A/N: And we move on, soon, I guess by at most the end of the year, this will be finished!

Chapter 34

We began our way to the next destination; Kenneth led, far in the front, now holding the unconscious Karen. She did not deter or move in her sleep, even with such cold and such movement, an earthquake probably couldn't wake her.

Damien stayed at my side though, he was calm and now the Damien who thought of me as his lover was gone, and the sterner, calmer one was back. I hadn't changed though, I was still slipping further into pessimism and complete fear, I could feel it. And I did not reject it.

The Damien from my dream was still not there, his crimson eyes were not mad and evil, but human one look behind me affirmed that he was no demon.

I wondered how I could even think such a thing, that my best friend was some vile thing born of darkness, but somewhere in the deepest, most shaded corner of my subconscious I wondered: perhaps he is.

I stopped dead in my tracks for a second, and shook my head at the mad thought. The only response from the outside was a startled grunt from Damien and a look back from Kenneth, but inside I felt a war was being waged.

Perhaps he is, what if he is, he could be doing this as a ruse. You've seen the madness that Lucas has caused, you've seen the unbelievable, it could always get more unbelievable, couldn't it?

I shook my head but pressed onwards, we were just passing up Main Street, to the side of a little bakery, hidden by the buildings shadow. Kenneth stopped for a moment to check if the coast was clear.

He might be. Maybe. He's been so nice though... could he? If he is... I'd guess I'd have to stop him... Jesus. What the fuck am I thinking about. Hurting Damien? We have to run from Lucas. Yes... bloody hell. But what if-

My train of thought was stopped as fast as a car crash by Kenneth reeling swiftly backwards into the alley and falling flat on his buttocks.

A bright headlight illuminated the alley for a moment as the van drove passed with a thunderous growl. It squealed suddenly as it turned and moved down a turning for a second before it audibly screeched as it came to a halt.

"Kuh-Kenny?" Karen mumbled as she came slowly out of sleep, I could see her eyes widen in glee, "KEN-" she was interrupted by Kenneth slapping a hand over her mouth.

We all held a breath together, I looked back to see that Damien had this strange, faraway look about him, yet he still held the same anxiousness. He knew he was in trouble, but he visibly refused to believe who was going to reprimand him for the trouble.

He was the first to release his breath, "that's my dad... isn't..." he got out.

A gunshot came first to interrupt him, and then the sound of shattering glass shortly after, then third came Lucas's furious bellow.

"WHERE THE FUCKING HELL DID YOU SEE THEM?"

Damien's breath hitched once more.

A smaller, nervous and anxious voice followed him, "Jeez Luke, you said they're here... I just said I saw-"

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE WHAT I SAID, WHAT DID YOU SEE?"

Kenneth then picked Karen up again, sprinted out of the alley and ran north. In confusion, me and Damien followed him out, and we barely caught him disappearing into another alley, about five meters down the road. When we followed him there we saw that he was sprinting through the back gardens of the houses. We then followed him and Lucas's shouts fell out of earshot.

In about ten minutes we had reached the Jackal Hill that led up to the school, and where the bloody massacre ended. It stood high up, like a watchtower or lighthouse, beckoning us to come to it's safety, but it was not just a lighthouse for us.

I wish I had stayed behind just a second longer to catch wind of the last of Lucas's conversation, then the ordeal would have played out a lot differently. I don't know what was actually said, but I can guess it went something like this:

"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU SEE THEM?"

The other, probably James, as Lucas had called him, must have stayed silent for a little time in thought. "I think I saw a head poking out from that bakery, looking our way. What's up there?"

Lucas then might have gotten out of the car, if he wasn't out already, and gone back onto Main Street. He probably had a brief search, seen nothing out of the ordinary, before his eyes caught a glimpse of the school.

The school, which stood solitary and waiting. Where we knew the halls, and thought we could be safe. The school that was like a lighthouse.

"Where did they go Luke?"

He would have paused for a bit, probably trying to enforce his clichéd grandiose-ness of the whole situation, then said, "They're heading to the school... Call Mark. Get the guns."

I wish I had stayed back just that second longer to find out what they really said.

It took a small while until we had calmed down, and Damien said, once the air seemed to have lost a smidge of tension, "I think I know why dad called me Damien."

"Why's that?" I asked. We had been going up the hill for a good five minutes and only now had Damien spoken.

"Have you ever read The Omen?"

Kenneth interrupted, "the film?"

"It's a book as well, and the main characters the..." he trailed on.

"The antichrist, called Damien," I answered for him.

Kenneth spared a single snort of stressed laughter, "there's being named after a film character and then there's that. So this has been going on for years then?"

Damien cocked his head, "What has?"

"The whole... Satan thing. It's been going on since you were born."

Karen spoke then, "Satan thing? I thought he was bad... is Damien bad?"

Suddenly relived, Kenneth ruffled her hair and told her no. Although I couldn't help but remember my awful dream.

Somehow that had became the center of my attention, the plane of fire with Damien looking so ungodly and merciless. So unlike how I knew him. It had set something of a chain reaction of paranoia in me; paranoia that I knew was false.

The school building was just coming into view, and an awkward silence had cast itself like a sheet of fog over us. "Why do you think?"

Damien cast a single glance, "Why do I think what?"

"That you're dad's... like this."

A solemn look passed over him and I carefully danced around what I said, "you don't have to answer."

He shook his head, "No, no, I... I may as well, I think... I think it's because of mom."

"Didn't you say you knew nothing of her?"

"I don't know a lot, I know that she died... well, giving birth to me, maybe when he only had me, he sort of... I don't know. I... I really don't know."

"You're thinking too hard about this," Kenneth loudly declared, "we can both agree your old man's nuts. Being nuts doesn't have a reason, at least here it doesn't. Sorry man, he's just mental."

"He's still my father!" Damien shouted, Kenneth stopped still and span round, spitting back:

"AND HE'S FUCKING NUTS..." he stopped his gaze away, suddenly guilty, "...sorry about that. It's getting to me."

He looked back up and horror slapped itself onto him, his jaw was agape at whatever was behind us.

"I'd have to disagree... Luke is prolly the most sane out of all of us here," the person behind us said.

I span on the spot to find it was James, the blond haird man, the one who had been watching me from my hospital window. He had both his arms behind his back, and calmness in his eyes. "he's a smart one, Luke," he continued, "Know's what he's doin', better than me at least. He's off to go get Mark, could you... stay here please, make it easier."

Even though it was unimportant, I felt the need to ask, "Why were you watching me all that time ago?"

He cocked his head in confusion before forming his mouth into an o of realisation, "Luke asked, to make sure you weren't up to any funny business. Ya know, to make sure you were the Sin."

"The what?"

"The Sin, the one to push Damien to be the anti-" He began, but Damien interrupted him.

"PHILLIP RUN!" he shouted, sprinting to James and tackling him to the ground. James's arms went flinging and his gun flew from his grip, landing a few steps away from where he and Damien were wrestling on the ground.

Disobeying his orders, I made my way to the weapon on the ground, but James saw me and stick out a foot. I tripped and landed on the floor, the cold snow met my face. I looked back to ask Kenneth for help, but he had already began sprinting to the school with Karen in his hands.

He pushed Damien off of him for a second, but was tackled back down.

I got up and ran to the gun again, this time I managed to get the cold plastic of the weapon in my grasp. I aimed it at James just as Damien landed a solid punch against him.

"Ow," he cried, "Jesus, fuck, stop you prick!" He thrashed and wormed against Damien's grip but was stopped by a combination of Damien planting his knee on his chest and me aiming the barrel at his forehead. He gave a sharp intake of breath when he felt the cold metal, "shit," he muttered. He looked right at me, "Don't shot me. If you kill me Luke won't stop you know," he said, "he was fuckin' furious when the Immortal shot Jack."

Damien punched him again, "Shut the fuck up!" he demanded, "Kenny's no god damned immortal and I'm no god damned antichrist!"

"Damned alright," he muttered, he received another punch. A large bruise was forming on his right cheek.

"Why are you doing this?"

James was silent for a short while before he answered, "Rapture."

"Rapture?"

While he was confused, James pushed Damien off him. The sudden movement caused my fingers to slip and the bullet went wide. James crawled up to his feet and began running away, I aimed the gun at him... but I coulden't feel the power to shoot. I thought of Eric, his dead body next to Trent's and I was paralyzed still.

Damien started to run after him, but he was to slow now, and it would be too dangerous to chase him into the town.

Shaking his head, Damien came to me and gave me a hand, of which I gladly accepted and we walked the rest of the way to the school.

"I told you to run... but I'm glad you didn't. That could have gone much worse," he said when we reached the gate.

The double doors to the school were wide open and Kenneth was sitting down inside, right next to the doors with Karen resting her head in his lap, he had both hands over her ears.

He looked out and saw us, I expected him to grin, but he just nodded for us to come in.

"You kill him?" he asked, motioning to the gun in my hands.

Damien shook his head, "no, he's ran off, we should leave soon though, they're going to be coming soon."

"What's the point?" Kenneth sadly questioned.

Fed up, Damien muttered, "Oh don't do this."

As if it were a stage direction, Kenneth gently moved Karen, who got up and moved a few steps away, confused at what Kenneth was saying. But her confusion left when he jumped to his feet with a smile.

"Yeah, like fuck am I just going to let Karen get hurt. Come on, let's go grab some shit and leave."

I could tell there was the slightest hint of doubt in his tone; I'd go as far as to say that he was outright lying.

He had led Karen to the headmaster's office and, upon finding it locked, did the reasonable act of asking me for my gun. We were only lucky that the bullet hadn't ricocheted off of the metal and went flying into someone's forehead. Karen and I both let out a shrill yelp of surprise when he blew the lock off and kicked the door inward. If he weren't there, I would have guessed that Karen would have burst into tears, but it seemed that she wanted to be strong for her big brother.

Kudos to her, she was doing better than me.

Kenneth was certainly becoming more reckless. As soon as she was in there he ran off to find Damien (who had began raiding the school for foodstuffs for us to eat on our walk to north park.

I was left alone with Karen.

"Um... mister Pip?" She asked, looking up her eyes brim with naivety.

I shrugged and offered a warm smile, "Just Pip, what's wrong?" I could certifiably say that I was appalling with children.

"What's actually going on? I don't know," she asked, in only the way a child could ask, and I think my heart could have broken if the events hadn't made me so much more unreceptive.

I shrugged, "Damien's dad is a bad man, he just wants to hurt Damien and Kenne... Kenny. We just have to get away from him, we'll be fine."

"are you sure?" She asked with that same, childish way.

I nodded simply, and moved further into the room.

She looked behind me, gave a sharp scream, and I felt the barrel of yet another bloody gun aimed at me.

Once more, someone had crept behind me, once more I was put into this type of situation.

I had to learn to stop this from happening soon, or at least will this god forsaken trend to end.

Then Lucas spoke.

"Tell me where my son is, or I'll burn this bitch alive."

The trend ended today, I decided, but I was not mad enough to tempt Lucas into shooting me. So I raised my hands in defeat.

"Where is my fucking son?" he growled.

A sudden courage built within me when I noticed Karen inside the room slowly moving to the desk, if she could just get underneath it then she would have some protection. I could die for all I cared, as long as she was safe.

"What's rapture?" I asked.

"What we're bringing," he said, "where's my fucking son?" he demanded, pushing the gun closer against my head. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears.

She had slowly gotten her way halfway across the room, only a little while from the thick wooden desk. Then she stopped still, and the gun left the back of my head and to the side.

Once it fired, and Karen fell to the ground, screaming and yelling in the most horrible way.

I began to run towards her, but once more, the weapon was at me, and the cold metal was like a snakebite, paralyzing and sharp.

She was still screaming though, but that died down to teary whimpers, her left arm had the wound, it was bleeding badly. Nevertheless, she was still alive!

There was a sudden shout of "KAREN!" from somewhere deep in the school. It was clearly Kenneth. In response, Lucas wrapped an arm around my neck, and began dragging me, kicking and screaming.

The trend wasn't ending, it seemed.