ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

30: I am part of something

30 Dawn

"I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" Minho runs up to me, looking me up and down.

What's got him all in a twist? His hair stands up on end, and his shirt is ruffled up. He continues closer to me and I can't help but step closer to him.

"I was with Fry," I cross my arms over my chest. "Since we are friends."

He flinches, and I regret everything. Ignoring my comment, he carries on. "Something happened to Leo."

Great, again. Not that something has happened to Leo before, but that something has happened. I've been awake for what, a little over a week, and nearly every day something terribly dramatic has happened.

Minho shrugs his shoulders up. "Well? Aren't you worry?"

"Of course I'm worried." It's not entirely true, but not entirely false. Leo is a hypochondriac. Why am I so angry at him? "Why wouldn't I be worried?"

He breathes in and out before rubbing his face on his chin.

"Sorry," he mutters it quickly. "Listen, I'm just stressed out, okay? Every time one of you girls disappear, something bad happens. I don't want something bad to happen to you, okay?"

I am shocked by his honesty. He straightens up as soon as he says the words, and I see his cheeks tinge pink. It's as if he himself doesn't want to admit that he just said what I think he said.

"You don't need to worry about me."

I can't be mad anymore. Not when he looks at me with his dark brown eyes. Obviously it is not his business nor his place to worry about me. I obviously can control myself and don't need anyone's protection. I have half the mind to tell him off for being so protective. When he looks at me like that though, my throat tightens and my knees buckle.

"You should see Leo," he tells me, breaking eye contact.

A smile plays on his lips as he brings me to the Homestead. Walking inside, he gestures to a door in the corner. I nod a thanks, but say nothing as I walk off. His hands trail along my arms, and when I spin around to look at him he just winks.

I can't help but smile as I roll my eyes. Honestly, that boy will be the death of me. Unfortunately, I would die a thousand deaths over and over to be in his hands.

I grab the handle, opening the door. When I spin around to look for him, he is already gone. I guess that means it must be just me to go in the room.

Leo lies on the bed, atop red sheets. She doesn't stir as I close the door behind me. I doubt she even heard me enter. One arm is draped higher than the other on the bed, and I can't help but think it looks like she is reaching for the stars.

Her face is a different story. I don't understand how someone can look both so pale and so red at the same time. The colour flushes her cheeks, but leaves the skin on her forehead and neck the palest of whites. Her lips only flash traces that they used to have blood pumping through them. The barely noticeable freckles across her nose now stick out abruptly. Normally I would say they look like constellations. Here they don't.

Here, she looks like death.

Worse than her flesh, is the way she quivers. If I look carefully, I can see her lip twitch every few seconds. Her hands quake and spasm. Leo usually carries a stillness to her. Calm and composed; as long as I've known her she has always managed to hold herself together. Even when she caught Minho and I, she held herself together.

She is unravelling.

The scariest part to her is definitely her eyes. They are glossed over. Smudged windows that show the way to the soul. There is nothing behind her blank stare. No thought, no feeling, nothing in her body or her bones at all. Leo is odd, and I used to think she was overreacting when she would freak out about things. Michelle almost being killed, Curly fainting, none of it seemed real.