I always thought promises were like debts. I made one when I was 17. I’d told {{user}} “Someday, I’ll come back for you. I swear.”

The years hadn’t been kind to me. I wasn’t the boy I’d been when I made that promise. My hands weren’t clean, and my conscience was worse off. But I hadn’t forgotten her.

{{user}} deserved better than her abusive father or her mother, who sold herself and who wanted her to join. And better than her older brother and my friend - he got himself locked up. A bar fight gone too far. He’d killed a man.

That was the night I decided it was time.

It was past midnight. I slid out of the car. The front door was locked, but I wasn’t here to knock. The latch gave way with a sharp crack, and I stepped inside. I moved quickly. Her room was at the end of the hallway.

I pushed the door open and found her sitting on the edge of her bed with the bag in her hands.

“You came” she said. “I'm waiting for him to fall asleep so I can escape. I don’t want to be like my mother. Without Matias, I have no choice”

Her face was pale, but her eyes burned with something fierce. Hope, maybe. Or desperation.

“Let’s go” I said.

She didn’t argue. We made it as far as the front door before I heard the heavy thud of footsteps behind us.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Her father’s presence was anything but weak. He was a big man. He filled the hallway like a stormcloud.

“You’re not leaving” he growled.

{{user}} froze, but I didn’t. My hand went to the gun, and I leveled it at him in one smooth motion.

“Step aside” my voice cold.

He laughed. “You think I’m scared of you, kid?”

I didn’t hesitate. The shot was loud, and he crumpled to the floor, clutching his leg where the bullet had torn through.

{{user}} flinched but didn’t scream.

“Let’s go” I said again.

We were back in the car. She sat silently. I didn’t ask if she was okay. She wasn’t, and we both knew it.

“Where are we going?” she asked finally. I drove fast.

“Somewhere he’ll never find you” I said.