Chapter 2The Man She Should Have Left Behind
775 Words
For a heartbeat, the entire café stood frozen.
The bloodied stranger lay motionless at Annie's feet, his breathing shallow, crimson spreading across the polished floor beneath him.
Then panic erupted.
"Someone call the police!"
"There were gunshots outside!"
"Get away from him!"
Customers scrambled toward the exit, knocking over chairs in their desperation.
Mr. Dawson grabbed Annie's arm so hard it hurt.
"Don't touch him!" he barked. "Whoever that man is, he's dangerous."
Annie looked down at the stranger.
His face was pale.
His breathing was growing weaker.
She could leave.
She could walk away like everyone else.
No one would blame her.
Then a memory surfaced.
She was ten years old, crying beside a wounded bird with a broken wing.
Her mother had knelt beside her and gently cupped the tiny creature in her hands.
"Remember this, Annie," she had said with a warm smile. "If fate places a life in your hands, don't ask whether it's safe. Ask whether it's right."
The memory vanished.
Annie drew in a shaky breath.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Dawson."
Before he could stop her, she knelt beside the stranger.
The man was burning with fever.
His expensive black suit was torn, revealing a deep bullet wound beneath his ribs.
"We have to stop the bleeding."
Mr. Dawson stared at her as though she'd lost her mind.
"Are you insane? Those men outside could come back!"
"I know."
"And you're still helping him?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
For the first time, there wasn't an apology in her voice.
The elderly woman by the window smiled quietly.
"Your mother would be proud."
Annie quickly removed her cream cardigan and pressed it firmly against the wound.
The stranger groaned in pain.
"Stay with me," she whispered.
"You don't get to die here."
Outside, distant sirens echoed through the rain.
Time was running out.
"If the police find him here, whoever was trying to kill him might come back," Annie murmured.
The elderly woman stepped forward.
"The storage room."
Annie looked up.
"Take him there. I'll keep watch."
Without another word, Annie slipped one of the stranger's arms around her shoulders.
He was much taller than she was.
Much heavier.
Every step was a struggle.
By the time they reached the storage room, she was trembling from exhaustion.
She eased him onto an old sofa used for employee breaks.
Rain hammered against the tiny window.
The stranger's breathing became uneven.
Annie searched the first-aid cabinet with shaking hands.
"Please... please let there be something."
Bandages.
Antiseptic.
Scissors.
It would have to do.
"I'm going to help you," she whispered, though she wasn't sure he could hear her.
As she carefully cut away part of his blood-soaked shirt, she caught sight of old scars covering his chest.
Not one.
Not two.
Dozens.
Who was this man?
What kind of life left scars like these?
She swallowed hard and reached for his hand to steady him.
The moment her fingers touched his skin—
Pain exploded inside her skull.
Her vision shattered.
Fire.
A mansion consumed by flames.
Men kneeling before the stranger.
A young boy crying alone in a dark hallway.
A silver ring engraved with the crest of a wolf.
Blood.
So much blood.
Then a voice...
Deep.
Cold.
Powerful.
"Protect the heir... no matter the cost."
The stranger stood in the middle of a room filled with bodies.
Not celebrating.
Not smiling.
Simply... alone.
Another image flashed.
A little girl.
She couldn't see the girl's face.
Only a white lily clutched tightly in her tiny hands.
The visions vanished.
Annie gasped and stumbled backward, crashing into a shelf.
Glass bottles shattered around her.
Her breathing became frantic.
"What... what was that?"
She had seen fear before.
Danger before.
But never anything like this.
The stranger wasn't simply carrying secrets.
He was carrying an entire world soaked in blood.
Suddenly—
His fingers tightened around her wrist.
Annie froze.
His icy blue eyes slowly opened.
Sharp.
Alert.
Dangerous.
For a second, neither of them spoke.
He studied her face with suspicious intensity.
His voice was rough from pain.
"...Who are you?"
Before Annie could answer, footsteps echoed outside the storage room.
Heavy.
Fast.
Several men.
A deep voice barked from the café.
"Search every room!"
"They couldn't have gone far!"
The stranger's eyes darkened instantly.
Despite his condition, every muscle in his body tensed like a predator preparing to strike.
He tried to stand.
Pain shot through his side, forcing him back onto the sofa.
Annie looked toward the door.
Then back at the wounded man.
Whoever was outside...
They weren't the police.
And if they found him...
Someone was going to die.
- Writer
