The last promise
689 Words
Rain poured endlessly outside the cabin.
Inside, everything felt distant and broken.
Thompson held Sophia against him on the cabin floor while blood stained his hands. His breathing shook violently despite every attempt to stay calm.
“Sophia,” he whispered desperately, “look at me.”
Her vision is badly blurred now.
But she looked at him anyway.
Always him.
Luna rushed toward the door frantically.
“I’m getting the car!”
Isabella grabbed blankets and pressed them against Sophia’s wound while Thompson kept holding her close as like letting go would destroy him completely.
“It’s too much blood,” Luna cried.
“No,” Thompson snapped instantly. “She survives this.”
The force in his voice silenced everyone.
But fear still consumed him.
Sophia could see it clearly now.
For years, Greg Thompson had survived by burying every emotion inside himself. Anger. Grief. Guilt.
But love?
Love ruined him completely.
Her fingers weakly touched his wrist.
“You’re shaking,” she whispered softly.
A broken laugh escaped him suddenly.
“I’m terrified.”
Those words hurt more than the wound.
Because Thompson never admitted fear.
Not until now.
Sirens echoed faintly somewhere in the distance again.
Isabella looked toward the shattered windows.
“We don’t have much time.”
Thompson carefully lifted Sophia into his arms immediately.
“She’s coming with me.”
The drive through Raven Hill became a blur of headlights and rain.
Thompson sped through empty roads while Luna sat beside Sophia in the backseat trying not to cry.
“Stay awake,” Luna kept whispering. “Please stay awake.”
Sophia tried.
But exhaustion is dragging heavily at her body now.
Up front, Thompson gripped the steering wheel, so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Every red light.
Every second.
Every breath.
Felt like a war against time itself.
Finally, Sophia spoke weakly.
“Thompson.”
His eyes met hers briefly through the mirror.
“I’m here.”
“You have to stop blaming yourself.”
Pain crossed his face instantly.
“Not now.”
“Yes now.”
“Sophia—”
“You didn’t fail my parents.”
His jaw tightened.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
Tears burned in his eyes again.
“You weren’t supposed to get hurt because of me.”
A faint smile touched her lips despite the pain.
“Too late.”
Luna wiped tears angrily.
“You two seriously chose emotional confessions during a gunshot crisis?”
Neither answered.
Because neither could deny it anymore.
Love had already happened.
Quietly.
Dangerously.
Completely.
They arrived at a private hospital on the edge of the city just before dawn.
Doctors rushed Sophia into emergency surgery immediately while Thompson remained outside the operating room covered in blood and rainwater.
Hours passed.
Silent.
Endless.
Luna eventually fell asleep in a chair nearby from exhaustion while Isabella spoke quietly with hospital staff down the hallway.
Thompson sat alone staring at his hands.
The same hands that failed to save her family once before.
And maybe again.
Footsteps approached slowly.
Isabella sat beside him carefully.
“She’s strong.”
Thompson didn’t answer.
“You love her.”
That finally made him speak.
“Yes.”
The word sounded exhausted.
Destroyed.
Isabella studied him quietly.
“You remind me of your father.”
Pain flickered across Thompson’s expression.
“That’s not a compliment.”
“He loved people the same way you do.”
Thompson laughed bitterly.
“And look where it got him.”
Silence followed.
Then Isabella spoke softly.
“Sophia survived because you were there tonight.”
“But she got shot because of me.”
“No,” Isabella corrected gently. “Because evil people feared what her family represented.”
Thompson leaned back against the wall tiredly.
“For years I thought protecting her meant staying away.”
“And now?”
His eyes lowered.
“Now I’d destroy anyone who tries to hurt her again.”
Something dangerous and honest lived inside those words.
Isabella no
ticed.
But before she could answer, the operating room doors finally opened.
Thompson stood instantly.
- Writer
