For Me,There Is Only You |18+|

ANSEL III

There were mornings I woke up and wished I hadn't.

Not because of pain. Not because of fear. Just... a heavy, numbing emptiness.

My body moved. My voice worked. I could eat, breathe, walk, and fight.

But none of it ever felt like me. It wasn't living. It was enduring.

There was no hope. Nothing I longed for or looked forward to.

Just a quiet, persistent question that never stopped echoing in my mind... Why am I still here?

I asked it every day.

And every day, the silence answered back.

But this time...

This time, I think I finally found my answer.

My reason.

I woke with a dull, throbbing ache pulsing behind my eyes. My mouth felt like sandpaper. My body was heavy, but I forced myself to blink, squinting at the blurry shapes around me.

Steel-grey walls. A single bed. A plain cupboard, a table, and a chair missing from the corner.

I was at the base. In the room I always used when I stayed here.

Small. Claustrophobic. And right now, crowded.

Genesis was sitting closest, perched on the chair by my bedside.

Ezra and Phoebe stood at the far end, leaning against the cupboard in hushed silence.

Karson and Noel hovered beside my bed, arms crossed and eyebrows drawn into a deep scowl.

"Ansel!" Genesis gasped the second my eyes fluttered open. She lurched forward, relief rushing through her voice.

I groaned, my head splitting as I tried to sit up, but she held me steady by the shoulder.

"Don't rush it," she said softly.

The door creaked open.

"Is he not—?" Kyler's voice cut off mid-sentence when he saw me awake.

In two strides, he was at my side, Nathan followed behind him, quiet but watchful.

"What the hell happened last night, man?" Kyler asked as he handed me a glass of water, his tone tight with concern. "You scared the crap out of us."

I downed the whole glass in one go.

Last night.

Yesterday.

The words triggered something in me. A rush of disjointed images flickered in my mind.

Ashley... the car... her scent... that house.... the rain...

And then...

Those amber-brown eyes.

That soft voice.

A sudden ache bloomed in my chest, deep and sharp.

My hand flew to my head as pain lanced through it, memories pressing in too fast, too scattered.

Her.

Neev.

My mate.

My amina.

"I detected traces of nullithium in your system," Genesis said, watching me closely now. "Why did you take that, Ansel?"

Nullithium? I took it?