my version of him. This one was younger. The lines of his face were a little softer and his hair was dark without any of the familiar gray streaks I had gotten used to over the last decade.


    did know I was there. But I was sure it was just my imagination.


    what the hell?


    only under certain circumstances. For that reason, when you leave this room today and future sessions, you will remember none of this training.


    But I did. And I knew he wasn’t talking to my nine year old self any more. He was talking to me, or the version of me he knew would be remembering this memory.


    You don’t have to understand, but one day you will.”


    Be them.”


    Kill or be Killed.


    Today, we are going to learn to kill.


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    me in the memory. I could feel everything as if I had been there, even down to the things I was thinking.


    knew that the fighting wouldn’t stop until first blood. I had yet to win a bout with my dad. Today, I could feel the determination to change that.


    still he persisted.


    knew what he was building. He knew what was on the line. More importantly, he did it, because he loved me. That lesson above everything else stood out like a blinking neon light to me.


    why I did it.