CHAPTER 44: I FORGOT YOU BUT NOT REALLY...

Scene: Hospital Room – 5 Days Later

White sheets.

Machines beeping steady.

The room smells of sterilized pain and unfinished stories.

Pete hasn't left Mek's side.

Not once.

He's a ghost of himself—bloodshot eyes, unshaven, hands clenched with guilt.

Then—

Mek's eyes flutter open.

Pete jolts.

> "Mek? Baby?! I'm here—I'm right here."

Mek blinks at him. Confused. Cold.

> "Who… are you?"

💔 CRASH. Pete's entire heart shatters in real-time.

> "It's me. Pete. You know me, right?"

Mek stares, deadpan.

Like he's trying to recall a stranger from a blurry dream.

> "Sorry. I don't… remember you."

Pete stumbles back. Breath stolen.

The world? Slipping through his fingers.

> "No. No, don't do this to me. Not after everything. Please—don't leave me like this."

Mek turns away.

Inside Mek's Mind:

> "I remember everything.

Your touch. Your fire. The night you told me you'd burn your empire for me."

But he stays silent.

Because outside the room?

Pete's father is watching.

Waiting.

And Mek knows the second he shows weakness, Pete will get hurt.

> "So I'll pretend.

Pretend you're a stranger…

Because it's the only way to protect you from your own blood."

---

Scene: Later – Pete breaks down in the hallway

Pete slams his fist into the hospital wall, tears spilling like open wounds.

> "He doesn't remember me… after everything."

Pete's mom finds him.

> "Maybe… it's not what it seems."

Pete: "No. He looked at me like I was nothing. Like I never existed."

But Mek's inside the room… curled into the sheets…

Whispering into his pillow:

> "You'll always exist. Even if I have to erase you from my eyes… to keep you breathing."

---

Mini Flashback: The Rooftop, Before the Shot

Mek had slipped a note into Pete's jacket pocket.

He knew something was coming.

He knew someone was watching.

He just didn't expect the bullet.

The note?

> "If anything happens to me…

Don't become your father's monster.

Become the man you want to be.

The man I love."