The Concession

Chapter Twenty Two

"F*cking nuisance." Bennett gritted as he loosened his tie. He threw it on his bed and groaned.

The meeting had been a disaster.

The attacks had come from everywhere, it'd been so fierce that no one could gather at the secret location.

They had to change region at the last minutes.

The meeting would hold at the mansion instead, with the small few that could make it.

There were lots of empty rooms in the house but they would have to make use of the largest one- it was on the third floor on the east wing of the mansion.

Even he's never gone in there. It took almost a sixth of the entire house.

A lot of executives were delayed, some got into emergencies and some hadn't even responded.

Bennet exhaled.

You can't snuff the darkness, it'll always find a way.

There would be a mini-meeting at the mansion, precisely 1:00 am after midnight.

Fil Reuc was presently in one of the secret rooms.

He had to get things in order with his father.

Bennett took off his clothes and showered.

Ink was scattered all over his skin in form of letterings and pictures.

He'd gotten his first tattoo at the age of twelve-it was of the family crest.

He had it right at the nape of his neck. It was of a snake eating an apple.

He toweled himself dry and got into cleaner clothes.

As a kid he'd been lanky, not weighing much. He'd often been picked on by bigger boys of his class.

One day he'd told his father about it and his father had responded with a slap to his chubby face.

Stunned he'd looked at his father.

"Why should you allow yourself to be bested by worthless worms?" His father had said.

His father had then taken him to a room where he'd seen things he could not unsee.

His mother at the time had often fought with their father about how he was being treated.

But his father would always punish her by locking her up in one of those secretive rooms.

Because the rooms were soundproof he would hear nothing of what was going on on the inside, but each time she was let out, she would look so battered, barely clinging to life.

Bennett always defended his mother even as a child but he stopped after a while when his father told him her place.

She was a woman, a woman must submit, a woman mustn't oppose her husband.

In the house, even he was greater than his mother.

His father had made him drink his first human blood that night. He'd spat it out but his father had slapped him till he bled himself.

He'd finally drank it and had later gotten his second tattoo. It was that of a scorpion.

"Now, you can defend yourself in school, Richard."

The next day at school, three bullies had ganged up on him as usual demanding his lunch money.

They all ended up with cracked skulls and broken ribs.

One of them had irreparable brain damage as a result of having his face smashed against a pavement.

He was feared from that day on, for an apparent dark cloud followed him from that day.