Authors: Katherine Ward
-The painful blow-
The first person that she saw on the TV was none other than her best friend, Florence and to her surprise, she was hosting a brand new show on TV. And just before Damaris could have the chance to feel proud of her, she heard whatever her friend was saying, and it raised her eyebrows a little. And it was at that point that she decided to kick back, relax and hear whatever the heck was going on there.
Damaris made sure that she had scooped the remote control one more time and, this time, it was to raise the volume a little bit. And once she got it increased to the point where she wanted, Damaris immediately dropped the remote and paid attention, listening to every single word that came out of that snake’s mouth one by one, hoping that Damaris wasn’t going to do what Damaris thought she was going to do.
“I have been a matchmaker for ages and to be honest, some of the people I hook up work out, some don’t. Some make sure that they are working out simply because they are hooked up to billionaires and are afraid that when the relationship fails, then their well of gold will dry up, like this couple for instance.”
And with that, they switched it to a footage where Damaris and Denis were holding their hands together when a chopper came to the packing lot and then she alighted it. Then once the helicopter had gone, the director put Florence back on screen.
“Well, I hate to break it down to the lady but I think the guy that she is dating who a billionaire is, and a former military bad boy wouldn’t make this relationship last. Tell us what you think. Do you think this gold-digger will get what she wants or will she get booted for the next girl? I would like to hear your thoughts. Shoot me a text to…”
Damaris didn’t have to hear the whole thing. She already got the message loudly and very clearly to the point that it broke her heart into a thousand different pieces. She couldn’t help the tears running down her swollen red cheeks.
More often than not, she always saw situations like these before they came to happen. But at that juncture, she just didn’t understand why she didn’t even suspect that something of that sort was going to happen. It was such a bad idea and needless to say, she thought that instead of staying around, maybe it would be an incredible idea if she just packed her stuff and left. She was shod in his oversized t-shirt, and she felt cheap already.
For all she knew, maybe Denis was into the whole thing since Florence, and himself wanted to have a venture on television, and maybe she was just bait to ensure that the television series started off with a very great rating. But that just didn’t matter.
What mattered at that moment in time was for her to get the hell out of that place and never look back. Her heart was broken, and she didn’t care whether Denis would be heartbroken by the time he got back home.
She was fed up and needed a break!
***
Three days had gone by after Damaris had seen the footage on television and the last thing she wanted to do was talk to anyone. She even made a point of calling in sick at work so that she could stay indoors and sulk. The only time that Damaris came out of the house was when she was looking for some tissue since the ones she had around the house had been depilated due to her endless crying spree.
It was just Ludacris how at one moment, the relationship seemed more than fine and then the next moment; it seemed as though everything had gone south. Did they plan on using her for the show? Someone had told her that Denis was a bad boy who only cared about his money especially after being disgracefully discharged from the army. But that didn’t seem to be the case when the two were sharing their love.
But now, from the look of things, it seemed as though she had been duped. It was painful. Why did she have to do this to her? Florence had so many other women that she could have hurt for the sake of getting her money. But why did she have to drag her through her mess like that? It wasn’t fair at all. As a matter of fact, she felt like she wanted to kill someone. But from the look of things, it wasn’t the way forward.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that she needed to do was change her number, as well as friends since if a friend as close as Florence could do that, then it meant that she could trust no one. She even thought that it would be a much better idea for her to relocate to India, open a curry shop and forget about her life in America.
-Even bad boys need love-
Denis didn’t understand why Damaris had decided to leave without even saying goodbye. He had also tried to reach her via her cell, but it was always switched. And that said, Denis decided to get to the controversial matchmaker to find out what went wrong with the woman whom she had hooked up.
But when he called Florence, her number wasn’t in service which was a little weird because Florence never switched her phone number for a very long time. And anytime she felt as though she needed to have her number changed, and then she always made a point of calling her and informing him pronto. And under the circumstances, he decided to call his private investigator Tony and set up a meeting.
Things were going on so well, and it wouldn’t make any sense for her just to abandon ship without saying a word. Denis would have taken a chopper and flew all the way to Brooklyn to check out on his girl, but when a girl decided to switch off her phone and not to make an effort to contact you, then she just wanted some space.
Still, the fact that Florence had gone cold on him also made him a little bit confused. What was happening? Or were his days as a bad boy coming back to haunt him? Of course, he was such a bad boy. But as far as he was concerned, his days were long gone and the reason he only dated Damaris was because he wanted to be her bad boy – and hers only.
“Hello, what’s up Denis? It’s been a long time. Who do you want me to sue?”
“Easy tiger, easy. I don’t want you to sue any person. I just want you to dig up some information about Florence. I think she has been using me for some reason. I don’t have a clue yet, but I think she hooked me up with a girl and waited until we became the best couple and then did something. I am not sure it's her, but to this point, I am just following my instinct bro.”
“Instinct huh? I see you are still a soldier at heart. But you don’t have to worry about a damn thing because your friend Florence has been on television. She has a new show called the matchmaker. Have you watched it?”
“No, I haven’t. What’s it all about?”
“Well, it’s simple. She hooks people up and then films the dates and announces the outcome of the world. I saw the episode bro. You and your hot IT girl had been followed, and she concluded that she was a gold digger. And that is why I asked you if you want me to sue her ass. We have enough material to run that poor excuse for a show aground. All you need to do is…”
Denis hung up the phone and took his coat from the table where he left it the previous night. He now understood why his girl was having such a difficult time and knew that it was about time he made things straight. The chopper was still in the helipad, and since he had been a military pilot, he made sure that he was able to put that helicopter in the sky in a matter of minutes and was off to Brooklyn.
Denis knew that Florence had to pay for toying with him the way she did. But that wasn’t his priority. His number one priority was to make sure that he had seen Damaris and explained everything to her. Denis just hopped that it wasn’t too darn late because, at that juncture, he couldn’t picture his life without her.
And within minutes, the chopper was off the ground headed to Brooklyn.
***
As soon as Denis got out of the chopper, he stood for a moment, waiting for the revolving propellers to die down before coming out. And as he sat there, he just couldn’t remember the last time that he was that nervous. He had no idea what he was going to say to the woman that he loved to ensure that she wasn’t going to leave him no matter what came their way. She was the only woman who made his life to have to mean.
Finally, the propellers died down for a moment, and it was at that moment that the most unexpected thing happened. The door was swung open, and she came out running out all the way to the chopper. Tears were running down her cheeks, and as soon as the helicopter’s doors were opened, Damaris got in and hugged him.
“I already know what she did, and I am very sorry I left.”
Denis was confused. But before he could say anything, his kick ass lawyer, Tony came through the door eating some pie that Damaris had most definitely made him. He had gotten to the bottom of everything and found out that Florence was using them and made a point of reaching out to her because he knew that Denis was going to have a difficult time doing just that.
“Yes, I know. You can thank me later. But at the moment, I need to fly to New York and submit the subpoena to one Miss Florence Whitmore. And I think the fasted way for me to get there would be via chopper. And I am looking around at the moment, and I am wondering if I can find someone with a helicopter.”
“Oh, crap just take the damn thing. But make sure you return it with a full tank or else I will stop cutting you checks.”
And as Tony the lawyer took to the chopper like a kid who had been finally allowed back into the world after a solid week of grounding, Denis and Damaris continued kissing. Well, he had been a bad boy once, but as the dictum says, even bad boys need some loving. Well, it's not a dictum. But what the heck!!
THE END
-The tribal war, 1564 AD-
“We need more ammunition!!” the commander yelled as soon as he had instructed his people to fall back. From the look of things, it seemed as though everything was going haywire and the commander had two options – tell his troops to fall back and retreat into the bushes or stand the ground and fight to the death.
And judging from what the king had instructed the commander, England wasn’t going to cow down to her enemies. And that only left him with one options only – to fight tot eh death. He hated having to lose people, but from the look of things, their enemies weren’t normal people. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though they were frail in the day but in the night, it seemed as though they were becoming monsters.
In the commanders thirty years as leader of the English army, he had never seen anything like this. And it had gotten to a point where his advisors were starting to tell him to defy the king, run for his life and then beg for his mercy. But the commander was too darn arrogant to allow himself to ever do that. If anything, he would rather die than throw himself at anyone’s feet and ask for forgiveness.
“That is my final word. We need more ammunition for our guns. If we don’t have any by nightfall, then I am afraid that those creatures from the east will come back and we will be done!”
“We can just retreat and live to fight another day.”
“NO WAY! WE STAND AND FIGHT!! AND WHERE THE HELL IS THE DEATH DEALER??!”
Everyone was quiet and looked around. And it was at that point that the handsome, well-built blue eyed war engine, Viktor sauntered through the tent and went into an immediate troop attention, recognizing the presence of the commander with a salute.
“Good. How are we doing in the armory?”
“It’s bad sir. We have used all of the arrows and spears as well as swords. And the canons are almost done. We will need some soldiers to dig up the clay and burn it but that would do us any good because those monsters can’t be touched. They move too fast and they can’t die. Word on the barracks is that the enemy is in cahoots with creatures that are abominations and we aren’t going to win this war no matter how hard we fight.”
There was dead silence in the tent. The only sound was that of the gust beating against the roof of the tent. For a moment, the commander was confused. It was only a couple of minutes till nightfall and he knew that he had absolutely nothing against the enemy. And now, from the look of things, his pride was going to be put to test without a doubt and that was something he wasn’t going to live to regret.
But before he had the opportunity to think of a way in which they were going to stay on top of their game, they heard screams coming from the barracks and they all grabbed their swords and watched. It was clear that they were under attack and that there was nothing they could do about it.
“We defend the commander with all we have until our last breath!”
But that was the last word that ever came out of the soldier who was standing next to the commander. The lights were out and then without any warning; his throat was snatched. Everyone was killed that night, all except for Viktor, the war engineer. The creatures of the dark had much better plans for him.
***
Joyce woke up in the morning, wondering just how she was going to get a job. Her dad was giving her a lot of pressure to make sure that she was going out there looking for a job. But after doing it for a while, Joyce was on the verge of giving up. She had a degree in accounting but from the look of things, it seemed as though everyone her age had a degree in accounting. And that spelled doom for her since the competition in her field was too darn high.
But that morning, Joyce just decided to go out there and try something out for the sake of trying it out. She had reached a point where she herself was starting to have a difficult time staying in the house just because of the guilt that she was feeling. It was just too much for life. She was turning twenty-three in a months’ time and she wanted to celebrate it in her own apartment.
Most of her friends were already in stable relationships, let alone having their own apartments and that also contributed to her discomfort. At the end of the day, it seemed as though everything was going to be fine since the dictum says that there is always a silver lining after every cloud. And that was whatever the heck she was going to aim at that day – the silver lining. Meaning that she was going to do all in her power to ignore all of the bullshit that came through her way.
And without further ado, Joyce woke up and made sure that she was getting to work as soon as possible. She made a point of getting everything ready and left the house before her dad woke up.
Apart from getting a job and moving out of her father’s house, it seemed as though there was another thing that Joyce was having trouble with – finding the right man to be with. But at the moment, she knew that she had no other choice but to prioritize as much as possible. She knew that if she did everything accordingly, then the right man was going to come over and make her day without a doubt. but until then, she had to wait.
And just like that, Joyce begun her day in high spirits. And that was how she landed a job at a club as a bartender.