The road ahead was pitch black, swallowed by the thick shadows of the forest. The only light came from the narrow beam of our flashlight, slicing through the darkness like a fragile thread of hope. If someone had seen us—two silhouettes trudging through a forest trail in the middle of the night—they'd have thought we were out of our minds.
And maybe we were.
Who in their right mind willingly fled through the woods, running from a psychotic cousin of an ex-boyfriend—a cousin with a reputation soaked in blood and secrets? Who stayed side by side with a man who once, in a fit of illness and horror, killed his own parents and buried them beneath the earth like discarded memories?
Anyone else would've called me a fool.
I knew Felix had been sick back then. That he hadn't known what he was doing. That his mind had turned against him. And I could see, clearly, that something in him had changed. The Felix walking beside me now wasn't the boy I once knew—he was quieter, more self-aware, almost painfully gentle.
But still… that part of me, that instinct born from survival, whispered: What if it's just a mask?
I had made the decision to help him on impulse, to protect him at all costs. To believe that, somehow, my presence could show him that life could still be beautiful. And now I was about to find out what it meant to be with him, day and night, without breaks, without distance, without escape.
God, I hoped I wouldn't come to regret it.
Every sound in the forest felt amplified by the silence. The path ahead glowed dimly under the light of a torch we carried—Mike's idea. He had walked this trail as a child, he said. At the edge of the forest stood a forgotten house once owned by his grandparents. It belonged to him now. A place to hide.
I jumped when something rustled in the bushes beside us and instinctively gripped Felix's hand.
"Do you think it's a wild boar?" I whispered, heart pounding in my chest like a trapped bird. My mind warned me not to point the flashlight in that direction—if it was a boar, I'd only provoke it.
Felix didn't even flinch. "It's a forest. Could be anything," he said calmly. Then, after a pause, "But don't you think being here with me is more dangerous than any wild animal?"
My throat tightened. His words chilled me more than the wind.
"Why would you say that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"Selena…" His gaze was fixed ahead, but his voice trembled with something raw. "I know what I was before treatment. How many… sins I carry. I was unstable. I murdered my parents. Buried them like they were nothing."
He stopped talking for a second, and I felt my grip tighten around the flashlight. My palms were clammy.
"I know it was the illness. I couldn't fight it. But still… the guilt never leaves me."
"You shouldn't live in the past," I murmured. "It wasn't your fault. You were sick, Felix. What matters now is that you're healing."
"But that shame still eats at me," he whispered. "The shame of what I did. Of how I treated you. How I ruined everything."
He was unraveling, right here in front of me. Peeling back the layers, exposing every scar.
"You don't have to carry that weight alone," I told him. "You were ill. No one is perfect, Felix. We all break in different ways."
He turned to me then, eyes shadowed by doubt. "Do you think they really cured me? That it's permanent? Irreversible?"
The question hit me like a cold wave. I couldn't speak for a moment.
"I'm sorry if I'm scaring you," he added quickly. "I just… I have no one else to talk to about this."
"You're not scaring me," I said, even though my heart fluttered with unease. "I made a choice to be here. I trust you, Felix. Completely."
Silence fell between us, thick and full of things neither of us could say.
Then, quietly, he spoke again. "I'm scared it'll all come back. That I'll slip again. That the darkness is still inside me, waiting. What if the therapy wasn't enough? What if I lose control… and hurt someone again?"
His voice cracked. The fear in it was deeper than fear of punishment—it was fear of himself.
"Don't let your fear write the story," I said gently. "We don't know what tomorrow will bring. But I believe in who you are now. Not who you were."
"I just want to be good," he whispered.
"I know," I replied, squeezing his hand. "And I'm here to remind you of that—every day, if I have to."
The forest felt a little quieter then, like it had been listening too. And somehow, I hoped the darkness would let him go.
"You know... maybe I shouldn't say this," Felix muttered beside me, his voice low, almost hollow, "but I wish I'd been born into a different family. All the anxiety, all the pain I went through as a kid... it made me paranoid. Every day felt like a nightmare."
The forest swallowed his words as if it had heard them before, countless times. I glanced at him in the dim glow of our flashlight, his face shadowed by leaves, his expression unreadable.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently. "Help me understand what you went through?"
He hesitated. Then, with a breath, he said, "Yes. I want you to know it wasn't just my mother who turned me into what I became. It was Lucas too. He was a monster from the start... and I was blindly drawn to him. Just like my mother—manipulative, cold, merciless."
I felt a chill travel down my spine. "Who is Lucas, really? Why does he have so much power over everyone?"
"He's the son of my uncle—the one who died of cancer a few years ago. A real Mafioso. Since then, Lucas has taken over everything. My mother was from New York, but she ran to Los Angeles to escape that life. That's how she met my father."
"How did Lucas end up living with you?"
"Apparently, my uncle didn't want to raise him in that world. Said he wanted Lucas to have a normal childhood. But... I think there's another reason. One I haven't figured out yet."
I frowned. "Honestly, it sounds strange. Mafia families don't exactly have a reputation for mercy. They usually mold their children in their own image."
Felix let out a dry laugh. "Exactly. But sometimes, I wondered if Lucas was really just my cousin. He reminded me too much of my mother. Not just in personality... but in appearance too."
I looked at him sharply. "Do you think... that he could be—?"
"He's always acted more like my older brother than my cousin," he murmured. "Even now, he's too protective. Possessive. And he knows things... things I've never been told."
The thought unsettled me. We kept walking, the flashlight beam bouncing along the path ahead. I couldn't tell anymore if we were getting closer to the house or just deeper into the darkness.
"So what brought him back to Los Angeles?" I asked.
"He has business here," Felix replied bitterly. "But he's always been sly. Everything bad he did growing up... he blamed it on me. Told me over and over that he wasn't my parents' son, so if he misbehaved, they'd just send him back. But I? I had to behave. I was desperate for his approval. And when I met you in sixth grade... something changed."
My heart clenched. "What happened?"
"I told Lucas you stood up for me," he said quietly. "You defended me. And he said it was pity. That you didn't really want to be my friend. That I should be grateful someone like him even tolerated me. I believed him."
"What a—" I cut myself off, biting my tongue. I wanted to call Lucas something cruel. Something fitting.
"I started taking selfies," Felix confessed. "Watching you from a distance. It was the only way I knew how to get close. But then you disappeared…"
"My parents transferred me to another school," I whispered. The memory stirred something warm and heavy inside me.
Felix nodded. "Middle school changed everything. Lucas introduced me to new people, gave me confidence. I lost weight, ditched the glasses, people started noticing me. I looked just like him. We partied every weekend, lied to our parents. And then... one night, at a party, I saw a girl who looked like you."
His voice faltered. I felt a knot of dread twist in my stomach.
"I was confident," he said. "I thought she'd like me. Lucas told me I could have her. That it was time I stopped being a boy. He poured alcohol down my throat, said it would make me braver. Said he'd make me into his equal."
He paused, breathing hard. "He got me drunk... and her too. He led her to a room. I didn't realize until too late—she was interested in him, not me."
My heart was pounding now. I stayed quiet, letting him speak.
"I was ashamed. But under the alcohol... I didn't think clearly. I looked at her and I saw you. And Lucas... he laughed. He pinned her down on the bed and told me to do it. Told me to take what I wanted."
I swallowed hard, feeling sick.
"Did you hurt her?"
"I kissed her," he whispered. "Forced her. She screamed. And in that moment, I realized it wasn't you. I didn't want her. I couldn't do it."
I closed my eyes, absorbing the pain in his voice.
"So... you missed me so much that you were willing to hurt someone else?" I asked quietly.
"I think so," he admitted, barely above a whisper. "It's horrible, but I was obsessed. I didn't know how to handle it."
"What happened next?"
"He called me a loser. Said he'd show me how it's done. She didn't resist him. She was too drunk. And I—I just stood outside the door, stunned. I let it happen. I let him rape her."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"He raped a girl at that age?"
"He was always terrifying," Felix said, voice cracking. "His peers feared him. But girls... they were drawn to that confidence. That night... she wasn't. She reported it. My parents were furious. Especially my mother. Lucas said I was the one obsessed with her. That he did it for me. I didn't defend him. I couldn't."
His voice trembled, and I saw a tear slip down his cheek.
"That was when I saw the monster he really was. And I saw what he awakened in me. Mom sent him back to New York. Said he was just like his father and should stay far from me. But the damage was already done. That's when I started getting psychiatric help."
I felt like the earth beneath me had shifted.
"I think I'm only now realizing what a monster Lucas is," I whispered.
Felix looked at me with something between anguish and devotion. "I will never let him hurt you, Selena. I'll protect you with everything I have."
At that moment, the trees parted just enough for the beam of the flashlight to catch on a wooden structure—weather-worn and silent.
"We're here," I said, letting out a shaky breath. "We should be safe for now."
Felix didn't move. "We won't ever be safe. Not as long as Lucas is in our lives."
I turned to him, the light casting his silhouette in stark relief.
"Then we'll run," he said. "Cross the border. Disappear. Whatever it takes."
I stared at him, heart hammering, and whispered, "No. We won't run. We will face this. We will defeat this demon, Felix. I promise you."