-Theirs- A Reverse Harem -Book One-

Chapter 37: Sorrow ✔

      They look down at her bloody face as tears run down theirs.

      "No, no... Celene... Don't go..." Damien pleads as sobs shake his voice.

He looks into Sam's face seeing utter shock and disbelief.

      "Sh-She can't be gone... How many times has she died and come back?" asks Sam as his fingers touch her cheek.

      "She's gone Sam," Damien says as he chokes back sobs.

      "No... She's gonna come back..." Sam says with denial gripping him.

      "No... Sam... She's not..."

Sam's face twists with misery as he sobs and pulls Celene's body to his chest. His cries shake his very core as he mourns her. He'd never felt for anyone what he'd felt for her.

      He looks into her, now very dull and dark, green eyes and closes them. Damien falls back against the leg of a bench and stares at his blood soaked hands as they shake. He hears someone say his name from far away and looks up at Marcus as he rounds a corner.

      "Damien?! Where's Celene?!" he asks frantically.

Damien looks at him with a very pale face and shock coursing through his veins. His eyes move from Marcus to Sam as he stands and presses a button on the radio on shoulder.

      "I've got a body here. A young woman in her twenties. Stabbed in the abdomen," he says with a sniffle as he walks away from Celene's body.

      Marcus's eyes follow Damien's and the air is knocked from his lungs.

      "No... Is she... She's-" he gasps, his body shaking as he puts his hand on his chest.

He looks at her pale face and the blood pooled around her body. Leo falls to his knees and becomes limp as he sobs, gripping onto Owen's sleeve. Owen stands there paralyzed as he stares at her lifeless form in distress. Sam turns and faces them with blood all over the front of his uniform and his hands. His eyes are red as he tries to remain calm. An ambulance pulls up as onlookers watch in horror.

      The flashing lights blur as the four boys huddle together. Sam watches the forensic team and the EMTs work around her body. They place markers and take pictures as well as search for the knife. The EMTs lay a body bag next to her body and lift her into it. They all watch as the zipper is pulled up, covering her face.

      She is placed in the back of the ambulance and they close the doors. They leave without a siren sounding as they head to the morgue. Damien looks on as he sits on the bench with his bloodied hands hanging over his knees. His entire body is numb and all he sees is the light leaving her beautiful, emerald green eyes. A hand lands on his shoulder and squeezes it.

      He looks up at Sam as he moves to sit beside him. Sam flops down and sniffles.

      "I loved her you know."

He looks into Damien's face.

      "I know you only knew her for a day, but if you had known her longer then, I'm sure, you would have understood."

      "I do understand Damien," says Sam.

"I fell in love with her the first time I laid eyes on her at the beach... She had a different family then... We have to tell them," Damien says softly.

      "We will Damien," says Sam.

      "I did something... Something I'm not proud of... I know that she knew something was different with me... I didn't get to tell her," Damien says as tears threaten to fall again.

      "What? What did you want to tell her?" Sam asks concerned.

      "While she was in a coma... I started talking to someone about her... We started seeing each other and... Some things happened... She was helping me deal with the fact that Celene may never wake up... I never meant for it to happen, but I hadn't felt like I could do anything just for me in months..."

      "It's okay Damien... She would have understood... She would have forgiven you... She only wanted you to be happy," Sam says as he squeezes Damien's shoulder reassuringly.

      "I know... When she showed us everything... I knew she would have... I just wish I could've told her instead of feeling so guilty I-"

      "Damien... You need to forgive yourself... She wouldn't want you to suffer like this... Trust me... She doesn't blame you," Sam says with a small smile.

They both answer the investigator's questions along with a few witnesses from the crowd. They pile into their respective cars and drive off toward home.

      They were destroyed and crestfallen as they remember what it was like to have her around. Damien smiled way more when she was around and Marcus took his nose from his books more often. Leo finally had someone who loved sweets as much as he did and who would try all of his new dessert recipes. Owen opened up more then ever with her around and was seen smiling as he watched her eat his food. Sam finally had someone who could keep him from losing himself in his work, if only for a day. Celene found a happiness she didn't know she missed in all five of them and acceptance unlike any other after having her heart broken severely. Only a few Elementalists knew of the existence of an Elemental Dea who went through many trials to be cut down too soon after reuniting with her loves.

N/A 1/5/2022

And that's it guys. The end of the first book. Whatcha think?