When There Is Nothing Left But Love

The rain got heavier in the middle of the night, and I jolted awake when thunder cracked across the sky like a whip.

When I turned on my side, I realized with a start that there was someone lying down beside me.

Before I could release a scream, a hand shot out to grab mine and then came a man’s soothing voice. “Calm down. It’s me.”

My chest heaved as I tried to recover from my shock. “Ashton, what are you…” I trailed off.

His unexpected presence had brought scared the daylights out of me, but gradually, I regained my bearings and furrowed my brows. Shouldn’t he be with Rachel now? Why is he here?

I pursed my lips and uttered icily, “What are you doing here?”

His lips remained sealed, seemingly having no intention to answer me. Right then, another clap of thunder boomed overhead, and I flinched closer to him. However, he didn’t seem to notice the subtle movement as he stuffed a pair of earplugs into my ears.

My surroundings instantly became quiet and for a while, I merely stared blankly at him in the dark.

Throughout it all, he didn’t utter a single word. Instead, he hugged me and coaxed me to sleep by gently patting my back.

I was really sleepy, to begin with, I gradually dozed off in his arms and slept through the entire night.

The sky was already bright when I woke up the next day, and the morning air was slightly humid due to the heavy rain from the previous night.

Subconsciously looking to my side, I felt slightly incredulous when I found the space empty.

and goes like the wind. I would’ve thought I hallucinated everything if not for the earplugs still

position. When Nora came into my tent and saw me lying down with my eyes

lips to answer. “My head… hurts.” My throat was so dry

I think I may be down

Upon touching my

“We should pack our things right now and go back to A

wanted to say something, but my

walked into the tent and scanned my face with his ominous eyes. Then, a

should take her to the base

By then, my head was buzzing with a pounding headache. I knew that nothing I said

brought me straight to the base while the others

asleep again after getting into the car. My

as I drifted in and out of consciousness, and I was plagued by an unending stream of nightmares,

someone standing beside me. When Ashton’s face came into view, I reached out to grab him, but my fingers just

the verge of breaking down after several failed attempts. As my emotions spiraled out

of his voice reached my ears, but I couldn’t figure out what

horrible. After a few tries, I realized that I couldn’t open my mouth, let alone speak. Hence, I chose to give

were horrifying, while others were beautiful, but most were indistinct.

many of those scenarios and emotions felt so tangible that I couldn’t differentiate between dream and reality

finally opened my eyes, it was to see everything white. I’m in a