Thirteen Years Old

Chapter 23 - Leo

The other day...

''Here's your meal, scumbags.''

Leo woke up to one of the guard's face. Every inch of him wanted to thrash and scream, but, biting the inside of his mouth, he managed to answer like a normal person:

''Funny you're the one saying this, 'cause I don't recall you being anything else than a bunch of shit.''

The guard, the one with the red hair, stayed silent. Seeing that he slightly destabilized the red haired man, Leo continued asking his questions.

''Why? I mean, why would you want to work for that guy, y'know, Blondie. Surely you can do better than kidnap kids and cops.''

Before the thug could answer, Leo went on with his talking.  Maybe he could somehow make the man admit something while trying to deny one of Leo's improvised theories, even if he was just making them up to make the guard, that he decided to call Reddie, react and snitch.

''Oh wait. If you kidnap us, it's because you were involved in the murder. What was his name again, Edwards ?''

Leo looked closely at the guard. Reddie sucked in a breath and hesitated. Less than a second, but it was enough. Leo caught it.

''I was not  involved in that murder. You can ask A... A.L.. Right. A.L..''

Leo frowned. He wasn't A.L., obviously. He had seen the murderer, and he didn't look anything like Reddie. Then why did he flinch when he mentionned Edwards?

Leo needed to end this conversation. Now. It was all too much for him. So he said the only thing he could think of.

''Thanks for the food.''

Reddie blinked twice, mumbled something and left. Smiling, Leo sreamed:

''I didn't hear a thank you!''

Smiling smugly as the guy left the room, Leo then took a look at the food. 

It was a sludgy, goeoy purple substance. Leo, disgusted, looked away, then froze. He spun around, doublechecking. The soup really was purple. What wicked ingredient made soup purple? Purple carots? Eggplant? Leo wished dearly it wasn't eggplant, because, otherwise, UGH !

The floor creaked. Leo looked behind him, spotting Jem walking toward him. Just before reaching Leo, Jem froze and looked at the floor.

Intrigued, Leo looked too, to immediatly look somewhere else. Jem was looking at the soup.

''Man, I hope that soup tastes better than what it looks like, said Jem.

-Same here.

-You guys are right, this looks disguting. I mean, we're hostages, but why can't they give the normal hostage food such as bread and water? That's a safe choice!"

Jem and Leo spun around to look at Lara. She waved at them and the kids waved back. They looked at each other, then at the food, and then again at each other, to burst out laughing.

An hour later...

''Aaaaaaaaah! ''

A scream tore the air. Lara, Leo, Gary and Jem rushed next to Eliot.

''What is that abomination of nature?''

Eliot whispered that to himself, but everybody heard, then looked at the soup.

''Yeah, still figuring out if we want to risk our lives on that, y'know? said Leo

-Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving!''

Jem, Leo, Gary and Lara held their breath in disgust and shock as Eliot poured himself a huge bowl of soup and slurped it down in one gulp.

''That's it, I'm going to be sick for the rest of my life, said Leo''

Leo could actually feel the disgust overwhelm him as Eliot reached the soup to serve himself another bowl, followed by Gary. 

He let out a loud ''Uuuugh!'' and shivered, unable to look at the two men anymore. He looked at his feet the whole time. Leo felt sick and was sure he couldn't eat for the rest of his life without thinking about that disgusting, disgusting  soup.

Jem and Lara seemed to have the same reservations as Leo about eating the soup, so they gladly let Gary and Eliot finish the meal. Anyways, after seeing it, all three lost their appetite.

''You're gonna regret it when you'll be starving to death, warned Gary.

-Yeah... I have doubts about that, answered Leo.''

 A while later, Reddie went to take the empty bowl of soup and stared at them, wondering how they managed to eat the infect substance. It reminded Leo of the little chat he had with him, so he dragged Jem away fom Reddie to tell him the discussion.

Jem seemed just as clueless. Then, his face lit up and a wide smile dug its way on his face.

''What if it was a planned murder? Or what if A.L. was a... Uh... Hire killer! Like he got paid to kill Edwards because... You know why. This would explain why he flinched.

-Yeah, but aren't they all supposed to be working together? A.L., Blondie, Reddie, the girl we heard talking, the tattooed man, the bald man with the fuzzy eyebrows?

-Sure, but there seems to to be complications  between A.L. and Blondie. Maybe Blondie decided to form an alliance with the other kidnappers and Reddie joined, but now he's stressed that A.L. will snitch because now he works with Blondie or... I don't know. It frustrates me, but we don't have any leads and the only thing we can do is suppose...

-And what-if s won't help us. This is way too complicated, I don't want to give up, but, what else can we do?

The scary question. The one that was hovering in their heads, unspoken, but omnipresent. The worst part? They could do nothing about it. 

Nothing they did could help. They were stuck in this cell, waiting for someone to save them, them, somewhere deep in the woods. They didn't even know where they were themselves.

*****

...Aaaaand that's it. 917 words! I remember once in fifth grade we had to do a Halloween story and I wrote 917 words. The teacher didn't appreciate having to correct it, let's say. I don't  even know why I decided to write that anecdote down, actually. I know I rambled, but please vote and comment! Also, thanks for reading this far. I know I don't update as often as I did, but it's the end of the school year for me, I finish tomorrow around 10:30 am and I'll try to update more during my summer vacations! See ya in the next chapter!