The Ghosts We Carry
405 Words
Peace never lasted long for people like Niko.
He learned that early.
Some nights he still woke violently from dreams soaked in blood and sirens, his body tense and ready for danger before reality settled back into place. On those nights, he would sit awake in the darkness beside Ela, staring at the city lights outside the apartment windows while guilt clawed through his chest.
Because happiness felt borrowed.
Temporary.
Like something a man like him was never supposed to keep.
One night, Ela found him standing alone in the kitchen at three in the morning, whiskey untouched beside him.
“You’re doing it again,” she said softly.
Niko didn’t turn around. “Doing what?”
“Trying to carry everything alone.”
Silence filled the room.
Ela walked closer carefully, stopping beside him near the counter.
“You think I don’t see it?” she whispered. “The nightmares. The guilt.”
Niko finally looked at her.
There was exhaustion in his eyes so deep it hurt to see.
“I spent years becoming someone I hated,” he admitted quietly. “Sometimes I don’t know how to stop being that person.”
Ela reached for his hand slowly.
“You already have.”
“No.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “You just make me forget for a little while.”
The words hurt more than he intended.
Ela’s expression softened painfully.
“You know what I think?” she said gently.
Niko raised an eyebrow slightly.
“I think you’re terrified that if you let yourself be happy, something will take it away.”
The truth of it hit him instantly.
Because she understood him too well now.
Niko looked down at their joined hands.
“When Sofia died,” he said quietly, “I promised myself I would never care about anyone enough to lose them again.”
Ela’s breath caught softly.
He rarely spoke about his sister.
“Then you walked into that café,” he continued, voice roughening slightly. “And suddenly losing someone terrified me again.”
Emotion tightened painfully in Ela’s chest.
She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around him slowly.
“You’re not alone anymore,” she whispered.
Niko closed his eyes.
For years, loneliness had been the only thing he trusted completely.
Now this woman stood in his arms asking him to trust something else.
Love.
And somehow that felt far more dangerous.
- Writer
