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

Lesson 10

Leanne jumped when the door slammed open suddenly, stare owlishly at Daniel as he stomped to his closet and ripped it open to dig inside for something or other. She quickly tossed one of the few books Daniel owned back onto the messy desk where she had found it, having been skimming it as she waited her charge's return.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Leanne asked, brow furrowing as she watched Daniel.

Finally he tore himself away from the closet, a duffel bag in one hand and the other already shifting through his things, shoving what he thought he might need inside it. This alarmed her and in the next moment she was on her feet hovering over Daniel's shoulder and trying to get him to speak to her though he seemed to be doing his best to block her out.

"What happened?!"

He shoved several shirts, pants and underwear into the bag. Daniel kept his jaw clamped as tightly as he would allow and briefly thought about his teeth shattering from the pressure before the thought was driven out as quickly as it had come.

"Daniel, please! Can't you tell me what's wrong?!"

The boy paused, eyeing the book in his hands. He quickly discarded it in favor of something else he snatched up from the mess on his bedroom floor.

Leanne was distraught. She had to help the lonesome boy but she didn't know how and he wouldn't speak to her to let her know just what had driven him to this idea of his. She didn't like the feeling of helplessness that followed even as she continued to prod Daniel to speak to her. She might as well have been trying to get a rock to speak to her for all the progress she made. Finally, as Daniel swung the bag up over his shoulders and began to make his way out of the room she called out with one last desperate question that went ignored.

"Where are you going?!"

Leanne quickly followed after. While the young man refused to speak to her she couldn't leave him on his own. Not now.