Chapter 60 60

Chapter 60 60
“What’s going on here?” Azxel asked, looking around confusedly. His legs moved before his brain caught up, he stumbled forward and threw himself into Sky’s arms, hugging him so tightly it looked painful.

Sky’s hoodie smelled like the wood, the same way it always did in Azxel’s head. He buried his face in the crook of Sky’s neck and inhaled like he was drowning and Sky was oxygen.

Jaelen stood a few steps back, staring down at his open palms, rubbing them together slowly like he was trying to scrub something invisible off his skin. His shoulders were hunched tightly like he didn’t want to see them.

“Uhh, Azxel,” Jaelen finally said, in a low and careful voice. Azxel didn’t let go of Sky, but his body stiffened at the sound of his Jae’s voice. “This… this is your dad’s hospital.”

Azxel froze. Jaelen swallowed hard, his throat working. “I’m sorry. Your mum lied to you. She told you he was gone and dead, but i found out he’s not. He’s been here the whole time.”

The words landed like glass shattering on concrete.

Azxel pulled back just enough to look up at Sky’s face, then over at the tall man standing a few feet away, the man whose features he hadn’t seen in years but still recognized instantly.

His knees almost buckled. “You…” Azxel’s voice came out barely a whisper. “You’re… alive?”

His father took one careful step forward, raising his arms like he was approaching a startled animal. “Azxel. I never wanted to leave you like that. I had to disappear for your safety and, for your mother’s. But I’ve been watching. I’ve been right here.”

Azxel’s breathing turned shallow again. He looked between Sky, Jaelen, and his father like the world was rearranging itself under his feet and he didn’t know where to stand.

His father’s gaze shifted to Sky, hardening. “And you,” he said, his voice dropping colder, “need to stop this, right now! At this moment!!”

Sky tilted his head, curling his lips in a sharpened smirk. “Stop what, exactly?”

“You know exactly what.” The older man stepped closer, his eyes never leaving Sky’s face. “You’ve been feeding on his mind and twisting his memories, making him see things that aren’t there. You’re not helping him, you’re keeping him broken so he never has to face reality. You’re a parasite.”

Azxel’s grip on Sky’s hoodie tightened. “Don’t, don’t talk to him like that. He hadn’t done anything I haven’t approved of.”

His father breathed a little. “Azxel, listen to me. Sky isn’t—”

“Shut up,” Azxel snapped, but his voice trembled. His chest was heaving again, sweat beaded on his forehead. “It doesn’t matter whatever you say, what matters is that he’s…. He’s right here.”

Sky chuckled dangerously low. “You heard him, old man. Back off.”

The father ignored Sky completely, his eyes locked on his son. “He’s using you Zel, every time you feel him touch you, every time you hear his voice, it’s your own mind filling in the blanks. You created him because you couldn’t handle losing people. First me, then the accident and then everything else. Sky is just… a fragment. A piece of memory you won’t let go of.”

Azxel’s face crumpled. “No. No, stop—” His hands started shaking violently, his vision tunneled; the parking lot lights blurred into streaks. “You’re lying, you’re all lying—”

Jaelen stepped forward fast. “Azxel—”

But Sky moved faster. He shoved Jaelen back with one hand, hard enough that Jaelen stumbled. “Get him out of here,” Sky snarled at Jaelen. “Now, take him inside, find a vending machine, get him some fucking water to calm him down.”

Jaelen hesitated, he wanted Azxel to hear everything, but Azxel was getting short breathes. He then grabbed Azxel’s arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Azxel resisted, his eyes turned wild, fixed on his father. “He’s lying, right? Sky, tell him he’s lying—”

Jaelen pulled harder, his voice gentle but firm. “Azxel. Please, just for a minute.”

Jaelen finally managed to drag Azxel away, carrying him toward the hospital’s side entrance. Azxel kept twisting, trying to look back, whispering “Sky… Sky…” like a mantra, his legs shaky and uncooperative.

They made it just inside the automatic doors. The fluorescent lights were bright that it did something to Azxel’s head. Jaelen steered Azxel toward a small waiting alcove with a water cooler.

He grabbed a paper cup, filled it with cold water, and pressed it into Azxel’s trembling hands.

“Drink,” Jaelen said quietly. “Slow breathe.”
Azxel stared at the cup like he didn’t understand what it was. Water sloshed over the rim onto his fingers. “He’s alive… my dad’s alive… and he’s saying Sky isn’t—”

“Drink first,” Jaelen repeated, guiding the cup to Azxel’s lips. “Then we talk.”

Azxel took one sip, then another. The cold shocked his throat, for a few seconds he just breathed ragged, wet gasps while Jaelen kept a steady hand on his shoulder.

But then Azxel’s head snapped up. “I have to go back. Sky—”

“Azxel—”

“No.” Azxel shoved the cup away, the left over water splashing across the floor. He bolted back toward the doors before Jaelen could stop him.

Outside, the scene had already turned violent.
Sky had his father pinned against the wall. He throwing fist on the older man and blood bloomed on the older man’s lip, then his cheek.

Sky didn’t stop. He grabbed the collar of the coat and slammed him again.

“You don’t get to decide when he or I lets go,” Sky hissed between strikes. “You left him. I stayed.”

The father coughed, blood on his teeth, but he still smiled weakly and defiant. “He’ll forget you… just like he forgot the truth about the accident… just like he forgot me for a while. You’re temporary, boy, you are a symptom.”

Sky roared and drove his fist into the man’s stomach, then his face again. The father slid down the wall, his legs buckling and blood trailing from his mouth and nose.

Sky stood over him, his chest heaving with red knuckles. Then, footsteps approached him. Azxel burst through the doors, Jaelen a panicked step behind.

“Sky!” Azxel’s voice broke. He ran forward, shoving between them. “Stop—stop it! Please!”

Sky’s fist was already raised for another blow. He froze mid swing. The father coughed wetly, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth. He lifted a trembling hand toward Azxel. “Come… closer.”

Azxel dropped to his knees beside him, tears streaming. “Dad—oh God—”

“Look at him,” the father rasped, nodding toward Sky. “Really look, see him.”

Azxel did. Sky stood there, breathing hard, blood on his hands, his eyes burning with anger.

“He isn’t real,” his father whispered. “Sky… isn’t real. He’s just a fragment. A piece of memory you made to survive. Stop this, Azxel. Stop… please…”

Azxel shook his head frantically. “No. No, he’s real. Shut up—he’s real—”

Azxel laughed instantly, then something inside him snapped. In one fluid motion he stepped forward, grabbed the father by the throat, and slammed his head back against the concrete twice.

The third time there was a sickening crack.
The father’s body went limp. Azxel screamed as he let go. The body slumped sideways, eyes open, unseeing.

Sky turned slowly to Azxel, blood dripping from his fingers. “He’s gone now,” Sky said quietly. “For real this time.”

Azxel stared, his chest heaving as Jaelen had already fainted. Sky reached out, slowly and wiped the red streak from Azxel’s face with his thumb.

“You still see me, right?” Sky asked, his voice soft and tender.

Azxel’s lips trembled but he nodded.

Sky smiled, “Good.”