32 Chapter 3

Gradis shuddered, pushing down her anger. As much as she wanted to yell at him or call him out for what he had done, she knew better than that. He was the third closest person near her that resembled her personality; level headed, calculating, and ambitious. The two other people who had also resembled her persona were now in an asylum and the other dead. He was the only one left that she could use, and she planned to use him until every ounce of energy was put into her plan and she could drop him after knowing he could become another stepping stone for her future. After all, the only difference from her and her clones as she liked to call them, was that her string was much shorter and her match was much longer, lit by the ever-flowing flame of greed.

She watched as Damien's head dropped and his shoulders dropped. She had picked the right pawn this time, an actor of many forms proved to be very useful.

"I-" Damien cleared his throat, and bowed before the reporters, "I am truly sorry."

The room halts and stands in silence, quiet to show slight confusion and acceptance for Damien's apology, yet the automatic presses of their fingers on their weapons a reminder of their sights focused on one thing. Capture, reform, post, and gain. Damien hid his smile, by doing this, he posed as vulnerable and though he may be attacked once or twice, he would have already been seen as pitiful and unworthy of harsh comments. This might have been his first time manipulating a large population's sight on him, but it wasn't his first contorting the views of others about the situation to get what he wanted, and the longer he remained with Gradis it remained clear that it wouldn't be his last. But ambition was a business man's road to destruction or success and this was his road to success.

"I apologize to the families who have lost those dearest to them as I have lost someone dear to me as well. Due to my girlfriend's short-sightedness and unstable mentality, she ended up destroying those closest to her and achieved nothing but pain… but although I know all of this… thinking of how stressed she must have been before doing this is deeply upsetting to me and I am devastated that I couldn't do anything to help her before it escalated," Damien stood up straight as tears began running down his eyes, I'm sorry Regan, he thought, "I wish I had paid closer attention and saved her before she drowned others with her pain," He shuddered on stage as the tears flowed down his eyes, "I must sound so pathetic and arrogant for feeling sorry for a murderer, after all one who protects the villain is worse than the villain themself, but I can't help it, she was my best friend, my light, my lover, no matter how much bad the person did, the pain from losing them will always be much worse."

BANG

A shoe slammed into the tv, pushing it to the ground. It fell with a loud thump, glass shattering and the words drifting out of the tv fizzed to a growl before becoming inaudible, losing the charm it had that made it stand out from the blandness in the room.