Bonds

Chapter 154

-Alex’s POV-

My eyes flickered open, slow and heavy. It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up with my body. Where was I? The place was dark, too dark. No windows, no doors, just endless darkness. I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot through my thigh. My hand went to the spot, and my fingers found something cold and hard. The knife. Delores had said it would hurt. She hadn’t lied.

I pulled the knife out. The pain was blinding, but I ignored it. I had to get up. I had to find him and the urgency was overwhelming. I stood up slowly, my legs shaky. The ground was cold and hard, like concrete.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I started to make out the shape of things. It looked like a vast, empty plain. There was nothing around me, just endless nothingness. It was cold, too, a bone–chilling kind of cold that seeped into my skin. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold in the heat.

I started walking, not knowing where I was going but driven by a need to keep moving. I walked for what felt like hours,my legs burning with every step. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear. Just the sound of my own footsteps echoing in the silence.

Then, a flicker of light appeared in the distance. It was small, like a tiny star in the vast emptiness. Hope ignited in my chest. I quickened my pace, my legs feeling lighter. As I got closer, the light grew brighter, revealing a scene from my past.

I was young, maybe five or six. I was laughing, running through a field of wildflowers. My mother was chasing me, her face a mask of pure joy. I could hear her laughter, high–pitched and carefree. The scene was perfect, a moment frozen in time.

བན་བང་བའི་འར་ཡཎ་༤་༢

STT PEARS

But then, the scene changed. I was still young, but the laughter was gone. My father was there, his face dark and angry. He was yelling at me, his voice like thunder. I felt small and scared. I turned away from the memory, unable to watch.

I continued walking, the scene fading behind me. More memories appeared, flickered, and disappeared. Happy ones with my mother, painful ones with my father. I tried to ignore them, to focus on finding what I was looking for.

But the memories were relentless. They kept coming, one after the other. Each one a piece of my past, a part of me that I had tried to bury. I felt overwhelmed, like I was drowning in a sea of emotions.

And then, I saw it. A storm was brewing in the distance, a dark, angry mass of clouds. It was different from the other memories. It felt…alive. It just couldn’t be cupcakes and rainbows. I took a deep breath and started walking towards it, my heart pounding in my chest. This was it. This was what I had been looking for.

The storm was closer now. The wind howled like a wounded animal, whipping around me. The ground trembled beneath my feet. I could see the storm now, a dark, swirling mass of clouds that seemed to be alive. I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance, a low, menacing growl.

faced danger before, but this was different. This was a confrontation with myself, with the darkest parts of my soul. I took a deep

my feet. The rain was freezing, stinging my skin like needles. The thunder roared, and lightning flashed, illuminating the darkness. I was alone,

saw him. My father. He stood in the middle of the storm, tall and imposing, his eyes burning with hatred.

growled, his voice like

dry. He took a step forward, and I stumbled backward. I could feel my heart pounding in my cars. I was trapped. There was nowhere to run.

toughen you up but in the end you remained that little boy that would forever cower at my voice. All you do is disappoint, cause pain and

a knife. They were true. I had betrayed Amaya, I had betrayed my children by not being there. I had been weak.

man,” he continued.

from my eyes, “You could have loved her but instead you tormented us. You made our lives miserable and then you took her from me. As if that wasn’t

of the rain increased, stinging my skin even more, “I hurt people, people I should have loved because you broke my ability to trust. I am not the coward

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10:21 AM

Chapter 154

eyes filled with rage. I raised the knife, ready to fight. The battle was brutal. We fought

he was still standing. I looked at him, my heart pounding. I could kill him now, end this nightmare once and for all.

one to the list.

feet started to dissolve. I

grab hold of something solid, but there was nothing. I was falling, but there

wolf, calling out, desperate to break free. I wanted to answer but something held me back, a thick, invisible wall blocking our connection. It felt like a lifetime of pain and regret had solidified into this

I was about to give up, the growling stopped. The world around me shifted, and there she was – my mother. She stood before

Her eyes, the same shade of blue as mine, held a depth of

away.

missed you, my darling boy,” she whispered, her voice

forward, wrapping my arms around her. It had been so long since I had felt her warmth, her scent. I held her tightly, as if afraid