WALKING DEAD: Damian's Revenge

"Damian, you should know that we do not fight violence with violence" "Whoever said that was a coward mother, I am a man, I'm not a goddamn coward" "This is not how I raised you, your father would not want you to go down this path" "My father, the man you claim you loved so much is dead, if ever you loved him, then you will join me to avenge him but-" "Shut up" Mrs. Campbell landed a slap on the cheek of her beloved son, hoping to cast out whatever demon that was speaking through him.

Damian just stood there, even though it was dark, his pupils could be seen glowing "I'm sorry I said that" he apologized "I was just pissed off" he picked up his black leather jackets off the couch, bit hard on his lower teeth and "Those who killed my father must pay for their crime" he added "Damian! Please, no, you don't have to do this" his mother sobbed, she grabbed the traveling bag he was holding and held it with a firm grip on it was with no intention of letting go, "If I kill them now I will be imprisoned, but when I become the law, I won't have to answer for any bullet that goes missing in my barrel" he pulled her into a forced hug and kissed her forehead, the struggle for his travelling bag finally came to an end with him emerging victorious. He walked out into the cold and eventually disappeared into the dark walking as fast as he could to escape his mother's sight, "at least that might keep her from crying or worrying too much" he thought, but Sarah just kept on crying and screaming his name till he could be seen no more. How far must we go to prove to someone that we truly love them? Should we do everything we can to show how much we appreciate them even if it means sacrificing our dreams and our whole life to please them while they're dead?

On the first week of January 2010, while people were recovering from the crazy fun they had on Christmas and others were still writing down their resolutions, Damian's first resolution 'Join The Police Academy' was in motion. If you had gotten the chance to ask him what he would want to become in future, a million times would you hear him whisper in all his innocent "I'll be a doctor" and if you asked him why, he would say "I'll save a lot of lives and maybe yours too." He usually ended with that joke, but that was all what a four-year-old him would say. They say that people forget a lot of things that happen in their childhood as they grow up, some say that you usually remember the things that happened around age seven or eight and that if you're fortunate enough, maybe a thing or two that happened around age eight. But this is not Damian's case. You see, at age five everything in this life took a turn around. At age five he shut himself from the outside world, he started studying harder than he ever did, he read everything he set eyes on in articles, story books, poetry books and everything that included numbers or alphabets. By now you might be wishing you or your child were like him, who wouldn't want to show up and give a speech that will make adults bite their nails just because they cannot digest how a seven-year-old could be this open-minded and brilliant. At age seven he had so many prizes than he could count, awards for winning the bees consecutively, awards for being the best students over and over and over again, it was as if he got awards for everything he partook in. He wasn't just brilliant academically, but in the field of athletics too he was nicknamed 'Genius the Demigod' due to how good he was. All these however, were not what he wanted the most, these were just the smallest part of a greater plan.

People who knew his father and his father's achievements always looked at Damian and concluded that, he was just like his father. That is where age five sets in, because everyone is wrong, anyone who ever said he was like his father was, is and will forever be wrong. Up until a week before his sixth birthday, his father was his best friend, his mentor, and he would still choose the same man to be his mother if it were possible because his father was everything to him, until someone took his everything away from him, making him the only thing that you would kill for. During that week, his parents were secretly planning a birthday surprise, they had bought a ticket to go see the Eagles of the Mountainpeak collide with the Roaring Tigers. The Eagles of the mountain peak were Damian's favorite basketball team and in order to give him a funny heartbreak ahead of his birthday, they told him he couldn't go see them play. On the night of his father's death, Damian and his father were playing hide-and-seek, a game in which one of them goes to hide, and the other has to find him. His mother was in the hall trying to sew a coat of different colors just like the one Joseph had as a gift from his father in a story she read from the Bible and told to Damian many times. She could have gotten a seamstress to do it for her son, but doing it by herself, to her was a way of showing her son how much she loved him. At one point she called out to Damian and asked him to go shower and get ready for bed because it was approaching his bedtime, the lad hopped on the couch next to his mother and replied saying, "Come on Ma, what's wrong with stinking like a fish for a little while" his father joined him in laughter and showed his support by adding, "You heard the man, let's have just one fish night in honor of the birthday boy shall we?" Sarah picked up a pillow next to her and threw it at her husband who intentionally allowed it to hit him in the face, then he fell on the couch and pretended to be crying, Sarah then looked at Damian and said with a silly smile on her face "Now that my boy, is how David knocked out Goliath, with a fluffy pillow" mimicking with her hands, a basketball player delivering an accurate shot into a net. At this point it looked as if the laughter party was never going to end until they heard the sound of a gunshot, then immediately room went quiet. At first the man of the house thought that the gate man had slammed the metal gate again, for he had a habit of doing that. Usually when that happened, Mr. Campbell would shout and say, "Go to sleep already Benny, you're torturing the neighborhood", the latter would reply to that with "Aight Boss, I'ma go rest ma head". It was awkward that night, silence was the reply he gave, raising questions as to what that sound was. "Benny?" Mr. Campbell clamored. Another sound similar to that of a gunshot was heard again, this time the family began to hear footsteps approaching, Mr. Campbell whispered to his wife and child, asking them to go inside until he told them it was safe. Behind the flat screen television on the wall, there was an emergency call button which when pressed, within a fifteen minutes minimum, cops will be all over the house, but fifteen minutes was what they did not have that night. As the sound of the approaching steps slowly faded at a point perhaps because it came to a halt, a shadow formed of a man on the floor. For about a split-second everywhere was a cemetery, then there was a knock at the door which sent the heart's of the Campbell's pounding. Initially, Mr Campbell had told his wife and child to find a place to hide, but Sarah could not leave her husband behind, and Damian was still not fully aware of what was going on, he thought his father was still playing the hide-and-seek game, so he ran towards a couch and hid himself. "Sarah!" Mr Campbell whispered but with a frown on his face, "take the boy and get out of here now!". "Ouch, that hurts" an intruder's voice was heard, as a masked man holding a briefcase and a gun came in through the door "Am I no longer family?" the person continued "You a vermin" Mr Campbell accused, "I thought I told you to stay away from me and my family" even with his face covered, Mr. Campbell could tell that it was Jimmy, a close friend of his. Jimmy had entered the room alone, leaving two men surveying the place. As they entered to deliver their report that the Campbell's were alone at home, they noticed Mr. Campbell holding their Boss by the neck, one pointed his gun to the back of his head and ordered him to let go. He raised both hands to show his surrender but had different plans in mind. He quickly ducked around, twisted the gun to the right which caused it to fire in the process, injuring the other colleague of the gunman. Campbell, still on the attack used his right hand to stop the gunman wrist, and with his left he bent his wrist, grabbed the gun and pushed it down. By the time his act of heroism was over, he noticed two guns on the floor, but the third was in the hands of his would-be murderer with the muzzle to Damian's temple. " Please stop, keep the kid out of this" the Campbell family's hero surrendered, he and his wife both got down on their knees in obedience to Jimmy's instructions. The other two picked up their guns and stood one on each side of the couple, but Damian was asked to open the briefcase. There in the briefcase was a syringe prepared exclusively for Mr Campbell for being stubborn and not agreeing to an offer made by his longtime friend to join the selling of a liquid ecstasy and other drugs capable of turning that two into billionaires. Jimmy, the man in charge took the syringe out of its encasement and asked Damian to look into his father's eyes as his father was injected with all the contents of the syringe. Damian asked what would happen to his father after the injection but was informed that from that moment on, his father was going to be transformed into a real man, but eventually he was going to fly to the heavens and join the stars where he could protect Damian much better than he does in Earth. Knowing very well that people who become stars are never seen again in the flesh, Damian opposed the speech by saying "I don't want him up there, please leave him alone with me and my mother, we're happy here, don't take him away" Jimmy got fed up and held Damian by the ear "Enough with the childish nonsense" he said "your father thinks he is better than me, that he is so innocent, that he is a damn Saint; well let me tell you something Saint Campbell, do you know what happens to innocent people? Ask Jesus, darn it!" He launched a slap on the cheek of the already feeling dizzy Jonathan Campbell, causing him to fall back, but the two men held him in position for his death "You'll go to prison for this" Sarah threatened, "Since you believe in justice so much" Jimmy replied furiously as he squeezed Sarah's jaw and hit her temple with the hammer of his gun "Why not live long enough to tell your son that justice can be bought" Jimmy continued "You see, people like us, rich, famous, powerful, we own this town, we own the police, they work for me, don't waste your breath, you won't even have a cent after the investigation, and you know why? I'll tell you, your husband, after autopsy will be pronounced as a drug addict, and all his properties will be taken from him because I have built three rolling meth labs in his name which I have informed the police about, so immediately he tests positive for drugs, the government will become the new owner of his properties, so go ahead call them, I will be waiting". He then shifted his attention as well as his gun towards Jonathan, and asked the two men to let go of him. "Now" he said "look your son in the eye and tell him that everything will be alright cos he is terrified I can tell". Campbell refused to say anything at first, but his stubbornness irritated Jimmy, he slapped him in the face and screamed saying "Tell him Saint Campbell." Jonathan lifted up his eyes at Damian with no sign of fear or regret in them and called him "Hey champ" "Hey Paps" the little boy responded, "everything is going to be fine" his father said "take care of your mother and listen to every word she says, be strong Damian, and be good, don't be like hi-" since it was obvious what he was going to say, two shots were fired to his chest, poking two holes from which streams of blood began to flow. Damian together with his mother screamed out loud with beating hearts, he held the man's rest and began punching and kicking him in all directions as hard as he could, but what could that do to a man who was a thousand times his size? However, as the man picked him up and was about to dump him somewhere on a couch, he saw a tattoo of a tarantula on the back of his hand which right after the incident he locked himself out to draw. After minutes of wailing over her husband's body, the policemen arrived to see what they could do to help the already dead Jonathan, but "You good-for-nothing" was the angry greetings they heard from an angry wife covered with the blood of her husband, seated on the floor with his head on her laps. They had to drag her away from the body with force before they could take it away to analyze it. As much as she believed in justice, the words "I run this town" kept echoing in her mind like a nightmare, there were cops alright, but who is the good cop, and who is the bad cop? "They all wear uniforms" she answered with watery eyes on one occasion when Damian asked her why they were not getting justice for his father's death. Damian locked himself up from school for one week, and only got out a few times when he heard his mother crying. He would hug her and whisper "Daddy said to take care of you, don't cry Baby Bird, the sun will come out and present justice." With a quivering voice, she would reply to him holding his hands to his her chest while seated outside his room "Thank you, Lil Sparrow". It's funny how things can change impromptu, and situations can force a child to become the pillar of the family instead of having his parents chase after him for being naughty and living the childhood dream like mummy or Daddy teaching him how to ride a bike or holding a birthday party with friends coming over to his house or even having to walk around the park, he did that a few times but not birthdays, for he was afraid that his mother would be taken away from him as well. No child must be made to live this nightmare, but Damian for years, he was not just any child, oh no, he was the little boy under-estimated by his father's murderer, the little boy who planning his future carefully and was going to avenge each tear his mother ever shed, the little boy who had killed his father's murderer a billion times in his imagination and thought of this man as a walking dead man who was in need of a Damian's touch to lay him to rest in a casket, and as far as Damian Campbell was concerned, this man was going to get it at all cost.

After three minutes of admiring everything around him, especially the boldly written name "Guttenberg Police Academy," which he kept repeating to himself over and over just because it was a dream come true, a young man about his age wearing a white round-necked short-sleeved T-shirt, whose impenetrable countenance gave little chance to tell whether he was being friendly or mean, came up to Damian and picked up one of his bags, then without explanation he turned around and started walking away.

"Uhm, excuse me," Damian called out to him as he reached to touch the young man's shoulder with a funny smile on his face. "I think that belongs to me." "Yes, it does," the young man replied with a frown on his face, "but I wouldn't have to be here if you weren't spinning around like a headless chicken." "Yo, what's your problem, mate?" Damian uttered with closed teeth, indicating how angry he was: "First you come out of nowhere and pick up my bag, and now you think you can insult me?" "Who the hell do you think you are?" The young man corked to the left, then a weird grin formed around his lips as he took a step forward and looked deeply into Damian's eyes. "Listen to me, pipsqueak," he insulted, "I was asked to come help you carry your stuff, oh wait, I mean to fetch you and show you which way leads to the dormitory, but let's get one thing straight here, if you mistake me for a babysitter, you will choke on your own blood. Got it? "Now follow me." He turned around and started to walk ahead of Damian. As much as he wanted to plant his fist on the mouth of this annoying creature who thinks himself tough and bossy, Damian gave it a second thought, then said, "It's not worth it," as he tapped the young man's shoulder again. "I don't have to waste my time on an empty barrel like yourself on my first day; do you think you scare me?" Your dressing sells you out; you are new here, a freshman just like me, so don't think for even a second that I will tolerate you talking to me anyhow, understood? "Take the lead; I'm following you."

As the two went on arguing to prove which of them was tougher, they failed to recognize their commanding officer, a dark-skinned gypsy with well-developed abs and muscles that could easily be noticed due to the black compression skinny gym fitness t-shirts he was wearing. "What are you ladies chattering about?" he asked in a deep voice. "I'm sorry, sir," Damian apologized jokingly, "but I have masculine features too, I mean, I'm a man too." "What are you trying to imply?" that I am blind?" The instructor replied, and the young man who stood next to Damian squeezed his hand with an intention to send a "shut up" message to his brain. He was certain that if Damian had a clue to whom he was speaking, he would calculate his words. Being open-minded, Damian read the signal correctly and nodded a "no" to his superior. "That's what I thought, another coward," the instructor judged. Turning towards Damian's companion, he said, "I asked you to go fetch him and gave you one minute." Do you know how many minutes you spent Three! For your punishment, both of you must jog till..." He paused, stared at his wristwatch, which read forty minutes past six, then he continued, "Until the clock says it's nine hundred, starting five minutes from now, get lost!" The command to "get lost" was uttered with all gripped teeth and a squeezed face, demanding their quick departure. The young man next to Damian dropped the bag he was holding, stood in an attentive position, and then saluted reverently, shouting "Sir, yes, Sir." Utterly confused as to what he should do, Damian imitated the young man by making his face look as serious as it could be. "I'm beginning to like you, son," the instructor said to him. "I admire your courage, but learn this: know when to shut up, do as you're told, and remember, the most important rule here is to obey before complaining. But if you can't, your bags are here, the bus station is just a km away, go home and live a peaceful life, or else, do what you're told, understood?" "Sir, yes, sir." Damian responded without a blink or even a smile to show friendliness, but with a hardened countenance, and the instructor excused the two gentlemen. "So lemme guess," Damian started again, after they had gained a considerable distance from the instructor, "he is the instructor, right?" The young man said no words but nodded his "yes." His reaction should have been enough to tell Damian that he was not interested in talking after what just happened, but Damian knew not when to stop asking, "Is he always this tough?" He went on to ask, "Look, if you don't know how to shut up, I'm going to teach you by disassembling in your teeth. You just got here, and look what you have done. Your first thing to do is to get me in trouble. How dare you?" Yo, chillax, bro, what's with this attitude? "I didn't do it on purpose; I didn't know he was the instructor." "Yeah right! You didn't, but your big mouth couldn't wait to express itself, could it? If you had learned to shut up, you would not have gotten us into trouble. What do you even think we do here? Joke? Gallivant?" The young man replied, really irritated this time. "Okay, dude, you don't get to talk to me anyhow, okay?" I told you I was sorry; I didn't know he was the instructor; why do you have to be so tough? "Oh let me guess, you are imitating the instructor, aren't you?" Damian teased, "He's the only tough guy around here, ain't he?" "Shut up!" The fuming young man replied, "You don't know me." "I don't have to know you." Damian countered quickly, as if he were enjoying the torture he was putting this guy through, "You're a copycat." You know what? I feel you were created to upset me, but that ain't going to happen, but... you listen to me, punk; after this, and I mean my words, if you ever cross my path again, I won't be held accountable for whatever happens to your teeth and your face, got it? Now shut up and keep following." With that, the pissed off young man ignored Damian's presence, and the rest of the journey was walked with no more arguments, even though Damian wasn't quiet and kept mocking how overly tough this "mate" thought himself to be. The dormitory was a really huge building painted brown; the bunk beds, made of cheap stripped pine with their rough canvas mattresses, were jammed end-to-end on both sides of the long, drafty room. Without the beds, it would seem quite cavernous; perhaps, with its stone floor and polished ceiling, it might even seem quite grand, but like this, it was reminiscent of the economy section of some clapped-out train carriage. At the end of the central aisle, the lights shone dimly through the grimy window onto the gray bedding and the gray dusty floor. As if he were programmed to talk anytime he saw something "Wow, this place is huge." Damian remarked after seconds of surveying the place he was going to spend the next six months, "How do you even recognize your own bed?" "Quick, the five minutes are almost up. Let's run to the field before he notices we're not there, or else trust me, we're good as dead." saying that to buy himself some quiet, the young man involuntarily placed Damian's bag on the bunk bed next to the one he slept on. Damian did as he saw, and the two raced out to the field together to commence the jog.

As the sun registered itself up in the southeastern part of the sky, and he noticed his colleagues assembling themselves before the instructor, Damian's companion dizzily came to a stop. Because he was exhausted, the young man tripped, hitting his head hard on the floor. Damian grew very scared; it wasn't the first time he had seen that happen to someone during a run like this. He remembered a colleague named Daniel from back in school who, on one occasion, fell and fainted; all the students thought he was dead because he turned motionless even after sprinkling so much water on him, an idea someone in the crowd came up with. They were later informed by the infirmary that the boy didn't have much water in his system. Anyways, Damian, though tired and overly panting, hastily attended to his aide and picked him up. "Help!" he screamed to his fellow comrades, "he's dying." Not even a giggle or a look of concern escaped a single soul's face; anybody aside from the instructor was allowed to fidget; the latter would punish anyone who fidgets. "I remember saying 9:00; it's fifty seconds past the time, son; if you can't follow orders around here, remember what I told you earlier; go get your things and get outta here," the instructor barked at Damian. Damian stood still and saluted, even in his shivering state. "I'm sorry, sir," he apologized. "Get your ass over here," the instructor replied, and shifted his attention back to the recruits. Damian picked up the young man, wrapped his arm around his neck, and gently but carefully walked towards the instructor and joined the recruits.

As he laid him down at the instructor's feet, Damian lifted up his eyes and asked, "How can we help him, sir?" The instructor looked at him, surprised, and asked, "Do you even care about the reason why you came here?" He asked him, "Yes, sir," to which Damian responded, "but as a future officer going to serve my town and country, I believe I am to be concerned about my fellow officer, sir." For the first time ever, Damian noticed a smile forming around the corners of the instructor's lips. "Did you hear him?" The instructor asked his audience, "He just got here, and he is pronouncing himself "future officer." I would say he didn't deserve it the first time I saw a young man, but this-" The instructor pointed to Damian's companion lying on the floor, saying, "This is what it takes to be called a policeman; you should learn to sacrifice yourself for the citizens of this country no matter what." "The stripes don't mean anything if you can't sacrifice. Welcome to the Academy, son." He saluted Damian, and Damian did the same to show his appreciation. "We're done here for the morning," the instructor informed the assembled trainees. Looking back at Damian, he said, "He's not going to heal himself down there. Take him inside and give him some water and breakfast to feed his lazy bones." "You're all dismissed."

As the unconscious person slowly regained consciousness, he felt a sense of confusion and disorientation. He had no idea how he had ended up in a hospital bed, or why Damian was sitting next to him, looking worried. At first, the two men were hostile towards each other, with the patient glaring at Damian, his enemy and refusing to speak to him.

Damian who had been pacing back and forth in the room, hoping and praying that the patient would at least move a finger or deliver a blink so that his conscience would stop judging him for dragging the young man into this predicament, was surprised that when the motion he was anticipating finally came, it was followed by an argument. The young man was pissed off at Damian for being the cause of him missing his first training in the Academy, and spending valuable amount of time sleeping on a hospital bed. Damian apologized to him and took the blame for his actions, then he placed the bowl of rice which was served for breakfast next to him and said "Here, uhm... The nurse's advice was that you should eat when you wake up, she said it'll help you regain your strength. She also said that you should drink enough water every morning before training starts, "if he doesn't want to end up like this again'" "So what? Are you my nanny now?" The young man fumed "You can go out, I'm okay." "I'm really sorry, but I can't do that, the instructor's orders were that I stay with you and make sure you and I get along 'if' we really want to be under his mentorship" Damian explained.

"Wow, just when I was planning to give you credits for being here you reveal that you were forced to be here, fine, you can stand over there or sit, I care less what you do. For both our sake, let's pretend we're cool even though we're not, so that we don't get suspended, cos I won't be happy to go home before the six months is up, aughh, not to talk of the look on my Dad's face, he'd probably bury me alive" the young man said, as he scooped some rice into his mouth. "Ooh-" Damian wailed a concern, "you didn't want to be a police?" He asked, as he came closer and sat on a chair next to him, "Not really, I just wanted to work side by side with my Dad and get the respect he gets, but he said that this is the only way I can support his business in the long term." The young man explained, spooning another rice into his mouth, trying to eat as quickly as he could and return to the dormitory, it was then that Damian noticed the tattoo on the back of his left hand, a tattoo of a spider's web, but before he could ask about it, "what's your story" the young man asked, his question sent Damian sailing into deep thoughts, he began to reminisce the sound of the gunshots that took his father away from him and the tears both he and his mother shed over his death, Damian didn't notice how teary his eyes had become, he was so sucked into thoughts that the voice of his companion asking if he was okay could not wake him until the young man pricked his shoulder. "Uhm... Sorry" he apologized, "what was the question again?" The young man gave a corky laugh that almost caused him to choke, then he said "I heard men do not shed tears, what happened to you? I was only asking why you chose to be a Policeman dude" "Why I chose to be a Policeman" Damian muttered to himself, then finally he looked up to answer the question, "I'm just some guy on a quest" he said "on a quest to arrest and probably kill any burglar or robber who steals from helpless people. You know.... I lost my parents at an early age. One night on our way back from church some robbers attacked us and shot them both to the ground in front of me, I was forced to watch as both of them gulped in air, struggling to survive. I was fortunate though, they asked me to go free, and do you know what they said? They said that there was no justice, that nothing can happen to them because they were or worked for powerful people, I just want to show them that nobody is above the law, even if they are dead, or they are alive in the actions of robbers and murderers that run our streets and neighborhoods today, I will prove them wrong."

As touching as those lies were, the intensity with which Damian released each word caused the hairs of his companion to stand erect "Wow, I'd be really scared if I were them" the young man commented "I'm deeply sorry for your loss man" he stretched out his hand towards Damian for a handshake, Damian shook his hand with his eyes fixed on the spider web tattoo "thanks mate, I appreciate it" he responded, still not taking his eyes off the tattoo until the guy asked if he wanted to get one. Damian shook his head and responded with "Naa, my foster Mom will kill me if I got one".

The young man who perceived Damian as an arrogant person per his actions when they met in the morning, began to change his perception about him. He was moved by his story and began to empathize with him. He realized that he had been wrong to hate him and that Damian had been through a lot. As the days passed, the two men began to bond over training sessions at the Academy and spent most of their free times together. They talked about their injuries, their fears, and their hopes for the future. They also shared stories from their past and laughed together, despite their differences, but Damian was really calculative of the words that escaped his lips. He found out that the name of his new frenemy was Jalen Brazel, son of the great Jimmy Brazel, his father's murderer. He then began to plan how to get to him and bring his mission to an end. Life in the police academy was a rigorous and demanding experience, as the two young men, Damian and Jalen, quickly discovered. The early mornings began at 5 a.m, with a loud and piercing wake-up call that echoed throughout the dormitory. The two friends groggily got dressed in their crisp, navy blue uniforms and made their way to the mess hall for a quick breakfast before their first training session of the day. Yes, their "training before meal" policy changed, this was because after Jalen fainted that day, other incidents of people fainting were recorded, forcing the instructor to amend his undocumented constitution.

Physical training was intense, pushing the limits of their endurance and strength. Damian and Jalen pushed each other to keep going, often finding themselves competing to see who could run the fastest or lift the most weight. Despite the grueling nature of the training, both men thrived on the challenge and were determined to become the best officers they could be. In addition to physical training, the academy also focused on developing the mental and emotional fortitude needed for the job. Classes on de-escalation techniques, crisis management, and the legal aspects of policing were just a few of the subjects the two friends studied.

As the weeks passed, the two men grew closer, forming a strong bond of friendship and mutual respect. They were always there to support each other, whether it was during a particularly difficult training exercise or a late-night study session. Despite the challenges, both Damian and Jalen graduated from the academy with flying colors and were ready to take on the real world as fully-fledged officers. Their time in the academy taught them discipline, perseverance, and the importance of camaraderie in the face of adversity. When Damian informed his mother that he was about to graduate, behind the phone she sobbed, pleading that her son would quit the journey ahead and return home, Damian apologized and requested for his mother to rent a place in Kamloon for him to stay and also told her not come for the graduation. "Aren't you coming home baby?" "No Ma, I have some stuff to take care of, this is an undercover mission" Damian explained, "So soon? I'm not a cop and haven't been one before but Damian I'm pretty sure this is not how it works. What're you not telling? Didn't you miss home? What about me? You've been gone for too long Damian" his mother asked in her state of perplexity. "Mom!" He called, "Yes Damian, speak to me, are you okay?" She replied anxiously, she had noticed a sudden drop in his tone, "I know you will disagree with me if I explain my reason to you, so I'm going to try not to, but I have some good news, we will finally get justice for Dad's death and -" "Justice from the law or by you?" "Mom..." "Answer me Damian, I have the right to know cos you're my son. Damian, you know you are the most important person in this life to me, without you, I have nothing to live for, I held on all these years because of you, I invested everything good that I had to offer in you, and if there's one thing you failed to learn from me, I believe, it's forgiveness, but son, like the scripture says, "I have laid before you good and evil" and now the choice is yours, you're man enough now Damian, I believe you can decide whom you want to become. I'll get you a place at Kamloon, and I'll try to stay away from you at the graduation, but you cannot stop me from coming. Take care Damian, congratulations."