She's back
1031 Words
Episode four
“Get down! Get down!” Christian shouted.
“Sergeants, move! We’ll cover you!”
A woman with tattooed arms, a torn uniform, dusty face, and wild, tangled hair nodded. “Copy that!”
Christian gave her a small smile, fully aware that his team would never abandon him — even if it cost them their lives.
Gunshots rang out everywhere.
Christian ran.
Adrenaline surged through his veins as bullets flew past him. His team provided cover fire, watching as he stormed into the building.
Then—
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
Three gunshots echoed through the transmission line.
Silence.
“Christian? Christian, respond!”
Nothing.
“Come in! Do you copy?”
Still nothing.
The team froze. Their faces fell. Grief began to settle in.
He wasn’t answering.
Thirty minutes passed.
Thirty long minutes.
Just as hope began to fade, the intercom crackled.
“…Got it.”
Everyone snapped to attention.
And then he appeared.
Christian emerged from the building, his arm bleeding heavily, one leg dragging behind him. His face was pale, but his grip was firm as he lifted the briefcase high into the air.
The chemical weapon.
He had it.
Hours later — Lagos, Nigeria.
Christian had already received emergency treatment at the military hospital. He was being transported back home when he suddenly lost consciousness. The stitches along his ribcage reopened — the result of pushing himself too hard during recovery.
He was rushed into emergency surgery at a private hospital in central Lagos.
Because of his status and service record, he was admitted into the VIP ward.
After hours on the operating table, the doctors finally stabilized him.
He hadn’t fully regained consciousness yet, but his family was already there — crying, pacing, praying.
Mike stood by the window, looking like he was seconds away from breaking down. But he forced himself to stay strong.
If he crumbled, everyone else would.
Finally, the doctor stepped out.
“You can see him now.”
They rushed inside.
Christian was awake.
Weak — but awake.
He smiled faintly, sunlight hitting his sharp features. His pale lips curved slightly. The tribal marks on his face glistened under the light.
“You are a very stupid boy, do you know that?” a woman’s voice burst out.
Marianne.
Thirty-one years old. Five months pregnant. Emotional and furious.
“Every single time, you put us through one problem or another! Even now that you’re a big officer, you’re still stressing us! What is wrong with you? Do you want to kill somebody? Do you want to kill us?!”
“Marianne, calm down,” someone tried.
“No! Don’t calm down me!” she snapped. “After you got stitched, you still went to exercise. Exercise for what?! Do you want to die?”
Christian gave a weak smile. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” she scoffed. “Look at me! Look at this baby bump! You almost made my child uncle-less!”
Christian chuckled weakly. “Uncle-less , where did you learn that one from?”
“Keep joking! I wish your ribcage would open again!”
“Are you cursing me?” he teased, though tears glistened in his eyes.
It had been so long since he saw her.
His little sister.
Now standing before him with a round belly, scolding him like an old woman.
“Look at you,” he muttered softly. “So big now. Scolding your senior brother.”
“You’re not acting like a senior brother!” she fired back. “You want to die and leave us?”
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”
Mike finally stepped forward.
“What is wrong with you, bro?” he asked, voice low but shaking. “Do you want to die young?”
Christian looked away.
“And I just heard,”Christian said, his head still turn away, “that you had the audacity to petition for me to be released from my line of duty. Who gave you that right?”
Christian tried to sit up, pointing weakly at him, but Clara — their youngest sister — quickly held him down.
“Don’t even move,” Clara said sharply.
She looked at him, eyes red.
“Brother… when you started this job, I was in Primary Three. Now I’m done with school. I’m building my career. I’ll get married soon. I’ll have kids.”
Her voice cracked.
“And you’re still risking your life every single day. What is so sweet about seeing blood? About not knowing whether you’ll come back alive?”
She suddenly grabbed her tablet and tossed it onto the bed.
“Look.”
Christian frowned.
On the screen was a picture of a woman.
“She’s back,” Clara said.
His heart skipped.
“She just returned from overseas. I heard she had problems and that’s why she came home. She’s even helping Mom around the house.”
Christian’s fingers tightened slightly around the sheets.
“She’s back?” he whispered.
Clara folded her arms.
“Don’t start acting like the obsessed psycho you used to be. Even I was a child back then, and I saw it. The way you followed her around? It was embarrassing.”
Marianne gasped softly. “Clara—”
“I’m serious!” Clara continued. “And I know she likes you. But she acts all composed and hard to get. Meanwhile, you were simping like a fool.”
She snatched the tablet back angrily.
“If you keep wasting your life, you will die. And if that happens, don’t think she’ll wait around forever.”
With that, she stormed out of the room.
Silence filled the ward.
Christian lay back slowly.
She’s back?
After everything… she’s back?
Marianne looked at the love-struck expression slowly forming on his face and shook her head.
“This man will never change,” she muttered, dragging Mike gently toward the door.
And Christian stared at the ceiling, heart racing — not from pain this time…
But from doubt.
Was he going to let her be in his life again?
How was he going to face her?
Why was she back?
And who is she?
- Writer
