Shadow Land

Broken Promises and Goodbyes

BTW, THIS PART YOU HAVE TO READ

This is the last chapter.

The End. Le Fin. Das Ende. To Télos. And 'The end' whatever other language google translate can give me.

For those that don't like the ending, sorry, but I refuse to change it.

I'm not sure if I can/will write the sequel yet, probably not since this story took way too much time...and apparently I really do have to do that thing called homework (who'd have thought?). Maybe if I had the right incentive...hint hint ;-)

Thank you so much for reading it and sticking through. It means a lot that you decided to actually read this whole thing. And I will go back and edit it to get rid of all those errors that were probably bugging you!

And just to make sure that you get that message, I will put this little author's note at the end of this chapter, too.

Thanks for reading and good night!

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They were doing nothing.

That's what annoyed DJ the most. They were just standing there, training guns on the group in the cage and doing nothing. The men were covered in black combat suits, wearing gas masks that hid their faces. They didn't twitch, shift their weight, tilt their heads, or do anything that would show they were alive. All they did was stand in that textbook stance.

What were they?

When he listened for a heartbeat, he only found one but it seemed to come from every direction, like their hearts were synchronized.

And nothing happened.

He didn't dare sit down like some of the others, he wanted to be ready for anything that happened. But nothing happened. It was agonizing, just standing there, waiting for what felt like an eternity. Just waiting for his captor to come and face him.

With a contented sigh, the Count hung up the phone. He loved this moment, when a plan came together. When all the seemingly random actions he had done all collected into a beautiful jigsaw puzzle that put him a little higher up in the grand hierarchy of life. And this was a jigsaw he had been working to complete for a very long time.

"I take it the plan worked, sir?" the redheaded woman asked behind him.

The Count was in the conference room Alexander and Miranda had confronted Damien in. Jaxur and Adan were sitting miserably in the corner, wandering just how horrible their lives could become.

The redheaded woman was the Count's personal assistant and something of his pet, she did all the field work he needed that he couldn't manipulate anyone else into doing. She was tall, slim, with a body that a model would kill for. Her hair was waste length and mostly red, except for near the end when it faded to orange with flicks of yellow. It seemed appropriate as she the immortal embodiment of the element of fire. Her face was the only thing that was not beyond perfection. Her eyes looked normal in dim light, but in full light the brown appearance turned into a fiery red. And down the left side of her face was one long, black scar that pulled the side of her lips down in a permanent scowl.

"Of course it worked, Fire," the Count replied as he turned around.

From her perch on the table, Fire smiled, "So that means I will not be your only pet anymore?" The job as the Count's assistant was a lonely one that no one, not even the lowest of beggars, could envy. According to all memory, living and dead, she did not exist. The idea of company was appealing, but the Count had not found and controlled anyone as qualified as her so for centuries she had been alone.