Wolf Girl

Freedom

Chapter 15

When Leah opened the door to the car and sat into the smooth leather seats next to her mother she expected to be yelled at. But somehow the silence was worse. It was like her mom was so disappointed in her that she didn't even want to waste her words.

The only thing to break the deafening silence was the low crackle of the radio. Static, it wasn't tuned to any frequency, it wasn't paired to any channel, it was alone. Leah turned the knob, the numbers changed on the little screen.

Finally, a word, one word surrounded by a sea of endless nothing. She quickly tuned in.

Is there any hope for those of us in Seattle? The police have found nothing, not a shred of evidence yet the crimes still continue. Where is the competence. Where is the light at the end of the tunnel, because all I see is darkness. The darkness of death and kidnapping, we have a unprecedented number of missing people, and an even if not higher number of murders. Yet still we have not gotten any further in-

The words cut back to static, leaving Leah in the cold silence once more. The ground flew by in a blur outside her window, trees thundered past, and the clouds turned the sky a dark grey once again. A welcome grey, one that Leah had, until now compared with home. Now her home lay in a green, a shade of green that could be found in the waves of the ocean, a green that she hoped she would be able to see again.

The murders in Seattle had gotten worse, with no suspects, no leads, no information whatsoever people were beginning to lose their light. Leah brought her hand into a fist, pretending that she was holding hope right there in her palm, just like she thought she saw Percy doing a little while earlier. Her nails left dents in her skin where she pressed, unwilling to let go.

With a clank the engine of the car came to a stop, the wheels stopped turning and the vehicle came to a rest. Leah looked up at her house, scrutinized every detail of the quaint white building. She saw her window on the second story, the glass pushed outward leaving it open to allow a breeze to flow through the home.

Leaving the car Leah walked up to the familiar door and reached for the handle, her hand barely touching it before her Mom spoke to her for the first time.

"I'm glad your ok." Sue Clearwater spoke softly, seeming to carefully choose her words.

"Me too." Leah began with a smile on the tip of her lips. She was glad to know her Mom wasn't going to yell at her.

"But."

Never mind, maybe the yelling would come soon, like right now.

Sue spoke harshly, a threatening undertone to her voice that Leah was not used to hearing from her. "You will not be leaving you room for the remainder of the week. You are grounded. I will not be treated this way, when my daughter leaves on dangerous missions, I- I just want to know." Her voice broke in the end as a tearless sob escaped her throat.

Leah stepped forward and into her Moms waiting embrace. A sweet, warm hug that reminded her of years past, back when she knew nothing of the supernatural world, back when her only problems were if she scraped her knees on the dirt from roughhousing with her brother.

"I love you Mom."

Tears were flowing freely from both of them, her mothers dripping down her face before getting soaked up in Leah's shirt.

"I love you to, never forget that." Her mom broke the hug, walking past her to the door. She opened it letting Leah through the doorway and into the interior of the warm house.

But, before she could take another step inside she was immediately tackled by another hug. This one was firmer, stronger than her mothers, it was the hug of her brother, Seth.