Diamonds Shatter

Chapter 9

9. Victorious Defeat

"It's okay son, I would never harm you child. I only want you to come out now, please." The sweet voice was reassuring, and the boy was coaxed from out of his hiding place under the bed. As soon as had crawled out, the man reached down and dragged him up by the hair, pulling it from its roots. When the boy looked into the man’s eyes, his face twisted and contorted, into that of a snake, with inhuman orange eyes, slit nostrils, and a slithering tongue.

The boy screamed and tried desperately to get free of the creature, but the man’s grip was to strong and the boy was dragged up higher, with his legs left dangling in the air. Suddenly the two of them were emerged in darkness, with a withering smoke constricting around them. The man’s hand started pouring out blood, not his own, but that of innocent lives he had massacred away. The blood flowed thru the boy’s hair, from where the man was still gripping it, it flowed thru his hair and trickled down his face.

The blood of his mother and of his father.

Dimitri bolted upright, out of his sleep, gasping for air. His mouth tasted like paper and salt. He looked around wide eyed, and reflexively pushed his damp hair back. Shocked he quickly looked at his hands and seeing that it was only sweat the confusion passed.

 He looked over at the clock on his nightstand and seeing that he had only slept a few hours, he fell back into his pillows. It was, however, a wasted effort to try and fall back asleep so quickly, so he sighed and threw himself out of bed and sluggishly treaded downstairs.

 Dimitri didn’t bother turning on lights, as he walked thru the quite loft, he could see well enough without them. He took a soda from the fridge and sat down at the counter; he took a drink of the icy caffeine, and instantly felt better. There was a pack of cigarettes lying on the counter so he lit one up without hesitation.

Dimitri realized that it was not normal for one to be sitting in complete darkness, smoking, but he didn’t care, and besides the loft was empty, except for Nick. After an hour had passed, Dimitri still wasn’t able to bring himself to go back to bed, so he decided that it was safe enough to pick up his car by now.

Dimitri reached The Supperclub before dawn, and was hoping that his car was fine. He pulled his cap lower, and kept his head down as he sprinted across the abandoned parking lot. He reached the B.M.W and quickly scanned it for any scratches or damage, trailing his fingers across the cold, dew covered metal with concern. Once satisfied he slipped inside, and happy to be reunited he sped off, racing against the rising sun, for no other reason but the thrill of it.

Dimitri knew that Nick wouldn’t be up yet, and he had too much energy burning thru him to go back and wait around, so Dimitri decided to swing by Viktor’s house and get started.

As Dimitri slowly drove thru the rundown neighborhood it occurred to him that something was wrong. There was no birds chirping in the early morning, and where the air should have been fresh, it was thick and smelled wrong. He rounded the corner, and immediately found what was causing the strange effects. Smoke was still rising from the ashy remains of what had once been Viktor Gomez’s house. Dimitri got out of his car and paced in front of the house in a daze. What had happened did not make sense.

 The house was now a heap of burnt wood, it had collapsed in and was so badly charred that Dimitri couldn’t tell what was what; even the bit of lawn had been scathed. As Dimitri wondered around he noticed someone outside, a few houses down.

A plump little woman was outside, wearing slippers and a pink robe, watering her small garden. Dimitri quickly made his way over to her, leaning casually against her fence,

"Hello there ma’m…" he said, tipping his cap to her,

"I don’t mean to be bother, but I was wondering if you knew what happened down at the house?" he asked, continuing in his charming way. The woman studied him shrewdly for a few moments, but after taking in his innocent smile, decided that he was not a teenage hooligan.