Chapter 231
231 I AM SORRY
“After I eat, I will go see her,” Zuri murmured.
Before this, even from the first time Anne couldn’t wake up and was very sick, she had been standing in front of her door for so long, but didn’t have the courage to enter the room and go to her even once.
There was something that held her back. It was denial. She was in denial.
From the bottom of her heart, subconsciously, she always thought if she didn’t see her, she would have the last memory of Anne; healthy, strong, loving and caring.
She didn’t want to replace that image in her head with her dying, weak and sickly appearance.
Zuri knew it was ridiculous, it didn’t make any sense at all, but it seemed, people had different ways to cope up when they had to face situations involving their loved ones.
Of course, Zuri loved Anne. She was the one who taught her everything and told her stories so she could fall asleep. She slept in her arms and Zuri could still vaguely remember how it gave her warmth and the feeling of being safe.
“Don’t wait until you regret it,” July said. She then walked out of the room after caressing her head. Probably, among them, Zuri was the one who had it hard to digest the inevitable, the fact that Anne probably wouldn’t be with them for a long time.
Zuri bit her bottom lip, she stopped eating and stared at the noodles in the bowl, which was half emptied. She didn’t know what to think or what to say or what to do.
.....
Sometimes, it was easy to not think about anything, it was easy to avoid something that you didn’t want to talk about, it was easy to avoid the reality, as if you could.
Zuri knew that it was not right, but she couldn’t bring herself to see Anne in her current condition.
She didn’t want to see someone close to her die again, like her father, like her uncle, but even both of them were not like Anne.
“Stop thinking too much, you think time will wait for you until you are ready?” Hades appeared next to Zuri, sitting on top of the table, with his long legs dangling. He looked down at the girl, who was in a daze. “Her time is up.”
Zuri lifted her head when she heard that and then stared at Hades, as the man nodded at something or someone behind her.
Only then did Zuri turn around and see a young girl, around her age, standing behind her with her soft smile, though she didn’t hear the sound of the door being opened.
“My dear Blue...” she said.
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Nikolai kept Vanessa close to him, as he lined up to get a check up from the scientists from The Hound, just to check whether or not there were supernatural creatures among them and also to get all their identities.
They were divided into a few groups since there were so many people in this city right now and the government tried to expand the area that they could secure from the non-human beings.
The assessment lasted until evening before all of them returned to their shelter. This place was like a basement with nothing but a dirty floor for them to sleep on in their sleeping bags.
Nikolai kept Vanessa warm by hugging her. It was hard to sleep in this place, not to mention the fact that there were around a hundred people under the same roof. They would talk in hushed tones, trying to not make any noise when the other people were sleeping.
But, there were times when a baby was crying, and all of them could only grunt and groan. This was something that they couldn’t avoid.
Usually, the lamp would be turned off two hours after they got their dinner and they would go to sleep to repeat the same routine tomorrow.
But tonight, it was different. Just after the lamp went off for ten minutes, it was turned on again and the whole basement area was flooded with light.
All of them were confused, but they thought this was only an error, until five members of The Hound walked into the room and called a few names with a loud and firm voice.
But Nikolai was stunned when he heard his name being called.
“What happened?” Vanessa looked at her brother in panic. “Why didn’t they call my name?” she was afraid something would happen to them. Did they do something wrong?
“I don’t know Ve,” Nikolai said, his eyes fixed on the man, who was talking loudly to all the people there.
“All the people that were being called step forward!” he said in a commanding tone. His eyes skimmed this basement briefly and when no one walked forward, he looked annoyed. “FASTER!”
“What happened? What are you going to do to the people with those names?” a young teenager asked the man. He looked panicked, because his name was on the list as well. They were already afraid because of this whole situation, they didn’t need the members of The Hound to scare them as well.
The man’s eyes fixed on the young teenager when he spoke. “All the people mentioned will be trained as members of The Hound. We need more people to protect our territory!”
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The moment Zuri’s hazel eyes fell on the young girl and saw the familiarity on her face and realized what was happening, somehow she felt her chest was very hurt and this made her clutch the front of her clothes.
She didn’t know when it started, but tears streamed down her cheeks and she couldn’t stop them from falling no matter what. She was hyperventilating when her lips trembled to call her name.
“Anne...”
“Yes, it is me,” she said with a sad smile on her lips. “Finally, I got to see you.”
“I am sorry...” Zuri whispered, she felt her world was falling apart to see this.
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*Read my new book: KISSED BY THE DARK ALPHA*
Alpha Micah Donovan’s second chance mate.