Tara's Story

Chapter 45

Chapter 45

It was so hard. Hard to let go, hard to leave, and hard to keep going forward. Sara tugged at my hand, pulling me away from the house. We ran at super-speed until it was out of sight. But it wasn’t out of mind at all.

I caught a whiff of a familiar scent and stopped.

“What now?” Sara asked, annoyed. “We need to leave, now!”

“There’s someone here,” I breathed. Following my nose, I came upon a figure leaning upon a tree casually. The one person I hadn’t said goodbye to. Smiling, I jogged up to her and wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

“Ugh, get off of me!” Leah exclaimed with a grin on her face.

“But I loooovvveee you!” I teased. “I kind of figured you’d be here.”

“Watching everyone say their sappy goodbyes is overrated,” she said while rolling her eyes. “Plus, I prefer to say personal things without dozens of eyes watching me.”

“Sounds like typical Leah to me,” I snickered. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

“Well I wasn’t about to let you leave without seeing me!” she exclaimed, with a sly smirk on her face. “I wanted to wish you luck with your...mission.”

“Thanks.”

Her face fell to show the sadness and worry she was really feeling. “You’re very close to me. You helped me realize how many people love and care for me, not to mention introducing me to Zevi, my mate. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

It was completely unlike Leah to be so sincere and say such things. It told me how truly worried she was. “It’s nothing compared what you did for me,” I replied.

“No, you did more!”

“No, you did.”

“No-“

“Let’s not argue for our last time seeing each other,” I interrupted. She sighed and nodded. “If you want to pay me back, there’s something you can do.”

“What?” she asked enthusiastically.

I inhaled deeply and gazed into her eyes. “If anything were to happen to me, I want you to take care of Conner, like how you did for me when I was missing him. Can you do this?”

“Of course,” she murmured. “I’ll be sure to be there for him and do whatever I can to comfort him.”

I gave her another hug, holding tears again. This time, she didn’t object. “Thank you,” I whispered.

We retracted and gave parting smiles. “Goodbye, my friend,” Leah said.

“Goodbye.” The word felt so final off my lips, like it was really goodbye forever.

Then, I was off running with Sara again.

She filled me in with all the little details as we ran to the faraway middle of nowhere. Edward would read our minds to pass along information and would be our key to signal to attack, only when close enough to the lab would we put on the ‘I was kidnapped’ act, and the location of the camp where the others would stay was set up.

When we started coming close to the border, I asked, “Sara? Can we go visit my mother?”

“We really need to reach the place.”

“I know, but I want to see her. We can visit your parents while we’re there. It may be our only chance to.”

She sighed. Not only did Sara have a soft spot for my mother, she had never even gotten a chance to see her own parents. “Fine. We’ll make it quick though.”