UnPure

Chapter 3 : Eric

     My knuckles were white from the force of my grip on the steel railing of the building. It was almost sundown and she still wasn’t back. I knew I shouldn’t have let her go by herself. No, I shouldn’t have let her go at all. She probably got caught, and everyone else would blame me for her disappearance.

“Eric? It’s almost sundown,” Gabrielle said, resting a comforting hand on my shoulder, sadness and pity creeping in her voice. I sucked in a deep breath, knowing we couldn’t wait any longer, and nodded. She looked at me once again, to make sure I was sure, and I nodded again. “Everyone, let’s move! Make sure you leave nothing behind! No traces, we were never here! Understood?”

     There were grunts and noises of agreement as everyone hurried to grab their things. I continued to watch for any sign of her. My chest constricted with worry as seconds turned to minutes, with still nothing indicating that she was near. What if she was hurt? What if they took her in and did tests? What if she was forced to fight in the arena? What if-?

      My stomach heaved just at the mention of her not being alive, of me not being able to see her. Her smile, though not seen by many, always took my breath away. Her golden eyes like liquid honey, shone with fierceness and determination. If something did happen to her I would never forgive myself. I raked a shaky hand through my hair and came to a conclusion, I would go get her. I had to, because I refused to leave without her.

“Gabby, start taking them down, I-I have to go,” I was interrupted by a strong, steady voice, that had my heart jumping out of mouth.

“You have to go where?” she said, hands on her small hips, an arched eyebrow raised. Before I could even process what I was doing my arms were around her frame in a tight embrace. She stood rigid, stiff from shock, but then relaxed into me and gently slid her arm up and wrapped her hand around my neck. “I’m fine, I’m okay. I’m right here,” she whispered in my ear, trying to reassure me, before pulling back. Just like that our moment was gone. She was once again surrounding by her impenetrable walls, her tough exterior back.

“What part of leave without me didn’t you get?” she snapped, walking around me to access the group. It was then I noticed the strange girl that seemed to have been following Leena. She was covered in dirt and reeked of fear and death. Leena seemed to catch everyone’s uncertainty about her and quickly went to explain how the girl was her cousin, and had been taken in.

“Darcy, take Mia to get cleaned up. Everyone else wait on the lower levels, there are Enforcers everywhere out there. We need to wait for them to clear out,” she ordered, and everyone quickly followed her orders. Then she turned to me, “Okay, we need a new route. My vote is on the woods. It’ll be faster and easier for us to get out of this territory, but,” I cut her off by pulling her against me and laying my forehead on hers. “Eric we need to get moving,” she said, but her body went against her words as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and closed her eyes.

“The woods will be fine, Leena. You just need to calm down for a minute, and tell me what happened. Why are you so stressed?” I said, loving the feeling of her against me, without her fighting it. She let out a long sigh, before pulling out of my arms just enough so she could look up at me. Her deep whiskey eyes stared long and hard into my blue ones. She always did this, before she talked about something she didn’t want to talk about. It was her way of seeing if I was going to back down from her, but we both knew I wouldn’t. She sighed again, before letting her head drop onto my chest.

“Things got out of hand. I-,” she paused, looking for the right words. “I lost control….again.”

“We all make mistakes, some we just can’t help. You just have to leave it in the past and let it go. Okay?” We both knew I wasn’t just talking about what happened today, but she nodded anyway. I quickly pressed my lips to her forehead, before telling her we should go.