2|| Whispers in the Wind

18|| that is... so messed up (take 2)

Leo

Let's get this straight. Leo was not a Leo. He was a Pisces, and that was that. Leo wasn't exactly the coolest person on the planet, but he knew when something was up. And something was definitely up when he spotted Wilder and Kalyani climbing into Arlo Daye's bedroom window on his midnight walk.

Feeling it might be rude to barge into the house of the school terror, he waited for them to come back out. First Wilder went back to the tree. It was about five minutes later, but Arlo and Kalyani joined him. There were a few words passed between them, and then they began frantically climbing down.

He jogged over. "Um, hi." Why did he have to stutter?

"There's no time for 'hi', we think Aria's in trouble!" Arlo snapped. "Come with us if you want, but no further explanations."

So, Leo followed them, as he had followed people all his life. Never in the lead, always in the shadows. Wilder stepped back to walk with him, which he appreciated.

"What's happening?" Leo asked.

"Well, to sum things up, Roxanne Wesner is a murderer who wants to kill Sarah Wesner, who is still alive. We were supposed to look for Sarah, but then Aria texted Kalyani saying she needed to get home. That's about it," Wilder said cheerfully.

"That is... so messed up." Leo blinked. This was becoming his signature line nowadays.

"Yup."

Their walking turned into a jog, then a run as Kalyani and Arlo picked up pace. Kalyani's house loomed over them, seeming much less homely than the last time Leo had walked past.

He noticed one thing straightaway. All the lights were off.

"Aria?" called Kalyani almost before she opened the door. "Aria!"

There was no response. Everyone stood, frozen. For the first time, Leo was the first to recover. "Come on, guys. We need to look for her." And he took the lead into the house of someone he barely knew.

The first few things that came to sight was the sofa, a spiral staircase, and a portion of the wallpaper covered in darkness. Well, more darkness than the rest of the room. "Where's Aria's room?"

"Upstairs. Third door to the right."

They charged up the stairs as diplomatically as possible, which was near impossible. Leo knocked on the third door, as Kalyani had said.

"Leo, there's no time to be a gentleman! Just open the damn door!" Arlo huffed.

Leo gulped and twisted the door handle open. The room was empty. There was a vibration.

"Aria just texted me. She's saying she thinks she saw Roxanne, so she went to the fake room."

"Fake room?" Wilder echoed.

"It's complicated. Just come on!"

And then Kalyani was shoving past them, headed for the stairs. Leo did his best to keep up, almost crashing into the door of the place they stopped. It was just a regular bedroom, but someone was hiding at the edge of the bed. Or, it looked like they were hiding. It's possible they were just looking for something.