HEART BOUND

HIS IS NOT COMING BACK

(Season 1)

CHAPTER 36

The living room was shrouded in a thick, heavy silence. Morning light filtered through the blinds, casting stripes across the somber faces of those who sat there. They had just lost something - a person, a dream, a part of themselves. It was still like a dream... Kalen's calculations have never been wrong. He make sure he looks at both the possibility and risk before coming up with a plan. So what went wrong this time? How did everything go wrong?.

Rhine Slumped on the couch, eyes red-rimmed, her thoughts a jumble of grief and denial. Why did this happen? What could they have done differently?. Staring blankly at the wall, kai's mind was numb, replaying memories of what was lost. This can't be real. I need to do something, anything.....every thing was going so well or maybe this was all part Kalen's plan right?

Ellen who was usually very strong emotionally was Hugging a pillow, tears streaming down her face, her heart heavy with regret. "I should've been there. I should've...done something when I felt the danger.... But I didn't" she whispered to herself.

Zach 'so were Arms crossed, jaw cliked, trying to hold it together. He does not believe it was over, he did not believe Kalen could be so careless to let himself be killed by someone like Michael. He believes Kalen and Liora are alive some where even though there was no chance of them surviving...... They searched for them but they were no where to be found.

The atmosphere wasn't good one at all. The air was thick with sorrow and shock. Every breath felt like a struggle and the silence was oppressive, punctuated only by the occasional sniffle or stifled sob.

Guilt and grief swirl, hard to breathe, A desperate search for someone to blame was what filled their minds. A longing for it to be a nightmare, to wake up and have it all be okay again.

The silence was shattered by Ryan's soft sob, the sound jarring everyone back to reality.

"Where is Liora... You found her right and kalen where is he" Kai reached out silently, pulling him into a tight hug.

"It's okay, we're here." Ryan frown in confusion

"what are you talking about.... What happened" Ryan's gaze snapped to Zach who stood silently by the window side, a silent question in his eyes as he looked at his elder brother. what is going on? Zach's jaw was still cliked, thinking. He know how sensitive Ryan can be so he was trying to avoid his questions.

"What's going on..... Why won't you tell me anything!!!!" Ryan yelled already in tears.... He was frustrated with everyone's silence.

"Because you will break down..... Because Kalen is f*****g gone and he is not coming back" Kai yelled angrily. His anger wasn't directed at Ryan at but at everything that has been happening. Ryan stood there froze in shock........ This can't be happening right?

"we don't know that for sure okay..... So stop saying that" Zach told Kai in a warning tone, he was still in denial.

"just because you tell yourself he is out there some where, that doesn't mean it's true Zach......" What Kai said hit him more than he expected. But he still couldn't bring himself to believe the fact that Kalen was actually gone. He stared blankly at Kai for a while and walked away.

Ryan was so shaken by the news that he gave in to the weakness that he had been fighting. Kai was fast to catch him as he was falling...... Every one panicked seeing Ryan's condition.

"What the heck did that bastard do to him,.... Shouldn't he be in his full strength by now" Kai asked in panick as he held Ryan's weak and unconscious body in his arms.

"let me see" Ellen knelt beside Kai and Ryan, she held his hands, then she started whispering some foreign words. After some minutes she opened her eyes and placed two fingers on his forehead.

"He was given too much dosage of some very dangerous chemicals..... His system even though he is not human is reacting to It. But it okay, I have extract what's left of the chemical..... He will be fine" Ellen explained..... Kai glanced at her then back to Ryan whose breath was suddenly stable....

"Thanks" she gave him a quick nod before walking away. Rhine noticed something off about Ellen so she went after her.

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Ellen slipped through the door way like she was escaping a sinking ship. The latch clicking shut behind her with a softness that felt too loud.

She pressed her back to the cold hallway walls and exhale. The first real air she had taken in hours after the news. The morning light outside was different. Not the pale, stripped grief light from the living room blind...... This was shaper, cleaner coming through a narrow window at the end of the hallway.

Her eyes were still glassy, rimmed red, and the tears fell freely. Like it was okay to cry out there even though the air taste like regret and cold coffee.

Her hand would not stay still no matter how hard she tried. One rubbed at the base of her throat, chasing the tightness that the room had put there. The other dragged through her long red hair, pulling strands loose. Her chest still rose and fell too fast like she had been under water.

Her knees gave out after a while, and she slid down the wall until she hit the floor, pulling her knees to her chest. The hallway was silent, No sniffles, no measured voices trying to sound brave. Just quiet, the kind that did not demand anything from her.

The moment her breathing steadied, the guilt slid back in to fill the empty space. It started as a knot in her stomach, then uncoiled, sharp toothed and began to eat through her.

If only she had talked to someone about what she felt, if only she hadn't ignored all the signs.

Rhine's footsteps, light as they were, seemed to shatter the fragile stillness. Ellen's eyes fluttered open, like a curtain pulled back from a window, revealing the turmoil she'd been hiding from. For a moment, they just looked at each other – Rhine's concern etched on her face, Ellen's eyes raw with grief. The air hung heavy with unspoken questions.

"Are you okay?" Rhine was really worried because she felt Ellen was bearing something she wasn't supposed to and it was eating her up.

Ellen's gaze drifted, like a leaf on a windless day, unable to hold Rhine's worried look. She felt exposed, as if her insides were etched on her skin. Rhine crossed the space between them, slow and uncertain, and sank onto the floor beside her. No words. Just a presence. A silent acknowledgment that some wounds don't need fixing – just bearing. Ellen's eyes welled up again, but the tears felt different this time – like a pressure valve had opened. Rhine's hand found hers, a gentle anchor in the chaos.

The warmth of Rhine's hand seeped into Ellen's cold fingers, a lifeline in the undertow. Ellen's shoulders began to shake, a quiet tremor at first, then a full-body shudder. Rhine's grip tightened, holding her steady. No words of comfort, just a shared silence, thick with understanding. The grief that had suffocated Ellen in the room began to loosen its grip, not because it was gone, but because she wasn't alone in it. The tears came harder now, a messy, raw release. Rhine leaned in, her breath a gentle anchor in Ellen's ear.

"it wasn't your fault... You didn't do anything wrong "Lia's words were a whisper, but they cracked the dam of Mara's self-blame. Rhine couldn't help but read Ellen's mind, she was pained that she thought this was her fault.

"You couldn't have stopped it." Rhine's voice was a gentle counterpoint to the accusations echoing in Ellen's mind. But Ellen's thoughts snarled back.

"I saw everything, I felt It. I should've said something." The guilt had dug its claws deep. Rhine squeezed her hand tighter.

"This isn't on you, Ellen. Danger doesn't wear a sign, it does to us but...... It wasn't just you because I ignored the feeling too." Mara's eyes closed, a fractured sob escaping. Was it possible to forgive herself?

TBC