Monsters

Chapter Thirteen

"You have a family that you're trying to get to. You can't keep following me and almost getting hurt, or worse, killed because I can't protect you! You have something to lose Amity. I already lost everything. I shouldn't keep putting you at risk like that because I'm too selfish to let go of you and lose you too!" She looked to the sky sighing heavily and looked back at me.

"You are the first real friend I have had since all of this started. The first person who has stayed and accepted me regardless of how I can be so cruel sometimes and hard to deal with. You bring out that good side of me but I won't let you go on like this with me. I think we should part ways now." I found myself stepping toward her and reaching a hand out letting it hang in the air in the space between us.

"No, no that's not what I want! Don't you get it, Luz! You saved my life more than once. I wouldn't be here without you and I wouldn't want to. I need you, Luz, you're my best friend." I explained stepping closer only for her to take another step back. "Even after everything you've done; lying about that group and hurting my feelings by ignoring me as you have been this past week. I still need you!" I felt my insides turn as the force I put behind my words hurt my throat.

This had to of been what the feeling in my gut was. She was going to leave me alone again to myself. I already lost my brother, my family! I couldn't lose her too! "It's not fair, Luz! You can't just decide what I need or what's best for me." I let a tear fall but held the rest in. This wasn't goodbye. Luz wouldn't do that to me.

"Dang it, Amity! I am trying so hard not to care about you but you make it so difficult not to do so!" She screamed before looking down at her shoes. "Maybe it's not what you need, but it's what I need." She spoke and her words led me to feel frantic, desperate.

"No, Luz, please don't leave me! I'll stop talking I promise! I won't say another word the entire trip." I went to stand before her, not wanting her to leave. "Please, just don't leave me alone," I begged desperately before taking her hands in mine. Her entire posture stiffened and she grasped my wrists, breaking me from my hold on her.

"No Amity! I'm not good for you! I don't want to travel with you so just respect that!" She said this viciously and I flinched back, my arms falling to my side from her hold. I felt my heart shatter and plummet as I stood there crying. "So just go away!" She yelled.

I stood there staring at her completely broken by her words. "Go!" She screamed angrily and I recoiled from seeing this side of her. I let more tears fall only to wipe them away as seething anger grew within me. If she was going to be like this, hurt me like this, then she didn't deserve my tears. With that final thought, I turned away from Luz Noeceda hoping to never see her again.

... ... ... ...

The further I walked from where I left Luz behind the more I felt my gut twist. What she said had hurt more than anything she had spoken to me in the past. Even though I felt pure anger at what she had done, and what she had said; I had already been feeling her absence from my side. Even during that awful week where she was brooding and keeping herself from me, at least she was there. I couldn't depend on her, talk to her, or just simply be there with her anymore now.

There was this turning of my gut and this pulling at the back of my mind that made me look around myself. There had been a few small groups of monsters during my walk as well as some stragglers. Either way, their numbers were down significantly which helped me out a lot. I found my eyes drown toward the sky up above me and, somehow, I knew. By the looks of it, I knew what was to come next.

Rain; was heavy and dark as it slammed against rooftops and pavement and people. I remember the storm as if it happened yesterday. The one that changed everything into what it was now. There was no way to prove that any rain afterward wouldn't have the same effects as the first. So, because of that, I had always avoided the rain. It was easier now that it barely stormed out, but that didn't mean it could be avoided entirely.