** Luke''s POV **


    I have no idea how long I''ve been trapped in the silent darkness. There is no concept of time when there is nothing from which to judge it. I can''t even trust my own mind, as I''m sure it keeps shutting downpletely. Is this the afterlife? Is this what happens until we are reborn? I float around in an endless abyss of nothing, my memories slowly being stripped from me.


    I know I''m losing memories because my mind keeps showing me an image of a woman. She is beautiful, and I know I love her, and that she is mine, but I can''t recall her fame. I see her with four others, but they are faceless, more like a blurry outline of figures.


    "Luke," a faint voice calls, and I know it''s hers, my nameless love.


    Am I Luke? Is she calling out to me? I can''t be sure, but it''s the only thing I have heard in a very long time and I cling to it. It''s more than just a sound, it''s a feeling. A mix of emotions and an energy, an energy that I so desperately need to stop myself fading away.


    I pull on the zing of power, drawing it into me, letting it flood my body and bring me some rity. Josie, her name is Josie. I remember now, and I am Luke. I suck in more of the energy until there''s nothing left and the emotions I''d been feeling shut off like a door mming closed.


    Awareness begins to slowly build, and I can feel my own body again. It aches like it''s been still for too long. I still have a body, I can''t be dead if I still have a body, right?


    My hearing returns next, it''s muffled at first, as if I am underwater.


    "Just give up on him, Mandy, you gave him too much," a deep voice I don''t recognise says.


    Who is Mandy?


    "No, he''s my bond, he will wake up," a feminine voice responds. I assume this is Mandy.


    Are they talking about me? Was I wrong about the woman love being called Josie?


    "I doubt he is. The girl probably lied because she knows how desperate you are for male attention. It would have been the quickest way to make you drop your guard," the male sighs.


    "She wasn''t lying. He is mine, and I''m not giving up on him," Mandy snaps.


    "Fine, but you can''t sit here watching him all night. We have work to do," The male says.


    "I can''t leave him alone like this. What if he wakes up, and he is scared?" Many whines.


    "Then get one of the kids to watch him. We have to open up a new bunker and get everyone underground before anyone finds us and then..." the voice fades as they talk until it bes a muffled noise again.


    I fight to cling to the sense I have just regained. I can''t stop fighting, or I might note back again, but it''s useless as the silence pulls me back down, my body slowly bing detached from my consciousness again.


    "This is wrong, he needs help, or he''s going to die," a hushed voice startles me back at awareness.


    I have no idea how long has passed, but the voice I hear now is not the same as the one I heard thest time my hearing worked. This one sounds younger.


    "What do you expect us to do? We can''t just carry him out of here without someone noticing," another voice


    whispers back.


    "We could get help. When we leave for our shift, we can contact someone from the other realm," a female voice says, and a vague recognition sparks in me. I have spoken to this girl before. I just can''t remember when. "How? And what is going to stop them from locking us away in their prison?"


    "We can go to one of those assessment offices and try to make a deal with them. They have Jack, we have this guy. We can offer a trade," the female says.


    "And then what? Do you really expect to be weed back here after we betray them? And what''s to stop the others justpelling the information from us and locking us up anyway?"


    "Then at least we will be in the same realm as Jack. Besides I don''t think they are as evil as we''ve been led to believe. I spoke to those two that came from the other realm, and they said it was nice there, that they are not forced to serve the humans like we have been told. They said that their people woulde to save us all," the female exins.


    The whole conversation is confusing to me, but I feel it''s important, and I wish I could keep my hearing long enough to listen to the rest of it. Just likest time though, their voices be muffled as I''m dragged back into the void.


    "Luke! Oh my god, Luke, we are here, just hold on," a female voice cries and I know this one. My heart beats for this one. No, that''s not right... My heart beats with this one. She is Josie, my bond. I''m sure of it. I feel hands on my aching body, their warmth like a soothing balm.


    "D, get us to the infirmary with him now!" a male voice shouts. Axel, I think that''s his name. "Josie, you can''t heal this, we need to get him medical help" another voice says. Deacon I think.


    "Just let me try," Josie sobs, and I wish I knew why she was upset and that I couldfort her.


    "Shit, Babe, he doesn''t look good. Let us get him to Art, and then you can try to heal him," someone soothes. Theo, I''m sure.


    "Fuck. I''m sorry," another voice grumbles. This one is Mason.


    Josie, Axel, Deacon, Theo and Mason. My bond group, I can picture their faces


    now.


    Harper, As, Joel, Sammy, Elijah and Jensen. They are our kids. Memory after memory floods my mind. Every interaction with the people I love. My earliest memories with my parents. My first day at school, then the academy. The first time I saw Josie, our first kiss and bonding with her. Learning to love my bonded brothers. The births of our children, the taste of coffee, the love surrounding me.


    If this is the end, that moment where they say your whole life shes before your eyes, then I''ll go out with a smile, because I have been truly blessed in this life.