My phone buzzed-
2:06 AM.
Unknown Number:
“Does he kiss you like I did?”
I sat up in bed like lightning had struck my chest.
My fingers gripped the phone tighter, heart thudding in my throat. The room was dark, humid with the scent of Alex’s cologne. His arm, heavy and warm, was slung over my waist, breath slow in sleep.
But that message-it wasn’t from Alex.
It was from someone I buried two years ago.
Nick Jones.
---
Two years ago, Nick had died. I had watched the warehouse erupt into flames. The explosion blew out the windows of my soul. One second, I was running into his arms-he was bruised, bleeding but alive-and the next, everything turned into fire. I collapsed and I don't remember what happened next. But when I came to my sense I saw.
His blood was on my hands. Few hours before ago I had touched his cheek, promised we'd leave that night, that we'd disappear, that we could be human again.
We didn’t get the chance.
Or so I thought.
---
I slipped out of bed, stepping silently into the bathroom.
Me: Who is this?
Unknown: You know who I am. Did you miss me, Nivi?
Nivi. Only one person ever called me that like it was sacred.
Nick had a way of turning even my name into something dangerous. Like loving him could get me killed. And maybe it did.
---
Flashback.
We were on the rooftop of an old church.
“You’re too good for this world,” I had whispered.
“And you're too wild for peace,” he replied, nuzzling into my neck. “That’s why we fit.”
But we didn’t fit. We burned.
He was caught in a web of dirty deals and bad blood. I was the girl who tried to fix him, who didn’t realize he was the fire-not the victim. I never regretted it.
---
I stared into the mirror. My reflection didn’t look shocked—it looked tired. Haunted. I had grieved him. Screamed into pillows. Woken up every night gasping for air.
And now he was texting me? Is it a nightmare?
---
The next message came hours later.
Unknown: You moved on fast.
Me: You died.
Unknown: No. I was set up. Left to burn so someone else could rise. Ask Alex who lit the match.
Alex.
My Alex? No not "My Alex". He is just Alex who saved me.
---
By day, Alex wore a badge. By night, he held me like I was fragile glass, he saved me. He was everything Nick wasn’t—stable, honest, healing. He saved me from that accident.
But now I wondered—was it all an act?
---
Next day.
I walked into my apartment, and there he was, leaning against my kitchen counter like he never left. Eyes sharper. Hair longer. A fresh scar dragged across his cheekbone.
He looked like death hadn’t beaten him—just redefined him.
“Nick?”
He said nothing. Just opened his arms.
And I ran to him like my heart had been waiting the whole time. Yes it did waited.
---
The kiss was brutal. Teeth clashing, lips raw. We were desperate, starved for each other. We moved to the couch. Clothes shredded. Skin against skin. Moans swallowed by the silence of guilt.
We didn’t make love.
We reminded each other what it felt like to bleed and survive.
When it was over, I lay on his chest, listening to the beat I thought I’d never hear again.
---
“You didn’t die,” I whispered.
“No.” His voice was low. “But I wanted to.”
“Then why did you come back?”
“Because the same people who burned me,” he said slowly, “are coming for you.”
---
He told me the truth. The deep, sickening truth.
He’d been working undercover for the DEA. He wasn’t just some reckless man who dealt with danger—he was planted in it.
That night in the warehouse, he had found a ledger. Names, amounts, locations. A goldmine. He was going to deliver it to the agency and disappear with me.
But everything changed. Expect the unexpected. The very next minute the ware house was on fire. He died. I collapsed onto the floor after Nick forced me out.
That wasn't the real side. It wasn't an accident.
Someone found out that Nick has found the details.
Someone on the inside reported.
And when the building exploded, it was no accident.
It was execution.
They dragged his body out half-alive and faked the rest. Burned a corpse that resembled him. He was taken, tortured, interrogated.
And when they couldn’t get what they wanted, they dumped him off a pier.
But he didn’t die.
---
“I woke up choking on seawater,” he said. “Alone. Broken. And I knew—I could never come back unless I destroyed them first.”
His voice cracked. He looked at me.
“I never stopped loving you, Nivi.”
---
My world spun.
I had rebuilt myself after him. Block by block. Tear by tear.
But his return made everything crack again.
---
Still, I saw him every night.
We met in parking lots. Motels. Empty alleys. Our touches were frantic, our kisses filled with pain. He wasn’t healing me—he was awakening the girl I buried.
---
One night, Nick gave me a flash drive.
“Proof. Every name, every deal. Including Alex’s.”
My knees buckled.
“Liar,” I hissed. “You just want to ruin him.”
Nick looked at me with dead eyes. “He let them burn me. He watched.”
---
I confronted Alex.
He didn’t deny it.
“They threatened to kill you,” he said. “They said if I didn’t step back, you’d be next. So I stepped back.”
“You let him die to protect me?”
His voice was hollow. “Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“Because you already looked at me like I was your savior. I wanted to be him.”
---
I walked out.
No tears. Just rage.
I went straight to Nick.
He didn’t say a word. Just pulled me into him. We sank into bed like it was the only safe place in the world.
---
That night, Nick said something I’ll never forget.
“I didn’t come back to be your past, Nivi. I came back to be your future. But it won’t be pretty.”
---
We planned to run.
A fresh passport. A new name. Start over.
But the world doesn’t let people like us disappear. Do they?
---
Two nights before we left, they found us.
Black SUVs. Muffled gunfire. Screams.
We ran through the woods barefoot. I had the flash drive in my hand, holding it tightly. Nick dragged me through mud and trees.
And then
BANG.
I turned around.
He was on the ground. Blood pouring from his chest.
“No-Nick!” I dropped beside him, sobbing.
He smiled.
Even dying, he smiled.
“Now they won’t chase you, They were chasing you because they found out I'm alive. Now they won't. You are safe.” he whispered.
“No. You promised,” I cried. “You said you wouldn’t leave me again.”
“I lied,” he breathed. “One last time.”
And then… he closed his eyes.
They came near us, I went running from that place.
I survived running, hiding.
---
I cried, cried until I'm out of tear. Staring into the dark. Broken.
Just broken.
I sent the flash drive to every news agency. The arrests began in hours.
Alex went down with the rest.
The world thought I was brave.
But I was just broken.
---
Three months passed.
I still slept on his side of the bed. I still wore the pendant he gave me. I still looked at the clock every night at 2:06 AM.
Waiting for a sign. A miracle. A message.
And then, tonight---
Buzz.
Unknown:
“Do you still dream of me, Nivi?”
---
Tears spilled before I even realized it.
I stared at the screen.
Read at 2:06 AM.
---
END
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