The Soldier Next Door

Ana has just come back from a great ordeal. She has only survived, should I even dare to say, an experience that could have gone different in so many ways. This is not something that one comes back from unscathed. Walking into camp, she felt the safety of the entire platoon, but in comes Emily, as if on perfect cue to ruin the moment and definitely making Ana insecure again. I can only imagine how much seeing another woman kissing me must have broken her heart. I should have known that MacKey would not resist the opportunity to stir trouble.

So I immediately set after her, but before I even get there, Ray calls for me.

“Ethan, I am speaking to the boys at Pendleton, please can you come sit in for a second.”

“Sure, Ray.”

Well, this just annoys me further; now she is going to think that I don’t even care to explain myself.

…Ana POV…

Do I even dare say, can my day not get any worse, but one should know better than tempting fate. But fate is staring me in the face. How is this even happening to me again?

“How…how did you get in here?”

“That, my dear is not important; I told you I am going to teach you a lesson, and now I am going to teach you twice. And do I need to remind you that if you scream, it shall be your last?”

He slowly pushes me deeper into my tent; I can smell the reek of alcohol with each step he steps closer to me. There is a godawful rumbling laughter that comes from underneath his breath.

“What…what do you want?”

“I was going to say finish what I started, but I think there is something else that I would rather enjoy far better.”

He keeps stepping closer until my back is against the end of the tent. That is when I notice him pull a large hunting knife from the back of his pants. At the very same moment, I hear two of our platoon patrolling as they walk past the tent.

“If you make a noise, then you are dead.”

I gasp as I gather the air; I do not care if it kills me or not. I must warn the others that he and maybe some of the others are in the camp.

But as he sees me open my mouth, he places the sharp blade accounts the delicate skin of my neck.

…Ethan POV…

This is absolutely great, yes I want to hear if we are going back to that camp, but I would rather right now sit with Ana and explain to her that this is all just a big misunderstanding. Now she is sitting in her tent and getting even angrier by each ticking second.

Every man’s life lies within the present, for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain. Even though the future is uncertain, you should choose to embrace the unknown and have faith that everything is going to be okay. This may not be tonight, tomorrow, or the next day, but everything is going to be okay. I need for Ana to know that we are okay.

I can tell you a story of a man so lost and incomplete that he dwelled for years in trying to find that one thing that he eluded him so, love. The man that tells you that they do not desire to experience love and not be love in return is not only a liar and a fool. The craving to be loved is a desire that every man wants. I have that love in Ana, and I know that she has that love for me. We can overcome all of this; we need to be strong.

I, myself, am a strong person, but every now and then, I need someone to hold my hand and tell me that everything shall be all right. But if all of those around you are wanting for you to be that person to them, you need to be the one that rises through the storm, forget about your own fears, do not wonder, do not imagine, and most of all, do not obsess about the things that make you feel uncertain. Breathe and believe that everything shall be fine in the end; if it is not, that only means that it is not yet the end. And it is not the end for Ana and me; I just need to get to her and explain what has happened.

But this seems like it is going to drag on forever; I need to get an excuse to get out of here.

…Ana POV…

I am for certain that this is where my life ends; at least, I can say it is close to people who care for me and not in some stranger’s camp. I do not know if he only came here to get me back for running away or if they are about to attack our camp. All I know is if he points that blade even deeper in my neck, then it will start to slice into my skin.

They say that when death is near, that your life shall flash in front of your eyes; well, I say that it is bullshit. The only thing flashing in front of my eyes is some god ugly monster that wants to take my life because it shall give him pleasure.

What gives my heart somewhat more pain is why Ethan has not come back and speak to me about what happened. He has and would have always speaks his mind.

How I do love the way that he carries me on his hands like a porcelain doll. He has seen me at my worst, he has seen the cracks in this perfect woman, yet he does not show them to others; he just but loves them. I love him for making this cracked porcelain doll a better woman again. But I need for him to see that I am strong too, that I am not always crumbling.

And as I look outside up at the dark skies of the night, I look beyond the stars and even beyond the ones that one cannot see, and I know that even if I live for eternity, I shall never know the space we live in. Ethan is like my night sky; I know that I only know him but a small bit, but I know that I look forward to a lifetime of getting to know him. I shall never stop discovering him.

But now I guess that it shall never happen; not only is he with someone else, but I shall die here in this green canvass tent in the middle of some forest on hostile ground by a militant that has nothing better to do and torture woman.

And as I say this, he grabs me by my arm and throws me back, on top of my bed. Fumbling at his belt with his one and keeping the knife in the other, he comes to stand over me.

…Ethan POV…

As Ray sees the anguish on my face, he knows what is running through my head. Yes, I am not a weak man; I should be a Marine, but right now, I am a man in love, and I am distracted. A distraction that shall not be welcomed by a superior, but right now, I do not much care for everything but being with Ana at this very moment.

She does not only live in her own body; she lives in mine too. We are part of each other; we are one. I hear her footsteps in the passageways of my heart. Her voice echoes through my veins. I can see her face in the mirrors of my memories. She has engraved herself deep into my soul. She will forever be a part of me.

Who would have guessed that I would find her in the last rays of the daylight? That she would look up and smile at me, that she stopped me from running away. Where would I have been if she did not ask me to come back and stay, and I stayed long enough to have her in my arms?

What she brings to my life lay like the beautiful colors of perfect autumn in my soul. She has made me change in so many ways; I lived with myself for so long that I did not know that I could be a better man. But yet she excepted me the way I was; it scared me that she gave up everything to be with a man like me. She took my loneliness away. I pray every day that I shall be good enough for the woman that loves me unconditionally.

And it is with these thoughts that I finally come to stand in front of her tent. I take one deep breath before I step inside.

“Get off her!”

My screams echo throughout the entire camp; there is immediately a rush of Marines coming my way.

I leap across Ana, pushing her off the bed and out of the way.

“Ana, get out!”

With his one hand trying to pull up his pants and the other yielding a hunting knife, I tackle him to the floor, pushing my knee hard into his chest. I twist and turn his hand, trying to gain control of the weapon in his hand, but he manages to flip me over and tackles me to the floor.

He is cutting inch by inch into my skin on my cheek; I can feel the pain sting straight into my bone. But within seconds again, I have him turned flat on his back.

But just as I think I have the upper hand, he drives the knife deep into my leg for what feels for only a brief second.

“Aaahhh.”

Finally, in one swift movement, I grab it from his hand and slam it hard into his chest. Once I am sure there is no way that he will get up, I get up to find Ana.

“Ana!”

“Ethan.”

I check her from head to toe to make sure that she did not get hurt. But then she looks at me, pointing to my side.

“Ethan, you are hurt.”

“It is just my leg.”

“No, I am not talking about your leg.”

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