AUTHOR'S POV, At the SD Steel Enterprises
It smelt coffee all around, all the time. Always brewing, fueling everyone in the building to make their eyes wide and spirits high. Work has been piling on every employees' desk for days. With shifts and rosters extended, more workers were swamped day and night with work to the point some of them drown in exhaustion and most of them, just quit.
The board announced Sebastian as the new CEO within a few days. The only legitimate son of the Devlins. There were no explanations and no discussions on ousting Scott Devlin. It was a decision everyone should just swallow hard. Priscilla and Stanley made sure that their son is all over the news. That he stays on the spotlight without giving a chance for Scott's name to outshine their other son. His photographs were immediately printed across the magazines and business articles. Reporters climb windows, and sneak in the building to catch a glimpse of him. The local news were full of his rushed interviews. Flowers of red, blue and purple flood his office room. Sebastian wore the title well in tailored suits, silver cufflinks and rehearsed smiles as he maintain his calm voice, straight spine and steady hands.
However, they were a lie.
Underneath the conference table, and sometimes, inside his pockets, his hands were trembling. Every signature reminded him of blood. Every silence reminded him of Elder Dolphus' headless body crashing on the ground. Sometimes, in the midst of reading reports, he would suddenly smell iron. And sometimes, in the middle of the meetings, he hears slashing flesh and blood spurting out. Sebastian would look up from his computer, and sees yellow eyes staring back at him from the dark reflection of his monitor. And when he look back, they were gone. He kept seeing and hearing things that even his private relationship with his boyfriend fell apart.
The possession led him astray. Left him broken with footprints that remained inside of him. He buried himself in work to suppress the remorse. He stayed in the office long after midnight, searching and tracking for any connections to the Luna. Somewhere in his spiraling mind, he convinced himself that Diana has the answer. The person who could lead him to the Nagual, to wash the stain off his soul.
Thus, the deeper he searched, the more unstable he became. Diana is at the tip of his fingers. Always. Yet, someone is one step closer ahead of him. He crumble at every fall. Despite his mother ignored the signs, the company noticed. Investors began withdrawing quietly at first. Then publicly. They trusted the former CEO more, that gambling with the new one was not worth it. Scott had been brutal but dependable. He inspired fear, and loyalty in equal measure, while Sebastian inspired uncertainty.
Stocks dipped. Meetings were dragged and the departments turned chaotic. The harmony that was once there, disappeared along with Scott. Long time employees resigned one after another, carrying boxes through the lobby with exhausted faces and bitter eyes. The newer management demanded impossible hours for the projects piled up unfinished. Executives blamed each other in glass conference rooms while assistants cried in bathroom stalls. Sebastian tried to keep things together inside the company tower that remained standing over the city like a monument. However inside, it decayed.
At home, it was nothing better. The Devlin family collapsed without them knowing. Reina barely spoke anymore. Not to Sebastian or Damon. Not to Priscilla and Stanley. The murder of Dolphus sat between them at every table like an unseen guest. Sebastian tried. He cornered her in the hallways, begged her inside the office, waited for her at her bedroom door, followed her to the parking garage with shaking breath. "I can't handle this alone, Reina", Sebastian says all the time with pleading eyes. Reina only looked at him, hugging a couple of folders in her arms tightly, as if she doesn't recognize him anymore. "How long are you going to ignore me?".
Every time Reina sees his face, she remember the cruel image of Dolphus' headless state. How their mother wants cover up the murder for the only biological son, and not merely putting up with Scott who also needed support from the family. And each time, she hears herself keeping quiet. The silence, after all, was the most cruel part. "These documents will be presented at your desk in the office tomorrow morning", she said, firmly, taking home some of her work as she leave Sebastian at the garage devastated.
Reina enters the Devlin mansion with a sharp exhale. The warmth in their home has been long gone. Without Scott, their home no longer feels familiar. She misses him more than ever not because of his kindness, but for making sure this family doesn't tear apart went awful things happen.
Her mother greeted her from the foyer. All smiles, batting her feather lashes. Stitching their family back together with dinners that none of the members of the household wanted. "Darling you're here!", Priscilla glided through the hallway heading to Reina. "I wasn't really expecting you. I thought you'll be late for work again. Where's your brother, Sebastian? I heard his car arrive", she spoke livelier than ever, as if their family is normal.
Reina forced a smile. She knew that her mother wouldn't let her go without getting a response from her. If she won't, a slap across her face is what she would get. She didn't want to end her already tiring day more exhausting, she gave her a short bland reply.. "He's coming", she led herself up to her room without looking back despite hearing her mother welcome Sebastian warmly as ever.
That very same night, Reina just finished burning midnight oil for work in the wee hours when she felt her stomach growl longing for food. She stepped out in her satin beige pyjamas, completely exhausted as she yawn on her way through the dark corridor. It was unnaturally quiet. Guards roam the mansion 24/7. Ever since the blood moon, the security grew and tightened around the Devlins, especially Sebastian and Stanley.
She made a spiced ham sandwich. Finished it heartily with her fingers. After a glass of warm water, she sleepily dragged herself out of the kitchen. On her way up, she heard whispering. A kind of low voices having a heated argument, drifting from the darkened hallway near the lake entrance. Reina slowed. She stopped at where she makes sure she wouldn't be sensed well, but could hear words just enough. As she peek, she sees her mother standing near the glass doors, speaking sharply to Damon. The shadows hid half of their faces, but the tension on the lines of their foreheads were still evident. "…get the room ready, once we get our hands on that, we get as much as we need", Priscilla whispered sharply.
"I'm on it! What the hell do you think I'm —"
Damon's eyes shifted, as if sensing someone in the shadows down the hall. He immediately turned away, shoved open the doors and disappeared toward the lakeside. Priscilla headed to the stairs, off to the second floor, without looking back. Just then, Reina slowly approached the window, and watched Damon untie a boat with hurried movements before rowing into the darkness alone.
It wasn't their first secret meeting. Not the second either. But it is the first in the dead of the night that it gives a sense of urgency. Before, she noticed them in the quiet corners of the office. Hushed conversations that stopped the moment she entered. Arguments hidden behind closed doors. Strange tension neither of them explained. "Strange.", she murmured.
Damon.
He had always been the untouched one. The drifting son who walked his own pace. While the Reina and her other brothers claw at titles, power and clan politics, Damon moved through life like smoke slipping between fingers. He skipped board meetings, comes late to work, barely seen at the office. Slept through argumemts that shattered the walls at midnight. Like everyone else, Damon changed after the blood moon. Not loudly but just right for Reina to feel something is wrong.
It started with rowing.
Every morning, just before the dawn cracks the dark sky, Damon would disappear to the lake side beside the estate. At first, Reina assumed it was another temporary obsession. He had dozens over the years. Like snowboarding that was abandoned after two weeks. Surfing that ended after one big wave that almost drowned him. Archery, and triathlon.
This time, it was different. Rain or cold wind, Damon rowed. Sometimes for hours, as if the lake became his ritual. He claimed it helped him think. Claimed the silence calmed him and the movement kept the noise in his head away. At least it was Scott's influence that nature keeps their sanity. And maybe, that should have been the best for all of them considering everything happening around them is tearing them apart.
However, that's not what Reina only saw.
Damon only rowed the same time everyday, when no one hears his footsteps and skit is dark enough to hide his face. Sometimes, he returns with a face that seemed went through hard labor. His clothes drenched in sweat and dirt in his shoes, seemingly overly exhausted and famished that can't be gained from rowing alone. Then, there were the meetings with their mother. Reina convinced herself she imagined it. Like a coincidence of a private conversation between a mother and son.
Except, it kept happening. It made Reina stay in her toes. Eyeing on every member of the family who changed from her point of view. Left clueless what to do…