The Devil's Angel

After making sure that Jake had finally slept, Mia decided to fetch some water and to get some fresh air. She needed to clear her head and control herself but she was drowning in torrid emotions, not knowing how much pain of loss she could bear.

“Mia?” his voice halted her in the tracks as a powerful shudder passed through her body, shaking her to the core. She wasn’t ready to face him, not now and maybe not ever. She slowly turned around to face him, her hand clutching the railing of the stairs tightly. “I don’t want to…listen, talk…” she said, her voice on the edge of breaking.

She looked at him in the eye, all the memories hitting her hard. How could she forget after everything they had been through, after everything he had done for her? After she was so close to admitting that she was in love with him and a crazy thought that he might feel the same way.

Damon wanted nothing more than to reach out and gather her into his arms, feel her give in to his comfort, to hold onto him as he would take all the nightmares, all the pain away but how could he now when he was the cause this time.

“How could you?” she whispered dejectedly and closed her eyes as if she didn’t want to believe that, as if she was trying to forget that it was his fault.

“I had to,” he whispered back, thinking about Claire and how easily she made a fool of everyone.

Flash of anger burnt in her eyes, “You had to?” she hissed as she took a step forward, her body rigid, her shoulders tensed. “What does that mean? Didn’t you had your fill of murders for this week?” she almost screamed the words at him.

“I had to save you…” he said, matching her tone.

“By killing her?” she was seething with anger now, not even caring to listen what he had to say, “You killed her, Damon. You killed her.”

“I’m well aware of that,” he retorted and then regretted it. It would only aggravate the matter and he didn’t want that.

“Couldn’t you think for a second that she meant something to others? Jake saw it. He saw her die in a snap of second. How could you think of that?” the words left her urgently in a fast pace.

“She had to die,” he said, remembering that she was going to kill Mia, that it was all a stunt to kill Mia, “beca…”

Mia gasped as she suddenly realized that Shawn had died because of her and now this was on her too. “No,” she cut off Damon, “She was out. She was safe,” she cried, her voice more hoarse than before from screaming and trying to control her tears.

“She was all I had,” she inhaled a sharp, shaky breath, “and you killed her,” she hissed through her teeth, her wide eyes showing disgust and hatred.

“It was you or it was her,” he said softly, whispering the words to himself as he replayed the whole incident in his mind and her words, ‘She was all I had’. He wanted to scream that she had him but he knew that didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. He never did.

He wanted to tell her the truth but that stopped him. She wouldn’t believe him, not at least until she had calmed down but it was also the fact that telling her the truth would snatch away someone she loved, someone she thought loved her back, someone she shared a connection with, no matter how wrong or pretentious it was on Claire’s part, he knew Mia had always considered her family.

“God, I hate you,” she said, her eyes fixed on him as she shook her head.

Damon’s eyes snapped to meet hers. His heart gave a painful, tight squeeze at her words and his breath hitched in his throat. His body felt weak and defeated. He knew she could never love him, had only and for always considered him a friend but this…it hurt more than he cared to admit.
“No, Mia. You don’t understand,” he started. He was going to tell her the truth because I’m selfish, he thought and couldn’t bear to see her hate him forever, “She was trying to…”

“I hate you so much,” she said again as the tears she was trying to control started to trail a path on her cheeks. She turned around to close herself in the room again. Screw fresh air, she thought bitterly.

“No, Mia. She was trying to ki…” he said, panicked that she was going away and when she opened the door to her room, he lost it. This was not happening. She was not leaving him, not after everything they had been through, not after he had gone against his rules and had let her in, had let her make him feel, not after he knew he loved her. “I did it because I love you,” he said, desperately. Anything to make her stop, not that he didn’t mean the words. He did. He was never so sure of them than he was at that moment.

The ground shifted beneath her feet, shaking her hard that she lost balance, lost track of time as everything stopped around her. She turned around to look at him. He looked hopeless, defeated. He looked…broken. She had never seen him like that and the look tugged at her heart but the hazy fog of hatred that had engulfed her, blinded her to the truth he was speaking, to the truth of the thrilled feelings she felt at his words.

“What a great way to show it,” she said icily and closed the door behind her.