The Overlord Trilogy: The Darkness

Epilogue

Jake Nightlock

"Do you miss him?" I look up as I finish a push-up, Lady Victoria standing in the doorway to my room.

"Who?" She shakes her head and steps inside the room, her long dress a large comparison to what I first met her in. The first time I met her she was wearing a large gown while this dress compliments her features, staying close to her body and moving tightly.

"Your son." My breathe catches as I move into a sitting position. I avoid her gaze and instead look at the intricate floor, one that I've studied many times. The floor vibrates in response, comforting me with images of luscious fields and small country houses. The images disappear as Lady Victoria stomps her foot onto the ground, silencing the floor. "Enough with you! I asked our friend a question, I don't need you distracting him." The vibration moves out the door and down the hall, my only comfort gone.

"Why would I miss him?" I finally look up at her, surprised by her stone cold gaze.

"When you first came here Jake you tried to help some of my helpers escape. You remember that night don't you?" My hands clench into fists as images of that night flash into my vision, the screams, the silence. "I'll assume you do. When you did that it made me realize I was living in the past, continuing to use... slaves for my work." She seems pained as she says the word, looking down at the floor in shame. "As you know, I no longer have slaves but hire people to work for me and payed all those who were slaves to me." I nod my head as she looks at me. "The reason I am telling you this Jake is because you fled your past. You ran away from what you were afraid of and have been avoiding it by doing tasks for me. You realize how old your son would be now right?"

"Around twenty." She nods and smiles small at me before continuing.

"Yes, around twenty by now. This means he has went all that time without a father and maybe without a mother after what you did. Your wife thinks you're dead Jake and that will, or might have already, break her. You have to try and reconcile for the time you lost with them." I stand up, easily two feet over Lady Victoria's height.

"Why should I? Did you ever reconcile with your daughter after she left? No you instead had another daughter." Lady Victoria's eyes fill with pain and I immediately am filled with regret. Too far Jake and you know it.

"I was a different person back then Jake. I no longer can help my actions or make up for them but you can. You can choose to find your son and wife. They need you Jake, you can't just keep hiding from them!" I shake my head and turn from her, my hands clenched into tight fists. "You don't even know what your son has been doing all these years have you?" I let silence be my answer. I've never tried to find out what Katherine or James were doing, I don't care enough. I escaped from that life because they were poison to me. "Well I did some research for you whether or not you wanted to know what they are doing." I hear paper land on my bed, one of the papers landing at the back of my feet. "I had to tap into some pretty top secret information to get that stuff for you so I expect you to read it and realize how much is happening in this world that you left."

I wait until I hear her walk out of the room, the door swinging shut behind her as she walks down the hallway. I don't need to know what is happening out there, they are no longer a part of me. I turn on my heels and frown, all the papers now neatly stacked on my bed. The paper on top has bold writing across it: NIGHTLOCK REPUBLIC FALLS AS EMPIRE TAKES PLACE. Nightlock? What the hell is my last name doing on a Republic let alone an Empire? Before I can stop myself, I am sitting on the bed and looking through the papers.

The words flow into me as if they are water for someone who hasn't drank in decades. One word forces me to the next, the need unstoppable as I continue through each and every page. My son made an Empire that now rules a vast amount of the universe, the known universe at least. I trace my finger of a picture of Katherine, her picture under the newspaper title: NIGHTLOCK FAMILY SPLITS.