Something was weird recently. Someone was scoping out the roof of The Eights. Causing a little bit of discomfort amongst the residents. I was first told about this guy from Sy, she let me know that he seemed to have been asking a lot of questions about our security procedures. That struck me as odd, who the fuck cares what are security procedures are unless you plan on getting around them?

Slade had just come in to the gates, and as per usual, he headed up to the roof. The men like it up there, pretty sure it has everything to do with wanting to fee useful, and probably a little but about getting away. I’ve been up there a few times, the air is just slightly different up there, and when the sun is setting, it’s like you almost forget what the fuck is happening around you. It’s like it takes a back seat, and for the moment it doesn’t even matter.

When he got up there he started yelling for me, I ran up.

Some dude, who would later identify himself as Damian from the ATC was sitting on my roof with a bag and wearing a mask.

No masks at The Eights. We need to know who’s coming in and who’s here. Slade asked him to take it off, he was rather defiant at first but he did eventually remove it. He proceded to tell us that he was on the roof checking the woods in the back, and when I asked him if he had been the person who was spotted on the roof a few days prior and asking questions about security, he never directly answered me. Eventually he found his way out of the gates, he had mentioned speaking to John and how John was making him feel very welcome and that he was considering working for us. But then I hear later that he was trying to get Nikki to work for the ATC and had also held a gun to her head when she tried to warn Declan about threats Damian had made towards him.

Something wasn’t right.

Delia, from the ATC had come to me a few days before asking if there was bad blood between the ATC and The Eights. There wasn’t any that I was aware of, and I told her as much. We’d never even had any dealings with the ATC really, so as far as I knew, there were no problems, and she thought the same. We had agreed to an open line of communication and would notify each other of anything weird.

Damian was weird.

I wanted to mention it to Delia the next time I saw her, only thankfully for me, she happened to show up the next time Damian was yet again in my courtyard. The hell did he want this time?

The conversation was escalating and quickly, even more so when Declan arrived and put two and two together and figured out that this guy was saying all kinds of shit about all kinds of people trying to pin business against business.

I knew his fate the minute Declan asked him to sing, it was the same line he had used on Brendan before shooting him.

I didn’t feel weird about this one, it wasn’t like Jordan, maybe it was because it was Declan who did it all, or maybe it was because I didn’t and don’t give a shit anymore.

Delia excused herself when she saw how this was going to go. We could have stopped Declan, but I didn’t want to.

He shot Damian with his crossbow, and down he went.

Bleeding out, we just watched him.

We debated for a while if we should save his life. Bring him to the hospital and risk that when he wakes up or heals from his wounds that he would just come back and get his revenge on all of us who were involved and anyone associated with us.

Call it paranoid thinking, but that shit happens now.

With my knife, Declan slit his throat. There was no more debate.

We decided to take the walker approach and simply burn Damian’s body. I stood there and watched the pool of blood get bigger and bigger until it touched the soles of my boots while Declan ran to get fuel he had found so we could set him on fire with the 6 matches I had left.

Declan soaked him in the fuel, and I lit the matches.

We stood back and watched him burn, we said next to nothing. Declan whispered something to me that I’ll never forget, but the whole situation was very surreal.

Had this become the life I was going to lead from now on?

We were snapped out of our daze when Ringo arrived and mentioned that Eva had been hurt, I had to check on her.

The only thing left of Damian now is whatever Declan took from his bag. He had done all the work, he took all the loot, I had no problem with that…

And his ashes are still around I’m sure, floating around the courtyard.

A distant memory of a person.