A collection of short love stories from a different time, different place and whole other world entirely. All stories are written purely for escapism. Everything is fictional and are not intended to offend or resemble actual events, places and inci...
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Summer, 1944
Matthew had been told he would've been dead. Too long months of confinement and torture had rendered him supposedly dead. Except he wasn't. Most of his fellow prisoners died of desolation than blood-drawing abuse. Some had been lucky to have been rescued. When the enemy had set out a new camp for the prisoners, he was one of the officers barely alive to have been dragged into it for another months of torture. It was a prison they all meticulously intended not to be raided by rescuers again.
Every night, they would lie on the rough, cold stone, hearing each other's labored breathing. It was an awful silence – the kind where they could hear one of them eventually stopped breathing.
Matthew would close his eyes, his body screaming in agony. He was always disoriented. He's never saw the sun rising or setting. He had no means to count the days he was held prisoner. But he had Elise engraved so perfectly in his memory that when he dreams of her, it hardly felt like he was in that horrible place.
He attempted escape. Several times. Each time getting caught, he was more tortured and punished. But he had Elise to hold on. He had their promises to live for. His last attempt of freedom had been with a fellow prisoner beaten up as he was, but too eager to return to his family. He had three kids.
Together, they narrowly escaped. He had been shot dead. He had to leave him behind. Matthew trekked on as the enemy hunted him down. He was torched under the scorching the sun, freezing under the faceless moon yet he never stopped walking.
Allies found him, but his face was too swollen and bruised that it would take them days to recognize him, or for him to properly introduced himself.
He had only one name on his lips. When he was close to recovery, he hadn't waited any longer. He couldn't. Not when he had finally had the clock. Not when he'd only came to know it had not been just months. They turned to years.
Matthew wanted to see Elise.
The army telegrammed his family. He fled however he was forbidden. Then he was back home to Goldsburg before the telegrams reached his family's mail. He went straight to her house, his heart hopeful and almost in tatters at the thought of Elise thinking he had failed her.
Their house was pretty much the same. The porch had been evidently repainted, but with the same color. He stood frozen on their driveway. He stared at the front door, suddenly unsure.
His heart leapt to his throat when it swung open.
Elise was just as beautiful as he's seen her all those years ago when they came to Lauren's family ranch. The soft ends of her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders. Her face was utterly perfect than the memories he'd held on. This was real.
She smoothed a hand down the skirt of her dress, stepping out into their doorstep. Then her eyes darted into his. She stiffened, her mouth parting.
He stayed rooted on the ground. Part of him wanted to run to her and crush her to his arms. Part of him was terrified to even move.
"Matthew!" It was a half-cry, half-gasp. Elise dashed toward him and clung to him. Her palms cupped his face as she began to cry. "It's really you!"
His arms slid around her, and he pulls her so tightly against his chest that she could hardly breath. "It's me."
"Matthew," she sobbed into his neck. "I knew you'd come back. In my heart I know you'll come home to me."
He fought the tears that were so readily behind the back of his eyes. He allowed himself to take her in. The smell of her hair, the warmth of her skin and the sound of her voice. "There was never a moment that I haven't thought of coming home."
She cried harder.
Matthew caught glance of the front door opening. Nicholas comes out, a little boy in his arms. His stomach clenched as he tensed against her.
She looks up and followed his gaze over her shoulder. She steps back slightly, her hand coming up to wipe her tears. The ring on her finger sparkled prominently.
His pulse quickened at the sight of the same ring he had given her. He was close to weeping when he realized his Elise hadn't taken it off.
Her eyes flitted to the little boy then lifted to her toes to kiss his chin. "That's our Luke. You want to meet him?"
"Luke?" He hears himself say.
She nods, smiling. Her eyes spilled tears of joy. "I was pregnant."
Nicholas was steeled at the doorstep. Only snapping out of it when the door opens, a pregnant Lauren coming out. She gave him a curious look before she notices Elise crying in his arms. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth, the other on her belly. She took a moment to study him.
Undoubtedly, he's paler. His cheeks hollowed from the weight he's dramatically lost, and he still had wounds that had not quite healed entirely. He still had bruises too.
"Matthew?" She gasped.
He gives her a small smile.
Her gaze flicked to Luke in Nicholas' arms. He gently set him to his feet and gestured him to his parents.
Lauren reaches for Nicholas' hand and smiled down to the little boy. "Go on, sweetie. That's your daddy."
"Come here, Luke." Elise offers a hand to the boy.
He walked in tottered footsteps and stopped to look up and stare at him with his blue eyes. Matthew bends low to his level, tears poking in the back of his eyes. Luke's face lit up when he smiles and flung himself at him. His little arms wrapped around his neck.
Matthew straightened and dragged Elise to his side. He holds them close, never wanting to let go.
