FTWD Shattered World

The group walked through the lobby, searching the side halls and then into the enclosed yard between the buildings before they moved into the ballroom of the resort. Daniel and Chris stayed behind in the lobby while looking after the cars.

The ballroom was a mess with debris everywhere, broken chairs and tables scattered across the room.

"Happiest day of somebody's life," Ofelia says as they make their way through it.

"Until it wasn't," Strand says quietly.

"You know, I was almost married once," Ofelia says as she picks up a photo from the floor.

"Who was the lucky guy?" Strand inquires, making small talk while looking around the place for something useful.

Paul embraced his mother's waist as she looked at the groom and bride miniature on the mockup cake.

"No way, really?" Amy says with a smile at that.

"His name was William," Ofelia says while reminiscing the past. "He was a good man."

"Couldn't have been that good," Strand says with a smirk. Seeing how Ofelia looked at him, he clarified, "You said almost."

"He was moving to New Mexico, Santa Fe," Ofelia continues after the little episode. "And I had to take care of my parents."

"A pity, I too would have wished to marry if I could have in the past," Andrea says, chiming in while looking at Paul, hinting that she wanted it.

Paul smiled at that but didn't comment, but inside he took note of it.

"Would you like that?" Paul asks Alicia as he takes her hand.

"With you, yes," Alicia says as she kisses him.

"I would like that too," Claire also interjects, taking him for a kiss.

"The past... It'll make you sick," Strand says after seeing there was nothing in the place. "Madison, let's find the kitchen."

"Sometimes you can be quite insensitive, Strand," Liza says to him as she is beside them, seeing the depressed look on Ofelia.

"Sometimes," Strand smiles.

"Quite an ass," Andrea says quietly under her breath.

"Mom, let's go," Alicia said to her mom who was beside a table looking quietly at the photo of the newlyweds.

After a while of looking around the kitchen and other halls, there was nothing. They moved to the big bar room that faced the street on the first floor of the hotel, with the shops in front.

Paul sat at the bar counter as he looked around the drinks still intact. "I need a bartender."

"What do you want?" Andrea smiled as she crossed the bar counter.

"Impress me, love," Paul smirks

Andrea took a look around and smiling grabbed a bottle of whiskey then she picked up a glass and blew on it, removing the dust and putting it in front of him after filling it. "Jack Daniel. As you like to drink whiskey, I thought you would like it."

"Thank you, babe," Paul says and drinks from it in one big gulp.

"Easy there, drink slowly, we don't want to have you drunk so fast," Claire says as she touches his back.

"Oh, it's not a problem, babe, it hardly will do anything. It's good, not the best for me, but good," Paul smiles as he embraces her waist and comments after tasting it.

"We should check the rooms," Alicia says after a moment of looking around. "All of them."

"You know, the guests had luggage, the minibars might be stocked." Alicia continued elaborating on what she thought.

"She's right, it's a good way to scavenge supplies." Paul nods at his sister's idea.

"The kitchen was empty," Strand adds.

"Yeah, we don't have water or food," Liza also supports the idea.

"Go floor by floor, room by room, we'll find something," Alicia says as she looks to her mom.

"Let's look down here," Madison says to Alicia, not wanting her to leave too far from her sight.

"You look down here." Alicia counters her instead.

"I want you with me," Madison was like a mother hen, already depressed with one son missing, not wanting a daughter to be added to the count.

"The girls and I will check the tower and we'll meet back here before sunset," Alicia says a little more softly this time to her.

"No, I said no," Madison was still unrelenting.

"We checked every hall, every door," Alicia continues a little frustrated with her. "If there are infected, we would have seen them or survivors would have come out."

"The place is dead," Alicia exclaimed a little strongly.

"Alicia," Madison didn't know what to say to that, but she still didn't want her to face any danger.

"Madison, we will all go with her; nothing wrong is going to happen," Andrea says from the other side of the bar, intending to search the rooms alongside the rest of the girls.

"Alicia is right, Mom. We need those supplies." Claire stands beside her sister as they look at their mom.

"We will be fast, Madison. In the blink of an eye, we will be back." Amy also joins the girls in support of Alicia's idea.

Madison was going crazy with these girls who wanted to do what they wanted.

"They can take care of themselves," Strand says, as he is more interested in these drinks than moving around the tower searching the rooms at this moment. "They are old enough."

Paul was still a little pissed off with all of Nick's drama, and he didn't want to move around either. But he was a little worried about them looking at the rooms. Surely there would be some infected in this big place or a lot, who knows? He sees the drink in his glass and knows what to do to not be distressed by thinking about them all the time.

"Doing it half my life. I'm sure I'll be fine," Alicia comments a little sarcastically as she moves to the door intending to exit the room and go to the stairwells.

"Alicia..." Claire doesn't want her sister to put more stress on their mom with her sarcastic remarks, even if they have some truth.

"Wait," Paul says, as he crosses over the bar counter and grabs a cocktail shaker under it, which he opens it, under the eyes of everyone as he scratches his fingers, letting his blood fill the shaker until it heals. After that, he puts it over the bar and adds Cointreau, silver tequila, and fresh-squeezed lime juice and secures the cocktail shaker by attaching the cap. Now, taking hold of the shaker securely over his shoulders, he gives it a little shake for a few seconds. Then he pours the liquid into various shot glasses and rubs salt on the rim of them.

"What did you prepare, Paul?" Amy asks as she looks at the liquids poured into the glasses with curiosity.

"A few drinks for everyone as good luck talisman for this day." Paul smiles. "I don't have the energy to move around."

Alicia, already knowing what he wanted to do as do the rest, looks at him. Madison also is a little more at ease with them going after seeing that.

"Salud!" Paul cheers as he drinks the contents.

Andrea takes hold of one of the shots in her hand and drinks it in one go. "It's not so bad." The rest also pick one and drink their contents.

"What does your blood do, that you added it to the drink?" Strand asks him curiously, so were Liza and Ofelia about it.

"You've already seen that I become a wolf under a full moon," Paul says to them. "I don't know how to explain that, because I'm the same as everyone here; I don't know the cause of it. But stranger things are happening to my body after I got infected with the virus at the same time as you all. In my case, it gave me powers - one of them being the capacity to save someone in case he dies, not becoming a walker as the virus intended but something else, which was already tested on Jake and Alex back in the boat before they left. It changed the dying person but also healed him, among other things. Because of things like that, we are strongly speculating that the virus is acting differently on my body than the rest. I'm not a scientist or medical specialist in the field but for sure is the most probable and logical thing to think."

The three were silent, contemplating for a moment as the rest looked at them.

After a moment, Strand sighed, who knows what was on his mind, and said, "I don't know what the problem is with you, Paul. But one thing is clear, whatever the virus did with your body, it made you like those superheroes in the comics. But what is happening around us with the dead walking is already absurd, like a fantasy."

"Hell, we saw you being a wolf. You are like in The Astounding Wolf-Man when Gary Hampton is mauled and left for dead, and his life takes a drastic turn! When the moon is full, he transforms into a beast of the night - a werewolf! Just that, in your case, you become a full wolf, different from him, who is a bipedal wolf with human resemblance."

"Yeah, it's like you are saying, Strand. I don't take you for someone who reads comics," Paul says with a smile and raised eyebrow.

"Everyone was a kid during a time. Tell me one thing: could your blood have healed Thomas?" Strand gives a chuckle at first and then takes a more serious expression.

"Yes, and I was about to give it to you to heal him, but he died before I could. I didn't know he was bitten until late into the night when it was already over." Paul says clearly to him while he looks into his eyes.

"I see... Thanks for being honest. Maybe it was fated to be like this... "Strand was pensive with who knows what in his head thinking before he gave a last sigh relaxing.

"In any case, I don't hold any grudge against you. It was what had to happen. Now I need to see for what will come." Strand says and takes hold of one of the shot glasses and drinks the liquid in one gulp.

Liza also takes one and drinks it, making her feel refreshed all over her body. She also grabs another one for Chris intending to make him drink it, seeing that Paul did for everyone here and also counted Chris and Daniel on it.

"Paul, can this heal my father?" Ofelia asks with hope.

"Yes, if it's a neurological problem, that is, some physical problem with his brain or his body, It would heal him of it. But if it is something psychological, I don't know, because it is not a brain problem but something about how someone feels and emotional, his mental and emotional stability. It depends on the person then." Paul says quietly to Ofelia.

"Okay... I will make him drink it, at least he will not have anything wrong with his body." Ofelia sighs and drinks her shot, feeling invigorated.

Then, Ofelia says, "I will not go upstairs with them; I hate hotels, they creep me out." Ofelia says as everyone is preparing to move. "Instead, I will take care of the cars with my Papa and Chris in the front."

"Paul can become a wolf and the dead walk the earth, and it's hotels that creep you out?" Claire asks with a smile as she looks at her.

"I think it's the carpets," Ofelia smiles.

"It's fine," Alicia reassures her. Besides, Claire, Andrea, Amy, and Liza would be accompanying her to inspect the rooms.

"Guys, it goes without saying, but remember that if you want to continue enjoying the boons, keep what was heard here in your hearts, nothing more," Paul says with a knowing look at the consequences.

After a brief silence, with everyone knowing what to do, they exit the room, leaving Strand, Paul, and Madison in the bar.

"Have a seat, drinks on me." Strand smiles as he eyes the bar. "I will show you something better than Paul's quasi-margarita, even if it was quite invigorating."

"Hey, it's as good as they can be made," Paul says a little disgruntled. "Go ahead, show me what you got."

"Not now, guys," Madison says as she looks around the bar for canned food or useful things.

"Especially now," Strand says as he crosses over the bar.

"Mom, I stayed here to drink and relax, not keep looking around for stuff. You should do the same," Paul says while sitting sprawled out in a chair, waiting for Victor to make something.

"You should listen to your man," Strand says as he looks around for what he has to use.

"I'm good," Madison says as she looks at them.

"Well, you look like shit," Strand says matter-of-factly.

"Oh, thank you," Madison says sarcastically.

"De nada. You need some color in your cheeks." Strand says to her as he takes a few bottles and puts them in front of Paul. "You need a drink, Paul needs a drink and I need a drink. Come now, it's medicinal."

"Alright, let's see what you got for us," Madison says as she leaves her gun in the bar and sits on her son's lap, getting comfy as she shakes her ass on his cock, while she rests her back on his chest.

Paul embraces his mother as she rests on him while looking at Strand who turns a blind eye to the mother-son lovey-dovey antics.

Strand then takes a bottle of vermouth and gin and pours their content into a shaker, puts the cap and shakes for a few seconds before pouring the liquid into three cocktail glasses while also adding a few sticks with olives on them.

A few drinks later...

"Mmm. I'll tell you right here, right now, the way to make a perfect Martini," Strand says slowly with a whispering voice while making gestures. "It's Gin over rocks in a shaker."

"Come up real close to it and whisper vermouth." Strand smiles, a little tipsy already and playful.

"Is that so?" Madison says mockingly with a different accent on her voice.

Paul's cock instantly comes to life after hearing his mother's accent that unconsciously left her while talking, already being a little tipsy. Madison feels it and shakes her ass slowly over it.

"Wait, what?" Strand says while raising an eyebrow and a surprised face at her accent.

"What?" Madison asks, still with that accent.

"Say that again," Strand says curiously.

"Is that so?" Madison smiles as she speaks. Enjoying the play with her son's cock under her ass and Victor's antics.

"Aha, how did I not realize that our very own Madison Clark is a Southern belle." Strand chuckles with the realization as he drinks.

"Alabama." Madison chuckles at that, as she takes an olive into her mouth and feeds it to her son's mouth.

Madison kisses him a little and licks her lips. "Mm-hmm. I tended bar to put myself through school and I'll tell you right here, right now, your story is bullshit."

"Your Martini's bullshit." Madison says as she looks at the cocktail glasses "And that vermouth shtick is as old as the hills."

"I must say, my mom is both wise and tough. She isn't gonna fall for that." Paul smirks, while praising inside him, 'Sweet Home Alabama'. I love my roots.

"I see that, all right. Educate me, Ms. Clark." Strand surrenders.

"Bring me Tequila." Madison signals to the bottle that Paul previously used and left a little far away over the bar.

-----------------------------------------------

In the meantime, with the rest of the group.

Liza left along with Ofelia to give the drink to Chris, and shortly after, she returned to reunite with the girls, while Ofelia stayed with Chris and Daniel. Then the girls' group moved into the stairwells and climbed the stairs to the next floor.

Not long after they entered the second floor of the left wing of the hotel, which had five rooms in each hallway on each floor, each room was closed with a security lock that opened with a room key card.

Looking around the hallway over a utility service cart, Alicia found a hotel service room key card to open the rooms.

Alicia held up the room key card she had found, a small smile playing on her lips. "Alright, let's see what we've got here."

She approached the first door, but before she could slip the card into the lock, a loud banging echoed from within. The door rattled violently, the growls and snarls of walkers echoing through the wood. Alicia jumped back, her heart pounding.

"Shit, not this one," she muttered, moving on to the next door. She pressed her ear against it, listening intently. Seeing the 'Do Not Disturb' sign hanging from the handle, she knocked gently. Thuds and growls responded from within.

"Someone's been marking the infected rooms," Claire observed, pointing at the sign. "Clever."

The girls came to the conclusion that someone was marking the walker-infested rooms with the door signs.

Alicia nodded, moving to the next door, and listened attentively to the sounds. This one had the sign reversed, saying 'Please Make Up Room Now'. Not hearing anything even after knocking softly for a while, she slipped the key card into the lock, and the door opened with a soft click.

Going inside, the room was a mess. Luggage was strewn across the floor, chairs and furniture were overturned, and clothes were scattered haphazardly on the bed. Alicia grabbed a backpack from the bed and began filling it with clothes and useful things in there. She spotted a small flashlight in between the clothes and pocketed it.

She didn't say anything, but her face had a small silent smile on her face as she zipped up the backpack.

Andrea, meanwhile, was checking the minibar. She groaned in disappointment. "Damn, nothing but peanuts. Guess they weren't big drinkers."

Amy chuckled, "Or they took everything with them when they left."

Claire was checking the above kitchen cabinets, not finding anything worthwhile in them, just a lighter and two chip bags. "There is almost nothing in here," she said, tucking them into her bag.

Liza was looking at the closets, only finding just a few stacks of money along with a delicate wristwatch and clothes in there. She took the watch and put it on her wrist.

Suddenly, a noise came from the bathroom. The girls exchanged a look, and Alicia nodded towards the door. Andrea and Claire positioned themselves on either side of her, weapons ready. Alicia pushed the door open slowly.

Inside, a walker hung from the showerhead, a belt around its neck. It kicked and snarled at the air, teeth snapping. Its eyes, clouded and lifeless, locked onto the women.

"Damn," Liza muttered.

"Ew, gross," Amy said, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Let's just leave it and get out of here," Alicia said after a moment, not interested in dealing with it.

They backed out of the bathroom, closing the door behind them. The walker continued to kick and growl, but they ignored it, focusing on scavenging the rest of the room.

After gathering everything useful, they moved on to the next room. This one was cleaner, the bed made and the luggage stacked neatly by the door. A quick search revealed a stash of snacks in the drawer - granola bars, cereal, and a few packets of ramen.

"Now we're talking," Amy said, stuffing the food into the bag.

Claire checked the minibar and pulled out a few cans of Coke and a small bottle of Red Bull. "Could use the energy," she said, handing them out.

They continued down the line of rooms, finding them all with walkers inside. They moved into the next floor, finding a mix of useful items and walkers. Some rooms also had some useful hygiene products, foods, and drinks. They left aside the rooms with the 'Do Not Disturb' signs, leaving the walkers trapped inside.

On the fourth floor, as they were entering the last one of the rooms after not hearing anything inside and still being marked as clear, it was a dark room with the curtains drawn. Alicia stepped inside, with the flashlight cutting through the darkness. She was observing that the room was trashed when suddenly, a figure lunged from the shadows. Alicia quickly stepped back, dropping her flashlight. The figure snarled, teeth snapping as it approached the group.

Claire reacted quickly, driving her knife into the walker's skull. It dropped to the floor, lifeless. Alicia let out a shaky breath, picking up her flashlight.

"Nice, sister," Alicia said softly beside her. "A bite from one of these must hurt a lot even if Paul's blood could heal it."

Claire nodded, pulling her knife free. "Yeah, I don't want to try their bites anymore. It hurt like hell back on the island."

They searched the room, finding a few cans of food and a few unopened bottles of beer in the minibar. Amy held up the beer, a small smile on her lips. "Guess someone was having a party."

Claire chuckled. "Well, let's not leave good beer to go to waste."

"I want one, I'm thirsty," Andrea said as she grabbed one and opened the cap with it with a knife. She passed after sipping to Amy who took it and also drank. Then she opened another and passed it to Liza who took it and tanked her while also dropping in the bag a bottle of ethyl rubbing alcohol and a few clean towels.

Claire also opened one and gave it to Alicia, who drank a little before passing it back to Claire, who finished it.

"Let's check one floor more and then go back," Claire said to them as they checked around the room. "There isn't much time before evening."

"Sounds good," Andrea said, opening a granola bar to eat.

They moved back into the hallway, closing the door behind them. They heard a low growl coming from the direction that did a corner to another section of the hotel. Waiting for a moment, they saw a walker shambling towards them, who got excited after sensing the group.

The walker, a woman in a tattered sunny dress, snarled and snapped at them.

Amy bravely stepped forward with a knife in hand, putting it in the walker's head with a sickening crunch. The walker dropped to the floor, and the group moved back to the stairwells to check one last floor before returning to the first floor with the others.

"Nice hit," Claire said, clapping Amy on the back.

Amy gave a little smile. "Thanks."

After the little episode, they made their way back to the stairwells and climbed the last floor they would check before returning, as time passed they entered their last room of the afternoon before returning.

"Hey, there's still hot water," Liza says, noticing warm water coming from the tap that's still working. She's already thinking about taking a shower.

"Nice, we can clean ourselves now before going back," Amy says as she relaxes on the bed in the room.

"Don't get too comfy in the bed, Amy. You will fall asleep." Andrea says to her, who playfully slaps her sister's butt that was facing the air, as she was getting too relaxed.

"Yeah, yeah, just a moment Mom," Amy replies with a smile.

Alicia left her knife on the kitchen counter as she crouched to open the minibar, finding a lot of unopened beer, soda bottles, peanut butter cups, chip cans, and a large bag of peanuts.

"Why do you think he gave up? The first walker back in the shower." Alicia wondered as she took the things inside the minibar.

"What?" Claire asks a little distractedly, looking outside from the balcony.

"That man. I'd have tried at least fifty different things before I would have." Alicia says unconvinced about the man's decision.

"Maybe he was tired," Liza suggests, a little thirsty after running around searching for things.

"Tired of what?" Alicia asks skeptically.

"Surviving," Liza comments as she opens a bottle of soda to drink.

"You don't get tired of surviving," Alicia exclaims, not believing that it was that kind of stupid thing. "You just push on. You-- You've got to."

The girls were quiet deep in thought.

"What?" Alicia asks, noticing them not saying anything.

"Not everyone is like us," Claire says to her sister, knowingly. "You already know it, having experienced it near home."

"Yeah... as Paul says, he chose the easy way out of his problems," Alicia says sadly while remembering about the past.

"In these difficult situations like disasters that are out of our control, not everyone reacts the same way, some people think they maybe are not gonna make it while others think differently," Andrea adds from the side. "Back in the cages, they took people out of there with just a man finger-pointing them, those people never came back.

"Some just gave up in there, and they took them out. We thought we would die at any moment when their finger pointed at us, but we kept hoping that something would change, even if the situation was getting worse and worse as time passed and Amy getting sick. Thankfully, you both and Paul appeared, releasing us. We didn't lose hope until that moment." Andrea continued.

"Not then, and not now, we need to look to the future; it will get better," Andrea says to the girls.

"That's right, in any situation or problem, people think and act differently," Claire says to them. "We can't count on them being as we would hope they would be."

"Hey, now we have a bigger family and more hope for a future." Andrea smiles, as they embrace in a heartfelt group hug.

"That's all we have," Alicia says as she embraces them. "We lose that, and we're dead. We're family now."

"Alright, I will go take a shower, taking advantage of the opportunity that there's hot water running," Liza says, seeing them in an emotional moment.

"I'm sorry. You have us, for what it's worth, you know?" Alicia says to Liza too, after seeing her apart from them.

"I know girls, that I can count on you." Liza smiles as she enters the bathroom that she previously checked to be free of any danger.

----------------------------------------

"If we were sitting here before it all went to hell, maybe both of us would've skipped down to Rosarito," Strand says as he was leaning against the bar already feeling the effects of the alcohol.

"No, it wouldn't have happened. Steven and I always took the kids to Joshua Tree." Madison says while being already tipsy and inhibited, getting lovey-dovey with her son before Strand's eyes as she peppered with kisses Paul's neck as she sat on his lap.

"Ah, you never know. I could've come down to see Tom, you would've been on some god-awful family getaway." Strand says slowly as he looks at them while touching the rim of his cup.

"You would've snuck away from your motherly duties, snuck down to the bar and found me." Strand continues his imaginary retell.

"I would've sat next to you, we would've talked," Strand says as he speaks more suavely.

"Sure, I'd talk to you." Madison smiles not thinking too much about it, as she was enjoying how her son gave her pleasure as he played with her backside while she felt his cock lodged against her already dripping pussy between their clothes.

"I would've talked about coming up in the world, some nonsense to impress you," Strand says in a slow, whispered, drunken tone. "Anything but Tom."

"You would've hit on me?" Madison asked, amused as she looked at him after moving her head from her son's neck.

"I'm a seducer of people, Madison. It would've been fun." Strand says naturally and smoothly.

"But now there's no coming, no up, and no world to talk about." Strand resigns, drinks his glass, and starts pouring himself another. "No Tom, no Steven. There's not even a goddamn bar."

"She's right, Alicia's right. I'm never gonna see Nick again." Madison says then with a melancholic face.

"He's alive, the boy is bulletproof," Strand says seeing her like this again.

Paul was thinking inside, "Okay, here we go again." Caressing her shoulder while he drinks from his glass.

"Yeah, you don't get it, that boy was born lost," Madison says as she rests tiredly against her son's chest. "Like his daddy."

"He's been slipping through my fingers ever since the day I gave birth to him," Madison says distressfully.

"Maybe you've been holding on too tight," Strand says as he drinks faster now to numb himself to this conversation.

"Obviously not." Madison gives him a sarcastic remark. "Look at Paul. He is so different from his brother, why couldn't Nick be more like him?"

Madison says as she caresses her son's face.

"Okay. All right." Strand says, not knowing what more to say to her already in this state, and drinks from the cup.

"It's his father's darkness. You leave him alone, and he heads straight towards death." Madison says sadly, but also resentful with him for doing what he did. She takes the glass again and drinks. "At least the rest of them are different from him or their father."

Paul smiled wryly inside as he heard his mother pouring out their family history problems on him.

"How did Steven pass away?" Strand asks, seeing that she needs to spit out her problems and worries to release the pressure.

"He came home from the work site, it was late. He crossed the divider into oncoming traffic." Madison says sadly but also already past him.

"Did he fall asleep?" Strand inquires.

"That's what I told the kids or at least tried to." Madison says with a wry smile.

"You were trying to protect them," Strand says.

"That's what I tried, but Paul didn't buy the story. He somehow found out what actually happened, and all hell broke loose in the house. He never forgave his father for doing what he did, nor could I still. Nick already had problems by the time you know. His addiction." Madison continues as she rests against her son's chest.

"A good friend's father back then was from the police. It was easy to inquire about it with his help," Paul comments, acting as if it were nothing that his father is dead by now. He already has gotten past it after so many years. "I don't forgive or condone what he chose to do by running away from his problems. It's the first choice of cowards. He could have tried less drastic measures than taking his life to solve whatever he had without leaving his family behind. It hurt everyone greatly what he did. I'm almost sure he didn't even stop for a moment to think about what comes next for those who remain."

"He's right. Claire and Alice were devastated, I was the same. By that time, Paul dropped out of high school. I reprimanded him and hated myself because he did that, but later, I came to thank him for what he did helping me and the girls with his care and attention. The impact of Steven leaving us was mitigated a lot." Madison tells him after being reminiscent.

"But Nick, there was nothing to do with him. He already had problems and dropped out of high school after his brother did, but he didn't do it to help the family or do something with his life, no. His addiction got worse, and whatever he has got worse too. I keep trying to save him, and he keeps dying, over and over," Madison says angrily and sadly. Drinking in one swing her glass and gesturing to Strand to fill it again.

"Paul stopped that for a while, you know?" Madison says as she kisses her son on the mouth lovingly.

"These things... We can only live with them, we can't choose." Strand says to her, already being wasted after so many drinks.

"We can choose." Madison refutes him quickly. "Yeah, absolutely choose. I didn't have to have Nick, you know? I could have not had Claire or Paul and Alice, but I wanted to be a mother.

"I chose despite the past and I chose right," Madison says to him. "Look what a wonderful son and daughters I have. Even if the first turned out to be a black sheep like their father."

"Mom, don't get excited." Paul was having a headache, seeing how wasted his mother too was, like Strand.

"Hey, that's the drink talking," Strand says, also having a headache finding the correct words to say to her.

"No, no, no. I'm good." Madison says as she gets up, tumbling from her son's lap. "I'm good. I'm good."

"Whoo! I'm good, I have a hollow leg." Madison says while dancing where she was standing between Paul's legs, as she pushes her ass on his cock while raising her glass in the air.

"Cheers," Madison says while drinking.

"Mom..." Paul wanted to let her calm down for a moment, but seeing her sharp look, he also drank his glass. "Cheers."

"Cheers. To motherhood." Madison drank after she refilled her and Paul's glass.

"All right. To motherhood." Paul drinks again.

"Okay, to motherhood." Strand follows too.

After drinking Madison sends crashing against the wall the glass in her hand. Then she takes another glass from the bar counter and serves herself and the other two a drink again. Strand was looking at her with a surprised and subdued look seeing how she was going crazy. Paul had a headache seeing her like that, but he knew better than to stop her now.

"Cheers. To false hope." Madison clinks both their glasses and drinks.

"To false hope." Paul and Strand follow soon after her cheering.

Madison sends again crashing against the wall the glass in hand, taking another one.

"All right," Strand says sighing after the cheer.

"Ah! To family." Madison says again after drinking and moving her ass on her son's cock.

"To family," Paul says before drinking, then he gives his mother a slap on her ass making her sit on his lap again. But she first throws the glass in hand crashing against the wall again and takes another from the counter.

"To family." Strand also drinks.

"All right," Strand says drunkenly, then gets up from the chair and moves away.

"Whoo!" Madison smiles, then she sits again in the lap of her son kissing him for a moment and then stands again and fills their empty glasses "To Nick."

"To Nick." Strand and Paul follow, cheering with their drinks.

Madison then sits again on Paul's lap and starts kissing him not thinking about anything anymore.

Strand, who was already comfortable beside a piano that was a little far away behind both of them, began touching a few broken notes. The sound echoed loudly around the bar, the hotel, and outside of it.