Gory Glory // l.t au

9 - Louis

Louis

Three days.

It's been three agonisingly long days since Leila took off in her Jeep, the anger practically radiating off of her.

I feel awful.

Why the hell had I brought her dad into it? I knew that subject hit a nerve and yet I was stupid enough to mention it. To try and use it against her.

We were meant to work together, to have each others back's through this. And I had made her snap. God knows where she is right now. When is she going to come back?

Is she even going to come back?

She could be dead.

...She could be bitten.

No.

No, she's not bitten. She's not. I won't allow her to be.

If something has happened to her because of my doing, because of me pushing her buttons and driving her away, I'll never forgive myself. I need to find her.

But where do I start?

Where would she have gone?

I was thinking maybe the city, but is that too obvious? I concluded that I had no other options, therefore it was worth a shot.

But Leila had taken the Jeep...

It was around a ten minute drive, so it would probably take about half an hour to get there if I walked fast. But my leg was still bandaged up, so I couldn't be that quick. I was unsure on how long it would take to actually find her. I mean, the city was pretty big – especially on foot. And what if she's not even there?

I have to try though.

I grabbed the black leather belt that Leila had given me the first day I had met her, and strapped it around my waist. I placed a pistol in one of the holders and a relatively small knife in another. I didn't want to weigh myself down with lots of unnecessary weapons.

Leila had told me to wear that belt at all times – to always be prepared. If I had listened to her, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have relied on Leila to save my life from the Breather and so we wouldn't have gotten into that argument. I should have known better than to test her patience.

I shook my head as if attempting to shake out the memory, and began my trek down the path.

“I'm coming, Leila,” I muttered under my breath.

***

My feet ached as I lazily trudged down the road. I was limping slightly from the pain shooting down my calf – I was beginning to look like a Breather. I had passed the outskirts of the city and was warily wandering around in an attempt to find any signs that Leila had been here. I checked in each store I passed and, keeping my voice low, called her name. There wasn't a response.

I entered a shop which name I couldn't identify and peeked in. “Leila?”

As anticipated, there was no reply. I was about to back out of the store, when the summer sun reflected the light off something on the floor, catching my attention. I approached it and knelt down to get a closer look. I gasped when I realized what I had discovered.

Leila's locket.

I gently picked it up and lowered the chain into the palm of my outstretched hand. I observed the silver heart, before picking it open with my thumbnail. On the inside, on the left side of the locket was a picture of Leila when she was around ten with, who I guessed, was her dad. On the right side, engraved into the locket in a beautiful curvaceous font, it read: