The Mysterious Demon

-Blake-

“I don’t think I remember the last time we were been able to hang out together like this, Blake,”

I grinned at Jake as he put his next card down during our round of blackjack. “I know, seeing your ugly face for this long is quite something,” I reply which makes him scoff.

“Hey! We have almost identical faces! I’m surprised Dominic can stand yours.” He retorts which makes me chuckle. I put my card down.

“Yeah well at least I’ve got someone who can, where’s yours?” I ask and he pouts a little, trying to distract himself by looking through the cards in his hands.

He ends up deciding and changes his pouted expression to a more mischievous one, “I’ll find her one day, in the meantime, I think we should test how well Dominic can tell us apart. Wouldn’t want you getting married to someone who could mistake you for another man now, would we?”

“You do that and you’re dead,” I say casually which makes him grin.

“I’m doing it!”

I roll my eyes but smile at his childish behaviour. I would have found myself getting angry at this a few years ago but now, I had the utmost trust in Dominic; I knew that even if he did do this, it wouldn’t make a difference. She loved me as I did her.

“Where is she anyway?” Jake asked.

Dominic was with Anna right now. It’s been a few weeks since she and Jordan have been around and in that time Anna and Dominic have started to become really close to one another. They weren’t similar in any sense but there was something that connected them and now they behaved like sisters almost.

It was the first time I had seen Dominic act so friendly with another person, that too a woman. Ever since high school I’ve known her to be independent or surrounded by men who either want to kill her or want something from her. We had been some of the only friends she had but now that she’s found Anna, I’m happy that she gets to live somewhat normally and… happily.

I heard from Dominic that Anna had had her do things she had never done before whether that was going to the cinema, going to the arcade, dancing at home, doing karaoke. And although she admitted to being uncomfortable about them at first, she ended up enjoying doing them with her. She also made Anna do things too like going shooting which Anna was surprisingly good at and going to fights which Dominic said wasn’t something Anna was super into but they ended up having a great time anyway.

This morning they had gone for a walk around one of the bigger parks in the city, probably going to do other things too and should be back soon.

I told Jake this and he nodded excitedly before going on about his ‘grand plan’ which involved us switching clothes and some kind of training that he said we’d go over later. First, we needed to change.

Jake was wearing a casual white shirt, a grey zip-up hoodie and light denim trousers at the time. I was wearing a black button-up shirt, black trousers and a burgundy leather jacket. I think it was safe to say we definitely had different styles and I would find it weird that we were swapping clothes but we used to do it a lot as kids so I didn’t really mind. Jake did complain about doing so many buttons though and that burgundy was a weird colour.

After that Jake tried mimicking me which was honestly pretty funny.

“You’re always really angry so I guess I shouldn’t smile a lot?” He then put on an exaggerated angry face which made wrinkles form between his eyebrows, making me laugh before I slapped the back of his head.

“I am not angry all the time,”

“Sure dude, also, you gotta start pretending to be like me, call her sweetheart and be a lot livelier” I’m pretty sure he was just insulting me now. “What do you call her by the way? What’s her pet name?”

I scratched the back of my neck while thinking of an answer, it wasn’t really something I had thought about, anything we call each other would just be out of instinct, “D, I guess?”

Jake looked at me as if asking ‘am I serious?’ Which made me shrug. “D? Not ‘love’ or ‘hun’ or ‘babe’? You’re a terrible boyfriend. I bet she’d love me.” I sighed, almost regretting agreeing to this.

“Yeah, and that’s definitely why I’m her boyfriend,” I reply and he smirks at me while doing his hair, getting pretty into his role.

It wasn’t long after when I heard Dominic and Anna’s laugh outside the door and I started getting a little nervous but pushed it back. It’s not like anything would happen.

The door opened and the two women walked in, “I’m home!” Dominic calls out, she’s been doing that recently which gave the house a more warm feeling than before. Before it used to feel like a place that didn’t belong to her but ever since our night, she’s made it feel more homely.

I was about to reply but Jake beat me to it, reminding me that I was supposed to be him and him me, “Welcome home love,” he says, walking towards her. His voice was perfect somehow, the way he walked towards her, arms outstretched casually too, he was really good. They hugged which made me hold my breath a bit. I knew Jake wouldn’t do anything, I trust my brother, but still.

He got significantly closer to her face now and it looked like he was going to kiss her. I got up to stop them but before I could step forward Dominic landed a hard punch to Jake’s stomach, making me flinch slightly as he groaned out in complaint towards Dominic but then I slowly smile as Dominic walks up to me after giving Jake a weird look.

I hold the back of her neck and give her a short welcoming kiss before holding her waist, rubbing the tips of my fingers on the sides of her stomach when we break away and she turns back at Jake, “What was that about?” She asks me and I shake my head,

“You don’t want to know,”

Dominic chuckled then guided Anna into the living room after that, waiting for me to follow which I did after helping Jake up. “She’s a keeper,” Jake says in between his groans which makes me laugh.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

We both sat on the sofas in front of Anna and Dominic after. I watched as Dominic excitedly told us about what they had been doing today, as she laughed along with Anna, eyes gleaming, smile wide. I loved seeing her so happy, knowing she deserved this in every way and if I could preserve it at all, I would.

There was something though, something that felt very off about the room. I felt it when Dominic and Anna first came into the house and I had started feeling it now too. The room was filled with chatter, it wasn’t awkward or abnormal but there seemed to be a void that felt weird to me. I looked in Anna’s direction to see her looking down at her lap intently for a second before looking up again and joining in the conversation again, all as normal.

I was going to push this feeling away, thinking it was just me being paranoid when suddenly the whole house went pitch black.

It was more than just the electricity being cut off, the windows were blocked from the outside as if caped by something. “Dominic!” I called, reaching forward to where she was last and being able to find a shoulder that I was sure was hers. I could feel Jake behind me too, probably looking around for the weapons we had stored around the house but,

“Dont bother,”

A low toned voice said which made us tense, looking around to try and find the source which didn’t take long.

A wind blew outside which lifted whatever was blocking one of the windows allowing a little bit of light to enter between us and her.

Anna stood there, looking almost like a completely different person which her innocent expression no longer on. I grit my teeth and then suddenly remembered.

I whip my head towards Dominic who held a pained expression on her face. So much so that it hurt me to see it. “Anna,” The name left her lips slowly, her eyes then shut tight a second before opening and the expression of Dominic’s face changed completely as well. She looked at Anna as if she had done any one of her other opponents, no ties whatsoever.

“My father’s gang couldn’t just accept a defeat from people like you,” Anna said before slowly raising a gun and pointing it in our direction. Both Jake and I stood in front of Dominic in an attempt to protect her but all Dominic did at seeing the gun was chuckle.

“Finally showing your true intentions are you?” Her voice masking what must be painful with pride.

“Don’t act so smug, you were fooled so easily. Letting people into your home.”

I heard a safety lock of a gun being released from behind me which made me shut my eyes. It seemed that even though she finally found her first best friend, she was still prepared for something like this. To take it all away, even if it meant so much more pain.

“Maybe,” Dominic says and raises the gun to aim which makes Anna visibly tense but she doesn’t waver in her own threat. “But I don’t regret it. After all,”

“I enjoyed every second.”

Two gunshots were fired.Material © NôvelDrama.Org.

And silence followed.