CHAPTER 5

Damon

My legs touched the hard ground of earth and I hated it already.

It was quiet in where I had landed but I could hear the conversations of humans in the other streets and in their homes.

There were loud arguments between couples, baby cries, chattering made in bars and the likes. Humans knew nothing about peace.

I felt a strange presence behind me and I was tempted to look behind me but I didn't. If I was being watched, then I would have to kill whoever that person was and I wasn't here to kill Innocents so I simply teleported some place else.

It was the same place I remembered seeing my mother in one of my nightmares. There was so much sand and a large body of water up ahead.

The sand was soft and the water was tempting but I restricted myself. I stared at the sand like my mother would suddenly appeared on it.

The beach was vast and empty as expected. I could stand here until eternity, just staring at the water. It had its own way of bringing serenity to one's mind but unfortunately, I had limited time here, for that.

The fact that I constantly saw my mother on the beach only meant there was something on this beach that shouldn't be here. Whatever it was, it definitely had something to do with my parents' deaths, especially my mother's.

The fierce wind blew my hair, forcing me to pack it into a bun. I turned around to leave the beach, perhaps wander around this boring city until I can find something that could lead me to my parents.

But then, something caught my attention.

The first step I took, didn't sink into the sand like it should. It was like this particular part of the beach wasn't with sand as soft as the rest.

I moved back and stepped on it again, wanting to know if this was real or just a product of my imagination.

"Damon?" I heard my name just before my feet would touch the sand.

I left my feet hanging in the air, just staring straight ahead. Goosebumps had broken out on my skin once I heard that voice.

It can't be real.

"Damon, it's me." The voice came again but closer this time, lol she was standing close to me.

Slowly, my feet dropped to the sand and it sank right it, just like it should have the first time.

"Damon, turn around, it's me." She spoke up again and I was forced to turn around.

There she was, smiling and waving at me like she always did in my nightmares only this time, she wasn't sitting in the sand.

"M....m...mom?" I stuttered, waving at her too.

This can't be real, it's definitely not real. Get a grip of yourself Damon!

"Mom!" I found myself running toward her.

When I got close enough, I expected her to vanish like every illusion did but she didn't. I wrapped my hands around her and drew her closer in a hug.

"Mom."I whispered, hugging her tightly.

Slowly, her hands found their way to my back, wrapping themselves around me; "Damon."

Her warm breath was steady on my neck, I felt her smile and I quickly disengaged the hug.

"This can't be real, you're not real. We held your funeral in Hell, I saw your......y..... your dead body." I didn't let go of her, I was scared that if I did, she might vanish.

"But I am. You can feel me, right? I am just as real as you can see me, Damon. What makes you think I am not real?" She placed her hands on my shoulders, her beautiful smile never leaving her face.

"I saw your dead body, mom. I've been having nightmares about your death too." I wanted to reciprocate her smile but I couldn't help but panic.

I wasn't just having nightmares anymore, those nightmares that plagued my sleep now plagued my peace too, even while I was no longer asleep. They had found a way to morph into an illusion that looked so real.

"Your nightmares don't make me illusions, Damon." She responded, wiping away the tear that slipped from my eye.

"But..." I was about to say something when she interrupted me.

"Let's take a walk, shall we? Even if I was an illusion, you would still want to spend time with me, right?" Her bright smile and deep dimples captured my heart.

"Of course." I nodded, chuckling.

I linked my arms around hers as we walked through the beach, very close to the sea.

"How is Hell?" She asked, looking away from me, to the sea.

"As you left it. The convocation at Demon Academy is ongoing. I wanted us to attend it together but unfortunately, we can't." I sigh, not taking my gaze from her.

"The whole point was that we got to spend together, right? And that's exactly what we're doing right now. It doesn't matter if we're on Earth or in Hell, on a beach or attending the convocation. The main thing was that we spent time together." She finally looked at me, staring at me, staring back at those eyes I had inherited from her but there was a difference.

Unlike the silver freckles I had in my eye which I knew here to have while growing up, hers has none. The blue in her eyes was the same but that was it. It was just blue, no silver, not even the slightest.

"It didn't matter if you were real or an illusion....." I responded, moving a few steps away from her, staring at the sand.

"Exactly." She was about to come closer to me when I spoke up.

"Except.... you're neither real, nor an illusion." I smirked at whatever it was, that had taken the form of my mother.

"What.....?" It gasped.

"You would have a Shadow if you were real but you're dead. And illusions don't have shadows, mom." I took out my claws and gripped its neck.

"Damon, it's me. You're mistaken." It still tried to fool me but I had caught it red-handed.

"Illusions never have shadows and my mother would never take a walk with me on the beach because she never even liked being in one in the first place. And yes, neither of us would have wanted to be anywhere together but the convocation. If you're going to impersonate her, do it right." I added more strength, straining life out of whatever this was.

"Damon, it's...." It wasn't giving up on impersonating my mother.

"What are you?!" I yelled.

Suddenly, it started laughing, confusing me.

What the hell?

"You really are as attentive as I was told you would be." It still didn't change from my mother's look.

"What are you?" I asked, strangling it even more.

"Do you really want to know?" It asked, cocking its head at me and smiling eerily.

Just then, my hand grew weak, so weak I couldn't hold on to it anymore.

I left go of it, nursing my paralyzed arm.

"What did you.....?" Before I would finish speaking, it created a portal and jumped through it.

Just before it closed, I jumped through too.

I looked around and it was not in sight. Or maybe it was, just not in my mother's form any longer. I wonder what form it would take now.

I walked straight, staring at the large sign board ahead of me; Brilfield College