Dominion (Guardian Angels) - By Melody Manful Page 0,55

a shame, really, because everyone likes me. Tristan was starting to sound like someone I used to know once upon a time, someone who looked a lot like me.

DAMAGED

*Abigail*

“As a little boy, I played war.

As a young man, I joined the army.

Now as a man, I kill in the name of the future,

forgetting that those I kill are the future.”

Melody Manful



“Well done, Abigail. Come, sit with me,” Andrei said.

We were inside a huge, empty hall. The only things in the room aside from us were two stone thrones at the far end.

I walked over to him. “Congratulations.” He hugged and kissed me on both cheeks.

“What did I do?” I asked.

“You succeeded. You killed them all,” he said, and then suddenly Felix was standing in front of me, blood running down his chest. I started shaking.

Looking around me now, the hall was covered with blood and dead bodies. The thrones in front of me were shattered. I glanced down and screamed. My hands were covered in blood.

“I didn’t…”

“Of course you did!” Andrei said, grabbing me by the shoulders. “You’re a killer, Abigail. You and I are the same.”

“No…” I looked down, avoiding Andrei’s eyes. “No, no I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!” he shouted.

“No!” I pulled away from him and backed away. “No I’m not!” I took another step back, and then I tripped on a body and fell.

Blood pooled around me, and I screamed at the lifeless bodies around me. I made an attempt to stand, but Andrei stopped me, pinning me down.

“You are a killer, Abigail. Just like me. You can’t run away from it,” he whispered, his face almost touching mine.

I struggled to free myself. “Get away from me!” I cried at the top of my lungs.

“Abigail!” Suddenly Andrei’s voice turned into Gideon’s, but his cold face remained the same. “Abigail, wake up.” His voice still sounded like Gideon’s.

“Let go!”

“No!” Andrei’s normal voice returned. “You’re a killer, just like me,” he said sourly.

“I’m nothing like you!” I shouted, and then I shoved him down onto his back. I grabbed his throat with my right hand.

“Abby…Abigail, you—” Gideon’s voice reappeared, and he sounded like he was choking.

One second I was choking Andrei, and the next thing I knew, I was on top of Gideon with my hands wrapped around his neck.

I immediately released my grasp and pushed myself away in shock. “I’m so sorry,” I gasped. I was still shaking. I looked hastily around me, but there was no blood. It was only a dream.

“Abigail.” Gideon reached for me. “You’re all right. It was just a bad dream,” he said, pulling me closer into a hug and letting me rest my head on his chest.

Tears covered my cheeks. “I—there was blood and…I killed them.”

“You’re going to be all right,” Gideon whispered again, and then he quieted and allowed me to cry.

The horror of my nightmare refused to fade. Every few minutes, Gideon told me I was going to be all right. I curled in closer to him with my head still tight against his chest, and he slowly ran his fingers through my hair as I continued to cry.

My father used to say: no one can force you to become a monster–you hurt someone and you create your own demons. I didn’t understand him then, but now I did.

It took awhile before I stopped shaking, but my tears wouldn’t stop falling. I felt safe in Gideon’s arms, which was really ironic, because—when I met him, I thought he was going to kill me, and I had subsequently tried to avoid him. Now I was the one doing the killing, and he was the one comforting me.

I was no longer in any physical pain, thanks to Gideon healing me, but my heart ached horribly. Felix was gone because of me. My father said those people I killed were rapists and murderers. He said they were part of Andrei’s mafia, and they had done everything from arms dealing to human trafficking.

The CIA had arrived shortly after the incident and cleaned the house, leaving only two dead bodies and Felix’s. The story we were told to follow was that two armed men broke in, and Felix and Ben tried to fight them off, so after one of them shot Felix, Ben killed them in self-defense.

I couldn’t bear looking at my father. Whenever I thought about him, I felt unprecedented anger. I felt as if the whole thing was his fault. Why did he have a job that involved taking human lives? I never thought