The words hung in the air, heavy and ominous. Blake's face drained of all color, his eyes wide with shock and dawning horror. Reggie and Randal exchanged alarmed glances, their hands instinctively moving to their waist and then their chin.
"What do you mean, he's not dead?" Randal asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "Blake killed him."
Rose shook her head slowly, wincing at the movement. "Did he?" she challenged. "Think about it. If Mimic was there, impersonating Reggie, who's to say what really happened?"
Blake's hands were shaking now, his mind racing to process this new information. "But I remember," he insisted, though his voice lacked conviction. "I remember killing him. I felt his body go limp beneath my hands."
"Did you?" Rose pressed gently. "Or is that what Mimic wanted you to believe?"
The implications of her words settled over the room like a heavy shroud. If Damien was alive, if he had somehow survived, it changed everything.
