The Devil's Good Girl-Chapter 295: Love you in the after life

"You... wanted me to kill you?"

The air felt still as Jackson felt his heart sink.

"No," he shook his head and tried to smile. "Fil, you know I can’t do that. I would never..."

Again, he trailed off when he saw that look on her face. This look didn’t bear the confusion he expected from her. Rather, this look was something Latrice usually carried when certain things happened that earned other people’s reactions except for her.

"I can’t, Fil," he whispered as he held her hand. "Don’t make me do it, please."

"I know you can’t," she smiled subtly and clasped his hand. "Especially after the times we bonded. I cannot ask you to do that anymore. It’s cruel."

Hearing this, Jackson felt a little at ease. However, there was this lingering fear in his heart. Before he could bring up anything, Fil spoke.

"Jack, it is not me who is stealing your senses. It’s Filomena."

Deep lines appeared between his brows. "Filomena? You mean...?"

"The real one." Another shallow breath slipped past her lips as she continued, "You told me you’ll tell me everything, but it seems I am the one who has to clear many things that I couldn’t tell you beforehand."

Fil snapped her eyes up, feeling the waves of calmness in her heart. It wasn’t like she changed and became the person from the past. However, she couldn’t deny that with Latrice’s memories and all the lives she had lived, this calmness was the only thing she could hold on to just to stay sane.

Hence, despite the internal shock and turmoil, she chose to quietly accept this burden she was born to carry.

"Jackson, I’ll tell you what happened that day."

Fil exhaled and kept her hand on him. She pursed her lips and offered him a smile before she started narrating everything that had happened the day Latrice managed to take control of her body against the treacherous Filomena.

*

There was a reason Latrice trusted Filomena to take control of their body; they were one and thus, she understood that Latrice’s heart was also Filomena’s. Her admiration for Jackson wasn’t just Latrice’s emotion, but also the Filomena’s.

However, what Latrice didn’t foresee was that Filomena disliked this affection.

Filomena wasn’t pleased that someone like her could bear such emotions and feelings toward someone. That someone was human at that. For her, Jackson was nothing but a nuisance, and his existence put Filomena in a plight.

Filomena knew that once she had laid her eyes on Jackson and felt what Latrice felt, it would be over for her. As a result, Filomena fooled around with Quentin and concocted the biggest ploy she could to ascertain she would remain in charge and that she had no weakness like Jackson.

She first put Quentin under her control, made him her servant, and slowly slithered into the royal court. She cursed the emperor and empress, putting them in a direful situation so Quentin could take charge of the entire empire.

He wanted the world, and she showed him she could give it to him.

A greedy person like Quentin easily fell for the devil’s temptation. Before he knew it, all he could think of was to please Filomena. He, using the "gift" she handed him, turned prisoners into mad vampires. The two of them experimented on the prisoners until Quentin was able to hone his gift and planned to create an army full of them.

From prisoners, Quentin slowly turned a few knights into vampires and then the officials. In no time, a huge percentage of people in the imperial palace were turned into hungry bloodsucking creatures.

At the peak of everything, Latrice was able to finally take charge of the body. But it was already too late. The damages Filomena had caused were far too huge to undo. Even Latrice, who was blessed by the gods, and was founded from Filomena’s very soul, couldn’t undo it. Even Filomena couldn’t do it unless she had full control of her body.

So Latrice had to do what she had to do.

To save the impending doom of humanity, she broke her own laws and... killed them. All of them. Everyone in the palace: the knights, the officials, several nobles, and the prisoners. Latrice ended their lives with her own hands and left no one alive.

It took at least an entire seven days for her to take down every single one of them, leaving the imperial palace with nothing but corpses and a pool of blood.

That was how Latrice left the imperial palace to the battlefield on the border.

"You... you did it?" Jackson breathed out in disbelief, reminded of the horrible sight when he visited the imperial palace days after he recovered.

At that time Jackson woke up, Dustin and Kim were already with him. They were the ones who took care of him. To clear up his confusion, he visited the border to see the situation. But what was left behind was nothing but the remnants of war.

The empire was also in chaos because every official, and even the royalties, were all dead. At the time of confusion, Alamo, a member of the vampire society, approached Jackson to join them. Since Jackson was no longer human and everyone already knew he died in that war, he decided to leave everything behind as Jackson Fitzroy and start anew.

"All this time, I thought Quentin..." he trailed off as he gazed up at her. "Does Alamo know about this?"

Fil shook her head. "He probably has his suspicions, but without proof, Alamo wouldn’t say anything. Wasn’t he like that?"

’He is.’ Jackson pressed his lips and gazed at her. "Now that is clear, Fil, what about you?"

"Jack, I told you this so you understand that to end Filomena, I have to... I have to go." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Jackson shook his head as he squeezed her hand. "No."

"Jack, you were prepared to kill Quentin when you know he is the reason I kept coming back. This time, let me go." Fil smiled subtly and her eyes softened. "This life was the best gift you’ve given me and I thank you for looking after me in all the lifetimes I lived and died."

It was a long journey, but it wasn’t all bad. At least, in this lifetime, it wasn’t as bad as she expected. It was now time to rest.

Thin layers of tears coated Jackson’s eyes as his face crinkled. Fil cupped his face and nodded at him reassuringly.

He wanted to say, "There must be other ways," or "If you die, I’ll die."

Letting her go, after all, also meant dying. That was his plan all along. Once she had grown old, once her skin turned wrinkly, and once her hair turned gray, he would carry her in his arms until the end. Once she took her last breath, Jackson planned to enter eternal rest.

"Quentin will keep targeting my family, friends, and everyone who made a significant change in my life to make Filomena out," she continued in the same gentle tone. "As long as I am alive, he will continue to live. I don’t want to keep living and dying and watching everyone I love suffer because of me."

He understood. It was why he couldn’t say anything.

"Those many lifetimes... you remembered all of them?" he clarified and she nodded.

"Every single one. Every single secret. Every single woe and every single death."

Jackson gently cupped her face and smiled bitterly. "Then I’ll stay with you until the end."

"I know." Fil nodded and held the hand that was holding her face. "Sorry, Jack. I was selfish, and I thought if I agreed to Quentin, I could eventually have you. I was a fool to think someone like him would be able to keep his word."

"It’s my fault." He sighed and smiled. "I should’ve fought for you. If I didn’t cower or if only I had the courage to fight for you, you wouldn’t have suffered in his hands. It is I, who was a fool."

Fil chuckled. "Then, shall we say we were both foolish?"

"We are." He nodded and chuckled.

The two of them stared at each other lovingly. Despite the odds and the impending doom that tomorrow might bring, they wanted to cherish this moment with nothing but love.

Jackson slowly joined her on the bed, letting her rest her head on his arm. They shared some quiet moments, listening to each other’s breath. Sometimes, they would talk about the present and the past. She would mention some people, who were familiar people from the past that lived in the present.

Jackson would then bring some memories that made an impression on him during her previous lifetime. His personal favorite was when she was in an asylum, not because she was silly or funny, but because despite being insane, that was the closest he got to her, aside from this current life.

Both of them shared the night just talking, cherishing the moment they were still alive because tomorrow might be their last. Who knows? But Jackson knew that if Fil did what she said she would, he would proceed to his plans and love her in the afterlife.