Sacrifice

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

                Sophia had trouble even remembering what she was supposed to be doing. While she was normally good at making herself focus on whatever task was at hand, Gabriel was too big of a distraction. He had looked so frightened when she had pushed him in the room, and she knew she had definitely gone too far. She knew enough about his past to know what he had been thinking. And she felt terrible.

                Apologies were not something Sophia had ever been good at, but she knew that’s what she had to do. She started to head up the stairs to do so, but she stopped, deciding she needed to figure out what to say first. She paced back and forth in her office, trying to come up with the right words.

                Nothing sounded right in her head, and after several minutes she sat down at her desk and tried to write it out instead. She typed up what she wanted to say on the computer, but she found she kept deleting things. Reading it, her words seemed worthless and insincere. Growling, she deleted all of it and resumed pacing.

                She felt like she had just been wasting time and once she decided there were no words that were going to make things right, she stormed out of her office and headed upstairs. She’d just have to say whatever came to mind. Or perhaps nothing at all. As she stood in front of the door, she wondered if the best course of action would be to simply let him go. She hated that idea, but there was nothing else she could think of to do.

                Taking a deep breath, she removed the chair and set it to the side and then opened the door. Immediately, as soon as the cool air hit her, she knew something was wrong. She looked at the window and saw it was open. Even though she was sure that he was long gone, she ran over to the window and looked outside anyway. The only sign of Gabriel was a damaged bush under the window.

                She ran out of her room and then out the front door of the house and over to the side until she was standing under her bedroom window. She knelt down, sniffing the ground and catching his scent. She looked in the direction he had gone, but as she suspected, there was nothing to see.

                It was dark out, and after glancing around and not seeing anyone else in the area, she started to shift. It would take too long and look too awkward if she tried to track him down in her human form. As she began to follow his trail, she had to wonder if she should even bother trying to find him. After all, she had been planning on letting him leave. But she still felt like she had to apologize, so she continued to track him.

                After nearly twenty minutes, Sophia saw a flash of movement in a park across the street from where she was, which was also in the same direction as Gabriel’s trail. Assuming that it wasn’t likely for anyone else to be out at the park at such an hour, Sophia quietly made her way towards the figure, finding cover in the tall grass.

                Once she was closer, she was able to verify that the figure she saw was Gabriel. She crouched low and observed him for several moments. He seemed to be lost or maybe resting, but Sophia guessed he simply didn’t know where to go since she knew there was no reason he should be tired after such a short distance.

                She had a feeling he wouldn’t let her simply approach, and he was standing in an area where the grass had been cut, which meant there was no way for her to cross the distance between them without being seen. She started to creep forward, wanting to get closer before she had to lunge for him.

                Gabriel had ran from Sophia’s house, picking a direction at random. Fortunately, he had found a park and he took off down the path. Once in the park, he felt like he could take a moment and not only try to figure out where he was going but also to recover from his jump out the window and the run.