Always Running (MATURE CONTENT)

CHAPTER 22

WORRY. It consumed Lucas. He had no idea where Nessa was. The tracker he had placed in her bag wasn't giving off any location. It was dead, or Nessa had found it and had gotten rid of it. He should have hidden the file better. He never thought that she would snoop around in his office, although he should have guessed, knowing how paranoid she could get and not trusting others. She had barely started to trust him and now it was all lost. She would never trust him again.

TIGHT. His chest became tighter every second that passed by. He needed to know that she was alright, that she was safe. He had made a mistake and he knew it. He had wanted to give her time to be able to tell him who she was when she was ready. He didn't want to force the truth out of her. He had wanted to tell her everything, but it would have terrified her and sent her running like she was now.

Lucas drove west where the last signal from the cell phone had been located. Ron still had not called with any news which meant there was no news worthy of bothering him with. His mother had no news and she had found nothing in Nessa's room except her laptop and her scanner which meant she would remain as Nessa which gave him some hope, but why would she leave behind her tools? That was out of character for her. Nessa would never leave her things behind, the only things that had helped her survive all that time. Suddenly a thought struck Lucas making him laugh loud and hard. He pressed the connect button on his steering wheel and listened to the phone ring twice before Ron picked up.

"I still haven't found anything out, she was not on the train headed to Utah, but the men are now—"

"Ron shut up!" Lucas cut him off. "Tell your men to search for Nessa on foot. She's not going to be on any bus or train. She's walking the back roads and heading north."

"How do you know...you know what, never mind. I'm on it."

The line went dead, and Lucas turned off the main road and began driving the back roads. She would not be able to cross over to Canada without a passport, so her next best thing would be to find a small town or somewhere near where she could hide until she came up with another plan. He just hoped he would find her before that happened.

* * *

Nessa found a tree to rest under for a while. She was so tired. Her legs shook like jelly. She had been walking for hours. The weather was getting colder as she headed north. She was hungry and wondered why Lucas had lied to her. He had deceived her from the beginning. She wanted to go home. The only problem was that she had no idea where home was now. In fact, she had never had a home until she had found Lucas. He had made her feel at home. He had made her feel safe and he had also taken that safety away with the same hand he had offered it to her.

SADNESS. A strong and strangling sadness filled her soul. She was grieving for the man she thought Lucas was. She was mourning the life she thought she might be able to have by his side. The pain had become so strong that she couldn't help emptying the contents of her stomach. She heaved and heaved until there was nothing but bile coming up and burning her throat. She wanted to lay down and close her eyes and make the nightmare disappear. Lucas had managed to shatter the remnants of what she had left of her heart. She walked around heartless, half alive but mostly dead thanks to him.

After resting for a few hours and getting her stomach under control, Nessa began to walk again. She kept her mind off Lucas. Every now and then a thought would pop in her head and she would smile thinking of him. Just as fast as the smile appeared on her face it would disappear. She hated that she missed him. She hated that her body yearned for his touch. She came upon a sign that pointed to three different directions. She chose to keep course. Lucas would no doubt be heading south by now.

Nessa stayed off the main roads and only walked during the night thinking that it would be safer for her. Of course, traveling by night had its dangers as well, not as many as being spotted on the open road in plain daylight though. The supplies she had bought were becoming scarce and lying to herself was not helping. She missed Lucas. She knew that he had lied to her or at least he hadn't told her the whole truth; lied by omission.