Hey guys!
I'm so sorry, but this took me longer to write than I wanted it to, I ran into a tiny bit of writers block, and then our vacation ended so we had to undergo the 12 hour journey from England to America (that 12 hours including driving time.)
Thanks again for the reviews! It still really does mean a lot, and it always will.
I also really hope that the end of the last chapter wasn't to triggering :/
Anyway, without further ado, here's chapter 4!
Adam's POV
"Adam. Adam." A voice sung, pulling me out of my dreams of dancing food. "Come on Adam, we have to get up for school now."
I slowly opened my eyes and saw Chase leaning against the side of my open capsule. He looked even more exhausted than yesterday, if that was possible. He was also dressed in long sleeves and jeans, even though school ended for summer break in a week. I looked at my little brother, confused, but without a word I clambered out of my capsule and followed him upstairs. As we walked up the stairs (the elevator was under some kind of maintenance) I noticed that every time Chase took a step, he seemed to wince.
"You okay there little buddy?" I asked, stopping and grabbing his arm, but letting go when he cried out.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little soar for some reason." He replied, blinking back tears.
"Are you sure?" I said, taking a step closer to him. All I got was a nod in response.
I was about to ask again, but decided it was no use, I was never going to get Chase to talk to me. Without warning, I lunged forward and picked my little brother up and charged up the rest of the stairs, trying to ignore that he was lighter than normal and that I could almost feel his ribs through his ill fitting shirt. I was expecting Chase to fight me, but he just lay in my arms and closed his eyes.
When we reached the living room, I dumped him on the couch and went to get breakfast. I was about halfway through my third bowl of cereal when Leo sat down next to me.
"Hey Adam, what did you do to Chase?" He asked spooning milk into his mouth.
"Nothing." I started
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
"Maybe you should go over and see for yourself then."
"Maybe I should." I muttered, standing up and walking to the couch.
Chase was sprawled across it with his eyes closed. Sweat was dripping down his forehead and his breath was coming out in short, uneven gasps.
"Chasey?" I asked shaking his shoulder "Are you okay?"
With a start, Chase shot up and into a sitting position. "What's going on? Why am I not on fire!" He yelled, looking down at his perfectly intact and non burning limbs.
"What do you mean Chasey?" I asked, squatting down until I was at his eye level.
"Just a second ago I was burning to death!" He exclaimed, looking at me.
For a first time in a long time, I got a good look at his eyes. The normally brightly light up hazel was now dull and extinguished, as if someone had put out a fire with a bucket of water and left the coals
"You weren't burning Chase." Leo said softly from beside me, putting his hand on Chase's should with one hand and stroking his hair with the other.
It was almost as if he had done this before.
"But I was Leo I was!" Chase exclaimed. "The fire was started at my feet, then traveled up the rest of my body until it hit my face. Then I woke up." He added, taking a deep shuddering breath.
Leo stood up then sat back down, this time on the sofa next to Chase. With a start, silent tears started to make there way down Chase's face and onto his shirt. I watched in awe as Leo gently folded Chase into his arms and slightly rocked him back and forth, all the while his fingers still running through Chase's brown hair.
"It's okay Chase, your okay." he whispered, glancing up at we with a soft smile gracing his face.
A couple minutes later the tears stemmed and Leo pulled back.
"Thanks Leo." Chase muttered, wiping his wet face with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Don't mention it." Leo responded, getting up and coming back a few seconds later with a glass of water that Chase gladly took. "Are you packed up for school?" He asked and Chase shook his head. "Why don't you go get your backpack ready then."
With a small smile, Chase stood up and headed in the direction of the stairs that would take him down to the lab.
"That was amazing." I said, closing my mouth which I didn't know was open. "How in the world did you know what to do?"
"When I was around five of six, I went through a stage where I couldn't go to sleep without having a nightmare, so my mom could calm me down the same way I just did with Chase." He replied with a shrug. "Now let's get back to our cereal before it gets to soggy."
I nodded feverishly and ran back over to the table. I hated soggy cereal.
"I hope Chase is alright." I said, shoving a spoonful of Sugary Doughnut O's into my mouth
"So do I Adam." Leo muttered, worry lines creased into his forehead "So do I."
Unknown POV
I was sitting at my desk and staring at the picture of her and me together when a knock sounded from my door.
"Honey? Are you okay?" The voice said, worry lacing the tone.
"I'm fine Mom." I responded. "I'm just making sure I read the section I needed to for Language Arts."
"Your such a good student baby." The voice cooed "I'll see you downstairs in a minuet?'
"Yes mom." I called back, willing her to go away. Waiting until the sound of her footsteps faded down the hall. I pulled open the cabinet again, this time only taking one box. Opening it gingerly, I ruffled around for the piece of paper, again grinning when I found it. Checking what I had planned for today, I felt my face fall. "Darn it." I muttered, for some reason I had scheduled a 'recovery week', so my victim had seven days out of my grasp.
I put the paper away and huffed in annoyance. I should probably go downstairs and get ready for school. Standing up from my desk chair, I stretched and unlocked my bedroom. Before closing the door and heading into the hallway, I again felt my chest twinge.
"No, you are not getting soft now." I said out loud. "You have done this to tons of girls before, this one is no different." But as I closed the door behind me, I couldn't help but feel guilty for something I haven't even done yet
Leo's POV
I kept my eye on Chase the whole time we were at school. Every time he turned a page in a book, sat down in a chair for class, set his food down on the floor while he was walking, winced when ever he moved, every time he blinked, even every time he breathed, my eyes were on him. For the first time since he started coming to school, I was glad that we were in all of the same classes together. We were just walking down the cafeteria for lunch when someone called after us.
"Hey Chase! How you doing Leo?" The person said.
I watched as Chase tensed up and slowly turned around. "Hello Owen, how are you?" Chase said, his voice sounding oddly strained
"I'm wonderful!" Owen said, beaming at me as well as Chase. "I was just walking down to lunch when I remembered that my mom signed me up for some after school art classes all of this week, even on the weekends, so we can't have out little study sessions until next week."
"Oh." Chase said, visibly relaxing "That's big shame, I really look forward to our study sessions." he then added, looking sideways at me.
"Thanks for being so understanding Chase!" Owen exclaimed, punching him lightly in the chest "I'll see you around."
And with that, Owen walked away.
I turned to Chase to see his eyes closed and his forehead slightly creased. "You okay there Chase?" I asked, hoping that I didn't sound to overly concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it was just a sudden chest pain." Came the strained reply.
"You can tell me anything. Right?" I said turning around so I was facing my step-brother straight on.
"I know." Chase replied, not looking me in the eye. "Can we go to lunch now?"
"Okay." I sighed, knowing that I had done all that I could at the moment, and that new information wasn't going to come from Chase.
Through out the rest of the day, Chase seemed to get slightly happier, he even gave me a quick, thin smile every now and again. Considering that I haven't seen him smile in at least two weeks, I don't think I had ever felt so happy to see Chase smile. With the worry of why Chase was so sad lifted, I noticed something else about my step brother that I hadn't seen before. His shirt practically hung from him, as if it were on a hanger and not a body. I had noticed that he hadn't been eating anything lately, but I was so engrossed in my own problems and trying to figure out why he seemed depressed, that I had pushed that to the back of my mind.
"You really need to eat something Chase." I said suddenly. Adam, Chase, and I were sitting in the lab, out of Bree's way while she had a friend over. The last time we got in the way when Bree was hanging out, she got so mad at us that Spike showed up. Non of us, especially Adam, wanted that to happen ever again.
"I'm not hungry." came the sullen reply
"How aren't you hungry?" Adam asked, joining in on our conversation, "I haven't seen you eat anything for at least three days, maybe more."
"I said I'm not hungry."
"Please eat something Chase." I begged, going up to the brother in question and gave him puppy eyes.
"I SAID NO!" Chase growled, banging his fist on the table and shooting up out of his seat, his to thin chest moving in and out at incredible speeds
"Calm down Chase." Adam said, holding his hands up in a sign of surrender as he stood up as well. "Just calm down. You don't have to eat anything if you don't want to."
With a defiant nod, Chase turned on his heel and exited the lab via the stairs.
After checking to make sure that he had actually went away, Adam came over to me, looking incredibly confused. "What's wrong with him Leo? He seemed fine this morning."
"I have no idea what's wrong, but tonight I am going to find out, no matter how long it takes." I said, rubbing my eyes.
Time Skip to Later That Night
As soon as I bid Adam, Bree, and Chase goodnight, I headed upstairs, sprinted to my room, and grabbed Mr. Davenport's invisibility cloak that I had stolen earlier. Bundling it up under my arm, I sprinted back down the stairs and ran straight into Mr. Davenport. Literally.
"Leo!" He exclaimed, reeling back from the force I had created when I ran into him. "What on earth are you doing with my invisibility cloak?" He demanded, reaching down to grab it.
"I'm going to use it." I said, talking a step away from his hand
"No you're not."
"Yes I am."
"NO, you're not."
"Yes. I. Am."
"No you're not, besides what do you need it for anyway?"
"I'm going to use it so I can watch Chase all night. We all know that he doesn't sleep, so if I'm invisible, I can sit right in front of his capsule all night and he will never know I'm there."
"That's actually a really good idea." Mr. Davenport said, sounding incredibly surprised.
"Thank you." I said, puffing out my chest and walking in the direction of the lab.
Donning the invisibility cloak, I walked down the stairs and into the lab. Making sure not to trip over anything in the dark, I settled down in front of Chase's capsule and got ready to watch him the whole night. At least he seemed to be asleep. That was good.
I don't know how long I sat in front of Chase's capsule, it could've been hours or minutes, but all was quite from Chase's capsule.
I was just about to drift off to sleep my self when Chase started to thrash, his body jerking and shuddering. As soon as the thrashing started, it stopped and Chase collapsed forward, pushing on his capsule door until it opened. I shot forward, the invisibility cloak slipping off as I caught my step-brother and lowered him to the floor, noticing how painfully light he was.
"Leo?" Chase muttered, still half in his dream.
"Yes?" I asked, taking in stock of Chase's shaking limbs and his incredibly short breathes.
"C-can't b-breath." He gasped, clawing at his chest. "F-flip me over."
Not bothering to question him, I carefully turned Chase over until his forehead touched the cool floor of the lab. After a few moments, Chase's breath started to slow and he stopped shaking.
"Better?" I asked, helping him crawl over to the cyber desk so he could lean against it.
"Yeah." He muttered. "Thanks."
"No problem." I replied, sitting next to him. "Want to talk about it?" I asked, really hoping that he wanted to.
Chase started to shake his head, but then he stopped and nodded. "Fire." Came the mutter.
I looked at Chase, confused. "What do you mean by fire?"
"I was being lit on fire by." Chase started, but stopped with a shudder.
"Who were you being lit on fire by?" I asked softly, as if Chase was a wounded animal that could threatened to run away at any moment.
"Owen." Chase muttered
"Owen?!" I almost shouted. "But Owen is the nicest person I have ever met, why would he torture you?"
"I don't know." Chase whimpered, putting his head in his hands.
I could tell he was fighting back tears, so I went and hugged him. At first Chase tensed, but he eventually melted into my arms and let go of his shredded self control. We sat like that for a little while, until Chase had no more tears left.
"There's something else I have to show you." Chase whispered, puling out of my embrace and tugging the sleeves of his shirt.
"What is it?" I asked, confusion washing over me.
Wordlessly, Chase carefully pulled of his shirt. I gasped and leaned closer. Covering Chase's torso and arms were clusters of fierce looking burns.
"Is this why you dream about fire?" I said, looking up and into Chase's tired eyes.
"Yes. The dream haunts me, making it impossible to sleep, even though I need it." Came the reply, the voice dripping with exhaustion.
"You should at least try to sleep." I said, helping Chase put his shirt back on and stand up.
"I can't, if I do the dreams will come back."
"You have to try."
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"Fine then, I'll just go and tell the world what's happening to you." I said, stopping just before we got to his capsule.
"No! That's even worse!" Chase responded, sounding desperate.
"Then go to bed and I won't tell."
With a huff, Chase clambered into his capsule and shut the door.
"Better?"
"Much." I said, walking back toward the exit of the lab.
"Leo!" Chase called after me and I turned around.
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
"No problem."
And with that I walked out of the lab, a small smile tugging the corners of my mouth
Now someone know's whats happening to Chase! Yay! I just couldn't let Chase suffer in silence anymore.
I'm sorry if at times the story might seem a little Leo x Chase, but the way I've intended it to be is Leo worried about Chase and nothing more.
This chapter was more of a filler than anything else, so if it was a bit boring, don't worry! The action will pick up again shortly!
See you next chapter and don't forget to review!