H a l o s and F e a t h e r s

Lesson 09

Leanne easily slipped into Daniel's house. Like hers had been it was far too silent with only the odd television to fill the silence. She had been here a month trying to help the boy and in that time she had noted how none of the family really bonded. The only time they conversed was when it was convenient to one another or to pass time idly. This fact aggravated her to no end. It was all too familiar and she hated seeing it happen to another.

Daniel's mother sat at the rocking chair in the living room, eyes fixated on the television. Leanne eyed her distastefully as she hurried to Daniel's room where he always was. Dishes were piling up and the trashes filled to the brim and rotting. Yes, this was too much like her own home life when she was alive for it to be comforting or reassuring to her.

The door at the end of the hallway that was Daniel's was locked which was of no surprise. It also posed no problem for Leanne who was able to phase through solid matter for small periods of time due to being more or less something akin to a spirit. Inside was a sorry state. Things had been flung off of the desk and dresser and the mattress flipped over to add to the mess on the floor. At the base of the bed frame Daniel crouched, hunched over into himself and arms wrapped around his midsection.

Leanne stood at a loss. She didn't know what to say or do for the poor boy who's shoulders hitched and his breaths came in sharp gasps. It was clear he was doing his best to stop the sobs but they still came nonetheless.

Her eyes drifted to the doorway. Distastefully she had to wonder how it was that no one could see this boy's suffering. None of his family seemed aware of it. If they were they had written it off. Leanne's heart wrenched hearing a sob escape Daniel. This was like too many of her own teenage nights. She had thought at one point that she would be able to escape this dark place that Daniel was now stuck within. Sobbing, alone and lost...

Leanne was a lost soul assigned to protect and help another lost soul. She had to wonder if this was a punishment of some sort. Seeing her own despair and issues in another certainly seemed like it. She had to wonder if she had met Daniel when she was his age would she have realized that he shared the same problems?

Probably not, she reasoned. I was pretty damn selfish.

Hesitantly she stepped closer to him, kneeling down beside him slowly. She shifted, trying to see his face. It was down cast, bangs shadowing his face though the teardrops still dripped from his eyes and cheeks. He was a broken thing trying to hold himself together when he felt he had no one. Leanne's frown deepened.

Daniel... if you'd just look you'd see you have people around you, Leanne thought, wondering to herself why she wasn't saying this out loud. Probable because now didn't seem like the best time she justified. Truth was Daniel was just as short-sighted as she had been at his age. While Jake had been willing to extend a hand to him Daniel was so far into his own dark place he couldn't realize it was an act of kindness not one of cruel mockery or pity. But a thought hit her then as if in retaliation.

There are people... but not the ones you want to care... not the ones who should be, huh?

"Hey," she spoke softly, extending a hand to Daniel's shoulder. She didn't lay it on him, instead hovering above it before she dropped it back to her side. "Why are you crying...?"

Leanne never received an answer. All she could do was sit beside him as he cried until he couldn't cry anymore.