AURORA ☾ Leah Clearwater ✔

Chapter 5... Miracle

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Leah

The drive home was torturous. Even though Emily was pushing her mom's old car to the max, and the trees nothing but blurs as we sped past, it still felt like it was taking too long. I couldn't stand to wait, even if it was just a few hours by car. I wanted to see Sam now.

He was back. Sam was back, Mom had said. It was a miracle.

Some part of me must've known because this morning I had awoken early, much earlier than normal. I had been pulled almost forcefully from my sleep, and the minute I was awake, I was suddenly struck by the idea that I had to go downstairs. I wasn't sure, exactly, what motivated me, but the urge was unignorable, so I did as I was commanded. I stumbled down the stairs, still in the process of waking up, and came to a stop right in front of the phone. I lingered there for only a few seconds before it started ringing.

Without thinking, I answered it. Luckily I had, because it was Mom. Like she had promised, she was calling because she had heard news. For one moment, expecting the worse, my heart felt like it might crumble to dust... until she said the words that breathed new life into me.

"Sam's back."

I started wriggling in the seat, fighting against the seatbelt. It was so hard to sit still. I hated the fact that I all I could do was sit here in this car. It felt like I was doing nothing. Some deep part of me wished I could just take off and run... Run and run and run. Run all the way home, run straight to Sam.

"We're almost there," Emily said suddenly, like she had read my mind. "It will just be another ten minutes, tops."

"Ten minutes is still too long," I whispered under my breath.

But she was right, even if the minutes crawled past like hours. Soon we were on that familiar forest road that lead through our neighbourhood. But Emily, instead of taking the left turn towards Sam's, continued on straight, towards my house.

"STOP!" I screamed, in absolute horror.

Emily skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. "What? What is it? Is there an animal?" she said breathlessly, craning her neck to see if some animal had run out on the road.

"No! You missed the turn to Sam's!" I snapped. "You can still back up, there's no one behind you..."

She gave a weird look. "We're not going to Sam's right away. We're going to your place first, then we can go to Sam's..." She eased her foot off the break and the car began to slowly move forward again.

I couldn't believe my ears. I scoffed angrily, threw open the door, and leapt out of the moving car. I stumbled as I hit the pavement, but soon recovered and made my way back towards the fork in the road.

The car screeched to a stop again. The driver's side door opened, and Emily leaned out. "Leah! Where are you going? Come back!"

"I'm going to Sam's!" I said, breaking into the run that I had been itching for since this morning.

"Leah!" Emily called once more. But I didn't turn back, and after a bit she seemed to just give up. "I'll be waiting for you at your house!" I heard her say, her voice distant as I dashed down the road.

Running felt good, better than it ever had. Each stride was like a note in a song, and my body was singing with the tune, my heart pounding with the beat. Sam, I'm coming. Sam, I'm almost there. Sam. Sam. Sam.

A huge smile broke like dawn across my face as his house came into my view. The dark clouds that had surrounded me while he was gone were being pushed back, and I could see the sun once more. I pushed myself to my limit as I raced for the door. I was so close!