Angel || Leonetta

VI

His proposition struck me by surprise- I hadn't expected him to want to tag along with me on this silly search. Only two minutes ago, he had seemed completely indifferent to the situation. I couldn't help but wonder what had caused him to change his mind in such a short amount of time...

Besides, I couldn't risk him finding out my secret; this was completely out of the question.

I opened my mouth to voice my disapproval to him, but I was stopped by a finger gently pressing against my now closed lips. It was León's. Shocked by this sudden movement, I turned up to look at him, my eyes meeting his, and inviting me to say 'yes'...

After much contemplation and pondering, I decided that if I was careful during the trip, I might be able to let him come with me, after all.

I tried to seem as optimistic as I could and flashed a mischievous grin to my new partner whilst saying "Alright, you can come. But don't do anything you'll regret, ok?"

"Sure, let's go now," was his short but informative response.

I was about to open the door when I realised that his hand was still resting on top of mine.

"Uh, if you could um, remove your hand from mine... That would be great..." I trailed off, not knowing how to politely ask my question.

León slightly shook his head, as if waking up from a trance, and automatically said "Oh! Yeah, there."

He broke contact with me, and couldn't help but notice how cold my hand felt without his warm touch.
Freeing myself of these thoughts, I pushed the front door open and left whilst León shut the door behind us.
"So, where do we start?"

"I honestly have no idea, Violetta. We've never gone to search for her before. Francesca could be anywhere, for all we know."

I crossed my arms and frowned. All of this was just so terribly mysterious and yet it felt familiar, somehow. But this didn't lessen my worry; I needed to find Fran.
León must've noticed how troubled I looked, because he placed his hand on my shoulder and tried to comfort me, saying things such as "Don't worry, she'll be back by morning if we don't find her before then," or "We'll find her, there's no need to stress."

We walked in the streets like this for about thirty minutes when I heard León's mobile device ring. I started worrying when I saw he was lifting the strange thing up to his ear.
He saw me and let out a light chuckle.
"Don't stress; I won't disappear- phones aren't dangerous, you probably have one. Look, it's Francesca calling, I'm sure she's perfectly fine."

His words only partly calmed me down- I needed proof that Francesca was going to come back and help me adapt to my new lifestyle.

I could barely hear León's voice whilst he was talking on the phone, but I did notice that his expression had changed.

"What's wrong?"

"Looks like you were right, after all. Something has happened to her; this wasn't Fran speaking, it was a threat," he said after having put his phone back on his pocket.

"Well, what did the person say?" I asked impatiently.

"Something... ugly. Something you wouldn't understand."

"I'm sorry, what? What wouldn't I understand? I'm not a child, León, I'm just scared about my friend. "

He was unable to reply; he simply took me by the hand and held it tightly as we made our way back.

I was much too deceived that he had given up so easily. I wasn't going to stand for it any longer.

So, I stopped walking, reluctantly pushed my hand out of his firm grip and fiercely said "No, León. We are going to find her, ok? You have no idea how much this means to me." Oh, if only he knew.

Hearing no response from him, I started running in the opposite direction until I heard myself scream and consequently stop running.

"Leon! Come here!" I shouted, hoping my partner would still be able to hear my cry for help.

Lying down in front of me, on the pavement, was a body.

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