He even took me to the hospital to visit my dad. He would talk to him, sit beside his bed, and try so hard to please him. I still remembered how awkward he looked sometimes, like he didn’t know what to say but still tried anyway.
“Sir, I’ll take care of Dahlia,” he said once, almost seriously. “You don’t have to worry about her.”
Back then, I believed him.
I really thought… we had a future.
He gave me so many firsts. First time feeling wanted, first time feeling like maybe I wasn’t alone. I held onto those moments like they were real.
Then suddenly—
Cold water poured over my head.
I gasped, my whole body jerking as freezing liquid soaked through my clothes, biting straight into my skin. The cold hurt so much it almost felt like knives.
My eyes snapped open.
The dream shattered.
Reality came back all at once.
Argus was sitting in front of me, high above like he was looking down at something worthless. His eyes were cold, completely detached.
“You should be grateful,” he said, his tone flat. “Grandpa made it through. If something happened to him, you wouldn’t even be alive right now. You would’ve died on that operating table.”
My body stiffened.
Before I could even process that, he continued, “Until he wakes up, you’re staying here. Reflect on what you’ve done. And be ready anytime if he needs more blood.”
Reflect?
My mind went blank.
Then it hit me where I was.
This place…
My skin broke out in goosebumps.
I knew this room.
It was where Argus dealt with people who crossed him. I had heard things, whispers, rumors. People didn’t come out the same… if they came out at all.
There were no windows. No light. The air felt thick, heavy, like it was soaked with something I didn’t want to name.
Blood.
I remembered once, I laughed and asked him, “What if one day we end up as enemies? Would you throw me in there too?”
He looked at me back then, serious for once. “No. That’ll never happen. We won’t become enemies.”
I almost laughed now.
Look at me.
Standing right in the middle of his hell.
All because of a lie that didn’t even try to hide its cracks.
Something inside my chest twisted slowly, painfully.
“I didn’t push Grandpa,” I said, forcing the words out one by one. “I didn’t do it. I’m not lying. I didn’t do anything wrong, so I’m not staying here to reflect on something I didn’t do.”
I tried to stand.
My body didn’t listen.