Page 6 of Bastian

“Kenton!”

“Kenton!”

The chanting of my name grows louder, almost frantic.

“Did you ever doubt me?” I mutter.

I made it happen.

After years of lying, cheating, and scheming my way through every social circle where assholes with shit for brains called the shots, and a hellish presidential race, I succeeded.

I accomplished what the young man used to crave more than anything after he lost what he loved most.

What kept his heart dreaming…

His parents.

“Not for one second.” My right hand, sometimes asshole but always a loyal friend, replies.

The crowd goes wild, shouting my name and clapping all around me as I am announced as the 47th president of the United States of America.

All I ever wanted…until her.

To be at the top.

To all that my father wasn’t able to do because of Gabriele Parisi.

I smile and greet the crowd but it pains me.

The organ in my chest aches.

Smiling hurts.

It’s been hurting for months since I made the biggest mistake of my life.

When I experienced loss for the second time in my goddamn life.

This time by my own doing.

Smiling at the people who elected me one last time, I look up at the sky.

There’s no full moon tonight.

Hell, there’s not even one single star in the sky.

Dark.

Empty.

Like half of my fucking heart.

“Find your way back to me,” I whisper into the night, but my voice is drowned by the loud noises around me.

Fuck.

I got where I wanted to be for so long, but it doesn’t feel like I thought it would.

I know now that nothing will ever feel the same as long as she’s away from me.

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