Having no other choice, Bryce decided to keep walking, hoping he would eventually reach an area where his phone could pick up a signal.
The silence accompanied him as he walked along the deserted asphalt road, his thoughts refusing to settle.
Vincent Walker.
Leah Walker.
The kidnapping.
The impossible attraction between him and Vincent.
The bite on his neck.
The wound that had disappeared without a trace.
After several minutes, impatience got the better of him and he broke into a jog.
At first, his pace was exactly what he had expected, slow and familiar. But then something changed.
Without making any conscious effort, his stride began to lengthen. His legs moved faster. Then even faster.
He wasn’t pushing himself. He wasn’t forcing his body beyond its limits. The speed simply kept increasing on its own, as naturally as breathing.
Bryce frowned, trying to slow down, but his body ignored him.
The wind rushed harder against his face, whipping strands of blond hair away from his forehead as the trees on either side blurred together into streaks of black.
His feet struck the ground so lightly that, for several moments at a time, it almost felt as though he wasn’t touching the road at all.
A laugh nearly escaped him.
Not because he found it amusing, but because the absurdity of it all had become impossible to deny.
He had never run like this before.
Even during sports in high school, he had been average at best. Long distance running had always left him exhausted, his lungs burning long before everyone else reached the finish line.
Now...
His breathing remained perfectly steady.
His heartbeat stayed calm.
Not a single muscle ached.
It was as though his body could continue forever without knowing the meaning of fatigue.
The endless stretch of woodland gradually gave way to streetlights, sidewalks, and familiar buildings before Bryce even realized he had left the forest behind.
One moment he had been surrounded by towering trees, and the next he was weaving through the outskirts of Genovia City, whose streets never truly surrendered to sleep.
Even at that hour, people still occupied the sidewalks. Restaurants remained open, convenience stores welcomed late night customers, and delivery motorcycles continued weaving through traffic as though dawn were still hours away.
Bryce shot past them unnoticed.
Or perhaps they noticed.
He couldn’t tell.
Everything around him had become little more than a blur.
His legs carried him effortlessly through streets he had walked hundreds of times before until, almost without realizing it, he found himself standing in front of the apartment building he had shared with Dave.
How he had found the place was a mystery. It was as though some hidden instinct already knew exactly where it was, seizing control of his body and guiding every step as he sprinted through the landscape at a speed he had never imagined any human capable of reaching.
The sudden stop caught even him by surprise.
He bent slightly, expecting his lungs to burn.
But they didn’t.
His breathing remained slow and even. Not the slightest trace of exhaustion remained inside him.
He stared down at his own hands before slowly clenching them into fists.
This wasn’t normal.
Not even close.
Something had changed inside him tonight.
He no longer doubted that.
The only thing he couldn’t understand was what that something actually was.
He was certain Vincent and Leah knew, but neither of them appeared willing to reveal a single word about it.
He would have turned to his parents for answers, hoping they might understand the strange changes overtaking him, but the man and woman he called Mom and Dad weren’t his biological parents.
They had adopted him when he was seven years old after a children’s home took him in. According to the staff there, he had been found abandoned outside their gates with nothing that could identify where he had come from or who had left him there.
His adoptive parents had never hidden that from him. They simply didn’t know any more than he did.
Although he no longer had any parents in his life now, it had only been a year since they had cast him out after discovering him kissing Dave during a college semester break.
Bryce and Dave had been inseparable since high school. To everyone else- including Bryce’s parents, they were nothing more than best friends, a perfectly ordinary bond that never invited suspicion.
The two had guarded the true nature of their relationship with painstaking care, keeping their love hidden until fate finally betrayed them.
The discovery had nearly driven Bryce’s parents to the brink. Firmly convinced that such a relationship was sinful, they refused to hear anything that challenged their beliefs.
When Bryce admitted, without shame or hesitation, that he was attracted to men, his father’s fury outweighed every ounce of compassion.
Despite his mother’s desperate attempts to defend him and plead for understanding, her words fell on deaf ears. In the end, his father threw him out, severing the bond between them without a second thought.
Bryce had already moved out of his parents’ house for college by then, his parents believed he was living in the campus dormitories. In reality, he and Dave had rented an apartment together, using the money intended for hostel fees to cover the rent instead.
After being rejected by his parents, Bryce had no one left to rely on. He took a part time job to pay for the final semester of his tuition while somehow keeping up with rent and daily expenses.
The mystery surrounding his own birth had never mattered to him before tonight. He had accepted long ago that some questions would never be answered.
Now, those same questions refused to leave his mind.
His temples throbbed.
Taking a slow breath, Bryce pushed the thoughts aside and opened the front gate before making his way into the apartment building.
He climbed the stairs to the second floor, every step growing heavier as he approached the door to the home he had shared with Dave.
He had no idea what waited for him on the other side.
Perhaps Dave had packed everything and left with his girlfriend, which would at least allow Bryce to remain there until the end of the month while he figured out where to go next.
Or perhaps Dave was still inside.
Perhaps he had already invited his girlfriend to move in.
The thought tightened something inside Bryce’s chest.
Technically, the apartment belonged to both of them. They had shared the rent from the beginning, which meant Bryce had no right to force either of them to leave.
Even so, he couldn’t imagine living under the same roof while watching Dave build a new relationship in front of him.
He would rather leave, and the problem wasn’t even finding the courage to walk away.
It was finding the money to start over.
Maybe things would have been different if he had a close friend willing to take him in for a while.
Unfortunately, he had never been the kind of person who easily let others into his life or formed deep friendships.
Dave had been his closest friend, the one soul he trusted above all others, and eventually, the man who claimed every piece of his heart.
With Dave beside him, Bryce had never felt the need for anyone else. Now, with Dave gone, he found himself completely alone, not even a friend to lean on.
The lights inside the apartment were still on.
Bryce’s jaw tightened the moment he noticed them. He had assumed Dave and his girlfriend would still be there.
Fine.
He could ignore them.
He would walk in, take a shower, lie down on his side of the bed, and go to sleep. Whatever they did beside him didn’t matter.
The bed belonged to him just as much as it belonged to Dave. They had bought it together, paid the rent together, and furnished the place with money they had both worked for.
The month had only just begun. Unless Dave intended to buy out Bryce’s share of the rent and reimburse him for everything they had purchased together, Bryce had no intention of walking away simply because Dave had decided to replace him.
With that thought in mind, he unlocked the door, intending to suggest exactly that. The moment he stepped inside, however, he realized Dave was alone.
Dave immediately rose from the one couch they had and strode toward him, stopping only a few steps away.
"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, his voice carrying a tone Bryce couldn’t quite decipher.
Bryce looked at him as though he had completely lost his mind. What right did he have to question him anymore?
The image of Dave lying naked beside that girl flashed vividly through Bryce’s mind, reigniting the anger he had fought so hard to suppress earlier.
His fingers slowly curled into a fist.
Without saying a word, he brushed past Dave and headed farther into the apartment.
"I asked you a question, Bry!" Dave’s voice rose sharply as his hand shot out and seized Bryce’s wrist.
The sudden contact made something inside Bryce snap.
Before he even realized what he was doing, he ripped his arm free and shoved Dave away with all his strength.
The force behind the shove stunned even Bryce.
Dave was hurled backward, crashing heavily onto the couch. The entire piece of furniture skidded across the floor before slamming hard into the wall with a loud bang that echoed throughout the apartment.
For several long seconds, complete silence settled over the room.
Bryce remained rooted where he stood, his eyes fixed on the hand that had shoved Dave away. His breathing turned heavy and uneven as the anger coursing through him climbed higher, feeding a surge of strength that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him.
His pulse pounded violently against his ribs.
What the hell was happening to him?