Tiredly, A dark-skinned old man wearing a long, silver-grey robe banged against a closed door, “Damien you little devil, just because your mother taught you how to open closed doors doesn’t mean that you’re old enough to lock me out of them!”
It was late, near midnight, and Jerimiah wanted nothing more than to lay in his bed with Elizabeth. Unfortunately, she had locked the door to their room, refusing to let him in so long as Damien stayed awake. To be fair, at least half the trouble the boy got into was learned from his mother, and where she learned those bad habits… well that goes without saying.
“Boy! It’s far too late for this. Come to bed, your mother and father should be back by then, I’m sure they’ll have time to play with you tomorrow. Come now, if I have to open this door myself there will be trouble!”
Johnathan’s private study laid behind the locked door. It had been some time since Jerimiah had come in here. Especially after Mariah… appropriated the room from her father for her husband’s use.
Jerimiah did not receive a response. He had no idea why Damien was being so troublesome tonight. Other than the occasional prank, he was fairly well behaved. Jerimiah’s wife made sure of that. Tonight, however, he was incredibly restless, much to Jerimiah’s ire.
Eventually, Jerimiah had enough of waiting, opted to pick the lock and enter since his grandson was being uncooperative, yet when he opened the door, he was met with an empty, dimly lit room. He tried in vain to search for the boy for nearly an hour before sitting in the chair behind a lone desk near the fireplace.
“Alright, fine! What do you want, I’m tired boy! Is it candy? Presents?”
The old man could only lean back deeply in his chair, dejected and defeated. Once again he would be forced to submit to the boy’s whims. If the old man hadn’t, he’d probably be awake all night.
“Story… M-Mom and Dad promised to tell me a story tonight,” From above a high shelf, a small dark-skinned boy appeared.
He looked rather dashing with his neatly braided hair and set of silver-grey pajamas. Though, it was his radiant purple eyes that made Damien unmistakably himself. A trait he shared with his mother.
Jerimiah couldn’t help but smile a bit, his anger immediately disappearing. If there was one thing he enjoyed, it was having someone listen as he rambled on. “Why didn’t you say so before?! If it’s a story you want, then you’ve come to the right place! Come, let’s go to your room, I’ll tell it to you once you are in bed.”
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Jerimiah was quite happy. His mind was racing with the many different stories he could tell young Damien. Maybe the story of his first winning streak at the local gambling den, no he was much too young for that. Maybe the story of the first time he met Elizabeth, at least, the first time they met that didn’t lead to Elizabeth leaving him battered and bruised. Jerimiah was so consumed with his thoughts that he nearly didn’t see that Damien was not following along with him.
“What’s wrong, Damien? Are you too tired to wal-” Jerimiah stopped speaking once he saw Damien’s eyes swelling with tears.
“Mom and Dad promised to tell me a story.”
Jerimiah wanted to punch himself for taking so long to realize what’s wrong. The boy is only three and his parents are breaking their promise to him. Of course, he’d be upset.
The tears flowed freely down Damien’s face, but he hardly made a sound. Seeing this truly broke Jerimiah’s heart. “Right… your parents made you a promise they could not keep. Allow me to apologize on their behalf.”
Jerimiah knew what having absent parents was like, the void they could leave, but the work Damien’s parents did was important, so it was up to Grandpa to fill that void.
“I-It’s okay,” Damien whimpered. “Mom and Dad are just busy, maybe tomorrow they’ll be here. Who knows, maybe they’ll have an even better story by tomorrow.”
Jerimiah couldn’t take it anymore, such a precious child, he was glad that Damien was his grandson. Jerimiah rushed to Damien’s side and gave him a great hug.
“Such a good boy! You were promised a story so you’re going to get one.” He exclaimed, failing to notice the slight smirk that formed on Damien’s face.
“Did they promise to tell you a specific story, or would you rather have one of Grandpa Jerimiah’s originals?”
Damien made sure to wipe off the smile on his face before turning to his grandfather.
“N-not really, but there is one that I wanted to hear,” Damien said. “Sometimes I hear Mom and Dad… talking about it. New Dawn. I heard- they said that you’ve been in a place called that, but I’ve never heard of it."
Jerimiah was confused, Damien shouldn’t know about that yet. Why did his idiot stepson and daughter tell him about it?
“When did they… since you know the name, there shouldn’t be any harm in telling you a story about my time there. After that though you’re going to tell me the real reason you know that name.”
Damien couldn’t hide his smile anymore, much like in everything else, he couldn’t hide anything from his Grandpa for very long. “What gave it away, I was sure I was tricking you!”
Jerimiah picked up Damien in his arms while he laughed alongside his Grandson.
“You start to shake a bit when you hold in your laughter, and when you cry for real it’s much louder,” He explained. “You are still 100 years too young to try and fool me, so let’s get to bed. Don’t worry, you’ll still get your story.” Damien continued to giggle as Jerimiah walked off with him.