After listening to Blake, I run back to the bunker, but my heavy shoulder pulls me back. The stairs down to the train station drain the energy out of my body, but after a while, I turn the wheel on the door that clicks open and barge in.

“Amelia! Amelia? Where …” I scream.

She comes rushing in and places the knife she is holding inside the apron’s pocket. “What? What is it?” she asks in shock. I do not say anything in response, but then pull and collect her around my one arm, and hold her tightly close to my heart. “What is all this? You are worrying me. Has something happened?” she asks.

“No, not at all. I only wanted to make sure you are safe, and it seems like all is well,” I respond, becoming relieved.

“Well and more,” she says, smiling, and then shoots her eyes towards the other room. A woman appears, and she has red curly hair hanging down her ears. “My mother is here, can you believe this?” she continues. “It has been a long time.”

I suddenly get caught between the boundaries of confusion and doubt. “Oh you are right, I could not, but I could do it with someone she needs, someone she has longed for,” Blake’s words repeat at the back of my mind.

“Amelia, she is not real,” I say, pulling her hand.

“What,” she responds, laughing. “But she is right in front of me, how can she not be real?”

“They are playing with your mind, Amelia,” I respond. “They are showing you what you want to see, not what is real.”

As I step closer to her, the place shakes, causing the walls to collapse and revealing the proud sun that crunches my skin. I then quickly slip to the shadow of the standing wall.

“Kellin, I have always wanted her guide all my life. Now I have been blessed with her presence, and it would be stupid for me to turn it down,” Amelia says, and I can see how desperate she is. The happiness of her ‘mother’s presence’ is wild, but reality erases all that.

“Exactly, they use that to lure humans into their traps,” I say.

“You mean that is what you do,” she responds. “You are one of them, aren’t you? What if it is you who is toying with my mind, luring me into your trap?”

As Amelia speaks, I can see that their plan is working. Anger is building up inside her, possessing her dark body and filling it with rage. I can sense them getting closer to her. After a while, I hear a cracking sound, and when I look up, a wall falls on top me. I try to run, but it steps on my ankle. I then get exposed to the burning sun, and when the rays eat me from inside, I feel my flesh peeling off like a knife on my back.

All I need to do at this moment is hold Amelia’s hand. Tears cannot help, but I scream my lungs out. The last thing I ever wanted to do was do what I am thinking of doing. I never wanted to invade her mind, look deep into her thoughts, and see what I am not supposed to see.

I can feel her rage, but it comes from a weak spot in a moment from her past life. Fear accompanies the loss of hope. Love, though, our love. I search for that. I remind her to bring forward the soulful memories that give us both strength to be where we are, but there is something else there. I fail to open the vault of this thought. There is a strange and different aura surrounding it, but I cannot reach far enough to peek into its keyhole.

“Kellin!” Amelia screams, bringing me back to reality. When I open my eyes, I find her pulling the wall up from my leg. I then crawl out, and she pulls me away from the sun and starts crying. “I am sorry, it is my fault. I never meant to hurt you. I would never. Please forgive me,” she says, twisting my palm.

Before responding, I first look around. I can no longer feel the Walkers’ presence, nor can I see the woman anywhere. “I should be the one apologising,” I say, trying to regain my strength as she helps me up.

“For what?” she asks.

“For placing you in this position and for being the reason I almost lost you. Forgive me,” I plead. I then start tearing up when I see her sparkling smile once again. “This must end now,” I add.
***
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