Chapter 35: Chapter 35

The demon’s assumption froze me.

“Daughter? That can’t be,” I said.

Kylo gazed at me.

“Yeah. That can’t be,” she added.

She dragged her body to lay her back against the wall.

“You just can’t remember it, Vad. Perhaps you had buried that memory as if it was a mistake.”

The demon knew something. I think he’s also aware that our body swapped.

“What are you talking about?” I asked with knitted brows.

The demon chuckled.

“Remember those good old days in high school when you escaped from school and went to a bar?”

My mind was lagging as I tried to think deeply and looked back to my younger years.

I remembered a nostalgic moment. I was with Stinger that time when we plotted a plan on how to escape from the deathly barricades. Outsmarting the Electrical Engineers was like overthrowing the agency itself. After that day, they became more strict, and no one could escape again. We also became famous.

We went to a nightclub and disguised ourselves as adults. It was our way of celebrating after the nerve-wracking examination. For the first time, we felt so free. They had locked us up inside the campus from elementary to college because our dorms were near the school, which were also under the scope of the barricade.

Our Professor once said that we should not worry about missing life outside because we would enjoy all the luxuries in the world if we graduated. That was true. Our life outside was fancy if we just finish our missions as soon as possible.

Inside the club, I met a drunk girl with an innocent face. I thought she was a minor too, but she was older than me. We were so drunk that we did something not worth remembering. It was a one-night stand. And we don’t even know each other.

“I have a daughter?” I uttered under my breath.

“What are you saying?”

Kylo’s brows furrowed.

“I am your biological father. If you wish it isn’t true, I would understand.”

“That’s a lie.”

Her eyes were tearing up.

“I hope it is. Ask your mother when we returned home.”

Someone cut our emotional conversation off when someone came running towards us. It was Luxferre. He suddenly slumped to the floor with heavy breathing. I urgently walked towards him.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

He crawled towards the dying body of Vior as tears fell down his cheeks.

“What did you do to her?” he asked in a low tone.

“It serves her right. She’s been corrupting the minds of the innocent. She made everyone believe in something unreal, and you are her accomplice,” I said.

“He doesn’t know everything. Vior altered his memory,” Kylo said.

He caressed the face of her beloved and wrapped her around his arms. After a few minutes, the ground shook.

“What’s going on?” Kylo asked as she roamed her eyes around the falling pieces of rocks above us.

“When our loved ones die, we die with them. I will bury all of us underneath together with the entire island…” Luxferre whispered.

My eyes widened as I drifted my attention to Kylo.

“We can’t run away. We have to get our body back so we can return home!” I hissed as I walked back and forth.

“Agares, he who commands 31 legions of demons… Under the power of the East, I command you to reveal the ritual of convergence now,” Kylo said with eagerness in her eyes.

“I can do that but… your souls will go back to its place after three days and when that happens, it will erase your memories. Everything about your journey from the moment you did the ritual, and right at this moment… you will no longer remember everything. Do you accept that? Even the world will remember nothing. Everything will fall back into its place as if it never happened,” the demon said.

“We don’t have all the time in the world. Hurry, demon!” I exclaimed as huge rocks fell beside me.

“Very well, humans. Hold hands while I perform the ritual.”

We held our hands together and closed our eyes. The demon uttered words we couldn’t decipher. I’ve never heard of such a language before. Maybe demons have their own. The ground shook faster than before. A colossal stone was about to fall on Kylo’s head, but I shielded my body so that I could protect her.

“Vad!”

Blood dripped from my head, but it was nothing for me. I thought I was fine, but my vision became blurry until I passed out and couldn’t hear Kylo calling my name.

The burning rays of the sun awakened me. I glanced beside me and saw Kylo blinking her eyes. We were lying on the floor of their house. Our bodies didn’t swap back. It’s our first day before we forget everything.

We examined ourselves and realized that our bruises were gone. It was as if we didn’t come back from the grave.

“Call my Mom,” she said.

I sighed.

I called for her Mom around the house but she wasn’t there. I went outside and walked down the streets to look for her. As I did, I saw a piece of paper on the ground brought by the wind. They printed Kylo’s face on it as a missing person.

“Kylo?”

I looked behind me and saw her mother approaching with tears in her eyes. She hugged me tightly while she wept.

“Where have you been? You’ve been missing for 3 weeks! Did you run away because of me? I’m sorry if I’m so busy at work that I can’t take care of you and I can’t do anything to stop your bullies. You’ve suffered enough because of me…”

No. It was not her fault. I’ve come to realize that everything was my fault. I abandoned her and didn’t know we had a child. If only I knew, maybe I could’ve raised her to be brave and she won’t have a hard time dealing with anyone. I’m the best agent, but I failed as a dad and it’s the worst.

How could I give life to someone just to suffer? I can’t believe I did that. I was living a life filled with thrills while my daughter was in misery. There’s nothing I could not afford, but my daughter was struggling to survive each day because of the nightmares I created.

My own parents abandoned me. I can’t believe I did that to my own child when I know the feeling. History repeats itself, but at least I have the chance to spend time with them for a short while. Three days is enough to set the future of my child into a brighter one.