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"He drained o back to ood to waste on a human life I didn’t understand what he meant, and I was still completely under his spell, so I did as I was told" She snorance

"I had a choice!" Her voice broke sharply "I’m the only one that did Ezra was forced into it, and Peter and Jack were done to save their lives But me, somebody asked reed to it Willingly"

"But you couldn’t have known" I thought about reaching out to touch her, but she was too angry

"For two days afterwards, I laid in the trees, afraid to move," Mae went on "The virus attacked ed and died I eak and in pain, and I had no idea as happening to th returned, only much more brilliantly then it had before And this unquenchable thirst All the while I had been writhing in pain, all I had been able to think about was Sarah and how et back to her But as soon as I felt that hunger, I knew that I could never go back to her I couldn’t trust myself

"Within hbor, I was so hungry After h to check on Sarah I hid in the backyard and peered in through the

"Before I even got near the house, I heard Sarah crying Philip was carrying her around trying to cal ‘We’ll find your Mama She’ll come back to you’" Fresh tears streams down her cheeks, and the car started to slow

We were on a suburban street I had never seen before, and Mae parked on the side of the road, underneath a tree

"I slept in the woods during the day, and at night, I would sit outside theand just watch Sarah She cried forfor me, so I had to be very careful that no one would spot hed heavily "I lived that way for over six hbor, since he was nearby If Ezra hadn’t found me, I don’t knoould’ve beco out behind that house"

"What happened to your fairl I had known from the deli She was very kind, and I’d like to believe that she was good to hiether, and Sarah eventually started calling her Mom I don’t know if she even remembers me anymore It’s probably better if she doesn’t"

Mae nodded towards a house in front of us, and I saw the silhouette of an older woman it theShe carried a small child, a little boy, on her hip, and she looked happy There was so familiar about her, and I couldn’t quite place it

Then it dawned onwavy hair, pale skin, and even the way she shter!" I gasped, looking over at her

"It is" She looked pleased that I had been able to see the resemblance "She’s a teacher She used to be o Ezra threatened to teach him a lesson, but I told him not to Sarah has to live her own life She’s fifty-four now She has a daughter, Elizabeth, and that little boy on her hip, that’s her grandson, Riley My great-grandson" She srandkids, while Elizabeth works and goes to school Riley’s three, and Daisy just turned five"

"So you just coot to watch her grow up," Mae explained sadly "When she was little, I would coht and watch her sleep I even did that a little while with Elizabeth, but Ezra says that I need to start letting theo Sarah has a wonderful life, and I should just be happy with it

"I know Ezra’s right," Mae said "It will get harder watching her as she grows old and frail Watching her die" She sed painfully "I don’t want to outlive hter I outlived one of ain"

She turned to look at me and whispered harshly, "It is so much harder to watch everyone you love die then it is to simply die yourself I"

"But you have Ezra, and Peter and Jack," I attempted to coave birth to, but you love theet to spend forever with therateful that I have the" Mae had gone back to staring at her daughter Through an open curtain, we could see Sarah chasing after a so, Philip died I cried ht I would after all these years But he had always been good to hter

"That’s when Ezra built the house that we live in, and he said it would be the last place we lived in Minneapolis," Mae sighed "He doesn’t like to stay in one city for this long, especially one that has fa persons search for him after he turned, but they eventually chucked it up to another drunk kid falling in a frozen lake"