赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Chapter 721  A Strange Connection

Alice carefully closed the door, locking it before turning to see him sitting on the small couch with their newest addition, just shy of two years old, lying against his chest with her head on his shoulder. He gently swayed from side to side, his palm resting on her side as his fingers thrummed against her back at a slow, even pace.

Axel had his head lying tenderly against hers, a soft hum on his lips. Alice leaned back against the door with a smile on her face. She never got tired of this sight.

With the twins, they had shared most of the routines, bedtime, feeding, changing, and so on. They each would have one of the children, so she did not have as many opportunities to simply watch as he cared for their child.

But with their daughter, it was different. Everything was different.

The twins had been a blessing. A miracle that both Axel and Alice thought was impossible. And up until the moment of their birth, though neither would ever say it out loud, they were equal parts excited and terrified. Expecting the worst at every turn.

Even after the birth, Alice, at times, struggled to accept that the life they had built and the family they had, was real. For the first year of the twin\'s life, she had nightmares. She loved her children, and Axel was nothing but supportive. But the reality of all that she had been through, the torture, the training, the doll. It all haunted her.

She worried that her mind could break at any time and that she would once more be lost in the past, drowning in the memories of the things she had done as the doll. She feared that she might, at some point, become a danger to her children.

Axel did all that he could to support her, to reassure her. But in the end, Alice needed more than just his love to help her through the fear and anxiety.

Though Bell was not trained in psychology and strongly suggested that Alice seek help from one of the many Summer wolves that were, Alice would only talk with her. For months, Alice came to Summer, or Bell came to Winter, spending hours together, chatting, and working through the nightmares that plagued her.

In the beginning, it was only about the children. Bell shared her experiences as a mother, her fears, and her concerns. Alice shared some of her own. But eventually, they talked about the past. About Roman. About the things that each of them had suffered and hidden away from the world. About how scared they each were of their children learning about those things.

It didn’t solve the problem. It didn’t make the nightmares go away. But it eased some of the fear that had taken root in Alice’s heart.

When the twins were just over a year old, Alice was finally ready to face her biggest nightmare.

She had searched through what remained of Holden’s personal files and some that Nessa had recovered for her from Spring’s database. Finally, she was able to locate what little information existed about her mother.

With that, she could find where she and her mother had lived in the human world.

[THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO]

Alice and Axel traveled far from the territories. She had told him when he proposed that she wanted them all to visit her mother together, but when the time came, she did not want to take the twins. She wasn’t sure if they would be able to find her mother’s grave or how it would affect her.

As Axel pulled up to the house, Alice looked out the window. It looked just like all the other houses in the area. A small front yard with few flowers and a cement walkway leading to two steps up to the porch. A metal screen door, old peeling white paint on the siding of the one-story house.

But unlike the rest of the houses, looking at this one made Alice feel a tightness in her chest that she couldn’t explain.

“This is the address you found,” Axel said. “Does anything look familiar?”

Alice swallowed and nodded.

Axel reached out and took her hand. Alice looked back at him. He gave her a warm smile and brought her hand to his lips, kissing it tenderly.

“I’m right here,” he said. “You’re not alone.”

Alice nodded and turned back toward the house. In the back of her mind, she heard a child\'s soft cries and screams as she was carried across the lawn toward a waiting car.

“This was our house…” she whispered.

Alice squeezed her hand.

Alice swallowed as she looked at the lawn. She could almost hear it, almost see it… something just at the edge of her memory. A smile. But not like the ones that Holden showed her, not those Cheshire grins that haunted her nightmares. No, this smile was warm. It carried a laugh. One that made Alice’s heart ache from longing rather than pain.

She took a deep breath.

The metal door opened. A child came out laughing. A little boy, only about four or five years old. He ran down the steps and onto the lawn, laughing the whole way. Another sound from the door drew Alice’s attention.

“Roar! The monster is coming to get you!” the man growled playfully. He held his hands in the air, formed into claws, as he took exaggerated steps down from the porch toward the boy.

“No!” The boy laughed, running away. “Stay away, monster!”

“Monster is hungry! Monster is going to eat you up! Roar!”

The man slowly chased after the boy, they laughed together, and Alice felt a strange connection to the man. He was younger than she was, probably by more than a couple of years. But there was something about his smile, his laugh, that felt familiar.

Where did she know him from? How could she have known him?