The following week was hell for Damien. If it was to be a lesser man or one without his special abilities, he would have broken down. None of Damien’s tormentors had any idea of who he was though and his nemesis, the assistant gardener couldn’t but marvel at the resilience of the young man. Torturing Damien became an obsession for him because now he wasn’t just acting on the Head Gardener’s directives, he was intent on making sure that Damien broke and finally gave up. The Head Gardener on the other end would pretend to be nice to Damien after which he would scold his assistant for not doing what he sent him to do right. “Just to send that young man away! You couldn’t do it. Of what use are you to me here then?” he could be heard shouting at him in one of the greenhouses one day. Mrs Macmillian was a lover of flowers who had no green thumb of her own and she was known for her wild love for anything flora. It doesn’t matter how much the flower could be, she would make sure she gets
A redheaded young girl of about eight years old, dressed in an expensive flora-patterned jumpsuit and golden sandals stepped out with anger on her face as she gave the assistant a derisive look that would have been more at home on the face of an adult.“Did you just call me an idiot?” she repeated.“No, no!” the assistant said in a rushed plea as he waved his hands frantically.“Now you are calling me a liar!” the girl said petulantly, swinging her hands in anger. “He called me a liar!” the girl said in a high-shrieked tone.Sweat filled the assistant’s face as he knew the implication of what just happened. “No, I wouldn’t do that. I didn’t know that you are the one. Please forgive me”He cried in desperation as he went on his knees before the girl. “I am so sorry, Miss Andrea. I do not know that you are the one. I couldn’t call you an idiot if I had known” the man cried out as his polo became sodden from his perspiration. Snot started coming out of his nose when the girl did not answ
Damien couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Alamin. The man was totally different from the smelly, sweat-ridden man he met about a week ago. Of course, the man’s bad eye was still very glaring as it had an ugly extra flesh on it that looked burnt like a natural eyepatch and the limp in his leg couldn’t be overlooked as well but beyond that; he was different.Gone were the old clothes and even his formally gaunt looks had taken on a roundness that promised to flesh out as time goes on. He was dressed in an inferior version of the butler’s wear. Pristine shirt and expensive-looking trousers with a pair of gleaming shoes that made him look almost handsome.“You” Andrea pointed at him as the pair got closer “I know you”Alamin bowed slightly in greetings as he had been taught in the past days “Good afternoon, miss”“Butler Shawn,” Andrea said in excitement as if she was truly fond of the butler.The latter chuckled as he greeted her then he added “Have you been up to any mischief, miss?”
The assistant was busy pleading “Sir, please. Don’t send me away, I don’t want to lose my job!”“Oh, you should be sure that you would lose it alright. If you would be punished further by having to pay for those flowers or be locked up till your people have enough money would be another issue, you idiot” Butler Shawn said absentmindedly as he picked the scissors up. Recognition showed on his face and turned to Damien “This looks familiar and it is something that should have been anywhere near here. What is this doing here?”For the first time in Damien’s existence, he felt a strange feeling he never thought he would feel; guilt; as he said “It was used to cut the flowers”The Butler’s eyes narrowed on Damien’s face and it took all his willpower not to look away when the man asked “You mean this was what he, a gardener, used to cut a flower?”The word came a bit easier this time around “Yes,” Damien said, averting his gaze from the assistant who was busy yelling “Liar! He is a liar! I
“Err, what?” Damien was momentarily confused as to why she was back with such fury and why she had even heard him at all. He had been angry but he did not speak up and she was already leaving when he said what he said.“You will throw who into an abyss?” she said as she moved closer to him and pushed him on his chest with her two fingers, tapping him as she asked “You will what? Who do you think you are? You are just a common gardener and a liar too. You have not even set a foot in the main house yet, whereas I live in the staff house and you think you can talk to me like that? Who will you throw?”Damien was confused by a lot of things going on at the same time. Surely he had been touched by these humans before but they had been men. Sky was so used to grabbing him when he wanted to share something with him or teach him about something or whenever he was just fooling around. He had been touched by Michael before even Mathew and at least one or two of the elders.The girl’s touch was
Damien heaved a deep sigh after escaping the Head Gardener’s presence.The man was so surprised when Damien repeated what had happened to him. Andrea’s version anyway. “He did what?” Head Gardener Salem said as he looked sharply behind Damien as if he was expecting the assistant to jump out to tell him that it was a prank.“How did you become friends with miss Andrea?” he asked and Damien blamed himself for adding that information. He had initially intended not to say anything to the man but after he told him about what happened at the gardens, HG Salem was just looking at him as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was being told. Damien blurted out that last part in his nervousness. He regretted it immediately but the deed had been done.“She was passing by,” Damien said after a pause. “Passing by?” HG Salem asked in disbelief and Damien nodded in reply.“You reply to my questions when I am talking to you, boy!” the man bellowed and Damien quickly responded.The man gave him a disbel
“Do you want to kill me?” she shouted at him as she held her hand to her bruised forehead.“I am so sorry,” Damien said in a panic as he tried to rush to help her to rub her forehead. He belatedly remembered what happened when the other girl touched him and he stopped just as she was also saying “Don’t touch me!”His relieved sigh was palpable as he stepped back already and she peered at him from beneath the hand she held her forehead with “You are weird”“I am…”“I don’t want to hear it!” she snapped with her hands raised “Will that heal my head? Believe me, mum is going to kill you if I tell her that you caused this for me!”“I am…I did not know that was you. I thought…” Damien trailed off as he realised how dumb his statement would have been. What he thought was bloodied hair was only the red hair of his self-acclaimed friend, Andrea Macmillan.The girl was clad from neck to toe in a black jumpsuit with a black pair of sneakers and he wondered where such a kid was going by that ti
Damien smiled and she narrowed her eyes at him “Are you making fun of me even though you were the one that lied?” “No, I mean…I am about to start attending and since you asked I felt I should just tell you that name since I will be attending soon anyway” then he remembered that he had not even had the right time to ask yet. “If I can” he added. “What do you mean by that?” Andrea asked Damien answered absentmindedly “I don’t think the Head Gardener would approve,” he said then looked back at the girl as he wondered how easy it was for him to talk to a girl whose life was but a blip on what he had used. He suddenly realised that the girl was likeable even though she had made him lie earlier and he might still… “You will go,” Andrea said suddenly with a glint in her eyes. “Go?” Damien asked, clueless before he realised the only thing she could be referring to. “I doubted if Head Gardener would allow it” “Oh, he will allow it,” she said with such assurance that Damien felt tempted t