All Chapters of Bound By The Missing Hours: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Where are we?" Danny asked, scanning their surroundings. The rolling hills, the jagged mountain backdrop, and the scent of damp earth and pine brought a sense of calm he hadn't felt in years. For a moment, the silence of the valley was so profound it felt heavy, a physical weight pressing against the frantic beating of his heart."We are home, and we should be safe here for a while," Alex replied. He spoke the word home with a strange reverence, as if it were a prayer he had been reciting in the dark for an exceedingly long time.He pulled the car to a stop in front of a massive structure that defied the natural curves of the landscape. It was a mansion lifted straight from the dark, fantastical stories Danny’s parents used to tell him—all charcoal stone, towering gables, and shadowed windows that seemed to watch them with ancient intelligence. Vines of thick, silver-tinged ivy climbed the walls like grasping fingers, and the heavy oak doors looked reinforced with iron bands.Danny st

The world slowed to a sickening crawl. Danny stayed perfectly still on the mossy log, the air in his lungs feeling like jagged glass. This wasn't Peter.This was a nightmare draped in matted, charcoal fur.The wolf in front of him was a "rogue"—a creature that had lost its humanity to the wild, driven by a hollow, gnawing hunger that went deeper than the stomach. It was scarred, its ears notched from a dozen jagged fights, and it smelled of wet earth and copper. Its growl wasn't just a sound; it was a physical vibration that rattled the very marrow of Danny’s bones.But Danny did not know this, all he saw was a tall, menacing looking wolf looking him up an down as if it had just found a five course meal.I’m going to die, Danny thought. The cold clarity of the realization was almost peaceful. I survived two years of mourning a ghost, only to end up as a trophy for a monster in the woods.The wolf’s haunches quivered as it coiled its muscles to spring. Danny closed his eyes, his mind f

Back at the ridge, the air didn't just feel cold—it felt static, charged with the kind of ozone that precedes a lightning strike.Silas and Kael, the two sentries Alex had left behind, didn't shift their gaze from the tree line. They stood in a staggered defensive formation, their bodies halfway between human and wolf, muscles corded and eyes glowing a sharp, predatory blue. Their eyes searching for their prey; the wolf attacking Danny had disappeared the moment Alex, Silas and Kael appeared but from the scent they knew that he was still there, watching them."Did you smell that?" Kael hissed, his voice a low-frequency growl. "That wasn't just rogue musk. It was... burnt.""A Seeker," Silas spat, his claws extending with a rhythmic shing against the frozen dirt. "Alex was right. They haven't seen one of those in the valley for decades."The woods went deathly silent. No birds, no rustle of wind. Then, the shadows at the edge of the clearing

Danny turned around and walked out of the heavy doors the lead warrior had left open. Every part of him was shutting down—his mind, his body, and his soul felt as though they could take no more. His normal life had been violently upended once again, but this time, there was no calling for help. If he told the truth to the outside world, he wouldn’t be saved; he’d be locked away in a psych ward for the rest of his life.“Where is my room?” Danny asked, his voice dead and robotic.Alex signalled to a maid standing nearby. She dipped her head in a silent, respectful nod and began to guide Danny up the grand staircase. The journey through the sprawling house was quiet, the only sound the soft thud of their footsteps on the carpet. Danny was grateful for the silence; he didn't have the strength to form a single sentence as he was barely holding on as it was.The maid stopped at a room on the top floor and pushed the door open. Danny took one step inside and froze. His uncle was standing in

Danny had fallen asleep in his uncle’s arms, who had proceeded to life Danny onto the bed and then leave the room. Danny weighed almost nothing since Alex had ‘died’. Danny had stopped eating and suffered from severe depression for a long time, resulting in him losing a lot of weight that he had never put back on.Uncle sighed as he looked back at Danny before leaving the room, his worry now was that Dannys’ depression would return and might even destroy Danny this time.At first uncle was happy to find out that Alex was actually alive and had been living here, but now he is filled with regrets of bringing Alex back into Dannys life.Back in the room, Dany remained asleep until the morning. His sleep was filled with nightmares from the past and the present, both merging together and creating a dream so dark that Danny couldn’t claw his way out of it, no matter how hard he tried.The transition from sleep to wakefulness was no