Chapter 25: We're Here for Sarah, not Me

Chapter 25: We're Here for Sarah, Not Me

Sarah and Apollo started their journey to meet up with his grandmother early in the morning. They gave their farewells to Albert and the other patrons, and went on their way. Apollo's grandmother, Allia was her name, lived pretty far south of where they were. She was off the grid, which was a good thing in this case. As they continued on, the pair became quite attached to each other. In the meantime, their relationship was going great, but that just couldn't last.

After 3 days of constant travel, they finally arrived at a mall, where everyone was supposed to meet up at. "Where do you think she is?" Sarah asked. "Beats me, wanna find out?" He tossed her his phone. "I'm still not too keen on this meeting in the first place, Sarah." "You know what? That's okay. I want to shower, do you know how long it feels like it's been since I last showered? Also, I'm putting my thumbprint on your phone now, your long password is too complex to remember." Sarah remarked. "Okay, did you get anything?" He asked. "No, but look who's behind you!" Sarah said excitedly. All of a sudden Apollo was squeezed into a big bear hug, it was his grandmother. His face showed irritation, his arms were down at his sides as he refused to hug her back. She let him go and moved onto Sarah. "So this is the beautiful young lady that my dear grandson is dating!" Allia said happily. "We'll thank you, should we get going? It's too crowded here, and people are staring." Sarah said. "It's the thieves!" Someone screamed. All of a sudden they were surrounded by people, they were close to being caught when Apollo pulled them into a store and locked the door. Them being Sarah and Apollo, he had locked his grandmother out as well. "Why would you do that? What about your grandmother?" Sarah asked. "She said she's going to get the car so we can get out of here, you should be worrying about yourself." Apollo answered. "No, I should be worried about both of us! You were my plus one!" Sarah said, frustrated. "No Sarah, you're right. I was just a plus one, so I would have a very small punishment, unlike you. For whatever reason, you were practically royalty at that party." Apollo said. "Listen, I know that you're frustrated, but I'm just trying to look out for you. You being safe is more important to me than the safety of someone that abandoned me. Come here." Apollo pulled her into a hug and apologized as his grandmother opened the back door to the small shop. "Sorry to interrupt the little ceremony, but we should get going now dears." They drove for around 2 hours before the car was stopped in the middle of nowhere. "Here, the walking begins! We have about 6 miles to walk to get back, you know for safety measures and all." Allia shrugged. "Great, even more walking." Apollo sighed. They went half way before Sarah announced that she needed a real break. They had sat down on stones near a small pond full of fish. Allia was staring at them, suspiciously. Sarah leaned back into Apollo. "Well, I'm beat." She sighed, leaning her head onto his shoulder. "Yeah, me too. We have a whole lot of rest to catch up on after the last few days." He winked, trying to pull off his boyfriend act. Allia walked away to take a bathroom break and Sarah got back in her own space. It was dead silence until Sarah heard an unnerving noise. "AAHH!" She screamed and jumped into his arms, knocking him to the ground. "WHAT?" Apollo screamed back. "That thing! It's in the pond!" She yelled. "Sarah, are you serious?" Apollo laughed. "There's a frog there, it was sitting behind you. Is that what you were scared of? Oh. my. god." He kept laughing. "You know what, you aren't helping." She jumped up, dusted off her hands, and they kept moving.

"Oh! Did someone have a lover's quarrel while I was gone?" Allia asked, giggly. "No ma'am. We're just fine." Sarah responded. "Can we go yet?" Apollo asked, "I'm so ready to actually sit down." He was quiet for most of the walk after that. They came back holding hands a couple times when Allia seemed to be suspicious, but other than that Sarah felt really disconnected from him. It was sudden, and she wasn't sure what the cause was. His grandmother is really bothering him I guess. It's like he's purposely submerging all emotions. Well that's great! Now I have no leverage. Sarah thought. They eventually came across a quaint little cottage, it looked abandoned, but I guess that was purposeful. There would hopefully be less people that way, not that anyone would find this place. "Well, this is your humble abode for the next couple weeks!" Allia said. They walked in to see three people waiting for them. Not people that all wanted to see. Waiting for them was Blake, Isi, and Mindy. "Mindy? What the hell are you doing here?" Apollo asked, with the look of terror in his eyes. "Can I help?" Mindy chuckled. "It's a long story, but in short, grandma rescued me from that nonsense. We're allies, so stop treating me as your enemy." Mindy said happily. "They were going to execute you, Mindy. Do you understand how much danger this puts us in?" Apollo asked coldly. "I'm sorry to put your little gal pal in danger, but we have bigger problems. You were a target before the little miss over there was included anyway." Mindy finished. "Blake? Are you…..okay now?" Sarah asked nervously. "Yeah." He rubbed the back of his head. "She helped with that." He pointed to Mindy. "All right, what's going on with Isi and my mom?" Sarah asked suspiciously. "Oh my god your mom is naive. For having such devious plans, she does not execute them well. Especially when it comes to picking her allies. I'm with the monarchy, but I can't get you out of this. Did you ever wonder how you had 3 days till the party and we came 2 whole days before? We came all the way from old government territory. I have connections. Did that ever add up?" Isi asked, like she was talking to a peon. "Do you have to be so rude about it?" Blake asked. "Alright hormonal gang! Shush!" Allia announced. "We are going to play a little game. You're going to need to trust each other. We're going to go around and give one secret about ourselves, that would make us vulnerable. Alright?" They all sarcastically agreed, ready to get it over with. "Blake dear, why don't you start?" Allia asked. "Okay, well, I have a serious fear of being alone. Since I was a kid, I've hated being on my own. You're always stronger with other people, and being by yourself leaves you so vulnerable. That was my secret." They were silent for a moment before Isi spoke up. "I'll go next I guess. I uhhhhhhh, I've been working with the government since I was a little kid. Just like you Sarah." Sarah's eyes went wide. How much does she know? Sarah asked herself. "I am sworn to secrecy, and to loyalty. I would betray you without a second thought if that was what I was ordered to do. That's all." Isi finished, hands behind her back. Way to make us trust her. Sarah thought. "I guess I'll go." Sarah began, "I'm terrified of my own emotions. Everyone around me has always controlled everything that I did. I didn't get to make my own decisions, I just did whatever I was told, so free will is absolutely frightening. Sometimes I feel scared, and I don't know why, and that scares me even more. I submerge myself into groups of people who hate me, just to be obedient. Or that's what I thought. Honestly, I feel just like Blake. I hate being alone, it's when all the thoughts creep in. When you feel so anxious that you start shaking, crying, and you still don't know what's wrong. It's like your body is reacting to a fire, but there's no fire. It's so easy to block those thoughts out when you're with other people to distract you, but doing it by yourself is the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. Opps, that was 2. I guess I went a bit overboard." Sarah sat down, her hands starting to shake. Why did I say that? I don't even know that I can trust any of them yet, but I just spilled even more. Sarah's thoughts were interrupted by Apollo. "I guess that just leaves me. I have long lasting depression. It's extremely hard for me to function normally, and….it just sucks. We done now?" He asked, turning to see that his grandmother was nowhere to be found. "I- there's a note." It read, i'll be out for a bit collecting food for our little group. I'll be back first thing tomorrow. "Alright, I'm heading to bed." Apollo announced. He threw the bag they had brought over his shoulder and slammed the door into one of the rooms down the hall.