16 Parting Ways

Drake stared at the ground with no emotion on his face. Now it was Hope's turn to wait because the next move was his. Despite her thinking that she may die, she wasn't scared because she felt like a soulless vessel anyway.

Hope caressed Max and Josephine and sadly told them telepathically to leave until she comes after them. Using this precaution made sure that things would turn out well, at least for them. She also said that they should go back to the village and look for Tom, the butcher's son, because he will love them, and his father will accept them for his sake.

After a few minutes that seemed like an eternity to Hope, Drake stood up and walked slowly toward a secular tree. He hit his shoulder hard on the trunk of the tree, and there was a bang. He was able to straighten his right shoulder after being dislocated from jumping off his horse. Then, with his left hand, he massaged the neck that still hurt, but the pain was not as great as the one he felt deep in his soul.

Lilac flowers adorned the trees, and the murmur of birds enjoying spring sweetened the atmosphere in people's hearts. But this man and this woman were immune to the beauties around them. The surrounding world no longer existed, and the whole universe reduced to a forest, then to a clearing, and then to a single heartbeat.

Drake turned back to the tree where Hope sat, and she stood up, waiting for his verdict. Nevertheless, she did not sense any criminal aura or hidden intentions when he spoke. His voice immediately diverted her thoughts in the opposite direction.

"You once told me that if a person really wants to live, he must let himself be carried away by the tide and do what he wants. I will listen to your advice, but only this time."

His left hand caressed her cheek, and his right slid over her left shoulder blade, where Hope felt some tingling and then a burning pain. But the pain stopped abruptly.

Drake smiled sadly. "I left you a small gift from our mutual friend. When you are afraid, he will feel and know where you are. This is the only condition I include in the release of you. I know he won't feel you too soon, or maybe never because you may be many things, but fearful is not one of them."

Drake's fingers continued to caress the dragon-shaped tattoo that had magically appeared on Hope's left shoulder blade. She snorted in a cold, sarcastic laugh. "Do you like to caress yourself?"

Drake was not so shaken this time by the changes of spirit that Hope managed to induce in any situation. Only she could have taken a sentimental and dramatic moment like this and transform it into a black perverted comedy.

He bent down and placed a light kiss on Hope's lips. It was an innocent kiss, short and full of feeling. It was a goodbye that craved for an answer because he knew that this moment could mean goodbye forever and wanted to leave behind a promise of things that could have been.

Drake looked at her for another second and then turned away. Again Hope had to use her enhanced hearing to catch his whisper. "If you miss me, you know where to find me."

She also walked but in the opposite direction, sighed, and looked at the sky. On a twig, two pigeons nibbled at each other's beaks, chirping happily before leaving to build their nests. Two butterflies flew in a spiral, following each other until they faded in the distance behind the branches of the trees.

It felt as nature itself told Hope that she made a mistake, and her gut feeling ordered her to go back and run after Drake. But that wasn't possible because once she made up her mind, there was no going back. That was her way of doing things.

He could not hear her and could not gather the words that flew from Hope's lips and disappeared just as quickly as the spring breeze blew. "I already do…."

She felt torn apart. On one side, Hope thought she disappointed Drake by not helping him with his problem, the same way she failed Ona by not being the loving child she had always wanted. But the other side, the one that won the battle, wanted to be selfish. Ultimately, the argument that won the fight was that if you're going to help someone, then firstly, you must help yourself.

And yet, for the first time in her life, she had a strange feeling that she returned home. It was like an uprooted tree that needs solid ground and strong roots to rise to the sun. She needed to know what gave meaning to her life so that she could continue to exist.

She had never been so free. Embraced by instinct and fate, she followed her steps and let herself go where they led her. Hope no longer had to hide the savagery from within her. The surroundings were no longer populated with people who treated her like a human being who had to follow the rules of society.

The only person who had ever connected her to humanity no longer existed. Hope suffered after the loss of Ona, but a part of her knew that this is the cycle of nature, a perpetual circuit of transformation, in which nothing is lost, only transformed. Ona still existed but in a different form.

She went like that all day, not knowing where her footsteps took her. She didn't know where she was, but she knew she was on the right track. Hope pondered what form she had before she became this person now. And before she was born, did she have consciousness and feelings?

While thinking of these philosophical things, her thoughts became disrupted when a whisper that could have been easily mistaken for leaves rustling reached her ears. "You finally got home."