Page 129 of Dangerous Beginnings

And maybe it’s selfish, but I hope she thinks of me. I hope she can feel the weight of what I’ve done, even if she hates me for it.

Because as much as I tried to keep her at arm’s length, as much as I tried to bury whatever it was that she awakened in me, I failed.

She owns me now. Every part of me that mattered, every piece I thought I had destroyed, she’s brought it back to life.

And as I sit here, the walls pressing in, the silence threatening to drown me, I realize that I’d do it again. Every moment of agony, every drop of blood—it’s nothing compared to what she’s given me.

A reason to be human again. Even if only for a moment.

She is my undoing, yes—but also my salvation. My tether. My obsession.

I close my eyes, letting the darkness take me. I’ll wait. I’ll endure. And one day, when the time is right, I’ll break these chains, shatter these walls, and come back for her.

And nothing—not these chains, not this cell, not even the darkness itself—will keep me from her.

Suddenly, I hear something—a faint, rough sound that breaks through the silence. A scraping, like someone trying to cleartheir throat in the depths of their own isolation. My ear strains toward the wall, every muscle tensing in recognition. My pulse quickens. It’s not just the sound of someone in a cell next to me. It’s familiar. A voice, barely audible, a vibration deep in the walls that echoes across the stale air.

“Aslanov.”

My heart skips and my name is a jagged blade in the stillness. The sound is too faint to make sense of at first, but then it comes again, a rasping whisper, “Aslanov.”

I lean forward, pressing my ear harder against the wall, my breath shallow and slow. The name reverberates, each syllable cutting through the space like a knife, each repetition closer to my own skin. I recognize it then, I recognize him.

Petrov.

I close my eyes, a bitter taste creeping into my mouth.

He is here and he is alive, and that changes everything.

With my wrists shackled in this cold concrete cell, I sit in silence, my thoughts spiraling into the darkness.

I realize this isn’t the end.

It’s only the beginning.

A dangerous beginning.

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