Days of Darkness: Winter's Rage (Book 2)

Chapter 5: The Beginning of a New Life

Damien roamed around the building for a while after the debriefing. He couldn't believe how much had changed in just three years. As he looked out of the window, he thought to himself, "The nighttime hasn't looked so bright in years." But the reality was, that the darkness they felt once clouded the world had disappeared. He saved an entire world and countless lives. What was he to do with life now?

On the other hand, though, he felt deep down inside that the war that they fought was far from over. The events that he experienced on Dante's earth, in addition to the current events on his own earth, kept the need for him to stay alert at the forefront of his mind. Losing the family that he had now was, in his mind, not an option.

As he made his way to Nadia's door, Damien let out a deep sigh, and then, knocked on the door. Nadia came to the door, still fully clothed but looked exhausted.

"Come on in, Damien," she said. "Sit down."

Damien pulled up a chair at the dining room table as he looked around.

"This is a really nice apartment you have, babe."

"Thank you," she said as she sat down across from him. "A lot has changed since you've been gone, Damien."

"I see."

"There's a lot that I wanna tell you," she started. "I just have absolutely no clue as to where to begin."

Damien reached across the table to hold Nadia's hand.

"Listen, babe. Whatever you need to say, you can tell me. Start from wherever you feel you have to."

Nadia drew her hand back and stood up. She paced back and forth until she finally got the words out.

"I missed you for so long, Damien. After you left, I cried my heart out for weeks. I mean, we were supposed to be getting married. But you left." Nadia began to tear up. "Diamond did her best to console me and reassure me and tell that things would be alright. And as much as I appreciated that from her, the bottom line was that I missed you and I didn't know how to handle you being gone like that. I got to watch our friends get married but, the reality was, I wanted to be the one walking down the aisle with you.

"Christian did the best that he could to try to get you back. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reopen any breaches. It was like they were permanently closed. And I started to lose hope. I thought I would never see you again. My love, gone forever. I buried myself in work at the clinic to dull my pain . I thought that by staying busy, I could, somehow, lead a normal life and help as many people as I could.

"Just recently, this morning as a matter of fact, I got my first glimmer of hope when Christian said that he might've found a way to get you back. Now that you are back, Damien, I have this range of emotions that I don't know how to deal with right now. I mean, I am so, so happy that you're back. For three years, I've waited for you and, now, you're here. But, you left me, Damien! No 'goodbye.' No 'I'll return.' You just... left."

Damien got up to embrace Nadia and console her.

"It's alright, babe," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about it when it happened. I just wanted to keep all of you safe. You all are my family. We had already lost Cyris, and I didn't want anyone else to suffer a similar fate. I'm so sorry."

Nadia cried some more in Damien's arms as she looked deeply into his eyes.

"Babe," she said. "I have something else that I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Do you remember the moment before Dante had got back up? The moment before you both went into the portal? Do you remember that I had something I wanted to tell you?"