Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 322: Memories in Mirrors

Chapter 322: Memories in Mirrors

I studied the man in front of me. He was the representation of how he viewed himself, and this man thought very highly of himself.

He wore pleated gray dress pants that looked like they cost as much as half of my entire wardrobe and a pale blue sweater to match. Under the sweater, he was wearing a white dress shirt with a darker blue tie, the knot peeking out from over the top of the sweater.

His silver glasses seemed to sparkle in the darkness of his mind.

Clearly, this man considered his image to be very important.

"You look familiar," murmured the man as he cocked his head to the side. "Where have I seen you before?"

Raising my eyebrows, I looked at the man. "Besides right now? I have no idea." If he didn’t want me to finish healing him, couldn’t I just move on, get my guys, and leave? Why did we need to have a whole conversation?

"Where did you live before all this happened?" continued the man as if he had all the time in the world. And since it was his zombies that were holding my men captive, I was at his beck and call.

Sitting on the floor of his mind, I stretched my legs out in front of me, ignoring his look of displeasure. "City D," I answered, tilting my head from side to side in an attempt to reduce some of the tension. It didn’t work.

Why couldn’t spas and massage therapists be a thing at the end of the world? I was sure that they would make a killing.

The man nodded his head, and a breeze flowed through his mind, rippling the darkness covering the mirrors. Suddenly, one mirror was completely clear.

"You know Ye Yao Zu?" I demanded as I jumped up and rushed over to the mirror. It showed Ye Yao Zu, along with this man and an unknown woman, passing pictures around a dining room table.

"No, Father, I am not interested."

The man in the mirror shook his head at his son’s statement. "I don’t care if you are interested or not. You need to get married, and these are the only acceptable candidates. Your mother worked hard to go through all of the potential matches. You need to respect her and choose one."

The younger version of Ye Yao Zu shook his head again. "It has nothing to do with respect. I have found someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with, and it isn’t any of them."

"Well, what do you know about her?" demanded the mother.

"She is the granddaughter of the Song family in City D. A child genius who graduated from medical school at 16 years old," explained Ye Yao Zu.

I blinked when I heard that. I didn’t know he felt that way even back then. Shaking my head, I turned back to the memory playing on the mirror, not realizing that the zombie alpha was standing beside me, watching the same thing that I was.

"What about her parents?" demanded the man, his eyes narrowing on his son. "It doesn’t matter who her grandparents are if they have disinherited her parents. Bloodlines and families are important."

"Yes, Father, I know that. Her parents were in good standing with her grandparents, but all of them died in a car crash when she was a child," explained Ye Yao Zu, refusing to back down.

"So, and orphan then," sneered the mother, sorting through the pictures in front of her again.

"So, the heir to the Song fortune and everything that that entails," sneered back Ye Yao Zu. "But even if she was broke, I would still be interested in her."

He took out his phone and unlocked it. The wallpaper showed a woman sitting on a dock beside a lake, her hair blowing in the wind.

"This is Wang Tian Mu, the only woman that I will marry."

The vision in the mirror faded away until I was left staring at a still-life picture of Ye Yao Zu.

"You’re his father," I said, turning around to look at the zombie alpha again.

Now, I could see the resemblance between the two men, but my Ye Yao Zu never looked so... cold.

"And you are Wang Tian Mu," grunted the zombie.

"I am," I nodded. I don’t even remember him taking that picture, but I do remember that day. It was the death anniversary of my parents and grandparents, and Bai Long Qiang had taken me to the cabin that day, along with some of the guys.

"Is my son with you?" asked the Alpha, his eyes never leaving my face.

"He is. One of your zombies probably has him over its shoulder as we speak," I admitted.

"Don’t tell him who I am. Don’t tell him about any of this," pleaded the zombie. The look on his face was nothing short of devastation. "I don’t want him to be... disappointed in me."

"Clearly, you don’t know your son as well as you think you do." I shook my head, not knowing what to do. I wanted to say that I didn’t believe in keeping secrets from my men, but that wasn’t true. I had kept my feelings for the others hidden from Bai Long Qiang for a long time.

And look at how that turned out.

I didn’t give the zombie a definitive answer, but I did offer him a solution. "I might be able to make you a Reaver," I started before amending my words. "Not a Reaver, Reaver... but a Reaver like Rip. More human than Reaver, and more Reaver than zombie."

"No," replied the Alpha. "I don’t want to be a Reaver or a human. I don’t want to remember what I did while I was a zombie; I don’t want any of it. I just want to live the rest of my life like I am now."

"Okay," I nodded. "If that is what you want."

"It’s the only thing that I want." The zombie paused for a moment before looking back at the mirror with a young Ye Yao Zu’s face on it. "Tell him that I approve of the match."

My voice caught in my throat as tears unexpectedly appeared in my eyes. "I will," I said, clearing my throat. "And you are welcome in City D any time you want."

"Thank you."