Hellbound Heart

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Zeke and his son. No one moved or made a sound, hoping not to be the one who would distract either party from their long overdue reunion of father and son.

Sebastian, who had somehow immediately calmed down the instant he heard Azy's voice, just stared unblinkingly at his brother as he approached his son. 

His complete attention was now focused on nothing else but them. Everything else had now been momentarily forgotten. As if his outburst with Zeke just now had never happened. 

Hearing Azy's voice was like a thunderstruck to him, like a bucket of ice suddenly being poured over his head. That was the one thing he had not expected to happen. Though a very welcomed and happy occasion, Sebastian was nonetheless still taken aback at it happening without warning.

The boy, this nephew of his, was finally speaking again! He had blamed himself for what happened to Azy five years ago. Because no matter what anyone said, he knew the reason why Azy had stopped talking was completely his fault. There was no one else to blame but himself. He should have taken the extra precaution to have checked and ensured that Azy was no longer in the castle before he decided to start the ritual. 

The reason he had avoided the boy all these while since then was because he could not help but want to hit and beat himself up every time he saw Azy all quiet, and unable to utter a single word. Seeing such a cheerful young boy suddenly stop talking and becoming solemn, serious and more mature than his age just broke his heart each time he saw Azy.

So, hearing him say something now, gave him a wave of strong relief and gladness. Could this be because the gate of the Underworld was opened again? Azy lost his voice when they managed to open the gate back then after all. Or perhaps, he got his voice back simply because of his desperation to call out for his father whom he had never met before?

As Zeke crouched down before Azy, Sebastian noticed how Zeke's fingers were slightly trembling as he reached out to touch his son for the first time. 

Though Sebastian could not see his brother's expression, which he knew was most likely to be unchanged except for the look in his eyes, that little shaking of his hand was enough for Sebastian to tell how emotional Zeke was at the moment. 

Zeke never trembles nor shakes in front of anyone else since that fateful day when they were all thrown into that hell of a prison. It was like Zeke had lost the ability to be shaken by anything else. So, seeing him like this now caused Sebastian to not even be able to imagine just how hard it must have been for Zeke all these years. 

As Zeke spoke and told Azy that he was his father as he touched him, the boy's lips began to purse. His large grey eyes quickly watered up. But even as his lips began to tremble, Azy was trying so hard to hold back from crying. 

Azy was so much like his father. There was almost no difference at all between the two. Azy was that child who never cried even when he got hurt. Though Alicia had always been encouraging him, telling him that it was okay even if he cried if things just got too much to handle, Azy kept telling everyone that he was alright. It all got worse when Alicia started to grow weaker. 

He had found out from Alex that the boy had never shed any tears ever since. Even when he was suffering the pain from one of those episodes he was going through, Azy only screamed. Again, not a single tear came out from him. 

Yet here he was now, looking absolutely at the edge of bursting into tears as he looked on at his father with a mixture of longing and embarrassment. 

"If you want to cry, don't hold back… son." Zeke uttered. His voice, at that very moment, was the gentlest whisper he had ever heard from him. "Real men do cry, after all." 

eαglesnᴏνel The boy threw his body towards his father and hugged him as he burst into tears. All his bravado and front of being a solemn and mature child crumbled in the presence and warmth of his very own father. Zeke immediately wrapped his arms around his son and held him tight. His head dropping so low his face could not be seen. 

Azy's cries were muffled as he buried his face against his father's clothes, his narrow shoulders shaking with the shudders of his sobs that he was trying to hold back but unfortunately, not so effective. The sound of his cries were so heart-breaking that it made Elle's tears just track silently down her face even as she smiled with so much happiness and gladness that the father and son were finally reunited. 

The sight of them in a tight embrace was simply… heartwarming and heart-aching at the same time. 

…

Meanwhile, Gav was simply watching. Looking as though he was nothing but a handsome and imposing character who did not belong to the scene at all. Well, that was how he appeared to be at one glance. But if one would look deep into his grey eyes, something was swirling in those depths as well. Something even he himself could not seem to understand as he stared at the father and son having their reunion right before him. 

He was undoubtedly impressed. Very much surprised even, seeing Zeke behaving so uncharacteristically like this. That this man the Underworld sees as the lord of slaughter was actually hiding something soft and mushy like this. 

Then a thought came to him. That he had finally got a hold of Zeke's weakness. A weakness he never expected of this powerful man. A weakness he never thought actually existed. 

If anyone in the Underworld were to ever find out about this… Zeke, the feared prince of hell who does not have any weakness, will certainly be put into serious trouble.