Page 20 of Tides of Time

“Come, let’s get dressed. I want to show you a special place you can go whenever you miss me while I’m gone.”

“When will you go?” the question was little more than a whisper.

“I won’t know for a little. But if they’ve come to me versus ringing, our enemies have gotten braver, and if I can help save even a single life, I cannot ignore this.”

Ariana nodded again, but said nothing.

Orion couldn’t stand the way his heart contracted as if squeezed from the inside. He’d fallen in love with this woman on a whim, and her happiness meant the world to him.

NINE

Orion casta glance down at the paper under the pen. The words blurred together moments before he dragged the pen across the page, scribbling everything. His words weren’t coming out the way he’d intended them to.

It had only been six days since he last saw her, but it felt like an eternity. His heart ached with longing and regret as he desperately yearned to write Ariana a letter, to pour out his soul and tell her just how much she meant to him. Every passing moment without her was excruciating, a gnawing emptiness that consumed him from within. He needed to let her know, to make sure she never doubted her significance in his life.

The look in her eyes as he’d gotten on the plane haunted his every waking moment. His dreams were plagued with memories of their bodies intertwined and even a few fantasies of what they would try in the future. She encompassed his every thought in a way that shouldn’t be possible so soon, but he wouldn’t dare let it go.

“Then write what you need to write, damn it.” Orion sneered and ran a hand through his short hair, still clutching the pen in the other hand.

The past few days had been painfully uneventful for the unit, leaving the leader questioning the reason behind their dispatch. The stillness hung heavily in the air, broken only by the distant sounds of birds and the rustling of leaves in the wind. The men shifted restlessly, itching for some action to break up the monotony. But as they waited with bated breath, it seemed that even time itself had come to a standstill. The leader couldn't help but wonder if there was truly any purpose to their journey at all. Which only served to make him miss Ariana more.

The Americans weren’t the only ones who stuck their neck out to help others. It seemed his country followed in its path, maybe due to the help America gave them almost thirty years ago. Instead of protecting Israel, he sat in a tent on the fucking beach of Normandy, as if another war would come to these shores.

Dropping the pen, Orion tore the page free from the pad, relishing in the satisfying rip of page from page as if it signified ripping something of himself that he hated away. The clean page taunted him as much as the poorly written love letter had.

A deafening explosion of bullets pierced through his eardrums, drowning out any possibility of writing to Ariana. The sharp bursts of sound echoed in his mind, like a symphony of destruction. His hands trembled, unable to hold a pen steady as chaos erupted around him. It was as if the world itself had turned into a war zone, with the only sound being that of gunfire and the screams of terrified onlookers. Any thought of communicating with Ariana was lost amidst the chaos and danger that surrounded him.

“Let’s go!” A voice he couldn’t recognize of a soldier he didn’t know well enough spurred him on.

Orion jumped up, the shitty folding chair collapsing underneath the quick spring of his weight. All around him, he watched lips move but he couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the bullets - sounds he prayed remained just bullets and didn’t give way to screams of agony.

Leaning, he grabbed his gun from where it was propped on the side of the bed and took off.

With a fierce determination, the men around him charged towards the danger, their movements fluid and precise. The chaos of battle blurred everything in his vision except for the deadly projectiles hurtling towards his comrades. Each shot crackled through the air like lightning, threatening to strike down anyone in its path. But the soldiers moved with calculated haste, their senses hyper-focused on avoiding the imminent threat. Time seemed to slow down as they navigated through the war zone, every step bringing them closer to the heart of the conflict. Adrenaline surged through their veins as they faced their enemy head on, determined to protect their people at all costs.

Every single dark pewter object nearly stopped him in his tracks.

Orion dodged two the second his boots struck the sand. Running was damn near impossible, and he lunged to grab a fallen soldier as they gave into the difficult terrain and slipped.

“Thanks,” he swore he heard as he jerked the other man up.

Orion’s heart slammed in his chest as he continued to run. Closer and closer, he pushed toward the danger until water splashed against his pant legs. He wasn’t the best shot in the bunch, he needed to be close to take the enemy down.

He looked at the men, stared at the enemy stomping closer to them with no identifiable uniform. His mouth was dry as he loaded the chamber on the shotgun, and he pulled back, his finger snapping away to release his own bullet.

It made contact with a man's shoulder, but it was like hitting a brick wall - he didn't even flinch. Around him, Orion heard the deafening sounds of war, the metallic clang of swords and shields, the screams of wounded men and the thundering hooves of horses. It was a symphony of chaos that threatened to overwhelm his senses, yet he couldn't bring himself to duck or protect himself. The weight of duty and honor held him in place, even as fear gnawed at his gut.

Firing off another round, Orion took a step closer, aimed, and fired again. Pain seared through his arm and stopped his pursuit toward the advancing army. Orion didn’t need to look to know he’d been shot. Thankfully, it slammed into his left bicep, an arm he didn’t need to shoot them all down. The pain was a momentary distraction as it seared a path through his left isde.

Whoever they were, they had come to destroy this unit. Orion refused to go down without a fight.

As he fired off another bullet, an image of Ariana formed in his mind like a mirage. Her eyes glinted with mischief and her smile radiated warmth. In his mind's eye, she stood with her arms open wide, beckoning him to run to her. The thought of her filled him with longing and a pang of regret for the distance between them. But in this moment, all he could do was fire off round after round, hoping to protect her and keep her image alive in his mind.

The distraction cost Orion as pain so blistering hot he believed himself on fire raced through his chest. He plummeted down into the ocean, the water both cushioning his fall and smothering his cry of pain as salt water rushed into his mouth.

Stop screaming.

He couldn’t hear himself scream under the water, but he knew the sounds of pain - at least some - came from him.

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