Letting go

Letting go
Kiara stayed no more than a second before she dashed out of the clinic. Chase carried a smell with him, one that was too distinct to be easily lost in the wind. She followed that smell and walked towards the path by the clinic.
He had already set off to find his people, with the knowledge at the back of his mind that he was forever going to be lost in the world.
He did harmful things, he even killed her.
He was undeserving of anything like forgiveness, but wasn’t it a waste of time to carry such negativity in your heart? He says something funny and you have to force yourself to not laugh, he is around and you have to leave just because you don’t want to be in the same room with him.
This negativity was far from appealing. Why would one waste their time like that? There was the option of letting go, not forgiving, but choosing not to have that hand over you.
Yes, but she forgave him. Everything in life was mainly perspective. If she kept looking at the fact that he killed her, then how would she grow? Why not look at it like he aided in her transformation? She is a different person, a better one because he killed her.
Wasn’t that more fun?
She dashed through the darkness, the woods, and silent night, and the sound of branches crunching underfoot ahead caught her attention. She rushed forward.
The sudden appearance of incoming fast footsteps caused Chase and Damon to pause. The two of them stared at each other, before turning into the darkness. There, they saw Kiara making her way forward. The moon was still high up in the sky; in a few hours, the sun would be rising from the east.
And she was running towards them.
And his heart was racing.
After Kiara had pinned him to the ground, he had not seen her since then, hell, they had not even had the conversation he wanted to have with her. He had so much to say but so little could his mouth express.
All he did was stare at her with wide eyes. And a heart clawing at his chest.
“Where are you going to?” she asked, her chest rising and falling, staring at the two men who looked dazed.
“We’re going to find the other werewolves,” Damon spoke after the stretching silence that drifted out of Chase.
Kiara nodded her head. “Good, I’ll join you.”
“What?” Chase finally spoke.
“I’ll join you,” she repeated. “Do you think you’ll be able to do this alone?”
“We don’t need someone who cannot kill vampires with us, Kiara,” Chase said, with everything but bitterness and hate.
Kiara nodded her head. “I won’t kill. I’ll beat up and then toss them over to you. As long as I don’t kill, right?”
Right.
That made sense.
Damon nodded his head. “And I heard you’re one of a kind too, so you’ll come in handy.” He clasped his hand on Chase’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Chase stood there, frozen. “No.”
“You can’t convince me against this,” Kiara said. “You cannot change my mind.”
“And what I want doesn’t matter?” he asked. “I cannot have you next to me.”
Kiara scoffed. “I have heard how deep hatred runs, but this is amazing.”
Chase shook his head. “I’m selfish, Kiara. I don’t want you here simply because of what I did to you. Don’t you get it? I see you and I remember what happened.”
“And you think I don’t?” she asked. “Do you think it was fun living in a dream for years? I didn’t even have an idea of what I was in. I woke up and my body changed and my brain is different and the woman I loved grew up and I was not a part of it.”
“Then if you hate it so much, why are you here?”
She sighed. “You don’t deserve anything good, Chase, but I’m willing to put the past behind me.”
Chase’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean?”
“It happened,” she shrugged. “It’s not light, I’m not undermining it, but it happened and there’s nothing I can do to fix what has happened. I can only move past it.”
“Kiara…”
“And don’t think because I can forgive you, every other person should,” she said. “They don’t owe you their forgiveness.”
These past few hours, he has been starting to realize that those words were true. They really don’t owe him anything. In truth, he was the one who was in debt. Even after what he did to them, they let him stay in the village.
They let him eat their food. They let him breathe the same air with them. He reduced their lives to this, and they let him stay.
They did more than forgive him, and that felt better.
“Kiara…”
She shook her head before dropping a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know what you want to say, but just let it go and let me join you.”
She glanced ahead and the woods stared back at her. “Do you even know where you’re going?”
Chase nodded his head. He had to let it go as she said. There was no point in talking about it and ruining the mood. “I have an idea. I can track my pack easily, it’s like a pull.”
“Since we’re walking, how long till we get there?” Damon inquired.
They started off on their journey. “Seeing as we can’t even hitch a ride if we wanted to, well, I’m guessing a day. Depends on how fast we’re walking.”
Beside him, Damon scoffed, “When we were running for our lives it took us less than five hours to find our way.”
Chase laughed. He recalled how that felt like. He remembered how fast his heart was racing, how fast his legs were moving, how desperately he wanted to survive.
That had woken him up from his two years of slumber.
Just one night brought him back.
“We can run if you want, but I don’t think you can catch up,” she chuckled.
Chase nodded, seeing no point in trying to convince her that being a hybrid doesn’t make her faster than he was. “Well, yeah, you’re right,” he said. “No one is as fast as you.”
Kiara rolled her eyes. “So, should we run?”
“And waste our energy when we eventually see them? How can we fight if we have no strength left in us?”
Chase was right. If they started running now and covered the distance, then they would be too tired to run or do anything. It was better they walked. It was better they just took their time.
Except, they could also run.
“Why don’t we run there till the rush rises and then we stop and hunt for food and then walk for a while?” she suggested.
It was a good idea. The best even.
Damon nodded his head. “That’s a great idea.” As he spoke, he immediately started to remove his clothes.
This took Kiara by surprise. She turned her eyes away from him.
The two of them changed out of their clothes. They brought a bag with them that contained some fruits they had stolen from the village. Well, Damon had stolen it. All Chase did was stand there and watch.
They handed the bag to Kiara.
“You can help us hold it.”
Kiara didn’t turn around yet. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m turning too.”
Chase scoffed. “I’ll teach you a secret, vampire and werewolf. You can choose what you want to do. And if you turn, you’ll be using your werewolf abilities. And what do you think is faster? Werewolves or vampires?”
Vampires.
Her silence was the answer.
“And you can even use your werewolf ability to run,” Damon added. “You can run with both.”
They both didn’t say anything else before leaping into the air and transforming in that instant.
Kiara heard the bones breaking and knew they were covered in fur now. Her eyes turned blood red and she dashed after them.