Page 165 of His Cursed Heart

"I never blamed you." And it's true. Keres was never in the wrong here. She was the pawn in the middle.

"Althea-"

"It was never your fault, Keres. I don't blame for one bit."

I'm sorry for putting distance between us.

I think and she laughs again at my trick. She leans over and hugs me tight.

"I don't blame for one bit." Keres murmurs my words back at me.

I sigh and hug her back, staying like this for some minutes. It's quiet and peaceful here. There is no sound besides Keres's breathing. No birds, insects or normal things.

"Am I dead?" I ask again.

"Are you living for yourself?" She asks again.

"They make me live for them. They are the ones that are making me wake every day and be there with them."

"Everette and Vince." She smiles softly.

"My boys." I smile at the thought of them.

My poor bug is probably terrified and alone while Everette is blind with revenge.

"It's up to you if you're dead or alive." Which means I'm in a coma.

I feel trapped between love and freedom. I don't want to leave my boys alone. I don't want to look at them from above without touching them or feeling their warmth. But I don't want to live in that nightmare either.

"That nightmare as you call it it's the other side of the purgatory. You have to choose in which one you want to live. Either you are strong enough to find peace on earth, either you let them take you away."

I close my eyes in frustration. There's always choosing. I can't just be where I want.

Where do you want to be, Althea?

Of course I want to find peace, but what if it's too much for me? I've been shown that I don't deserve that kind of happiness. And I don’t want to make Everette and Vincent miserable when the demons will come back.

But what if they won’t come back? I hear Keres’s voice in my head.

"Can I stay here a bit longer?" I ask her and she smiles kindly.

"As long as you choose the right world."

"Again." I order with clenched fists.

Harper grabs another bottle of water to splash Ivan. He's tied to the chair Hanibal was tied too and this makes my lips curl into an evil smile. I finally have him in my hands and I will make him wish he was never born.

Immediately how I arrived home, I went to check on Vincent who passed out because of the crying. The boy is fucking terrified to stay in a house where his sister isn't and it breaks my heart that I'm not someone he can trust, while I would die for him.

I put two doctors to check him and make sure he stays alive because I made a promise to my wife and I know she will kill me when she wakes up and sees Vincent in a hospital bed, next to hers. My boy is strong though. He will wake up with his little heart still broken, but I will be there for him. And not because Althea asked me to take care of him, but because after such short time, Vincent made me love him like a father loves his son.

He may never consider me his father, but he will be my son. He will be raised by me and I will make sure he will be the man Hanibal never was. Me and Althea will make sure of that.

Because she is not leaving me.

Althea will never leave me in a world where she doesn't exit. Even if she doesn't know it yet.

I shake my head, ignoring the numbness in my chest. I look at Ivan and after four buckets of cold water thrown at him and two bottles of how water, he's still unconscious.

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