Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

A Battle

It was the last night before Hadley and the other humans would leave the forest and descend the gorge. That was where the vampires and humans would part ways. In another week or so, Hadley and her friends would be on a boat heading to a floating city. A safe haven. A new home.

"You're mad at something that could have happened," Jamila said as they set up their bedroll in the tent before going to sleep. "Not something that did."

"Yeah, well, what if it did happen? What if I became a vampire? What if I had lost my child?"

"But it didn't happen."

"Okay, so, I'm mad at her intent. She wanted to make me a vampire even though I had made it clear more than a million times that I didn't want that!" Hadley retorted.

"Fine, let's unpack that," Jamila replied, sitting cross-legged on the bedroll. "Ruq saw that you were dying, knew it was her fault and wanted to prevent it any way that she could because she loves you and would have hated to see you dead, which is obvious because she could have just obeyed your wishes and let you die."

Hadley scoffed, sitting across from her. "Are you saying that I should forgive her?"

"For what? Wanting to give you a chance to live?" Jamila asked. "How horrible of her. Worst person ever."

"Ruq might not have succeeded in making me a vampire, but she messed with my body. Maybe with my daughter's too!" Hadley said, her tone serious. "And you're seriously suggesting that I shouldn't be mad at her for what she did?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Jamila clarified, trying to bring calm back to the situation. "Of course, you can be mad at her for attempting to turn you when sheclearly knew it would kill you in other ways if she succeeded. I'm just sayingthat it isn't that black and white."

"What are we talking about then? Because all that it came back to was me still being mad at her."

"Maybe I wanted you to be clear about what it was that you were mad at her for," Jamila said, getting frustrated. "It's not everything, like you want it to be."

"Why does that even matter? I'm never forgiving her!"

"Perhaps it was just luck that the process to Turn you didn't work, but look at what it's done to you, objectively," Jamila continued. Her gaze into Hadley's eyes turned solemn. ""

Hadley stayed silent for a while, not wanting to admit that she'd thought about that as well. More than once since she'd found out about the failed Turn.

"So, you are saying that I should forgive her." Hadley asked with a sigh. It was so much easier to hold on to the anger.

"Do you love her?" Jamila asked.

Another streak of anger flared in Hadley, and she grabbed at it!

"Then there's that!" Hadley said in triumphant exasperation. "She can get inside my head, Jay! Move my feelings around. I can't even trust how I feel about her!"

"You think she's making you love her?" Jamila asked, curiously.

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"You're basing that on a maybe?"

"Fine, so, maybe she said that's not exactly how it works," Hadley said wearily, knowing for a fact that it wasn't how it worked, especially now with how they were linked, but she was desperate to stay mad at the vampire! She had a right to be mad, didn't she?

Jamila sighed. "I love you both, but the two of you can be incredibly frustrating sometimes."

They heard steps outside their tent.