The Search For Peace 2

Chapter 37

"I hope you know how much trouble you're in." Katy McClellan wore a smile as she spoke, so if she was trying to show concern for them, it didnt seem like it.

Karl squirmed in the seat beside her, watching her strong arms hold the steering wheel as she drove them back to their clan. Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing the protruded veins scattered about the muscles.

In the backseat, Charlotte squeezed her brother's hand, watching the woman's single blye eye thriugh the rearview mirror. She wasn't the tad bit grateful to her for breaking them out of that cell. It was better than this. Anything was better than this.

"Teresa's a softy, but the elders are a different story." Katy quite enjoyed the fear masking their expressions. "You kiss have tried your luck for far too long."

"It wasn't out fault, you know." Karl dared to speak, hugging himself. "That boy Adrian-"

"That boy Adrian is none of your concern." Katy gave him a sideways glare, the car stopping in front of a red light. The morning was bleak and grey outside, a fitting atmosphere for their situation.

She drummed her fingers on the wheel, in time with their anxious heartbeats. "You should worry about you for a change, Karl Anderson."

☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆

In the crisp December air, Adrian stood with his packed bag, his phone pushed into his jean's pocket, still on silent.

He breathed in the cold, walking up the same road he had descended on that confused November night. The gray sky showed signs of snow, and as he trudged forward, he couldn't help but notice the 'RougeVille' sign again.

From this side, it read: 'Goodbye RougeVille!', the red paint peeling as the wind played with it.

On impulse, he took out his phone, lifting it to snap a picture. Of the sign. The forest at his side. The mountain range that belonged to the wolves and the wolves alone.

"Hey." He stopped and turned to meet the voice that had called him. He knew it belonged to Karen. He wasn't surprised. Yet his heart hammered in his chest, and his palms grew cold.

Wearing her signature poncho, she stared at him with those peculiar black and blue eyes. "You're leaving?"

His gaze fell to his shoes, then followed the line of barren trees, then rose to the sky, until finally, he said: "Yup."

The girl seemed to have been expecting such a reply, because she was smiling a knowing smile. "Why?" The question was so simple, so....open. There were no strings attached, no judgement.

Drawing in a shaky breath, Adrian leaned back on the crooked railing of the road. "I feel like my time here is up. You said you needed my power to help you, but all I did was make things worse." The boy shied away from her, the words mincing in between his teeth. "I guess...I guess I'm apologizing by leaving."

From the corner of his eye, he saw her tilt her head. "Apologizing, huh?"

"Yes." Sensing that the conversation was over -no, he wanted it to be over-, he pulled on the straps of his bag and straightened to leave. Hurriedly, he said: "Thank you for teaching me about my own power. And tell Martin his casserole is out of this world." His legs were shaking, and he was itching for a run. "And, well, it was nice meeting all of you-"

"It's not your fault the bandits escaped." Karen handed him the words like a lightstick. A lightstick that burned. "When you offered not to kill them, I admit it, I was shocked."

Adrian gulped back the lump in his throat, his eyes fixated on the ground. There were droplets sitting the gravel, and he prayed they weren'this tears.

"It was something new to us, since we've killed anyone whose bothered us before. But, because of you, I understood something." She came closer, but the boy did not have the courage to step back. He did not have the energy to remove his hands from his sides, when she reached down to hold them in her's.

She was a girl who handled guns, and blew arrows, yet her touch was so gentle, her fingers rough but warm. "It's the same when you hit a wild animal with an arrow or a bullet. You hit it in an attempt to save yourself from its attack, and yet, when you move closer, you are the blood gushing out of the wound." The grip on his hands tightened. "It's vulnerable, and you have the upper hand...

"But just when you're about to kill it, you stop." Adrian lifted his head, braving to finally look at her. "Something happens in your heart. Something stirs. And that feeling..." She closed her eyes, as if in pain, and he could sense her remembering someone. Someone who hadn't shown her mercy. Who had thrown her away without a second thought. Whose heart didn't have the capacity to love.

When her eyes opened and she spoke once more, they were gleaming with tears. "That feeling is really important."

Perhaps it was one of those 'spur-of-the-moment' scenarios. One of those times when you don't know why you did, what you did. But Adrian knew one thing, when he pulled that strange girl into his skinny chest. He knew, that in all his fourteen years of living, he had never hugged a person so tightly, while crying over their shoulder, and felt so, so warm.