22- Leo's Fear

I sat next to Dane, he was trembling. "It'll be okay, we'll get out of this; I'll make sure of it." Dane nodded his head, leaning back against the wall. "What did you see?" I whispered, Dane nodded his head quickly. "I can't tell you, he'll know. They'll all know."

I was confused and upset. Why did he have to glue his eyes shut, what did he see? I sat with Leo in the bedroom, his eyes locked on me. "You're so beautiful, Nicole. I can't seem to stop looking." I smile at him, it started to feel like it did when we first met.

"I miss you." I said, it was as if my words were butter. I immediately turned red, knowing I shouldn't have spoken a word. "I was thinking the same thing, of how it used to be. I miss your smiles and the way you looked at me with love in your eyes. I want that back, don't you?" As much as I did, I couldn't put past what he did to us.

"I did." I muttered, "but I don't think that can happen. Do you know how much pain you put us through? How broken I was to know you were behind everything and you didn't try to stop anything?" His head went down, he knew he was at fault for everything that went wrong.

"I promise nothing like this was supposed to happen, it just ended up this way. I had no intentions of this, I was hurt. You left without a trace, and I didn't know you were at the orphanage until your punishment."

"Why didn't you stop it? Or help all the children who were being abused?" He didn't answer for a few minutes, he was in a deep thought. "I was brainwashed by her, she somehow made it seem like it was okay, that they deserved what was coming."

And in that moment, I believed Leo. He had a heart of gold, always went out of his way to help who needed it. It got silent as we were both thinking about life, and how everything came to be.

"What are you afraid of, Leo?"

Leo cleared his throat, then looked at the ceiling. "You."