Tears of Blood (wlw)

welcome to orien

DEVYN POV

Nothing made sense anymore. My head was still spinning after the events today. I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you.. that's not even a good question." I look up to see Sierra, Gabriel, and Ash standing behind me. They all pull me into a hug.

"We're here for you Dev." They whisper. The doctor walks out and he looks at me with sad eyes.

"What is it? No, no, no."

"We couldn't save him."

My knees give away and I fall to the floor. The hospital goes silent as they bring his body out.

"Father...." I don't even know what to say at this moment.

"Devyn!" Riley yells and runs over to me. I hug her and we both start to cry.

"What happened?"

"Bad people, Riley." I reply and she hugs me tighter.

"Father? No, please no. Wake up! Please!" Sage walks out and holds Father's hand. I almost gasp when I see Sage's arm. Her left arm was gone. Everything below her elbow had been amputated.

"Sage, I-"

"Don't speak to me. This is because of you! Do you hear me? Look at us. Sloane and father is gone! Look at me!" She says in anger. I don't say anything back because I know she's right. They start to take the body away and Sage storms off.

"Can you guys watch Riley? I'm going to see if Sage is okay." I tell Sierra and they all nod.

I walk into the hospital room that Sage went into. She sits in a chair and cries uncontrollably.

"I'm so sorry. I really am. I should have known." I bring her into a hug and she doesn't resist.

After a few minutes of crying she finally stops and tells me to sit next to her.

"Devyn, you have to lead us now."

"Me? I can't. What about you?"

"I can't lead like this. With one arm? People want to see strength right now. Our people need you."

"I don't-"

"For fuck's sake Devyn. If you want to make up for your stupid mistakes, you have to do this."

"I know."

"You have to be stronger than ever now. You have to do everything father taught us. You owe to him and all of us."

"I will. I won't let you down again."

"I hope not, Devyn. I really hope not." She gets up and leaves to find her children.

I catch myself in the mirror and I hate the reflection. I bring my fist back and then punch straight at the glass, watching it shatter. My mind flashes back to Andrea shattering the glass to jump out of the window. I'll make her pay for this.

A FEW DAYS LATER

The funeral was being held today. Everyone was out on the streets as our cars passed by. At first I thought it was only a few, but then our cars stopped.

"What happened Reggie?"

"There's too many people." He replies. I get out of the car to see a mob of people surrounding Sloane's car, it was surprising because no one went to father's car, when he was their king.

The people won't stop coming, so I climbed the car. Standing on the car, I realized that the whole street was filled with people in black. Some were carrying candles, flowers, or posters of Sloane. My eyes started to swell with tears but I clenched my jaw. Each person touched the car and said a silent prayer. Some were even crying. All the cars stopped, and it was me on top of mine, overlooking thousands of people. I realized that this was the first time they were looking at me in royal attire. I had the emblem pin on my suit, showing that I was the new successor. It was awfully quiet for the amount of people in attendance. I knew I should say something, they were all waiting, but I know they understood me. Then the unexpected happened, a few got down and kneeled on one knee to show their support. Then it became a wave, everyone started to do the same.

"We're with you!" Someone shouts.

"That's what Sloane wanted!" Another shouts.

"Long live Orien!" Shouts started to rise.

I hold out my hand, signaling them to be quiet, and it works. I watch as all of the look up at me. I get on my knee and kneel.

"I'm with you. Each and every one of you!" I yell.

They all cheer and throw flowers. It takes forever but we finally make it to the burial site. I hold Riley close as we say our final goodbyes. I never thought I'd be saying this to Sloane. She was everything for me. I wonder how Felix was doing.

I just feel so empty now. There's this void in me that can't be filled. There's nothing left for me anymore, but I have to do right by Riley and Sage. I have to make up for my mistakes. Sometimes I wish I could close my eyes and never wake up, but I wouldn't want that until I had my revenge. All this time I was a fool. I let her in, I should have never, just like father said. All those fake things she said and did, and I fell for it. I could never forgive her, she wasn't even worthy of forgiveness. I hated myself for not believing Sage, for giving her the benefit of the doubt. I can't believe I loved her, how pathetic of me. The days have become dreadful, just constant loops of misery.I will make things right again. I'll make them pay.

"Ma'am? We have the prisoner ready for interrogation."

"I'll right down."

The guard leads me into a small cell with a man tied to a chair. He almost looked unrecognizable with all of the cuts on his face.

"I see that you've roughened him up a bit?" I ask the guard with a smile.

"Yes ma'am."

"I see that his fingernails are still intact...?" I grab the prisoners hand.

"Please...no..don't." The prisoner cries.

"If he doesn't talk, rip out his finger nails one by one." I say to the guard as I start to leave the cell.

"No, stop."The prisoner yells.

"Welcome to Orien, Axel."