journey,” he’d said with glittering eyes. “Soon, the world will be humbled by your greatness, and anyone who fails to see it will be taken by an unexpected storm. You’ll do wonders, my son. I know that.”

Previously in a squat position, he straightened up and continued to beam at the teenager. “Now, what was it you said you want to become again?”

“A pilot!” Dominic had declared. Then, with a finger to his chin, he added, “Or maybe a firefighter. Or an astronaut. I haven’t decided yet.”

“And here I thought you wanted to be a teacher like your mom,” Erica quipped as she walked into the kitchen with a smile, balancing Anya in her arms.

“Ugh, that’s boring,” Matthew joked, making a face. “Trust me, Dom. You don’t want to be stuck in a classroom with grumpy teenagers. Oh, wait. You’re a grumpy teenager.”

“Dad!” Dominic giggled uncontrollably.

“At least, it’s better than being stuck in a cab, driving grumpy old people around,” Erica teased back.

“Are you kidding? That’s like the best job in the world! I know the city like the back of my hand, I always meet new people from different walks of life, and now…” he wore a mysterious expression, “… now I’ve met someone who’s offered for me to be her personal chauffeur.”

“Seriously?” Erica sounded excited. “That’s great! Who’s she? Wait, she? Your employer is a woman? How old is she? What does she do? Should I be worried?”

Matthew threw his head back in a hearty laugh. “Come on, Erica. You play too much. She’s a bit over thirty, but she looks quite young all the same. Her name is Matilda Conrad, and although she lives in New York, she’s actually from Switzerland.”

“Wow,” Erica mused. “That’s pretty fancy.”

“You think? Wait ‘til I tell you that she’s an estate lawyer with her own big firm and her father’s a business mogul back in her home country. And I’m taking multi-millionaire status here.”

Erica beamed at her husband’s excitement. “Well, that’s definitely an upgrade from driving grumpy people around all day.”

“Certainly.” He walked up to her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “And things are only going to get better from here on out. You’ll see.”

“Oh, I have absolutely no doubt about that.”

Dominic had believed that in that moment, his life was nothing short of a fairytale with a spectacular ending in store for them all. How wrong he was.

After Matthew had begun working for Matilda Conrad, he was able to afford college fees for Dominic, as well as tuition for Anya who’d just begun high school. Though mostly preoccupied by his studies, Dominic only noticed his father’s absence whenever he was home for holidays. He’d leave for work early and return quite late at night, when the kids were, most of the time, already asleep.

“She seems to need me more and more every day,” Dominic remembered him explaining to Erica on one occasion. “She found out I used to be a whiz at physics and now there’s so much she wants to know about how that part of the world works. Then she set me up to give some of her friends driving lessons and—”

“I remember you agreeing to be her chauffeur, not a private tutor of sorts,” Erica had responded, clearly not happy with the situation. “I’m not against you helping with other things outside your professional range, but I just don’t like how it’s impacting your availability. Your kids barely see you anymore. Dominic is in school most of the time and when he usually comes home, you’re nowhere to be found.”

Matthew sighed, reaching out to hold her hand. “I’m sorry, Erica. You’re right. I’ll speak to Matilda about the arrangement.”

But nothing much changed after that. If anything, Matthew’s unavailability became worse. Dominic reflected on the phone calls with his mother then, how she’d subtly hint to her and Anya being alone at home, due to Matthew’s frequent travels with his employer. He’d usually come back with expensive gifts to make up for lost time, but it was a tactic that was starting to wear out.

Then his accident happened.

Dominic had been in class that day when his phone rang out, disrupting the flow of the lecture. Embarrassed, he’d excused himself and hurried out, only answering the phone when he was far enough from the lecture hall.

“Mom!” he’d exclaimed, his face red with humiliation. “I was in class! Everyone was staring at me like—”

“Your father was in a car crash.” Erica’s voice on the other end came out calmly, but when she sniffed, he knew she’d been crying. “He was on his way to work when the taxi he’d taken collided badly with a school bus at an intersection. He’s been in the hospital all through yesterday, and Anya and I have been with him. I’m sorry for interrupting your class, sweetie, and please come by when you can.”

Dominic had left school that very moment. He remembered seeing his father in that state, how it nearly broke him. Erica had explained that he’d suffered a head injury that had induced amnesia, and needed surgery to remove a large shard of metal that had impaled his abdomen. Dominic remembered his mother struggling to raise money to help pay for his surgery, only to find out that Matilda Conrad had flown him out of the country to operate in Switzerland.

“What?” Erica had whispered, her eyes filled with shock.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Heathley,” the doctor had apologized with a blank stare. “Miss Conrad was the one who was contacted first after your husband’s accident, and he was admitted with her name documented under ‘family and relatives’. So, ideally, when she asked to have him transferred, I assumed you’d already agreed to it.”

“I didn’t agree to anything!” she cried. “That woman is trying to take my husband from me, and I sure as hell won’t let her!”

The doctor raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Breathe, Mrs. Heathley. At least we know where she took him and what they’re doing there. After his surgery, we’ll ensure he’s back here for recovery and observation. You have nothing to worry about.”

It had taken Dominic months to realize that they indeed had everything to worry about.

Matthew’s surgery had been a success, though he remained in Switzerland much longer than expected. When he returned, however, it was like looking at a different person altogether. His smile was gone, his laughing eyes had become cold orbs, and when he looked at his family, he stared at them like strangers from a life he’d never lived.

“I don’t know who you are,” he’d explained to Erica on the last day he set foot in their apartment. “At least, I don’t remember. But I have to tell you that I’m in love with my fiancée, Matilda. So, whatever we had in the past cannot work. I hope you can understand that.”

Dominic remembered how hurt his mother looked, how heartbroken she’d become. Maybe that was what had triggered her illness—breast cancer so severe that Dominic had to pull out of school to help her cope. With the little money she’d saved over the years depleting quickly due to medical bills, Dominic was soon left with no choice but to find a job. At nineteen years of age, he’d already juggled more jobs than he had fingers on both hands.

When Anya was crippled by her accident, he felt like the glue that held his fragile world together was beginning to give way. In that time, he’d met Veronica; a glimmer of light and love in his life that gave him that spark of hope he didn’t realize he needed.

“You should try your hand out in the city,” she’d suggested to him one night during an ice cream date. “The suburbs can only offer so much in terms of opportunities. But in the heart of New York, there are countless possibilities just waiting within your grasp. All you have to do is reach out.”

And he did reach out, securing spots at promising locations with proper income after a while of searching. Things were still downhill, but starting to look up for the first time since his father’s accident. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Then Gregory Embers came and set his entire life on fire.

Dominic’s mind brought him back to his miserable reality. The sky was slowly turning light blue, which meant he’d been walking all night. As he approached the Brooklyn Bridge, the hollow faces of his mother and sister flashed across his eyes for the last time. Every ache in his body had united to form a large knot in his chest; an internal scar of failure that would stay with him even in death.

And it was at that moment that Dominic made a decision he was barely aware of.

For the first time since he got to his feet, he veered off in another direction. With only a handful of vehicles plying the bridge during the early hours of the morning, he freely sauntered in the middle of the road, angling towards the west edge of the bridge.

Without hesitation, he flung himself over the railings, falling freely into the river below. The moment his body hit the surface of the water, he knew. He knew that it was the only way that he could rest peacefully, that it was the only way he could be with his family again.

He knew that it was the only way he could escape men like Gregory. Life wasn’t large enough; in death lay the solution.

Dominic didn’t fight when the water mercilessly rushed into his nostrils. He simply drowned slowly, allowing the river to drag him down to a watery death.