Falling for September

3 | Playground

Leo covers his face with his arms as his father beats him with a crowbar.

"Dad!! Stop!!" he screams, trying to move away from him. But his father wouldn't listen, he was now consumed by fury.

Leo drops to the concrete ground and crawled on his belly. He took all of his strength to pull himself to the other side of the garage.

"Where do you think you're going!?" his father grasps his hair and pulls him up with it. Leo shouts from the pain as he holds his father's arm. Tears started to well up from his eyes.

Leo's father drags him inside the house and throws him to the kitchen area. Leo scrambles to stand up to grab a knife but was again hit by the metal bar on his back. He drops to the tiled floor, bloodied. He coughs heavily and turns to face his father.

"You never learn!"
"D-d-dad... p-please, s-stop"
"Stop!? Huh. You didn't think of the consequences when you ran away from your school's security. You didn't think of the problems your stupidity would cause this family!" he raises the crowbar again but before he could hit Leo with it, his mother comes in.

"Adrian, no!"
Leo's father stops and looks at the mother.
"Shut up! This is between men!" but she didn't listen instead she jumped to defend her one and only son.

"I've had enough of this Adrian!" she shouts with tears streaming down her face. She lifts Leo onto her arms, "Leo, son" she whimpers.

Leo's father grabs his mother on the arm and pulls her away from her son. She was briefly stunned but kept on coming for Leo. She'd use her body as a shield while Leo laid helpless. He could see his mother taking the beating but he was too weak to save her.

"D-ad" but his small voice was drown out by the profanities of his father. He tried to lift his hand and embrace his mother but he wasn't able to.

He had already lost consciousness.
~
"Uggh.... Hss" Leo curses under his breath when he felt a sharp pain on his back. He looked around to see that it was nighttime. His vision was still blurred, he felt his face and not a scratch.

He looked as his hands and no wounds, no blood. "What the-?" He could remember being beaten to a pulp by his father and his mother -
"Mom!" he sat up too abruptly that it made his heart beat fast. He felt the pain on his back again. He tried to feel for it with his right hand but couldn't find any wounds, just pain when pressed.

"What the hell happened?" he looked around to see himself back at the playground, on the sand. His bag was still beside him but now the street lights were on.

He picks his stuff up, takes out his mobile phone from his pocket and checks the time.

"7:45 pm"

His eyes widened when he realized he has been gone for 12 hours. He noticed that there were missed calls and unread messages.

They were from Aries.

"Hey man, where are you? People have been looking for you" one message read.

"Leo, this isn't funny. Class is almost over but I haven't heard from you yet. Call me you asshole" another says.

"Leo, your mom's here. She's looking for you" says the last message. That was sent at around 6 in the evening. He wondered why they weren't able to see him lying on the soil at the town's playground.

Leo tapped Aries' number and called him. His phone rang multiple times but there was no answer. Leo redialed thrice and still no answer, all of his calls went to voice mail.

He became anxious, thinking that something must have happened so he ran to his house to check if they were there.

Leo rang the doorbell but no one came for the door. He tried to look inside through the glass windows but it was too dark to see anything. He walked to the backyard to see if he could get in through the back door but it was locked.

Leo's anxiety heightened. He was starting to panic. He pulled out his phone again but this time he called his mother. He waited and waited but his call also went to voice mail too. Leo felt the situation closing in on him like in a horror movie. Why is no one answering? he thought.

Leo surveyed his home if there were any possible break-ins. He went up to the second floor but all the windows were locked.He climbed down the ladder and checked again but everything was locked up and lights were off inside the house.

They must be out looking for me.

Leo decided to go to Aries house, he thought maybe his parents were there. He ran until he made it into Aries' residence.

"Leo" calls out the housekeeper who was walking at the garden.

"Have you seen Aries? Or my parents?" he asked the middle-aged woman.

"Aries hasn't come home yet. I'm not sure if his parents know. I didn't see your parents at all"

Leo began pacing around the front yard. "Is Aries' parents home?"

"I'm afraid no, dear. They're out on a business trip since yesterday morning. Is something wrong? Should I call them?" she answers, now becoming worried as well.

"Uh no, no. I just fell asleep that's all. I got texts from him, I'll just call him" he lied.

Wherever Aries was, he didn't want his parents being notified and then later on finding out it was his fault their son was gone.

"Thanks anyway, Mrs. Holloway"

He ran back to the streets, frantically searching for them. He felt guilty for what he's done, making them look for him. And his dad? He will definitely beat him up after this.

He stopped, contemplated on calling his father. He assumes he's also with his mom and Aries looking for him. But he was reluctant to do so and so he didn't. I'll face him later, he decided.

Leo walked to the sheriff's station, hoping that he'd finally see them there - possibly filing a missing person's report. But when Leo was near the station's door, his phone rang.

"Hello?"
"Leo! Ah thank God you're alright!" exclaims Aries on the other line.
"Shit man! Where are you!? I've been looking all over the place!"

Aries was interrupted by someone with him. Leo listened carefully but he couldn't quite understand what the other person was saying.

"Aries? Is that mom? Where are you guys?"
Aries gets back on their call and was silent for a moment.

"Leo, you've got to get here"
"Where Aries!? You haven't told me anything yet!"
Aries took a deep breath and said, "At the town's hospital"