The walls shook with the force of the confrontation.
Jayden, barely able to stand, clenched his fists so tight that blood ran from his palms. Across from him, Daniel loomed like a shadow too large to fight, fury dripping from every fiber of his being.
"You think a broken man can stop me?" Daniel sneered, stepping forward.
Jayden didn't answer with words.
He moved.
Fast. Desperate. Fighting not with strength, but with something far more dangerous — hope.
Their bodies collided in a brutal clash, fists flying, the sound of each hit echoing through the empty building. Matilda tried to help, but a beam from the crumbling ceiling crashed down between them, forcing her back.
She could only watch.
Jayden fought like a man clawing back every lost second, every stolen dream. For every punch Daniel landed, Jayden answered with one of his own — fueled by memories returning in shards so sharp they cut him from the inside out.
Images flashed in his mind.
His father's quiet smile.
The hidden inheritance.
Tielen's fierce loyalty.
Wendy's laughter on rainy nights.
Matilda's tears the night he was taken.
This was what Daniel had tried to erase.
This was what they had bled to protect.
Jayden stumbled — Daniel seized the opportunity and drove his knee into Jayden's ribs, sending him crashing to the floor.
"Stay down," Daniel growled. "You were nothing without me. You'll always be nothing."
Jayden coughed blood onto the cracked floor, tasting iron and rage.
Slowly, painfully, he rose to one knee.
"I was nothing... when I believed you," Jayden said, voice hoarse but steady. "But not anymore."
In a flash, he grabbed a splintered pipe from the ground and swung it with all his strength.
The blow caught Daniel square across the jaw.
The man staggered backward, stunned.
Matilda screamed Jayden's name, but he was already moving — tackling Daniel with a desperate roar that shook the foundations of the forgotten building.
---
Outside, the first sirens wailed.
The city was waking up to a dawn bathed in fire and smoke.
---
Inside, the fight ended with Daniel sprawled on the ground, unconscious.
Jayden collapsed beside him, his body wracked with pain and exhaustion. Matilda rushed to him, gathering him into her arms as tears streamed down her face.
"You came back to me," she sobbed, pressing her forehead to his.
Jayden's battered hand brushed her cheek weakly. "You never gave up... even when I did."
He closed his eyes, trusting her completely.
Behind them, the building began to groan — the roof threatening to collapse.
Matilda didn't hesitate. She hoisted Jayden's arm over her shoulders and pulled him to his feet.
"We're getting out," she whispered fiercely. "Together."
And step by agonizing step, they stumbled out of the ashes of yesterday — into a future they hadn't yet dared to imagine.