When the night rises... *book three*

Gone

The free weeks went by quickly, and one morning I woke up still tired. I'd had plenty of sleep the previous night.

I'd started drinking more coffee as the exhaustion grew.

I hadn't explained the situation to anyone.

So they didn't know how or why I was getting so tired. I managed to complete orders, but unlike in the past, I couldn't deliver them to get shipped off.

Sam, Ivan, Mason and Joe would all take turns to take them.

I'm sat in my study.

I grab my cane, I'm using it again as my ankle got worse, and I get up.

I leave the room and head downstairs.

I end up having to sit down halfway down.

And there's still a few floors to go.

I eventually get down and I collapse onto the living room Sofa....

I managed to keep my distance from Evan for at least a few years before I could barely move on my own. I was still my shining, Radiant self on the outside, but on the inside I was exhausted and tired.

I'm Sat in the park, and again, I'm alone.

I see Evan at the gate to the park.

I sigh, and lean my head against the chain.

I don't have the energy to move.

I barely even have the energy to light a cigarette.

He looks at me, "exhausted, old man?"
"I'm not old... just tired..."
"Can't run anymore, can you? Can't hide? You did well though, three whole years you managed to stay away from me. And at the price of your energy. You really don't want this to happen, do you?"

I don't answer.

"Do you remember when you saw another me? That was fun. Now, it got you jumpy, didn't it? The whole feeling of being followed? I did that. I like mind games. And this was all one big mind game to get you scared. Oh, the big Damien Jean Callas is afraid of a little shadow! God, you even started smoking because of the stress! My My, I really do love mind games."
"You've already won... you don't need to rub it in my face..."
"But you're missing the point! I do! I do have to rub it in your face, because you're Damien Callas! The worlds biggest, baddest most powerful and beautiful person in the whole world, and I've managed to wear you down into a tired, little old thing. Me. I did that, no one else, me. And that's why I have to rub it in your face. Because it makes me more powerful than you."
"You'll never have more power than me..."
"Will I not? Because it seems to me, that I have gotten you so tired and exhausted, you don't even have the energy to flip me off."

I do have the energy to do at least that, and I do. I flip him off.

"Point proven. Well, you can barely get up, let alone move."

I sigh and look away from him, "I give up..."
"You do? That easily?"
"What's the point in trying anymore? You'll just get me in a few days, because I won't be able to do anything by then..."

He's suddenly in front of me, and he holds my head up with his hand.

I can feel energy soaring through my veins.

"That feel better, pet?"

He moves his hand to my neck and I feel a really small but really sharp and really painful pain in my neck.

"C-can't I ev- even say g-good bye to-to my f-family?"

He thinks for a moment, scrunching up his nose, "mmm.... No."

My eyes feel droopy and the new found energy is gone. I feel more tired than before.

I struggle to keep my eyes open...

He holds me up as my body goes limp...

And I drift... off..... to....... Sleep....

Sams POV:

I'm walking to the park. Damien hasn't come home yet, and I'm expecting him to be sat in the park, by himself. He's been quite tired lately. I asked him about it, and he joked about, saying his old age was catching up to him. He told me he was joking, and said he just hadn't been sleeping probably.

He seems to have had a lot of disrupted sleep lately. Several times he's woken up screaming and then clung to me until he fell asleep again.

Sometimes I don't wake up when he does, and I don't know how many times during the night he wakes up.

He's probably just relaxing on a bench and doesn't have the energy to get up. He hasn't had very much energy lately.

I'm now close to the park.

It looks empty.

I go inside and look all around.

He isn't here.

I call him.

Someone picks up, "Sam?"
"Damien?"
"No, this is Ivan. Is this Sam?"
"Yeah, where's Damien?"
"I don't know, is he not at the park?"
"No. Why do you have his phone?"
"I assume he left it home. It was in the living room on the table."
"Oh..."
"Maybe call the police."
"Well, he can't have gotten far, not with his current health."
"You will need help to look for him. I will get the other two, and we'll all go different ways and-"
"Shush!"
"What?"
"Be quiet for a second!"

I turn around and see A zombie or something.

"Holy Shit, what the fuck!?"

I step back.

It shuffles its feet and looks at the floor.

"Do you know who Evan is? Evan Gerrard?"
"Yeah, what's that bitch done now?"
"As you may have noticed, Damien became exhausted. That's because he was staying away from Evan. But the longer he kept his distance, and the longer he wasn't caught by Evan, the more exhausted and tired he would become. He made it three whole years, but now Evan has him. Because he no longer found the energy to run. I'm sorry."
"Tell That son of a bitch to give me my husband back!"
"I can't. Once he gets something he wants, it's not likely he will return it until he is done doing with it what he needs to do."
"And what is he trying to do?"
"He is looking for his friends. He suspects that one of his friends is in a person he already had, and he suspects his other friend is in Damien."
"What do you mean his friends are in Damien and this other person?"
"Their souls. Or... or their essence."
"So what, is he your boss or something?"
"Or something. There is not a likely chance that you will have Damien back until Evan is done with him. I would say a few years at the very least. A century or two at most. Evan wants power. And to get it, he will get back his friends and he suspects his friends would hide in powerful beings, such as your husband. A highly unstable half breed."
"Highly unstable?"
"Considering All That has happened to Damien in the past, similar to that which has happened to you but on a much larger scale, his emotions... and his mind... and his magic... he's... he's just really unstable. And now Evan is going to try and use that trauma to manipulate Damien into becoming a man hellbent on destroying those who hurt him. He wants Damien to be a villain, the main face of his violent path to control. The face everyone will see when Evan orders him to destroy something."
"..."
"I'm sorry."

They disappear and I'm left alone.

My phone rings.

I answer.

"Sam, can you tell me why the only person answering Damiens phone is a Russian who isn't Damien?"
"Evan got him."
"WHAT!?"
"Evan got him! Over the past few years, Damien became increasingly exhausted and it was because Evan somehow cursed Damien so that the longer he stayed away from Evan, the more Exhausted he would become so that eventually, Damien would have almost no energy and Evan would be able to get him."
"Shit. We have to find him."

Whoever it was hangs up. And I go back home...