MY DARLING DAREDEVIL

Almost a minute too late

At broad daylight, hundreds of men and women could be seen leaving the mighty building of the Roxwell with tears in their eyes and regrets in their hearts. They brought it all upon themselves when they had sought after comfort in a dangerous place where they could do their work. They had instead preferred to sit around all day while doing nothing but talk, eat and move around the premises like they owned it. They had completely and utterly let their guard down like it was their company that when the true owner of the house came, all those playing house met their fate. It was harsh of course, no one expected that he would dare to fire all his staff, all of them, from the highest to the very least.

Damon took a gentle stroll to the chair that was behind his enormous desk and sat down. He wheeled the chair around till he was facing the glass that his entire office was made up of. It revealed the whole of the city before him. Tall buildings and skyscrapers scattered the entire city and one look at it reminded him of how his enemies needed to be conquered one after the other like the buildings before him. From where he sat, he could see the next project that had supposed to have gone further than this, but no, it didn’t. Instead, construction had come to a complete halt when his court case came to view and they had neglected everything. He gritted his teeth and stared at the enormous space before his eyes fell on the papers on his desk. They were piled up to the highest point and they all needed his signature, his ruling or final judge. Without wasting any much time, he took off his jacket, got up and hung it up himself before turning back to the seat where he sat down and picked up the first paperwork he had.

The day went by quickly and Damon had gotten so immersed in his work, he did not realise when it had gotten dark and completely quiet in that still and empty office of his. His secretary, Charles had just dismissed the final candidate for a position in the company for that day. He almost slumped to the ground in exhaustion. He checked his time, and realised that it was late and dark outside and it was past the time for him to leave but he could not do that without meeting his boss who he was sure was busy inside his office. He decided to wait outside for a while, because he was scared of interrupting his boss and getting him angry. He spent a lot of time and still, Damon, did not come out of his office. Charles soon realised that if he did not go in, he might end up sleeping in his office.

He pushed himself grouchily towards the enormous door. His blood suddenly went dry when he thought about himself inside the office with his boss. He only wished that the interns he had picked and the new graduate whose application were the best qualification for the best company would not throw his hard work away and make it go to waste by being incompetent. He wished that they would be good enough to take over and smart enough to run the company like the old ones did or rather, he wished they did more with effectiveness. Then he remembered that Damon had told him he had forty-eight hours left in his company. That thought made him quiver and he only wished that he would change his mind towards firing him, he would rather be demoted than to get fired. He shook the thought away from his head and turned to the door of his boss once more. With a heavy heart and a heavy step, he stopped in front of the door and knocked on it.

“Sir, it’s Charles here,” he said nervously. He had almost lost his job just as everybody else had done earlier. His saving grace was that he was Damon’s secretary and personal assistant and he needed him to play his role once more in this scenario where he had to go through applications of interns and qualified graduates included.

No words came from the office of his boss, and that had gotten him so tense, he began to sweat nervously as he stared at the door.

“It’s late sir, and it's time to go home” he entered.

“But I have the long list of candidates that you might likely hire tomorrow with me,” he covered

“Bring their files in,” Damon replied strongly and Charles flinched. No matter how long he had been there, no matter how many times he heard that voice,he always still felt nervous and ghostly white whenever his harsh voice came to his ears. He gulped hard and turned on the handle of the door before he stepped into the freezing room.

Damon was staring at his laptop and did not bother to look up to see Charles walk in. He was too concentrated on the loads of work he had on his desk, he had no time to remain idle or waste a second of his precious time with someone as unimportant as Charles. His secretary did not need to be told twice. He simply placed the big file on top of his boss’s desk and moved away from his desk like he would be electrocuted if he didn’t do that soon.

“I will be leaving now sir,” he mumbled and without waiting for a reply from him. He turned away and walked out of the office.

Damon continued working without once staring at the clock. His workaholic instincts did not let him raise his head up from his laptop nor did his grumbling stomach seem important to him. Not after he sacked everyone that could have made his work easier. Buried in his work and papers and documents, he did not realise how far gone the night was, nor could he tell that it was early morning of the next day already. None of his security tried to bother him, no one would dare not when he was in such a bad mood.

His eyes were beginning to hurt and so were his fingers which he had tormented so much by continuously typing away on his keyboard. The pain was a reminder that he should stop and relax but Damon was stubborn and had gone through more pains than that. He would not stop till his fingers became numb and sore.

Damon was still typing away when the hair on the back of his neck stood up. His instincts heightened and the hair on his nostrils stood erect like he could actually smell trouble. Yet, his hands remained on his keyboard and his eyes on the screen like he could not feel it around him. Eyes were on him, hostile eyes and the air in the room became very thick with hostility. For a second there, he cursed himself for letting go of the security team. His senses became alert and hyper and he sought ways to escape. He was sure that there was no escape for him. Not when those hostile gaze were so hard and professional. However, those same eyes that had watched him for so many years, eyes he got used to and at a time forgot about had also been on his skin the whole day. He smiled when he recalled as the owner of those eyes showed up at a court and caused a m******e over him. When she stared at him, that feeling he felt for ages flooded a thousand-fold and became stronger, he didn’t need anyone to tell him that she was the one who had been watching him from afar like a guardian angel, something she had called herself earlier.

When he remembered that those eyes were still on him, he stopped typing and relaxed into his enormous chair with a small smile appearing on his face. So much faith in a stranger. The thing is, she just never felt like one. The lights went off instantly and a red dot appeared right in the middle of his head. Damon saw it through the reflection of his laptop yet he remained unmoved and relaxed in his big chair like he knew his guardian was not far away. Almost immediately, the sound of someone yelling was heard from a distance and the laser on his head disappeared.

Yet there was still darkness and movements were being heard from outside his office. He scoffed when he thought about how lame his killers were for being so messy and noisy. He leaned in on his desk and used his hands to search under his desk for the gun he had kept there. when he found it, he took it out, and held it properly, while hiding it away under his desk.

The office was dark with the moon’s light and the light from his system the only source of light that was piercing into the office. It made it easy to see a shadow and it made it all the more possible to see how his door was opened and figures came trooping in. Damon remained unfazed and squinted his eyes in the darkness as he stared at them and waited for an attack. An attack that might kill him.

Headache suddenly hit him, the way it had done earlier before and it threatened to tear his head to shreds. He jammed his lips together and shut his eyes tightly to shut the pain and his mouth that threatened to betray him at such a time. Those headaches won’t go away, they never did no matter the treatment he went for. He opened his eyes and squinted in the darkness, he could see nothing and the splitting headache he got was beginning to affect his visions. A wrong time to have such a splitting headache, it was not the time to make a move or try having his aspirin, it was certainly not.

Shadows started moving around the darkness of his office, like clowns without a circus as they approached Damon who remained still and focused on the pain in his head rather than them. The door to his office opened once more and his eyes turned to it. His heart skipped a bit when he saw those red circles similar to those he had seen at the court. He had seen those eyes to not have recognized the way the red in those eyes circled around the black.

The shadows who had come for him, seemed to notice the figure that was not part of them in the first place and quickly, gunshots spread like wildfire. Damon ducked underneath his desk for protection. The sound of the guns was piercing and painful to his ears and they only made his headache worse. But he remained underneath his desk and listened nonetheless. The sound of gunshots and empty bullet cases falling to the ground was soon mixed with the voices of groans, pains and even bones cracking till the noise instantly reduced and kept reducing till there was nothing else except the smell of blood that quickly purged his nose

.

“You can come out now,” the lights came back on and the voice he recognized to be the woman he met at the courthouse boomed in the empty room. His hands went straight for his aspirin and water as he swallowed it so fast, to ease the pain he was going through. Then he slumped on his chair and shut his eyes till he could feel his headache die down.

He opened his eyes and for the first time, he looked around his office. Hardlines appeared on his face when he saw blood plastered everywhere with the bodies of the men spread all over his office. He only just renovated the place and once again it had been ruined. He turned his gaze to the woman who was responsible for it and flinched when he realised that she was glaring at him like she had been possessed. But there was something about her that was appealing, satisfying, and peaceful.

“Must you be this messy?” he growled nonetheless. Her eyes hardened at him and she gave him no reply.

“What is it?” he asked her, not once trying to hide his own anger. She said nothing and started towards him while wiping the blood that was at the corner of her eyes.

“Is something wrong?” he asked again with a harder tone when she said absolutely nothing to him. But she still said nothing and kept walking till she was standing opposite him.

“You take Aspirin?” she slammed her hands against his desk.

For a moment there, Damon became really confused that he only stared at her peculiar, hunting eyes.

“Yes,” he replied, confused as to why it would bother her if he took aspirin. She slammed her hands into his desk again and yelled loudly. Then she turned away and placed her hands on her waist while the other went to her head. Damon watched as her back rose and fell like she was having a breathing exercise. He remained quiet and watched her as he took in her appearance.

Without saying a word, she turned to his door and walked towards it, while stepping all over the bodies on the floor.

“You can’t leave,” he said the moment she got to the door and she paused.

“Your security would take care of the bodies, Damon” she spoke even before he aired his thoughts of what the media would say when they saw yet another dead body in his office like she could read his thoughts.

“How about thanking you then?” he asked instead. She swiftly turned around to look at him.

“I was almost a minute too late today, Damon. You would have died, there is absolutely no need thanking me” she spat and he frowned. Who was this lady who had made it her duty to protect him? He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask.

“No more questions Damon. You won’t get answers like this” she entered like she could read his thoughts. But she didn’t leave, instead, she sighed heavily and turned to him.

“All these years, I had wondered if you were really a true blood, I had waited for you to change. And I only just realised that you had been suppressing it yourself,” she mumbled to herself.

“But from now on, I will be by your side. Closer than you can ever imagine, there would never be a time where I would be a minute too late,”