Paradise Lost

Chapter 15

TW – mentions of death, character death

28th April 1917

Dear mama and sister,

I suppose by now you will have heard of the events of yesterday. I will let Rigo fill you in on what happened with him. I am fine, in fact I think I have never been better in my life. He is finally gone, and we can finally be the happy family we were meant to be. He is going to get everything he deserves for what he has done to us all. He won't ever be able to hurt me, Rigo or Kyle for the rest of our lives. Whilst in the back of my mind I knew he was going to try and catch us by surprise, but I do not think he realized quite how it was going to really go down in the end. He taught us a lot of what we know all our army careers have done is boost that knowledge and give us that little advantage over him. He came with the intent to kill us and left in handcuffs with no career.

I was on exercise with my squad, we were practicing patrols. Our squad leader/drill sergeant was there to keep an eye on us and to guide us, but we were left to our own for the most part. I think they wanted to see how well we would cope as a team. They want to see where natural relationships would form and what the natural leadership would be. I've not been pushing myself to be the leader because I am or was the son of a captain. I have been listening to everyone and treating them equally like they deserve. It was going well; we had been doing well and no one had any issues or complaints. We had a radio to communicate with the main camp when they had said that an officer had been attacked and that we were to go on high alert until the person had been apprehended.

I knew instantly father had finally figured it out and that he was coming back to do the job he had failed to do the first time all those months ago now. It seems so surreal to think it was four months ago that I almost died. I also knew that the officer attacked was Rigo even though they had not said the name. I had a gut feeling since we were about to leave that he was going to be on his way and try and kill us again. This time I was not afraid, I knew I was going to be next and that he was not going to get away with it. The squadron leader came up to me and confirmed it was Rigo and that he was alright which made me less worried. He was being well looked after in the medical tent and I was going to be just fine. Then it came to me, I did not have to die this time. I could win.

Dylan was a huge support again; he was keeping me calm and even promised to protect me in the event that father should turn up with the intent to kill me. With his support I decided that I could end the chain of abuse and horror. I was not going to let him get away with what he had done once again. Dylan said he would fight by my side and the rest of the squad overheard him. Brody who was someone who was a bit arrogant to begin with had really turned a corner and said that if we were going to take him down we were going to do it together. They jokingly called me the leader and how happy they were to follow me into battle even though I was a bit hesitant to involve them all. I do not want them to be hurt over something that was because of me even if it was never my fault father hurt me.

Our squadron leader was smiling whilst he was looking at us and listening to us plan what we were going to do. It felt like the jokes we made about how I was going to make a comic book on how I took down the monster who is biologically my father were actually becoming a reality. I was in charge of a squad/battalion of troops who were ready for my order, and it was going to be the first taste of a proper battle. None of them had faced Captain Murillo before and they were about to. We did not spend much time making the plans, we knew for certain he would be looking for me, all we needed to do was lead him into a false sense of security that he had me where he wanted me. Rigo was proud of how I arranged the guys into their hiding position, perfectly hidden.

We had a radio with us as our leader had gone up to the main camp to bring some of the higher up officers as back up because no one could predict how violent he was going to be. He thought he had killed Rigo, he knows that Kyle is on the frontlines and that meant the only one left was going to be me. I had confidence that my plan was going to work. Brody kept calling me a natural born leader and I did not think so, I was just trying to make best of the incredibly awful situation we were forced into. It did not take long before father revealed himself, he thought I was alone and we were quite far from camp compared with Rigo so he thought I would be dead by the evening because no one would have been able to rescue me in time, no one would find me alive. Oh how wrong was he.