Diabolus: The Lost Phoenix

Chapter Thirty Seven

KAI WOODS

My stomach still hurts when I move faster, like that bullet was still inside me. Ripping my guts apart. Although I know it's not there, I'm healing, but I still am in pain. Maybe it's not my stomach that hurts, it's probably my heart. That's breaking with each day.

Like a thousand tips of knives would scratch it, digging deeper with each second. As if they were slowly killing me. Or making a hole inside me; making me feel as empty as I've never been before.

Just now, it gives me realisation of what happiness actually is. Because, before Beverly, even before Kevin was taken away from me, I couldn't describe myself as happy. Just now I know, that happiness is a pleasing weight that sits on you often, like how air pressure sits on you, and you just don't notice it. Until it's ripped out of your hands, and that weight disappears, giving you nothing but the feeling of emptiness.

God, we've been through so much. All the fights we had, kidnaps, injuries, and nothing could stop me. Until Beverly's stepfather got in the way. Even the thought of him makes my hands shake; fuck, I would strangle him to death if I had a chance. And at the same time, I know I wouldn't. Because, it doesn't matter what he did.

He's still Brooklyn's father.

But he had done enough. And he doesn't need to die to go through hell; I think the girls will find a way to make his life a torture.

"Kai? Are you listening to me?"

It's like I was floating somewhere in space with no surroundings, just me and my thoughts; before I lift my eyes up again. To see big eyes, staring at me, with some sort of anger flashing in them. Her eyes are like midnight, like raven's wings. The sweet silence before dawn in them, and nothing but responsibility.

Her hair is cut short, like a man would; or perhaps it looks like that because of those tousled spikes, curls, that make the hair visually shorter. But I always found that curly hair some sort of interesting. It's confidence and strength, natural and pretty. But it doesn't make her look less feminine.

"Of course, master. Talk."

I feel the frustration radiating from her when she frowns, only for a second; the annoyance she feels in her endless empathy for others. Just a simple flash of anger in her eyes before she draws her look back to her papers, and her lips part slightly.

"I don't think there's a chance for you to be diagnosed as innocent. The psychiatrist works only for the district attorney."

"But you're the lawyer, Julia. Do something about it."

"Come on, Kai. Don't be such a dick."

Brent pushes me with his elbow as I feel the chuckle stuck in my throat. Just as the last syllable escapes my lips, her eyes lit up with fire of anger in them. Her lips purse as if she was holding that shout she wanted to let out; yet she tries to control herself around other inmates and lawyers. A hellish smile starts to play on my lips as I feel the irritation and tension growing; I cross my arms by my chest, letting a slow, hot sigh out.

"I'm just kidding. Relax."

"They have too much evidence, such as your, Brent, fingerprints they found on Carlos Pereira's body, not to mention his headless daughter, Kai. They've been gathering the information for years now. It was even easier to know who committed those crimes, you were one of them once. But it was not as easy to find you."

"Okay, so what are you thinking?"

Julianna sighs, drawing her eyes back to the papers, slowly looking through them, as if she was searching for an answer. The only movements on her head are the large gold hoop earrings and the slow blinking of her eyelids. But I don't feel anxious, or anything like that. I know there's no way for us to get out of here; we will be sentenced, and it's just a matter of time. But there's just one thing I can think about.