Sugar & Spice

17|chess

She was having that dream again. The one where she was in bed sleeping soundly and then she's ripped from her sleep by a man that's sitting on her chest. As she screams he covers her mouth, it taste like dirt, then he rips the cover off her and exposes her naked body. He's a predator that's there to eat her alive and swallow any proof of her existence. Before she gets the chance to fight him off she feels his belt being ripped from his trousers, then she gasps...then she wakes up. But this abrupt wake up wasn't met by the silence of the room and a soundly sleeping Jane in the next bed over, no this wake up was the chaos she had just awoken from. The violent knocks at the door had Jane standing up by her bedside with a baseball bat, urging Aria to come over to her side. 

"The knocking woke me up," she whispered, "I don't know who it is but I'm too afraid to look." 

Aria got out of bed and stared at her naked legs and feet to steady herself before she reached the door, moving quietly but quickly. There was no peep hole to look through, only the silhouette under the doors could be seen and Aria thought she recognized them. 

"Leo; is that you?" She whispered. 

"Aria, yes it's me--and Michael too. You have to open the door now!" Leo hissed and Aria did as she was told.

The sight they were met by shocked both Jane and Aria. Leo was holding up Michael as he struggled to walk, he'd been crying and looked nearly out of it...drugged almost. Jane immediately dropped the baseball bat and ran toward Michael to help him inside. 

"Put him on my bed, quickly." Jane said and made a grunting noise when Michael's nearly limp body landed with a thud. 

There weren't many dangers here at Hudson or in the town. Few stabbings, nearly any murders and shootings were rare, Aria had researched it, which meant there had to be something else. At Hudson University there was one danger though and that was Laura Patterson. Leo turned to Aria and bumped into her, not realizing how close she was standing, his eyes were bloodshot and wide open. It was apparent he had been ripped from his sleep too and most likely come to Michael's rescue somehow - the question was from what or whom? 

"He showed up at my door and wasn't making sense at all; he was crying, panting and rambling. I got so worried that I didn't know what to do, I just--I brought him here." Leo looked distraught to say the least and Aria placed her hands over his to make them stop shaking.

"Do you know where he's been tonight? If he's gone to a party he might be very drunk or perhaps taken something--" Jane said while she tried to force Michael to drink the water from her camouflaged water bottle.

"Michael doesn't do drugs and from what I know he hasn't been to any parties tonight. The last time I saw him was before my journalism class, then he went to go study in the library - that's all I know. I've been trying to talk to him but all he says is nonsense." Leo explained, now sitting down on Aria's bed to calm down.

Aria walked up to Leo and sat beside him in silence. She wasn't going to press for questions or try to wake him, she was only going to listen to the ramblings to see if she could make something out. He twisted and turned where he was and whimpered from time to time, then came the ramblings that Leo had referred to. 

"Stop--I can't--I won't tell if you stop." He mumbled then went back to whimper yet again. 

Those words; stop, I can't, I won't tell if you stop. They had to mean something and Aria was certain they were about Laura. For Laura to be crazy enough to drug someone she must be getting desperate for affection or whatever she desires.

"Aria turned to Leo and Jane, "I wouldn't be surprise if Laura did this to him, somehow. All we need to do is figure out how she did this and that means we have to get him sober enough to string a sentence together."