Many thanks to Jayne, AnnabethChase23, Lady Cougar-Trombone, 88keys, Swiftie22, AlienGhostWizard14, an unnamed guest, xxWasabiWariorAlertxx, Jillie chan, MoonlitShadowoftheHumanSoul, rockybluewigs and AngelGoneDevil69 for your reviews!

I'm off to a writers' camp in a few days, guys, but I'm hoping it won't affect the regularity of updates. :)

Seven.

Leo leaned back on the customer service counter with a sigh. Willa, their thirty-something year old manager, had walked off to her office more than half an hour ago, fussing under her breath about having been bothered to retrieve his 'dumb check,' which only came about because of her begrudging sense of obligation, and she hadn't been back since. He sincerely believed that she was testing his patience on purpose due to that ever applicable reason of her disliking him. It could not have been anything else. The whole store was nearly deserted, save for a few other employees, Adam, and three or four other customers who were lost within the aisles of gadgetries and office equipment, so she was definitely not held up by inquiries. There was a possibility that someone higher up had called her office and had taken her attention, but everyone in the staff knows that she rarely answered her personal landline when they neared closing time under the pretense that she was out and about. So that could not have been it either.

He had thought about leaving several times, but experience had taught him that doing that would give her more reason to have an aversion to him.

His periphery alerted him of an approaching figure. Turning towards it, he saw Adam rushing towards him with a wide grin, holding up an insulated bottle holder in the shape of a shirt. "Leo! Leo, look! I found Chase the perfect graduation gift!" he said, dangling the powder blue and white object in front of his younger brother's face.

Leo promptly swatted it away.

Adam stared at it thoughtfully. "Should keep him warm from the New York weather, right?" he asked. Then, with a mischievous smile, "Which one are you going to again? They have a few more colors back there."

Leo shook his head. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I think you're just doing that because you don't like the idea of Chase leaving," he said. "You miss him already."

"Psh! Oh, please. We'll see him almost every day even after he leaves," Adam said. "It's a break more than anything."

Leo's orbs trained immediately towards the tenth of an inch that Adam's smirk didn't reach and read it as the affirmation to his theory. His brows rose challengingly. "Sure," he said.

"Well, if we're not ready to leave yet, I think I'm going to go back there," Adam switched topics with false easiness. "Jen's waiting for me to choose another gift from the rack. Text me when you're done." He turned around thereafter, vanishing within the maze of shelves in seconds.

A smile stretched across Leo's face. His older siblings' attempts of denying a matter they had long confided in him both amused and bemused him.

The solidarity that found him once again forced him towards the mercy of his beleaguering thoughts. His skin crawled upon the remembrance of his mother's cautionary discovery. A dead girl, writing to him about his imminent death. The events of Thursday night had already increased his gauge of consternation to a considerable degree; he didn't need paranoia to collaborate with it, too. He knew letting those things get to him would only prove counterproductive, but he could not help it. After the incident with Bree's mysterious call, the poisoning and the note in red lipstick on his bathroom mirror (a fearful spectacle that Eddy, after he asked in secrecy earlier, promised was inexplicably deleted from the recordings in the house that night by an outside source), the confidence he had in the beginning that he would survive the threat unscathed became bleaker and bleaker by the minute.

The fact that he believed that a most realistic and formidable foe than the dead—the living—was out for him made him all the more wary.

However, Leo also understood that any negative conclusions and emotions had to be hidden. Everyone in his family had been jumping to and from different degrees of the panic spectrum since it all began. He had to act as the buffer. He needed to. So he would.

"Leo D! What's up, man?"

Leo swiveled around to face the counter and found his workmate extending a hand, grinning at him. He amiably slapped his hand on the other boy's before shaking it though he wondered how a bushy haired teenager with a built of a grizzly bear surpassed his notice. "Nothing much, Ringo J," he replied.

Ringo groaned. "There's that name again," he said. "Why do my parents have to be such Beatles fans?"

Leo laughed. "Sorry," he said. "What's up, RJ?"

Ringo shrugged. "Oh, nothing much, either," he spoke while stacking a few boxes behind the counter. "Willa's been working everybody like her personal mules. I can't wait to get out of here."

"Nothing interesting, huh."

"Not today. Well…we did have someone come in to complain about her new television."

"Oh, yeah? How'd that go?"

"She said the colors across her HD are messed up," Ringo replied. "I mean, we checked and all, and it is messed up, but I'm not sure if her warranty covers it."

Leo frowned. "Why not? If it came that way, shouldn't the store take it back?"

"No, because for one, the type of damage is not included on the warranty, I don't think. And two, it's her kid's fault that it's like that," Ringo said. "Want to guess what he did to mess up the colors?"

Leo shook his head with a small smile. He was too tired for the guessing games that the aspiring inventor regularly threw his way.

"Magnets, man! What's wrong with you?" Ringo answered too loudly. "Sheesh. For a stepson of a genius inventor, you're pretty bad at this."

Leo bit back a sarcastic remark. "I guess I a—"

"That's why you're sticking to sales instead, isn't it?" Ringo grinned. He nodded before resuming his work. "I don't blame you. It's a good choice if you're not predisposed to the field of science and technology. Sales is good. We make money from good sellers."

Leo stared at him pointedly. We—that ever present divisive word that Ringo uses to diminish him had yet to fail in stepping on his nerves. "Yes," he said instead through gritted teeth.

Ringo, though, remained oblivious of his reaction. "Hold up. Willa told us your parentals called to tell her you couldn't make it to work the rest of the week," he said. He brooded while scanning his face. "You don't look sick. What's up?"

"Family crisis," Leo muttered crossly.

"Oh, man. It's not Mr. Davenport, is it?"

"No."

Ringo chuckled out in relief. "Oh, good," he said, his palm flattened against his chest. "Donald Davenport's probably one of the greatest minds in the history of the world. We definitely don't want to lose him."

You and him see eye to eye, Leo thought acridly.

An almost supercilious leer formed on Ringo's face as he nudged Leo with his elbow. "And, uh, he still has to see those blueprints I showed you, right?" he asked.

Leo smiled weakly as a consolation and vague acceding, but he didn't try any harder. Not that he had any interest to.

"So, what brought you by?" Ringo asked.

"Ashley's having trouble compiling the inventories. She called me to ask for help. I was out, so I made a quick pit stop."

"Oh. Okay," Ringo said. A beat later, he asked, "Hey. Who's that guy with you?"

"My stepbrother."

"Is he Mr. Davenport's kid?"

"Oldest."

"Oh, that's so cool! You know, I didn't even know he had kids until you mentioned it to me, which is weird because I've read every profile there is on him. Like I said before, I'm not being a creepy stalker. Just interested in learning about my role model, you know?" Ringo rambled. "What's your stepbrother's name again?"

"Adam."

Ringo nodded pensively. "Adam Davenport," he repeated. "Huh. Kind of a strange name."

Leo stared at him steely. "Yes, it is, Ringo James," he said.

"I didn't mean it like that," Ringo declared. "It's just talk. You understand, right?"

Leo responded by turning his attention to seeking for any appearance at all from Willa or Adam from the aisles.

"Anyways. I just thought I'd ask," Ringo said. "I saw him lurking around earlier. I asked if he needed any help, but he said someone's already got him."

"Yeah. Jen."

Ringo frowned. "Jen? Who's Jen?"

Leo stood up straighter before turning around. "Isn't there someone in the staff named Jen?" he asked.

Ringo's eyes grew wide as he pondered, the corner of his lips bending down in a pout. He shook his head slowly. "Not that I know of," he said.

A blinding red light burst forth somewhere in the back of Leo's mind. His instincts dictated that he search for Adam, and he immediately jumped upon the task. He took out his phone when he saw no movements from anyone in his line of sight, his thumb quickly perusing the contacts for his older brother's number.

Ringo detected the urgency and was moved to offer help. "I mean, is he sure the person helping him works here?" he asked.

Leo lifted his phone up to his ear after he clicked on Adam's number. "Yeah. He would have told me if it was just some girl," he said anxiously.

"Okay… What about the name? Jen. Does he know any Jen's from school?"

"He would have said that," Leo replied in irritation when the phone rang the fifth time.

"Jen's not a girlfriend."

"No."

Ringo thought further. "Is Jen short for anything? Like Jennifer, Jenna, Jenalyn…"

Leo shook his head. No answer from the other end. He doubted he even heard Adam's annoying ringtone for him.

"Ooh! Maybe he thought he saw Jen as her name but it's really a logo for a company. An acronym, maybe? J.E.N?"

Leo's blood curdled at the suggestion. A helpful girl named J.E.N.

Jessi Evelyn Nash.

And she had been in the store with them the whole time.

"Adam!" Leo called loudly enough as he sprinted from row to row around the store. Many empty aisles greatly increased the alarm inside his head and considerably tripled the weight of the lead weighing down his stomach. Neither his search nor his attempt at calling bore any fruit.

Outside, he figured.

He hoped.

"Dooley, wha—?" he heard Willa nagging as he sped past the Customer Service desk. "What are you doing running around in my store?"

The manager's sour attitude faded into ignorance as Leo exited into the clear Californian night. He slowed down and gradually came into a halt as he scanned Adam's car for any movements inside. He narrowed his eyes. No moving shadow, no smoke emitting from the exhaust.

Leo frowned. "Where'd you go?" he muttered as he sought.

He dialed Adam's number again, his mind already enumerating several reasons for the older boy's absence. He waited with a little more patience as it rang.

A misstep, as his focus shifted from his surroundings to the call, from the sudden change in another car parked a few yards away which directly faced his vulnerable location.

Its engines turned on silently when Adam's phone rang the third time.

"Hey, hey! This is Adam! Sorry I missed your call. Just leave your message after the beep, and I'll try to get back with you as soon as I can. Well…if this is Ayanna, hi, baby! I'll try to get back with you sooner. If this is Mr. Davenport or Tasha, I'll get back sooner, too. If this is Bree, eh, you may have to wait a few hours. If this is Chase—"

Leo huffed as it beeped. "Adam. You seriously did not leave me, did you? I've…"

As headlights flooded a path towards him, an engine's growl breaking forth, Leo's periphery warned him of the danger. He stared at the car charging onwards in horror, particularly at the small details he could make of the girl at the driver's seat. He willed himself to move.

Something within him collapsed when every fiber of his body disobeyed, leaving him permanently cemented on his place.

He was thrown forward as a strong force pushed him out of the way. His sights blurred for but a moment, but the echo of tires screeching and of reinforced metal hitting something didn't escape his senses.

He rolled over and sat up, just in time to see Adam's body settling helplessly into the ground, the vehicle driving away out of the parking lot.

"Adam!"

Leo's mind raced as he kneeled beside his brother. Adam's head turned so slowly to the other side, and all Leo could hear was the tremor within the nerves of his own brain, beating upon his desperate plea for his brother not to die. His head swam as he peered upon his brother's broken features, the familiar grin gone from his lips and replaced with cuts and bruises.

So many cuts and bruises.

Upon trained impulse, Leo groped for a pulse in Adam's wrist. Thready, almost non-existent, but it was still there.

He sought for his phone and found it a few meters away from him. He snatched it out of the pavement and quickly dialed his stepfather's phone number, his fingers creating desperate trails upon the nearly shattered screen. By the time he sat back with Adam, Willa, Ringo and a few other employees had crowded out, their faces aghast from the horrifying scene outside.

"Don't touch him!" Leo commanded angrily as hands reached out towards Adam, and it effectively stopped them from helping.

Their touch could do worse damage, he knew, just like his could. He wanted very much to shake Adam awake, to make sure he was alive under all the injuries, but he couldn't. He could end his life permanently by doing that.

"Leo?" came a voice on his phone.

"Big D, please. Help. You have to help me," he said, his voice shaky as he gauged Adam's breathing.

"What—what's the matter? Where are you and Adam?"

"Where I work. Parking lot. Please come now. You have to help."

There was a pause. He heard shuffling in the background. "Chase and I are coming," he said. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No. But Adam, he's…" He stared at Adam, and he was rendered completely at a loss on what to do. "I'm…"

"We're coming."

A poison. Leo realized that he was a poison, and his mere existence would soon kill the people he loved.

to be continued.