Chapter 69: FATHER
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How did I get here?
Staring down the sheer drop of Mount Nachi waterfall, vertigo hit me like a tidal wave. My stomach lurched at the height. I''d visited this sacred place with my Japanese dad countless times as a child but never ventured this close to the edge. The mist from Nachi Falls created a thick blanket of fog below, obscuring the bottom of the 436-foot drop.
My body felt foreign. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t step back from the precipice. The waterfall''s roar filled my ears, the spray wetting my face.
"Ember Lynn."
The voice cut through the thundering falls—distinctly Irish, echoing off the cliff face. My heart pounded as I tried to place where I''d heard that accent before.
I forced my body to turn, fighting against whatever force held me in place. My Japanese dad stood there, but something was wrong. His usually warm eyes were cold, empty. He wore the same formal yukata from all the mornings I''d seen him when I''d snuck out of the house before dawn.
His lips curved into an unnatural smile as he stepped toward me.
"No," I pleaded, but my feet remained frozen to the wet rock.
His hands pressed against my shoulders, gentle at first. He said, "Go to your father." Then came the push.
* * *
My eyes cracked open to blinding fluorescent lights. The sharp chemical smell of antiseptic burned my nostrils. Everything hurt—my chest, my throat, my limbs felt like they''d been crushed under a mountain.
I struggled to move, but tubes snaked from my arms and chest. Something was lodged in my throat, making it impossible to swallow. The steady beep of monitors filled the sterile room.
Where was I? The last thing I remembered was falling... no, wait… the suite at the Golden Nugget.
A male nurse in blue scrubs walked past my door, then backpedaled with wide eyes when he saw me.
"She''s awake! Doctor! The poker player…" His shout echoed down the hallway.
My eyelids felt impossibly heavy. The room started spinning as footsteps thundered toward my door. White coats flooded in, voices overlapping:
"BP is dropping—"
"Pupils responsive—"
"Get me a—"
The lights above blurred, and darkness threatened to overtake me. I fought to stay awake but slipped away.
* * *
The doctor leaned over me, shining a light in my eyes. His kind face crinkled with a warm smile beneath salt-and-pepper hair.
"Hello, Ms. Lynn. I''m Dr. Wei. Try not to speak—your throat is raw from the intubation tube."
The Asian name didn''t match the face with blue eyes. I opened my mouth but only managed a weak croak. My throat felt like I''d swallowed broken glass.
Dr. Wei checked the monitors beside my bed.
"You had a severe cardiac arrest. If your friend Rocky hadn''t found you when he did..." He shook his head. "Well, you''re fortunate to be alive."
My eyes drifted to the clock on the wall.
"Ms. Lynn... you''ve been in a coma for 40 days. We..." Dr. Wei answered as if he read my mind, choosing his words carefully. "We thought you were brain dead. Your recovery is nothing short of a miracle.”
Forty days? My heart monitor''s steady beeping increased slightly.
"Try to rest now," Dr. Wei urged, adjusting my IV drip. "You''ve been through quite the trial. Rocky will be here soon—he hasn''t missed a single day visiting you. Even slept in that chair most nights." He nodded toward a worn recliner in the corner.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I wanted to ask about Rocky, what happened, and everything else, but exhaustion was already pulling me back. Dr. Wei patted my hand gently as my eyelids grew heavy.
* * *
Rocky''s arms wrapped around me in a tight embrace, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. I tried to speak, to comfort him, but my throat still refused to cooperate. My arm felt stronger, though, as I managed to pat his back.
"Em, I was so scared." Rocky pulled back, wiping his eyes. "Something felt wrong when you ran out of the poker room that night. You looked... different. I tried calling, but when you didn''t answer..." He gripped my hand. "I convinced security to check your room. Found you on the floor, barely breathing."
I squeezed his hand weakly, grateful for his intuition.
"The doctors said if we''d found you even ten minutes later..." Rocky''s voice cracked. He took a deep breath. "But that''s not all. Your disappearance kind of... went viral."
My eyebrows rose in question.
"These TikTokers started making theories about where you vanished to. Someone tracked down which hospital you were in." Rocky grimaced. "I tried to keep it quiet and protect your privacy, but it exploded. TMZ, ESPN… everyone covered it. ''Poker Ninja''s Mystery Collapse'' was trending for weeks."
I wanted to ask more, but fatigue furled over me like a heavy blanket. My eyelids drooped despite my efforts to stay awake.
"Get some rest," Rocky whispered, squeezing my hand one last time as I drifted off.
* * *
I scraped the last bit of ruby red cherry jello from the plastic cup, savoring the artificial sweetness as BASE jumpers soared across mountain valleys on the TV screen. The door creaked open, and a tall figure in an impeccably tailored charcoal suit stepped in.
My spoon clattered to the tray.
His red hair—my red hair—was neatly styled, but a few strands fell across his forehead. His face bore the same sharp angles as mine, softened by age and success.
"Ember Lynn." His Irish lilt wrapped around my name like a warm blanket.
My heart pounded. This was him—my biological father.
"When your Japanese father called about the coma..." He cleared his throat, fidgeting with his silk tie. "Then I saw you on TV. I was in Sydney for business. Caught the first flight out. Been staying at the MGM since."
He sank into the chair beside my bed, his green eyes filling with tears.
"I can''t believe it''s really you. I''m so sorry, Ember. I was just a teenager. Your mother… I… I didn''t know what to do..."
I tried to respond and ask about my mother—why he was here now, but my voice remained stubbornly absent. Something felt wrong about that, but I couldn''t understand why.
He leaned forward, studying my face.
"You have her fiery eyes, Ember Lynn."
I scowled. Something wasn''t adding up—my eyes were emerald green, weren''t they? The recollection seemed solid but hazy, like grasping at fragments of a fading dream. I searched the room for a reflective surface but came up empty. The stainless steel basin... I stretched to pick it up.
As I expected, my irises were green in the metallic sheen.
The door burst open. Rocky strode in, his dealer''s vest abandoned for street clothes. He froze mid-step, dark eyes narrowing at my supposed father.
"Who the hell are you?" Rocky''s voice held an edge I''d never heard before.
The Irishman stood, straightening his tie.
"I''m Ember Lynn''s father. Her real father."
"Yeah, right," Rocky scoffed. "Like the dozens of other guys that keep showing up with the same story over the past month."
"Young man, I don''t know what you''re talking about…"
"Rocky!" Dr. Wei shouted, entering the room. "Calm down. This is her father. We verified his identity before letting him see his daughter."
With fingers twisted in the sheets, questions crowded my mind, all trapped behind my silent lips.
"That''s bullshit, doc," Rocky spat.
Their words blurred like I was sinking underwater. Their mouths moved, but the sound came muffled, distorted. Rocky''s face darkened with rage as he stepped closer to the Irishman, jabbing a finger at his chest.
I wanted to tell them to stop and warn my father about Rocky''s security training, but my voice remained trapped. My head felt heavy and disconnected.
My Father''s hand shot out, gripping Rocky''s wrist in a crushing hold. Rocky''s knees buckled as he dropped to the floor, his face contorted in pain.
Piercing screams erupted behind the curtain beside my bed. Nurses rushed past in blue scrubs, their rubber soles squeaking against the linoleum floor.
"She''s crowning!" A nurse shouted.
"Get Dr. Hawkstone in here now!"
The woman''s agonized screams sent ice through my veins. That voice—I knew that voice.
"Push! You need to push!"
Another wail ripped through the air, raw and primal. My heart hammered against my ribs as memories crashed over me. The Amazon Reforging Grounds. The brutal conditioning. The betrayal in her eyes.
Kyra.
The curtain swayed violently as medical staff rushed back and forth, their frantic shadows dancing across the thin fabric like a puppet show. The screaming reached a fever pitch, raw and desperate, before cutting off so abruptly that the silence felt like a physical blow. My stomach churned as I caught glimpses of blood-stained gloves through the gaps in the curtain.
A baby''s first cry shattered the silence.
But something was wrong. The soft newborn wails twisted, deepening into an inhuman growl that raised the hair on my arms. The nurses'' excited chatter transformed into shouts of horror. My heart skipped several beats as I pressed closer to the curtain, every muscle in my body tensing with the primal urge to get the hell out of there. That sound—I''d heard it once before—was during a vision while trapped in the Jingozi arena. The growl reverberated through the room like it came from something much larger than a newborn, something ancient and wrong.
"Oh God—what is that?"
"Get back! Get back!"
Droplets spattered across the curtain, spreading into dark crimson blooms. The metallic scent of blood hit my nostrils, triggering memories of cursed elf corpses in the crystal caves. More screams joined the demonic chorus, each one more desperate than the last, as medical equipment crashed to the floor with deafening clatters. The monitors flatlined with a sustained electronic whine. My fingers gripped the curtain''s edge, torn between the urge to escape and the need to see the horror unfolding on the other side.
"We need security—security!"
Blood soaked through the curtain, dripping onto the pristine white tiles in a growing puddle that crept toward my bed.
My body went rigid.
The last thing I remember was the TV catching my eye—a BASE jumper in a red jumpsuit stood at a cliff''s edge. Without hesitation, she stepped off, plummeting toward jagged rocks below. No parachute. Just the endless fall.