Quinn was sitting in the auditorium's front row when she heard her.
'This golden glow
Is not happiness
It's the dust that you kicked on my face
Before saying goodbye'
She walked to the center of the stage, head held high. Her face showed nothing but raw emotion as she sang the next lines.
'Oh memory
Won't you speak to me?
Can you show me the boat in my soul
That can sail me back home'
But now she was somewhere else. She was holding her stomach with both hands as the baby kicked. Then her water broke, right in front of her mother who had come to tell her something she didn't want to hear about. She remembered being rushed to the nearest hospital. After that, everything became a blur. She asked Mercedes to be there. She didn't ask Puck. She yelled at him. She felt pain. So much pain. Unexpectedly, she heard a cry that she knew was going to be engraved into her mind for good. (What she didn't think at the time was that it would actually haunt her to the point where she would wake up in the middle of the night hearing the same cry and thinking she was there and needed her.)
'Let me go'
She was holding her, she was actually there, in her arms. She remembered thinking she was the only good thing she'd ever done. But then they took her away.
'You can shave me down
You can clean my teeth
Get me ready to meet all the people
That I thought I knew'
Now she was looking at her through a glass. With all the other newborns that were going to be with their own mothers. Yet, she wasn't. Then Shelby was there too, asking what was her name. She didn't have one, until 'Beth' came out of Puck's mouth. Beth it is, she thought.
'But my memory
Has mistaken me
Can't remember the last time
I felt so incredibly young'
Quinn sang, still remembering. It had been so hard, giving her up. She was just a child herself, but she knew Shelby was her best option.
Beth took over.
'So let me go'
And it was her turn again to sing.
'And I try
To leave
But my bones,
Just won't agree'
She barely sang the last line before the first sob shook her entire body. Beth's angelic voice kept singing.
'And I try,
To believe
You should try
Set me free
Let me go'
Quinn woke up, suddenly. She wasn't crying this time but a wave of tiredness washed over her body. She felt empty. Funny how three simple words could do so much. She closed her eyes and tried to push away the voice in her head.
'Let me go'.
A/N: The song is Let Me Go by Phantogram. Awesome band. The sadness is all mine.