Damien snatched his lips, almost pushing her away. She was embarrassed.
"What the hell was that? How could you kiss me without my consent?"
Damien scolded, ignoring her signals for him to stop.
"It's not as if you even know how to kiss. What the hell, chewing my lips as though she found some cow hide."
He stomped off. While the lady tried to speak to the dignitaries,
"I'm-- I -"
She decided to walk away, too, covering her face. Dead stares!
"How dare she do that? Who the fuck does she think she is? She must have so much guts to think she could casually do that and get away with it."
Damien had walked out and was climbing the stairs, which led to the deck of the yacht.
"If it was the other way round, and we were in Vegas, they'd be a myriad of critiques trying to have my throat. But now that I did it, I'd be called cruel and bad."
He grunted again.
"Fucked up society. I just want to punch everybody."
He shut his eyes gritting his teeth.
"If it wasn't because of that crazy bitch that randomly sent me here, why would this have happened? The last thing on my mind is kissing some girl who -"
He shut his eyes and allowed the soothing breeze of the ocean to tease his face.
Then slowly, he spread his arms out, his head tossed highly.
"I wish this yacht took me back to the island. So I could make those rich dumbasses pay once and for all."
He sighed.
"Or at least take me back to Vegas. I can't believe that I want to see Jada so badly."
Suddenly, he raised his voice.
"YOU CRAZY BITCH, I'M DONE WITH YOUR SHITTY TASK!!!"
He yelled like the lady from the hall would hear him.
"Oh, you are from Vegas."
He turned to see Marie.
OH SHIT, NOT THIS GIRL AGAIN.
"I had no idea. I thought you were from the other side. I mean, the ocean is connected to so many geographical settings."
NOBODY ASKED YOU, GIRL. CAN YOU PLEASE GO AWAY?
"I'm sorry that I was a little pushy out there. I shouldn't have done that. I was wrong. I'm sorry."
The lady apologised.
DID SHE JUST APOLOGISE? OH GOOD LORD, MY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE. DO GIRLS REALLY SAY SORRY? HOW I WISH ABOUT FOUR OF THE NINE GIRLS WERE HERE TO HEAR SOMEONE WHO BELONGS TO THEIR GENDER SAY THE WORD.
After admiring her for a while, he looked away.
"So... uhmm..."
He heard Marie mumbling.
"How about I give you a ride to Vegas? I mean, that's the least I could do. You are a stranger I never knew. I felt an impule to come outside in the middle of the media chaos. And there you were. You see, it was really weird that something like this could happen and we -"
"Hold on. Hold on."
Damien interrupted,
"Huh? Did something happen? What happened?"
Marie was a little confused by the manner at which Damien had just cut in.
"Rewind a little."
He said to her, staring her deep in the eyes. Her cheeks turned red by his strong masculine stare.
"I never thought you could help me even though it made no sense that a stranger could -"
"Not that... go back again... keep going..."
"I couldn't think of any other thing that -"
"No... not that, you F --- something about Vegas."
Damien decided to make up for the error he almost made out of rage.
"You mean, my offer to take you back to Vegas?"
Marie asked with so much innocence. She looked so fickle, soft, and innocent. Which further amplified the overload of her cuteness.
"Yes, that. Is there Vegas around here?"
Damien's eyes were shone in excitement.
"Of course there is."
She chuckled.
Suddenly, Damien rushed to her and pulled her into his chest, hugging her so fiercely and roughly.
"Oh... ow..."
She was stunned and struggling.
"Let's go now, please. Let's go."
He pulled away from her and grabbed her wrist. He started to pull her with himself...
HOLD ON, JADA, I WILL BE HOME SOON.
He was intoxicated by the excitement. But when he realised that Marie wasn't walking as fast as he wanted her to, he halted, turned to her, and scooped her into his arms.
"Wow...."
Marie couldn't believe her eyes... Damien didn't care. He had his reasons...
Marie's eyes were glued to the side of his face... her cheeks turning red again.
-------
"So if I may ask, what were you doing out there on your own? Was that some sort of sport that I don't know about? I mean, it's quite strange to be on such a thing in the middle of such a large ocean. I mean, it must take much bravery. And to think that you didn't even have a yacht or a boat. How did you plan on returning to Vegas if you are really from there?"
Damien was exhausted, even though he wasn't the one who was talking.
"You must be a man who doesn't like to talk much. Unlike me. I guess I am the opposite of the kinda person you are. Some people say I can't even go a minute without talking. I bet I talk too when I'm sleeping."
Marie chuckled. Damien shot a glance at her.
"You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"
Damien asked out of the blue. The yacht was going at full speed.
"Well, this might sound a little lame."
Marie started.
"But I always told the media that I have a boyfriend and was keeping it away from them. They all believed me. They must be gullible."
She took a quick pause.
"The media pretend to be wise, but at the end of the day, they are just clueless and dumb. Only unless they are being manipulated by the elites."
Damien's eyes squinted when she said the last words.
SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE ELITES TOO? SHE ISN'T DUMB AFTER ALL.
"When the CEOs finally requested that they have my boyfriend read the message, I was breathless. I almost choked. I thought I was going to pass out at once. I listened to the voice in my head, and here we are."
She turned fully to him,
"You are like an angel sent from heaven to me. And I will stop at nothing to pay you in kind."
She smacked her lips,
"I don't care whichever way this may sound to you, but I don't mind if you want to hit... I'll willingly let you have your way?"
Damien wasn't really shocked by her last words.
"You have no idea how much what you did means to me."
Her face suddenly was dull yet emotional.
"Well, like I said earlier..."
Damien started,
"You are not my type. And I mean, the last thing on my mind is having sex. I have businesses to tend to. The best thing you could do was tell me that we are headed to Vegas. Which you already did. So, no, I don't want to hit."
As soon as Damien stopped talking, Marie looked defeated. As though her ego had been crushed to a pulp.
"How will you keep convincing the media that you have a boyfriend? I mean, you won't see me ever again."
Damien asked. Marie lifted her gaze to look at him. Her eyes were dead red, and a deep glare ate up every corner of her face.
"It's none of your business."
She gritted her teeth.
WELL, I GUESS I DID A GOOD JOB GETTING HER TO KEEP SHUT.
Damien threw his face to the side and stole a smile.
The yacht came to a stop finally. Damien turned to the lady,
"Well, this is where we say goodbye."
"Just go!"
She snapped at him, rolling her eyes. Damien picked no offence. Those attitudes were familiar. He climbed out of the yacht.
"Proud Cork..."
He heard her cuss, but he didn't care. He jumped off the yacht.
"Oh my God! It's Vegas for real!"
His excitement had just scaled another altitude. He just couldn't believe his eyes.
"This is the same dock. But why is it empty, though? That fool is usually here."
He walked out of the dock and hailed at a cab. When he got to his destination, he realised that he had no cash.
"Oh shit, I don't have anything on -"
Vroom! When he lifted his head, the taxi had left and was zooming away.
"Hey! You didn't even take money?!"
He called on top of his voice.
"Whatever! It's your loss."
He walked towards the big gate of the magnificent estate. As soon as he saw one of the security guards,
"Heyy!"
He called.
"Boss, welcome."
The security officer jumped up and bowed to him. Damien nodded.
I'M TRULY HOME. FUCK THAT BITCH FROM THE HALL. SHE REALLY THOUGHT I WOULD RETURN TO HER? WHO DID SHE THINK SHE WAS, LILITH OR MEDUSA?
He smiled at the thought.
"Is Jada in her apartment, or is she with Elisa?"
He asked the gaurd.
"Both of them drove in a few days ago."
A FEW DAYS AGO?
"Okay."
He walked towards the pink duplex and pushed the doorbell.
"Jada, open up. It's me. Your baby daddy."
He called and then rang the bell again. Suddenly, the door opened. He stepped in at once. The door opened by itself.
"Jada."
He called, but there was no one in sight. The living room was empty and everywhere, unusually silent.
"Where did she go? Jada?"
He called again.
"You could have been a little nice to her. I mean, not every girl could be bold enough to offer herself so casually."
A random voice came out nowhere. But immediately Damien heard the voice. He knew who it was. The lady from the hall.
"Fuck this. Fuck this!"
Damien lost it.
"What the hell are you doing in my property?!"
"You should sit down, Damien."
"You know what? It's because I condone you. Fuck you! I'm not listening to shit."
He turned to walk away.
"You would only give me a task if I was listening to you. But not today, bitch! You wish!"
He cussed and started to walk to the door. When he got to the door,
"Before you leave, look at your left..."
The voice called at him again. At first, he didn't want to listen, but somehow, he arced his head in the direction of the instruction,
There was a window pop-up. Like the pop-up that appeared when he was made to choose one of the three options back in the hall.
"Not again. Not this time! I'm not having it!"
Damien was determined to walk away. And while he was trying to look away, the details in the pop-up unfolded,
Ping!
[A - Embrace the condition and the reason for being transported here.]
[B - Walk through the door and return to where it all started. As the secretary of the BMX girl's group. A loser!]
Damien was dumbfounded and clueless. He just stared into the empty space. His lips trembling. "So which would it be? The first or the second option?"The feminine voice came again. "You know what you are doing. You already know what I am going to choose. That's why you are messing with me."Damien finally found his voice. "That's not true, Damien. You are quite an interesting male. You have a strong will, so I wouldn't be surprised if you choose the second option."Damien scoffed,"Are you kidding me? Who would want to go back to being a trash? I mean, who would go back to being ridiculed, hated, and wished bad luck even by his own family? Tell me!! Strong will, my ass."Damien's tone was fierce and precise. And because of the silence, which succeeded the agitation, he feared that he had lost the audience with the lady. "Are you still there?"He wanted to make sure. "Seems like you have finally made a choice. We will get to business as soon as possible.""What business is that?"
The emblem was lying face down; the dragon inmprint brushing the earth. Heave! Heave! Then flat again. Push! Push! Then, a little hand was seen pushing the emblem from beneath.As soon as there was enough space between the emblem and the earth, a body rolled from beneath the emblem. Thud! The emblem fell again. Flat! Damien rolled over his back, his face to the empty and blue sky. "God! That was so exhausting."He sighed in relief. Then suddenly, his face grew serious as though something had just occurred to him. "Wait a minute."He jumped on his feet. When he turned to the emblem, he noticed that he was about the same height as the emblem. "What happened to me? What the fuck happened to me? Why am I so little?"He ran to the emblem and tried to lift it up. His two hands beneath the tips of the emblem but he couldn't even lift it. Even when he did lift it, it was just a quarter inch high. He let it drop and jumped to the back; if he had stayed back, the emblem could have fallen
When first Damien opened his eyes, they hurt. Then he opened them again. He was just waking from what seemed like a long sleep. He sat up. Immediately he sat up, he realised that his body felt weird, compared to earlier. "What happened after the crash? Where I am?"He looked quickly around him. There were wooden chairs and a table. It looked like he was inside a manor. Moving one of his hands, his attention fell back on the weirdness he felt on his body earlier. He lifted his hand to his face, then looked down his body, his jaws dropping,"I'm back to my old self?"He jumped up on his feet. He shook his legs and his body. "I'm fully grown. I'm a big man."He quickly reached his hands to his groin and felt it. He chuckled softly, "Oh yeah, it's there.""Where is the emblem?"A sudden voice grew out of the room. He knew who owned the voice. "Oh yes! The Emblem."He wasn't paying any attention to the voice at first. He only felt the need to find the emblem. He turned around, sear
YOU'LL RETURN TO MARIE. The voice was in his head, and it was very loud. But then other loud voices started to come from his side. His eyes flung open. He tried to turn his neck, but he felt pain,"Ow."He groaned. "Gentle man, are you alright?"A little voice came from beside him. There was an old lady seated next to him. Because of the confused state he was in, he couldn't even answer the woman. Instead, he looked to the other side. He was seated next to a window. He looked through. There were a couple of people and planes outside."An airport?"He asked himself. "Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belt. The flight to Vegas is up in five minutes."He heard the loud speaker. "I'm in a plane. In a plane to Vegas?""Yes, you are, dear. Dreams do come true."The old lady beside him said. Damien had been talking to himself because of how confused he was about where he was. But the old lady seemed to have misconstrued. "You see, the first time I got on a plane, it was as
"What's taking so much time?"The yelled at Damien; Damien had been fumbling through his pockets for a while now. He had agreed to pay the caber forgetting that he had no money on him. "I forgot. I have no cash on me. I only have my card."Damien lied. JUST GO AWAY. PLEASE. "Then take me to an ATM stand and let's withdraw.""What!"Damien didn't expect that. "Oh, you don't want to pay? Is that why you are pretending? You are delaying me because you have no money? Is that right? So, you decided to bring to Boldyville to impress me?"At that point, Damien was lost. He had no idea what the man was talking about. "How can someone dressed like you vist Boldyville? You are one of those wannabes who just love to front, eh? Why did I even take you seriously in the first place? You must have ran away from that lady because you stole something from her. Or was it also because you couldn't pay her?"Damien was speechless."You don't even know me. How could you say those things?"Damien felt
"Twenty years are gone now?""What has changed?""What did these girls do to my estate? What did they do to Boldyville?"Damien looked across the small motel room to the bed. The old man from the pub was snoring so loudly it would be mistaken for a raving motorcycle.He turned to the window and lifted the blind. "The day is bright. How did it happen so fast? It was just as if I took a nap."He stood up, stretching his body. "Where could they be? They are obviously not in the estate. Where are they hiding after stealing what belongs to me?""I never wanted to trust them. I always knew that they were shady and evil. How could I have taken such a ris---"A realisation dawned on him. "It wasn't by choice. If that crazy lady hadn't sent that bastard to take me away to the realm, all this wouldn't have happened. But then how could two days equals decades?"The old man grumbled, almost rolling off the bed. Damien walked to him and helped him lie properly. Tucked him in, then walked towar
"It's you, Elisa, isn't it? You are Elisa."Though it was a voice in his head that had given a clue, yet staring at the lady and analysing the features of her face, Damien was slowly putting together the memories. "You have changed a lot. You have grown into a very beautiful woman."At that few seconds, he was mesmerised by her features and looks. Elisa was more curvy, bustier, and her skin clearer. "But then, what's this that I---""Excuse me, I don't know you. I think you have the wrong person."The woman snapped and turned around at once, walking away. Damien watched as she walked briskly away. She almost lost her balance with the manner at which she stomped. "She is the one. I'm positive."Damien nodded firmly. He hurried to catch her. He grabbed her arm and spun her around. "It's you, Elisa. Why are you lying to me. I know it's you. Though you are fully grown now, yet I couldn't have missed you in a glance."The woman eyes were bulging. She looked stunned and surprised. Then
"What was that?""What are you talking about?""Can't you see it?""I can't see shit.""Look closely. The shape of a man is following that car!"A guy in a blue shirt who had been arguing with his mates walked to the mate. "You need to see the doctor. But first, stop watching a lot of fantasy movies."The guy in blue shirt scorned the mate and walked away. "I swear I can see a man. Like Flash. Something like that. Or am I hallucinating?"He turned to look at his mate, but the fellow was walking away. "Hey, will you wait for me?"The car drove into a less busy road. The road was sort of dirty and dusty. Damien kept following, merging with the wind. Because the speed of the car had been significantly reduced, he he had a hard time keeping up the infiltration. Then, finally, the car drove towards a large building. A building that no one could have imagined existed in such a rural area. Damien found a perfect hide and hid himself away as Elisa climbed out of the car and hurried tow