Return...
14: The Decision "Keara, what's wrong? You look worried," Fang said, swimming up to me in lengthy strokes. I looked in to his bright, emerald eyes, wishing for an answer. Could I leave him now, after all we'd gone through together? Could I risk his life? Juniper was more powerful than him; this I knew well, so she would be sure to kill Fang instantly. Then again, if I left, could her word be trusted? Would she leave Fang alone? So many questions! "Fang...Juniper came to me, just now," I began. I told him what she had said, amazed at the casualty on his face. "Look, luv, I really wouldn't worry about Juniper. She's kind of a, y'know, bitch." I nodded, deep in thought. Suddenly, the novelty of the swimming pool had faded away. "Fang," I said, feeling sadder than I ever had before, "I think that I should go back to London." Fang's eyes grew wider. I continued. "Would you come and live with me there? We could keep away from Juniper for a while, and we'd have a place there." Fang's eyes lowered, his voice choked. "I-I can't go back there," he confessed, looking away from me. "Too many bad memories." I kept treading water, resting my hand on his shoulder. "I forgot about all that," I said apologetically, "I'm sorry." Fang looked up, smiling. "No, it's okay. I never told you about Thomas or my mum." "What?" "Thomas, my brother." He explained. "It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you someday." I knew what I had to do. "I know that I'm going to hate myself forever for this, but I have to go back. I'll only be gone for a little while, but I have to get everything sorted out. Besides, who knows how long all this has been in Mortal time; the publishing company will kill me!" Fang nodded, the same look on his face that he had bore at the portal to the outside world, when the prospect of parting had been fresh and real. "I swear I'll come back, Fang. I'll never, ever forget what you've done for me." I promised, then and there, that I would write to him, and Fang told me he would find an apartment somewhere in the Mortal realm. I told Fang that if he wanted, we could live together in the place he found, and he had seemed eager at the idea. We left the pool, but before we went in to out separate dressing rooms, I stopped him with a shaking hand. "Fang, what would happen if you bit me on a full moon?" I asked. "I'm an Earth Guardian and all; would it affect me?" Fang nodded his dusty head, sending long drops of water falling to the concrete ground. "Yeah, you'd turn in to a werewolf, but you wouldn't be an evil one, like me. You'd probably turn into a Wendigo; they're pure-hearted." I nodded in understanding, something that I had learned to feign to a certain extent since I had met him. In essence, I always knew what he meant, but I never did quite understand the way the realms worked. As I dried off and dressed, I pondered all the things that had happened over the course of what had seemed like only four days; everything that I had thought could never happened to me had happened. I had found someone with whom I could share anything and everything with; someday, perhaps, I could break free of my shell and confess my feelings to him. Someday, perhaps. That night, we slept beneath the stars, on a dock somewhere off the coast of a large river. The moon was only a sliver, dotting a tiny fragment of the great, black sky. Fang and I had talked endlessly, until I fell asleep blissfully in his warm, protective arms. The last thing I had heard was his breathing, heavy and weary, and I had heard him whispering some poem or another. To this day, the words escape me, but they had been beautiful, and they followed me all the way home, haunting my decision. * * * * * * * Fang hugged me, eyes damp and full of unspoken longing. His black apparel meshed with my own, and the train threatened, with loud horns, to leave without me. "Goodbye, Fang," I whispered, tears tracing paths down my cheeks, dampening Fang's dark shirt. His arms tightened around me, holding me for one last time. "I promise I'll come back," I vowed, slowly backing away from his arms. "Goodbye, luv," Fang said, smiling in spite of himself. I stepped up on to the platform, my heart begging me to leap back down, to stay with him forever. As the train pulled away, Fang dashed alongside it, sprinting with wolf-like agility, his treacherous tears falling, until the locomotive outran him. I knew that it wasn't the end, that I would go back soon; but if that was true, then why was I weeping? I had grown so close to Fang, that for even a moment without his laughter and jokes and silly pet names around, I would be miserable. As I watched the green, rolling hills clamber by smoothly, I vowed solemnly to myself that I would return soon, back to my only friend, my true companion. And on that day, I would tell him what I had learned to understand through him. I would hold him, then, and I swore then and there that I would never let go. Epilogue Now, in my lonely apartment, I write this story. It has been two months since that last day, and I still weep freshly for it. I'm going back soon now; I just need the courage, and the money, but when I do, I will never go back, and I will never regret again. ~ THE END ~
