Chapter 2: Being Alone Is the New Normal

Damien’s POV

I was just finishing up my documents when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I said without looking up.

“Oh, Damien. Always working!”

I looked up, irritated. “Why are you here?”

“Don’t be such a jerk, Damien.” She walked toward me and leaned over on the table, showing her cleavage. I looked sideways and then down at my paper, shattering her intentions.

“Stop working!” She said excitedly so and was about to take my document away when I caught her hand in between. “You should walk out of here,” I said with a dark voice.

“You know I get really tingly when you use your threatening tone. It is so… sexy.”

I was reaching my level of frustration with her.

“You want to seduce me, don’t you?” She menacingly – and ironically – said. “Wouldn’t you be betraying your best friend that way?”

“I can’t even take your name,” I replied and looked at her. “I don’t cuss.”

She chuckled. “Oooh. You’re cool, I will give you that.”

“Get out. Right now.”

She stood straight and sighed. “Stop disrespecting me. It is just so annoying.”

“And I am pissed already.” I finally got up. “So why don’t you walk out, as I’ve already told you thrice, or we’ll take this to the next level right now.”

She smirked. I guess she doesn’t know the meaning of my next level.

“I knew you liked me!” She smirked more and I rolled my eyes. I took out my gun again.

“That so?”

She looked at it and laughed. “We both know you are not going to shoot me.”

“Do we? I don’t remember that.”

“If-if you do that, you’ll lose your friendship with Trev!”

“I will talk to him about it,” I replied confidently, “But you need to die because you’re playing my best friend and also want to fuck up our friendship.”

She took a deep breath.

“And, not to mention, being a slut.”

She squinted her eyes in rage. “What did you say?”

“Oh, don’t you worry. No one will know — I won’t tell and you wouldn’t be able to.”

“Don’t you dare!” She was finally scared and said. “I-I—I’ll lose nothing and you’ll lose Trevor!”

I smirked. “Buh-bye.”

With that, a bullet came out of the gun and hit her forehead in the middle. She died on the spot.

I stopped for a second when I looked at her dead body. She was right — Trevor would hate me. I never wanted this to escalate but I knew that Trevor would misunderstand our relationship and no matter what – Amelia had to die. She was just a slut who was playing him. She could’ve never loved him.

Or was I just justifying my kill? Was killing people getting easy for me day by day?

I rubbed my forehead and was about to go back to my seat when I heard a loud gasp. I turned around and pointed a gun at the intruder — only to find Trevor standing there in shock.

“A–Amelia?” He whispered and went towards her dead body. I stood quietly and looked away. I couldn’t see him hurt. He took his time — at least ten minutes — before turning to me. This time, his eyes were filled with hurt and hatred, something I had never seen in him.

“Did you enjoy it?”

His question made my heartache. He believed I did it for fun. I don’t enjoy hurting people but some of them just deserve it. How could I explain this?

“Trev, I–”

“It is Trevor for you.” He got up from the floor and looked at me with a menacing glance. “And I don’t want any fucking explanation from your sorry ass.”

I looked down.

“If you’ll just hear—” I tried to speak but he cut me in between with his laughter.

“You know, I thought you were a monster,” He looked at me and said, “But I believed you were a monster for the right reasons. A monster for the monsters.” He looked over at Amelia. “But now, I don’t know…” I could see a tear in his eyes as he looked at me again, “Maybe you should kill yourself because you’re no less monster than the ones you kill.”

I didn’t reply. I don’t know what I was feeling — I felt weird, I felt hurt after a long time. The wounds became new, the old wounds hurt once again and it felt like no matter what right I do, I was always going to be wrong in someone’s eyes.

And that someone could also be my best friend.

“I won’t give an explanation,” I said after a while, “You won’t believe it. But, if you want to kill me, go ahead.”

He hesitated. He took out his gun and even removed the safety — but he didn’t kill me.

“You deserve to live and get tortured by this world,” He said, “You don’t deserve to die.”

I nodded. That time, I realized — being alone is the way I like, it was the way I deserved to be and it was the only way I could survive.

I walked out of the office.