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.

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

I remained in the same position. When Nora came into my tent and saw me lying down with my eyes open, she paused briefly and asked, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling

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

think I may

together upon hearing my scratchy voice. Upon touching my forehead with

she rushed out in a haste and spoke to someone. “We should pack our things right now

but my

tent and scanned my face with his ominous eyes. Then, a frown appeared between his brows when he touched

in after him and suggested, “Mr. Fuller, you should take her to the base

pounding headache. I knew that

straight to the

I fell asleep again after getting into the car. My body felt light, as

temperature fluctuated as I drifted in and out of consciousness, and I was plagued by an unending stream of nightmares, unable to break out of

into view, I reached

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

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

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

Some were horrifying, while others were beautiful, but most were indistinct. One thing they had in a common was that they felt like things I had personally

felt so tangible that

eyes, it was to see everything white. I’m in a hospital