Darksiders: Among the Shadows (Book 2)

Past; Damiana's Only Friend

Dear Past,
Hey, what's up? Goodness to Creator I'm bored, I'm even talking to a book as if it were real! Anyway, I'm Damiana, the terrible Anti-Christ (like that's something to brag about). Long story short, I'm grounded for the time being, never to leave my room blah, blah, blah I need to learn to listen to directions when they are given, blech. I bet you're tired of hearing me babble about my troubles...see you later!
Day 1 of Punishment is over now, the sun has fallen,
Damiana
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Dear Past,
Hello agian. Hey, you wanna hear my idea? 'Course you do, you have no other choice. Okay, so, I know that Death and Fury have been breaking into my room at night to read my journal.
Seriously unacceptable...
Anyway, since they can't read human English, I'll keep writing in you in English. I know what you're thinking, what if they get suspicious and look for me? But I assure you, I have another great idea.
I'll keep a journal written in the common language that they understand and hid it lazily, like in plain sight. But I'll keep you under my mattress. Its a win-win situation. They continue believing I don't have any plans of escaping this punishment and I'll have a safe place to keep my plans for escaping.
Great idea, right?!
Well, I hear them near my door, well, one, it maybe Death, he always lurks about. Time to put this plan into action!
Day 8, signing off,
Damiana
★★★★★★★★★★
Dear Past,
That idea I told you about couldn't work any better! However, I'm still kept in my room....
You wanna know what I did today?
1) Cleaned room
2) Messed room up to clean tomorrow
3) Paced the four corners of my room
4) Stared at the wall
5) Repeated objectives 3 and 4 for the last 8 hours...
Pretty exciting, huh?
But, hey, I don't feel pain now. Today I tried scraping the accursed 3 sixes from my arm with my hidden blade. When that didn't work, I used my nails. I couldn't feel anything, cool, right? Strife came knocking at my door before, scaring the crap outta me. I had to hide the blood stains with a bunch of random crap on my bed.
Smart, eh?
Well, not that smart, he smelled the blood, that's why he came. In short, Strife told Death because he couldn't stop the bleeding...
Not like I need blood...
Anyway, do you feel pain, Past? When I threw you across the room when I received even more time on my punishment because of that incident, did it hurt?
I'm sorry, I wouldn't want hurt you, no matter how pissed off I am.
Day 16 is starting to really annoy me...
Damiana
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Dear Past,
Everyone is avoiding me ever since I tried that little stunt a while back. Well, specifically Death, everyone else isn usually off doing something fun...
I was having fun before I was rudely interrupted,
But no one cares about how I feel, its about how they feel of believe is best for me...
I just wish that for once, I can be in charge of my own life.
Well....see you later....
Damiana
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Dear Past,
I am going to drench myself in the holiest of water, God I'm bored. I had a really weird dream, mind hearing it?
Oh, yeah...
I dreamed that Earth, Heaven, and Hell didn't go to war, everything was perfect. Janelle was there with Jason on the front porch in our Queens house. Shadow was
sunbathing in the warm light and Ginnifer, my foster mom, was in the kitchen. She waved at me from the window, she just kept waving...
How I miss her warm emerald eyes and sweet smile....
I miss everything. And what makes it even better is that the Kingdom of Man lost, which is sadly unsurprising.
But there was another woman, a woman with long, tangled blonde hair. Her eyes were dark circles....
Yet I feel so drawn to her...
Who is she?
Damiana
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Dear Past,
I had another dream about that woman. She was smiling. Could this be...my mother? No...you know what, I don't know.
Janelle was there, I kept slitting her throat while she screamed for me to stop...
That was the first time I thought about Janelle in a LONG time...
I feel horrible.
Back on my mother's subject, why was she banished to Hell? Why did they lie to me.
Watch when they give me the 'you're too young to understand' or the oh so famous saying 'We'll tell you when you're older.'
God, sometimes they all can be so unreasonab-
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"What are you writing in?" Death asked quietly, standing in Damiana's open doorway.
Damiana jumped once and glanced at the impeding horseman from the corners of her eyes, surprised on how stealthy he can be.
"Who knows." Damiana mumbled after a long silence.
"How is your arm?" Death asked, ignoring Damiana's rudeness.
"It was just fine a week ago, before you intervened!" She snapped, slowly tucking her journal under her thigh.
"You were bleeding a lot, way too much to just ignore....may I?" He motioned towards her room.
"No."
Sighing deeply, Death crossed over the wooden threshold and stood quietly in front of her bed. After a while, Damiana sighed loudly and glared up at him.
"Yes, what do you need?"
"Are you...okay?"
"Perfectly fine, couldn't be better."she grumbled, hugging her knees.
"I don't think mutilating your arm is considered fine."
"If you knew the answer, why would you ask me?"
"Okay, one; stop with the sarcasm-"
"Why, because YOU don't like it? You're always sarcastic to others."
"Point taken. However-"
"Oh, no, spare me the speech, PLEASE! Just...please go." Damiana hissed, dropping her head into her hands.
Silence...
"I can understand how you feel, but you have to understand why we must do this, Damiana."
Grumbles echo throughout the room...
"I...apologize for what I, we, kept from you. We were going to tell you when you matured a little more. Say...where did you hear of this? Only our brothers, I, and the Council knew of this."
"It doesn't matter where I heard it, point is-"
"No, where did you hear this? Who told you?!" Death snarled, grabbing Damiana by the shoulders.
Damiana looked up at Death and thought deeply, wondering if whether or not she should tell them about that Valley and Custos. It was her only escape aside from a very small part of the Shadow realm Betrayal controlled, and even they can get to her there. Bitting her lip, Damiana made her decision.
"You have your secrets and I have mine. End of story, so, yeah." She mumbled, using her last bits of courage to utter those words.
Both Damiana and Death glared at each other for the longest time in silence, one with unseeable Fury and the other insubordination. After awhile, Damiana's eyes slowly faltered towards the ceiling, feeling chills up her spine.
"I can't with you." He hissed, pushing her away.
When Damiana watched the eldest horseman walk away, she couldn't help but feel...bad?
"Your punishment is lifted. Do whatever you want, I don't even care anymore."
'Oh...I screwed up.' She frowned, noticing Death's shoulders were drooping.
Silence...
"Guess I'm not in trouble...but I don't feel to good about it...."
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Damiana poked her head into the dimly lit room lined with odd objects alongside the wall.
"Why are you still here?" He said calmly, looked back at the intruding girl.
"Well, I...want to apologize."
Death looked back at her in question, but slowly shook his head and continued pacing the floor impatiently.
Damiana exhaled quietly and cautiously stepped into the forbidden room, feeling her heart race.
"Um...I'm sorry for being, you know, a brat...I know you guys just want to protect me."
Silence...
"You aren't the best with apologies, are you? That is probably as good as it will get...apology accepted."
Even more silence....
"What did she look like?" Damiana asked quietly, remembering her reoccurring dream.
Death turned his back to Damiana, as if deep in thought.
"Your mother was very...attractive, I guess..."
"Ick, don't tell me you-"
"No." Death said flatly.
"She was attractive, but I felt no attachment to her. In a way, you remind me of her, a lot actually. Unlike most angels, your mother had hair the color of the sun..."
Damiana waited for Death to continue, but when he didn't, she said;
"What was your mother like; like, all four of you guys' mother?"
"I don't have a mother."
"Everyone has a mother."
"I'm not everyone."
"Well...are you sure?"
Death rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, tiring of the young one's questions. Damiana stood behind him and waited for him to say something, anything.
'Maybe...he killed her...in that battle between the Horsemen, Heaven, and the Nephilim?' She thought, tilting her head.
The two stood in silence, until Damiana summoned every ounce of courage and poked Death on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. When he turned, Damiana swiftly dove into his open, unready arms, snuggling against his bare chest. She shivered from the coldness from his skin, but forced herself to linger, hoping Death would untense up.
"You're cold." She said simply.
"What...are you doing?" He asked breathlessly, stepping back.
Damiana shrugged and looked up at him, friendly smile upon her lips.
Death stared down at her in suprise, eyes slowly becoming dim with memory. He looked away as if Damiana's eyes were of that of lava scorching him with painful memories.
"You're making me uncomfortable, please stop."
"But-"
"Misery, stop!"
"Who's Misery?" Damiana asked, stepping back.
Death looked of at something as it were miles away.
'She...she isn't-"