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Chapter 26: Soldier

"I was set for an arranged marriage. You know, my father basically owns the film business and his father basically owned the music business. It was written in stone. His name was Jacob."

((A/N: CocaCola56 don't tell Jacob #Jamber ))

"And...?"

"Well, after we met each other, we totally forgot we were arranged to be married. He took me on dates. Six months later, he proposed to me on the beach. I was so ecstatic. But..."

"But..?"

"He was deported to the army a week before our wedding. He said he'd be home as soon as he could..." I closed my eyes."He never came home. I got an email a month later that while trying to save his friend, he was shot and killed... May 30th was the day he was killed."

"That's in..."

"Five days, I know. That's why the hallucinations happen around this time of year. My brain is remembering and can't think straight. All I can think about is that email."

Trey picked me up and hugged me, planting a kiss on my forehead."I'm here for you... Thank you for telling me."

I hugged him, burying my head in his shirt, just like they buried Jacob into the ground.

---

A man suddenly snapped from his trance as his friend tapped him on the shoulder. The friend motioned to the people out on the streets, looking at the two in terror. Small children stopped chasing their plastic balls across the street. The man and his friend exchanged looks as if to say,'My god, what have we gotten ourselves into?'

The man jogged over to a plastic ball rolling across the street. He picked it up and held it out to the child near his mother. The boy shook his head and disappeared behind his mother. The man rolled the ball over to the two before standing up next to his friend.

"It's eerily silent,"the friend said.

"Well, they don't even speak English."

"We're in Iraq. So c'mon. We keep straying from the group."

The two jogged down the street, watching for anyone on the rooftops. The man thought he heard a bang, and be quickly held a protective arm in front of his hand, looking around.

"Thanks bro."

The man looked down, looking at the animal droppings on the ground. "I thought that bang was a bullet."

"Oh, well, still thanks."

The two laughed, the first in a while. They continued to walk in silence, observing the new environment. It was a totally different place, almost like another planet. The man felt his finger tightened around his gun subconsciously. Something was up with the area enveloping them, reaching out and snatching them away from comfort.

"You feel that too?"the friend asked.

"Yeah, but I think it's just first patrol jitters."

By the time the two were finished conversing, they had no idea where they were. Suddenly, shouts came from the apartments surrounding them. They were in Arabic; the friend could understand it. The loudest of the shouts came from a door leading to an underground home. The two looked at each other as the man raised his gun.

"I'll go in first on the my right. You go in on the opposite side,"the man said as he started heading down the stairs.

He slammed open the door, pointing his AK at anyone in the room. Him and his friend were back to back. The man suddenly realized the people standing in the room. Rebels. All seven of them were as fit and decked out as they were, and the man froze. They were outnumbered.

We're screwed.

The man's friend was the first to open fire, shooting one of the rebels on the far right, and he fell to the ground. Smoke suddenly filled the room, which clouded the man's vision. He and his friend were separated, the silence interrupted by yells in Arabic. There was another gun shot, and the man hoped it was his friend.

A feeling of pain erupted in the man's chest, so much that he stumbled back. That bullet was not his friend's. The sight of blood pouring from his chest made him feel weaker than he already was. It wasn't as hurting as much as it could be; the bullet hadn't hit any major blood vessels or nerves. The man collapsed to the floor.

---

By the time he'd woken up again, the place was on fire. His friend was frantically trying to keep him alive. The man looked up in his friend's eyes.

"I can't go on." The man's voice was hoarse.

"N-No!" The friend fumbled with the man's gun before showing him a picture tapped to the side. A dark blonde girl was holding a small toddler with blue hair. "For your fiancée and your step-daughter! You can't give up!"The friend was crying.

"I love you too much to argue with you... Run."

"No homo?"

"No homo... But I still love you..."

The friend cupped his best friend's face in his hands as the man took his final breathe, and the friend was no longer a friend to anyone.