The Sins of Our Fathers

XXII Tears of the Damned

The rickety old house hadn't changed. The door still hung off its hinges, the windows were still boarded up with splinter ridden slabs of wood, and there was still the telltale wisps of smoke seeping from the chimney.

Good, I thought, he was home.

My heart squirmed as I started up the blood stained steps to the front door. He needed to die I reminded myself, he was the only loose end, the only beacon of hope for humanity, and his fire needed to be put out. It was the memories from long ago, the all consuming love that had been a part of my soul for as long as I could remember.

But mostly I remembered the promise I had made last time we had been truly together, when he'd told me how much he hated the Casimirs- before he'd known the truth.

He'd told me how much he missed his father, and how much he hated mine for taking his away. I had promised to protect him, to make sure no Casimirs ever hurt him again. My unspoken promise hung in the air as I stepped into the dark empty house so quiet it was almost as abandoned as it looked.

I made my way through my old home toward Dimitri's room. The door creaked as I opened it revealing a pair of green eyes framed by messy brown hair sitting up on the bed in anticipation.

"Hello Neoma."

"Dimitri."

"So you came to kill me after all?" He scoffed, "Seems fitting Romulus killed my father and now you're here to kill me."

"I-I," I began, but he never let me get that far.

"I really trusted you, you know that. You made me feel whole again, like maybe there was life after the heart break I felt, and the whole time you were his daughter. You were laughing behind my back! Was being with me just some entertaining joke to you Neoma?" My name which he used to say with so much reverence was now mockery on his lips.

"Did you ever care about me at all?"

"Yes." I whispered praying her heard me.

He scoffed. "Why should I believe you? You're obviously a master at deceit! You fooled me for six years! Were you even really starving? Or was that just a ploy too?"

"Dimitri, please."

"Was it Neoma?"

"Dimitri."

"No, don't pull that shit on me! It won't work this time! Answer the damn question!"

"If you have to ask then you really never knew me at all."

His lips- his full angelic lips curled in disgust. "You're right I knew a sweet girl who would never hurt anybody, who wouldn't lie, steal or kill. You- the real you- on the other hand are a cold blooded killer. Heartless! Cruel! You're a damn sociopath!" He panted after his rant, as if pushing all his hate out at once had winded him.

"I'm not heartless," I whispered so quiet I wasn't entirely sure he heard me, "I'm heartbroken."

He sneered at me. "To be heartbroken it requires having a heart, and you obviously don't have one."

"I wish I never loved you." He glared at me and said the one thing that shredded what little grip I had on my anger, "You don't deserve love, you're just like Shlaköv- a monster."

I turned on him like a previously tame and friendly beast. The knife sheathed at my waist was out of its holder in a flash and in my hand. Dimitri never even had time to cry out before I was on him cutting and slashing with no control whatsoever.

Blood poured from wounds streaming down like rivers. Through it all Dimitri never said a word; never tried to defend himself. He simply sat there and took it. It was almost like he was accepting it; like he thought he deserved it.