64 – Into the Abyss

Alexander felt the shift the moment he made the kill. His hands, coated in fresh blood, trembled not with fear or hesitation but with something far worse—satisfaction. The body lay crumpled at his feet, the last gasping breath barely audible over the roar in his head. He had fought before, killed before, but this was different. This wasn't strategy. This wasn't necessity. This was rage. Raw, undiluted, and all-consuming.

He wiped his hands on his shirt, smearing the crimson further. His reflection stared back at him in the shattered mirror across the room. Hollow eyes. A clenched jaw. A man unrecognizable from the one who had once only fought to survive. Now, he fought to destroy.

The Descent

Sleep was a distant memory. Food tasted like nothing. Every moment he wasn't planning his father's downfall was wasted time. Carver tried to reach him. Eve—he didn't let himself think of her. She had made her choice, and he had made his.

The underground had begun to whisper about him. Not as a man, but as something else. A specter of vengeance, a monster that no longer cared for the rules of engagement. He sought out his father's men with merciless precision, carving through the ranks like a blade through flesh.

But with every fight, with every drop of blood spilled, he felt it—the abyss pulling him deeper. And for the first time, he didn't resist.

A Warning Unheeded

"This isn't you, Voss," Carver growled, stepping in front of Alexander as he prepared for his next hit. "You're going too far."

Alexander's laugh was humorless. "Too far? There is no far enough. Not until he's dead."

Carver grabbed his arm, steel in his gaze. "You keep going like this, and there won't be anything left of you when it's over."

Alexander pulled away. "That's the point."

He didn't wait for a response. There was no reasoning with him anymore.

The Monster Unleashed

The fight was over before it began.

His father's top enforcer had been feared for years, but fear was nothing in the face of fury. Alexander didn't use a gun. He didn't need one. He let his fists do the talking, breaking bone and will with every strike. The man fought back, but it was useless—Alexander was beyond pain, beyond exhaustion.

When it was done, he stood over the body, breath ragged, hands shaking. The room smelled of iron, of death. His father would know. He would see this as a message, a declaration of war written in blood.

He stepped back, letting the reality sink in. There was no turning back now. He had crossed the final threshold.

The Abyss Stares Back

Days blurred together, each one marked by more blood, more destruction. The nightmares started then—flashes of the faces he had erased, their lifeless eyes watching him in the dark. But the worst wasn't the ones he had killed.

It was the ones he had lost.

Eve's voice echoed in his head. Carver's warnings. The ghost of his brother's sneer. "You were never the heir. You were the insurance policy."

He sat in a dimly lit room, the bottle in his hand half-empty, his knuckles raw and bruised. He had been fighting, but not just against his enemies. Against himself. Against the last shred of humanity clinging to his bones.

A knock at the door. He didn't answer, but it opened anyway. Carver. The older man took one look at him and sighed.

"You look like hell."

Alexander smirked, the expression void of humor. "I'm already there."

Carver sat across from him, leaning forward. "You keep going down this road, and there won't be anything left. Not of you. Not of her."

A flicker. A crack in the armor. It was gone as fast as it came.

"She's safe," Alexander muttered, taking another drink. "That's all that matters."

Carver scoffed. "Safe? She doesn't want safe, you idiot. She wants you."

Alexander's grip on the glass tightened until it shattered in his palm. Blood dripped onto the floor, but he didn't move. Didn't react.

"She deserves better."

Carver exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "Then prove it. End this. Before it ends you."

Alexander stared at the crimson pooling in his palm. His own blood. His own destruction.

You want a monster? Then I'll give you one.

And for the first time, he wondered if there was still a way back.