Can’t Win Me Back

The hospital corridor was eerily silent in the dead of the night.

The lone nurse on duty drowsed at the nurses' station, oblivious to the flashing red light from the malfunctioning surveillance camera down the hall.

A figure clad in a white doctor's robe and mask darted past the station, his movements purposeful.

He carefully scanned his surroundings before pushing open the door to Natalie's ward and slipping inside.

The patient lay curled up in bed, seemingly fast asleep.

The intruder crept closer, a glint of steel catching the dim light as he drew a dagger from his sleeve.

He raised the weapon high and stabbed the person on the bed.

All of a sudden, his vision went dark.

Unexpectedly, the person on the bed leaped up and threw the blanket over his head! Panic surged through the assassin.

He flailed wildly with the dagger, ripping the blanket free.

But before he could react further, the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against his forehead froze him in place.

"Don't move.

Not unless you want your head to be blown off." Under the dim light, Axel's eyes glinted with a dangerous glint.

A cynical smile played on his lips, sending shivers down the assassin's spine.

The ward door burst open, revealing Sean and Xavier leading a team of men who quickly surrounded the intruder.

"Are you alright, Mr.

Axel?" Sean inquired, his voice laced with concern.

Axel clicked his tongue.

"I didn't even attack him.

All it took was a blanket to take this fool down." With a practiced ease, Axel disarmed the assassin.

He sneered.

"Sir, you can barely fight, yet you're trying to be an assassin? Try harder next time.” The assassin's face was drained of color.

His knees buckled, and he crumpled to the floor in a heap.

the man's

name, and

a decade or two in prison, you can walk free and

able to walk out of this ward with all your limbs intact otherwise."

him over the phone! I've never met him

"But...

message history! He wired a million to my account two days ago and promised another after the job!

the assassin for his

to

him to the

unlock this phone."

"Thank you, Mr.

away, the silence returning to the ward as if the commotion had

had helped Alyssa out, a sense of unease lingered in Axel's gut as

making his heart skip a

message, his pupils constricting as

a text from

words were a gut punch, sharp and

that his vision blurred, and he nearly lost his

She wrote, "Goodbye, Axel.

I'm leaving Solana City.

try to find

news about me or you manage to find out where I am, I won't see

typed and retyped a frantic

are you, Amber? Tell me." A long time

was

He wasn't satisfied.

unshed tears, Axel

was as if he

don't want to? Do you think you can control

love me? Say

back almost immediately, its words acold and sharp knife that sliced through his heart and

replied, "I don't think that's

were just a ray of light that happened

me what the light

a feeling that I've

disappear,

anything for

all that I'm able

me, don't approach