A SENSE OF VICTORY

My eyes flicker. I am embodied into a familiar body from my back, my hands crossed on my chest. I glance at the dismantled face beneath. People smile for and in victory, except in Gracia's case. Even in her condition, with all these bruises I have inflicted on her, despite the lower part of her face being drenched in blood oozing from her nose and mouth, she still has the mettle to smirk.


"That is enough, babe. The police are on the way up. Let them take it from here." Damian whispers, pulling me to my feet.

I jerk myself up and turn to him. Ripped shirt, also saturated with blood.

"Damian?" I call, hoping that the blood isn't his, but scanning his body for assurance. "Hey! Are you...o.k.a.y?" I drop my eyes on this worrying spot.


No! He is not! He is wounded. He has a very bad gun wound on his stomach, and it is bleeding badly.

"Damian, you are..." My heart is bleeding to see him in this state.


"Ellie!" I turn to the three faint voices from the bed.

Rose, Nelly, and Sherry are crawling towards me, their scary faces glaring past me. I turn around to see what their gestures correlate to, but the sound of a gunshot echoes first. I am nudged back into a flicker. The only thing I know is that Gracia fired the gun, and the next thing I know, Damian's faint cry echoes in my ears as he leans back to steady himself. His gun drops to the floor, his left arm traveling to the right shoulder, where the bullet hit him. Another gunshot!

Two bullets! Actually, three, including the will that he had prior to this.

I wrap my arms around him to support him, tears running down my cheeks, making everything so vague.

"Mom! Please, stop this! That is enough, I beg you!" Nelly screams so close behind me.

I snap at Gracia, the gun well positioned in her hand. finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. Ready to finish her mission. That is what I cannot let her do; winning this is my own victory. I fling my hand to my back and pull out my weapon.

No more bloodshed by the innocent!

"May you all have a blast in hell! Aaaahh!"

I beat her to it. I fired first and hit her shoulder with my first bullet. And another one on her left knee. A third one is her left knee as she succumbs to the ground, unconscious. I suppose she can't stand the pain anymore.

Silence echoes in the room as her own blood spills on her, but I don't take much time dwelling on what happens to her. I struggle to turn Damian toward me. He is growing too weak and losing so much blood.

"Love, look at me!" His eyes are giving up, and worry is weakening me. I can no longer support him.

Slowly, I helped him to the floor and let him lie on his back.

"Damian?! Don't you dare close your eyes on me, Damian! Love? Dam..." There is no point in yelling anymore.

My Damian isn't listening to me today. Not even my tears are effective on him. He closes his eyes on me. My friends manage to reach me at last, and they kneel beside me, where my Damian lies half dead in front of me.

"Ellie?" I drag my eyes to the voice of Detective Drew as he saunters inside with his battalion of soldiers behind him.

Why did they take so long?!

"Shit! Is he okay?" He curses the moment his eyes lay on Damian on the floor.

"Does he look okay?" I snap, faintly, with labored words.

"I'm sorry, Ellie. Men? Please take him directly to the hospital!" He orders.

"Yes, sir!" His army responds as they march towards us.

I jerk myself up, and I let them take him.

"Easy! Be careful with him." I say this as they lift him up.

"She is also alive, sir!" Another detective says from where Gracia lies.

Yeah, I feel like she has nine lives. Three bullets are nothing that she cannot survive or lose to that quickly. "Take her too!" Drew says.

"They need to be taken to the hospital too," I say, referring to my friends.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Almeda. We will take care of them." Drew responds and orders his men to help the three girls out.

"I will be right with you guys. Everything will be fine." I say this to the girls, and they faintly nod their heads.

"What do you plan to do with the place?" Nelly asks before they walk out.

"Do you have any interest in it?" I ask.

"Not at all. I have no relation to it, nor does its owner. Do whatever you want, Ellie!" She says that tears are flowing freely.

Poor soul! This must be one hell of a night for her!

I nod my head, and they walk out, leaving me, Drew, and a few officers in here, to this place that screams nothing but fear—but the fear that has just come to an end.

"Is that witch's confession enough to send her to prison?" I asked Drew.

"She doesn't even stand a chance of getting out in her entire life." He responds. "We will take all the evidence we can get here. And this place, what do we do with it? I'm afraid that it will bring you nothing but bad memories." Drew says this, darting his eyes around the bloody floor.

"Blow it up and make sure it burns into ashes when you are done collecting the evidence. I want nothing left of it." I state.

"As you say, Mrs. Almeda," Drew says.

"I will leave that to you. I will go to the hospital now." I respond.

"My men will drive you there. Make sure that gets checked too." He says this, pointing at my nose.

"This is nothing, Drew, but thanks anyway. See you, sir!" I say this and start outside, with a couple of police officers behind me.

As I stand outside this building, the bliss of peace and freedom is what I am breathing, and it's soothing every bit of me.

To my parents, I hope their souls can now rest in peace. I have avenged their deaths, along with those of everyone that Gracia has ever hurt. But I still have to see her behind those bars to be content.