Chapter 85

• The nightmares came in full force. One after the other. Memories of the past. The pain and the suffering. Sitting in that metal chair as my father did everything he could to break me. Enzo, nearly succeeding, as he recreated what Father did. Except without the boundaries. I felt myself slipping. My heart shutting down as I sat in that chair, tied up to with leather straps on my wrists and ankles.
• Unable to move or to run. Only able to take what was being done to me. No matter how strong I was. No matter how much of a fighter. My father and Enzo would be a looming figure over me as I sat in this chair. I was at their mercy. I was torn down only to be pulled back and torn down again. Over and over.
• You could be stronger than any man alive but there was difference between having strength and having fight. I had strength. What I didn’t have for so long was the fight. I’d lost it somewhere along the way. Maybe it was watching my friends die, the people I cared for die, watched as they all crumbled and yet I had to still be alive. My strength was useless without fight.