Leanne felt horrible. She had always thought that when she was finally scared of something, she would be brave enough to push it aside and stand up for her friends if they were in danger, like all of those inspiring movie scenes she'd seen. But she wasn't. She ran away like a coward and Jared could be dying because of her.
She continued running down the hallway, tears streaming down her face.
"Where have you been?!" Lonnie snapped as she ran back into the supply closet. "We were all worried sick and- are you crying?"
Leanne didn't answer.
Brian studied her. "Where's Jared?"
"I..." She started weakly, trying to push past the shame she felt.
"Where's Jared?!" He asked more forcefully, grabbing her shoulders.
"I... we went to the... and- I... I know I should've-but-and-I"
"Where is he?!"
A small sob escaped. "Xkmotg has him."
Stefanie's eyes widened. "How?!"
"You just left him behind?!" Brian hissed softly.
"I... I-"
"How could you do that?! Losing Kassidy was bad enough, but you thought that abandoning him would help him at all?!"
"Give her some space to breathe." Lonnie said softly. "She's clearly shaken up."
"I... I know... and I didn't.... I didn't mean to-" Leanne started, not able to get a single sentence out between her panicked breaths.
Lonnie grabbed a water bottle. "Sit down and take a few breaths."
Leanne nodded, sinking against the wall before taking a quick sip of water.
"Why would you just leave him?" Brian said softly, failing to mask the hurt in his voice.
"I just... I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. Sh-She was there, and she had a hold of Jared and... I just panicked. I panicked and ran." She whispered softly, staring at the floor. "I'm sorry."
"Are you alright?" Lonnie asked softly.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"You didn't do anything wrong. You were just scared; it happens to all of us."
"Not to me."
Stefanie sighed, pulling Leanne into her. "It's okay. We'll figure out how to find him."
"I'm so sorry."