Phantom Recall

10 || kick in the gut

"A favor."

Leon repeats my words back to me as if to purposely make them pang against my skull. I offer a slow nod of affirmation.

"Regarding the beasts?"

"Yeah." I swing my knight out from the back row on the board. "Apparently there's been a lot of signs of 'em near schools around here, and like I mentioned, one actually showed up yesterday at Eret's school." I fail to mask the chill that shoots up my spine. "Freakin' monstrous, gross-lookin' dog thing...no one was badly hurt or nothing, but I think it's the reason a bunch of kids have been getting sick."

"That would not surprise me. They do have an energy-seeping aura about them," Leon adds casually, taking his turn. "It happens. But it isn't contagious, if that's what you're worried about. And I can't imagine anyone dying from it."

"Cool. They're still badly sick, though."

"And?" He quirks an eyebrow. "What do I look like to you? A physician?"

"No," I mumble, pouting, "but I did hear you were kind of...I dunno, 'highly revered' or something like that. Thought maybe you could help deal with the phantom beast outbreak before it really becomes an outbreak. Ya feel?"

Something washes over Leon's expression in that moment. Something I can only describe as an acute realization, snagging the corners of his eyes and causing them to drift from both the chess board and me for the first time since we set up the game. Silence settles over us in the beat of a heart. Lengthy and almost painful. But I can't say anything. I have to wait.

"You want me...to dispose of them."

"If there's a way to." I scan his face, then his fingers as they begin to tap rhythmically against the table. "Ideally before they bust out of the ground and wreck havoc, ya know? We got lucky yesterday, but something tells me if we don't act quickly I'll be seeing those things creep up on me in the middle of the night..."

"You're afraid of them."

"Terrified, thanks." I purse my lips and watch defeatedly as Leon captures one of my pieces. "Crap, didn't even see that..."

"It's better to let them run their course."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Check. Your manners aren't the only horrendous thing here."

I couldn't even pay attention to the game now if I wanted to. The apathy that bleeds from Leon's tone is enough to drive a nail through my gaze and hammer it to the man's face. "You said it's better to what now?"

"Run their course." He grants me but a brief window of eye contact, and that's all it takes to pierce my soul. "You know, as in let them absorb the energy they need, then come out into the open."

"You've gotta be kidding."

"Perish the thought."

"So you're just okay with the idea of giant monsters potentially running amok??"

"My, this source you've heard of me from must be very misguided indeed..." Drawing in one great breath through his teeth, Leon lets a sigh dramatic enough to knock me off my feet. Luckily I'm not standing, so I can use my preserved energy to intensify my glare. "Oh, give it a rest, Will," Leon scoffs. "The beasts will be taken care of long before they could find their way to you. I assure you of that much. And as I said, the illness isn't contagious, so what problem is there?"

The nausea I felt from earlier had already begun its comeback without my realizing it. Now, my stomach churns from a sudden sensation of dread at the sound of this man's voice. Something is off about him — to say the very least. And the longer I stare at him the more intense that feeling becomes.