Chapter 146: Home
The nostalgia of being home fights against memories that haven’t faded yet.
In another life, the door I just opened led to two corpses. The image lives in this skull on its own schedule and shows up whenever the weather turns quiet.
Nobody comes to greet me when I push the door open, even though I’m clearly making noise.
I stand there for a second with my hand on the door, listening. The apartment smells the way it always smells—old coffee, the cheap detergent Mom uses, the faint mildew of a building that was old before I was born.
I push the fear down and call out for the first time.
"Mom... I’m home..."
Nothing. Silence.
A cold sweat starts under my collar.
I move down the entryway hall, into the living room.
Empty.
I rub both hands across my face, trying to scrub the wrong thoughts out of my head.
Calm down. The door wasn’t broken. The lock wasn’t forced. There’s no smell. None of the signs.
And then I hear it. Footsteps trying to be quiet. Right behind me.
I pretend I haven’t heard and I don’t know anything or I’m not paying attention.
Then arms wrap around me from behind in a warm hug.
Of course it was mom...
An assassin wouldn’t be that careless.
I turn into the embrace. Her hair smells like the cheap shampoo we’ve used for years and a faint trace of the kitchen. She’s smaller than I remember. Or this body is already bigger than the one I came back in.
I look down into the green eyes I inherited from her.
"Why didn’t you answer me?"
She lifts her index finger to her lips and points toward the kitchen, pulling me by the hand.
In the kitchen, she exhales, long and steady. Then she starts touching every part of my body—shoulders, ribs, forehead, the back of my neck—running a diagnostic through her hands. A mother’s instinct doing what no scanner can.
"You’re okay? Anything hurts? The Thirst?"
"I’m completely fine, Mom."
"I was so afraid of losing you the way I lost your father..."
"Dad... he’s alive."
She loses her balance. Knees buckling. I catch her under the arms before she goes down and ease her onto the kitchen chair.
"Easy, Mom. Breathe. We have a lot to talk about."
I go to the fridge. As always, there isn’t much. A jug of water. A box of eggs. Some leftover thing she mixed and stored.
I pour a glass of water and hand it to her.
"You’re going to kill your mother of a heart attack." She takes the glass. "Thank you..."
When she finishes the water, she says she wants to know everything that happened. But we have to keep our voices down. Lili is asleep.
"What do you mean Alden is alive? Why isn’t he coming home?"
"I don’t know, Mom. I just got the information that he’s alive."
"How? Why? I don’t understand."
"I met Boris."
I pour myself a glass and keep going.
"Yeah. That Boris. Dad’s friend. There’s a device in Thirstfall that tells you when someone is alive. Boris confirmed it. Dad is alive."
I explain it to her slowly.
My mother knows a lot about Thirstfall—my father was already a Rank B when he disappeared, and he used to tell us his adventure stories. He never told us the cruel reality of that place, and experiencing it for the first time was traumatizing. Her version of Thirstfall was always cleaner than the real one.
"And where’s Boris?"
The hope in her voice is so naked it’s almost hard to hear.
"That’s the other complicated part. Boris is sealed in Thirstfall. He’s alive, but he might never come back to Earth."
She brings both hands to her mouth. Holding back a sound that wants to be a scream and can’t be one—because Lili is in the next room.
She’s quiet for a long moment. Working through it on her own. She doesn’t ask the obvious follow-up. She doesn’t want the answer yet.
I pull the GNC card out of my pocket. Set it in front of her.
"Mom. There’s five thousand GNC on this card. Please take care of yourself and Lili."
Her eyes fill with water. She doesn’t hesitate to take it. There’s no pride between mother and son in our situation. Not in 2049. Not with the way Earth is.
"Thank you, son..."
"I’ll take care of you from now on. And I’ll find out where Dad is."
She doesn’t agree. She doesn’t disagree either. My father was always a perfect husband and a great father. She knows he must have his reasons. Maybe it’s a blind love for the man she married. Or maybe it’s simply choosing not to believe he could have just abandoned us.
"Mom. I really need to sleep. You know about Thirstfall from Dad. That place is... exhausting."
"Of course, sweetheart. Just don’t make any noise on your way to your room." She’s still staring at the five thousand on the card.
I’m almost out of the kitchen when she calls me.
"Den..."
"Yes, Mom?" I answer, barely a whisper.
"I love you, son. It’s good to have you home."
"It’s good to be back, Mom."
I cross the small apartment in under twenty steps and finally reach my room.
The same poster on the wall. The same crack in the corner of the ceiling. The same smell of old paper and dust on the desk where I never finished my last assignment before the Thirst hit me.
I throw myself onto the bed, ready to sleep peacefully for the first time in what feels like a lifetime.
But two ice-blue eyes keep coming back into my memory.
Then I decide. Tomorrow I’ll start the containment plan here on Earth too. I have to attack from both sides.
I have to make sure my family is safe.
I pick up the smartphone that’s been waiting for me on the nightstand for over a week.
I run a search: Masters Series Conglomerate.
After a few minutes of reading, I let the phone drop onto my chest and close my eyes.
Tomorrow... I...
I surrender to sleep.