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.

fear that gripped my heart. I had faced danger before, but this was different. This was a confrontation with myself, with the darkest parts of my soul. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my

into the storm, the wind knocked me off my feet. The rain was freezing, stinging my skin like needles. The thunder roared, and lightning flashed, illuminating the darkness. I was alone, completely and utterly

middle of the storm, tall and imposing, his eyes

his voice like thunder.

took a step forward, and I stumbled backward. I could feel

forever cower

were true. I had betrayed Amaya, I had betrayed my children by not being there. I

not a man,” he continued. “You’re a coward.”

am not a coward. If anyone is the coward here, it is you. You were so blinded by your insecurities which fueled your need to be better than everyone else. You could have loved me,” I felt the first tear drop 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 enough, you molded me into this man that I hated every time I stared in the mirror. A man that had to build a wall around

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 father. You are and I am done. I am done letting what you did to me control me and I am done running.”

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10:21 AM

Chapter 154

the knife, ready to fight. The battle was brutal. We fought with the ferocity of wild animals. I was stronger than I thought, but my father was relentless. Every blow he landed sent pain

still standing. I looked at him, my heart pounding. I could kill him now,

another one to the list. I lowered the knife. My father

started to dissolve. I could hear voices, faint at first, but growing louder. Amaya’s laughter, the sound of

solid, but there was nothing. I was

to answer but something held me

stopped. The world around me shifted,

as I remembered her, her smile warm and inviting. Her eyes, the same shade of

away.

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

been so long since I had felt her warmth, her scent. I held her