No one was.
For some reason, I started to slow down, until I stopped completely. I was breathing heavily, looking down the way I had come. Something in me didn't like it. It didn't like that no one had come after us ... or maybe it was the fact I had run; it didn't like. I couldn't explain what was going on, but as I turned my head and looked at my road to freedom, I suddenly didn't want it ... There was just something wrong about it, as I looked the way I knew would take me to ... Well, anywhere I wanted to go. No one could decide for me. Only me, but it was also a lonely road. Gabriel wouldn't be there. Dominic wouldn't be there. Not even Ace. Just me, but wasn't that what I had always wanted?
Suddenly I remembered what Dominic had told me last night:
Because what you are searching for is right here ...
Was it? Was what I was searching for really in that house? I had always thought what I was looking for was out there. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was looking at all of this in the wrong way because what would my freedom be worth if I was all alone? Usually, I didn't mind being alone, but after meeting the hybrids, loneliness now seemed so ... lonely. I didn't seem to want that anymore though.
"Dammit ..." I said and sat down on the small sidewalk.
I had no idea what to do ...
A part of me was still saying run and another was telling me to go back, but which one was I going to listen to?I just continued to sit there on the sidewalk, unable to decide, and then after a few good minutes, I saw a car slowing down in front of me. I didn't look up though. I just sat there, my head hanging low and my arms resting on my knees. I saw someone crouch down in front of me, and when I lifted my head, it was whom I expected.
Gabriel.
He didn't look mad though. Actually, he looked at me a little pitifully.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
I nodded. I wasn't hurt if that was what he was asking, but I didn't feel very good about myself right now, because I was so confused.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked.
"Running ... sitting ... thinking," I told him.
"That's a lot of things," he said with a small smile.
I nodded again, not sure what to say. He sat down beside me though, and looked around a bit, making sure there was no one else around before his eyes turned to me again.
"Thought you would be on some bus or train by now going whom the fuck knows where," he said.
"That was the plan," I told him.
"Got money on you?"
I nodded.
"And phone?"
I nodded again.
"At least you seem prepared. That is good to know," he said, still not sounding very mad I had chosen to run, but then again, wasn't that what he had expected?
"You seem quite distracted," I just teased a little.
"Yeah, I lost my focus for a moment," he chuckled. "Why I was quite mad before I saw you sitting out here."
"So, you are mad?" I asked and turned my head to look at him.
"As I said, I was before I saw you here. I was almost scared you were going to get me killed. Dominic was not going to forgive me for losing you."
I smiled a little.
"No, he probably wasn't going to," I sighed.
"But why are you sitting here?" he asked.