Marie
I walked into the room that was way too big for only one person to occupy all day, and quite spacious that I could convince anyone to live here and not worry about space.
I edged closer to the desk trying to read Leonardo's expression. His face was tense and unreadable.
"Hey," I began, "Sorry if I disturbed you. You seemed to be a...bit busy."
He looked up at me and softened his face. His exterior was no longer tense and more relaxed but I knew under his skin something crawled around that I couldn't breach.
"No, no... No". That last no was heavy. The way he said it was like he was trying to convince himself everything was okay when it wasn't.
I titled my head to try and signal him to open up. He noticed and I raised my eyebrows at him.
He sighed, "Fine, you got me." Leo brushed his thinning hair, "The situation, is not looking good. The border patrol got into an incident with one of the villagers. And now I have to clean up the goddamn mess. As if I didn't have enough in my plate!"
I shot up in shock, "What happened?!"
He sighed, "I don't want to worry you Marie. It's my job to make sure this place is safe."
"Now that you've brought it up, I am a little concerned about my safety. What could be happening Leo— I mean council leader?"
Leo looked at me pensively with a little smile. "You don't have to call me Council leader. You're literally the mother of my son."
"And your son is sick." I whip back.
His demeanor dropped and concern is painted on his face. "Really? Thompson? But we gave you the supplies a couple of weeks ago? Wh-what happened?!" His voice raised causing me to shiver slightly. Frightened as to what he might, do my voice became frail and thin.
"I- uhm, well-"
He lowered his voice, "I'm sorry... About raising my voice. It's just, these past days have been very hard on me and it doesn't seem like things are going right all of a sudden."
My cheeks flushed with red as I noticed that his face slowly looked more and more unhappy.
As if the tough leader façade he once wore was slipping off. I myself am concerned over this but I couldn't help but look at this part of him. The human part of him. There was a softness that seeped through. A place for where only I could reach him.
He wiped his tears off his face with a tissue and continued. "I'm sorry you had to- witness... That."
"No. You don't have to be sorry for anything Leo." He looked up with a glint of hope into my eyes. "Whatever happened...None of this is your fault. And it never will be."
We paused, his gaze on me and mine on his. It's funny, the more I look into his eyes, I always see Thompson in them. There's a somber feeling that crawled at me. Why oh why did you have to leave Leo? We could've been happy together. Make a life better together. I thought to myself.
I tried to wave the thought away but I couldn't. I needed answers. I stopped myself from asking since he didn't look like he was in a good mood.
"They killed another one Marie." His tone was sharp and it felt like a deep cut. The weight of what had happened, was starting to grow larger and larger. I could see it on his face.
"I can't send anyone to the border for supplies anymore-"
"PLEASE! You have to allow me to go and get supplies. I am begging you-". I took a deep breath. Tried to keep my tone back to normal. There was a rush of adrenaline within me that I didn't know I had. Maybe it was my body nearing death that gave me a sudden push of energy to keep living.
Leo looked somber, like his answer was already decided before i entered. Like it read. 'there is no way in hell am I going to allow you to get supplies . No way in hell.'
I sighed, "sorry, I'm just. I don't...I- I don't want to." I looked at his face. "I don't want to die of hunger."
My frail hands were raised caressing my face. If I were too die now I could potentially kill many people due to my corpse rotting and the virus within me to spread from fumes. My plan was to get supplies, come back home to give them to my son, then vanish.
Leo closed his eyes. His face was red. He was holding back a thousand emotions. And not one of them included happiness. His lips tightened, holding himself back from speaking.
"She was 12. And was the daughter of Ophelia. The medical seeker that used to live here." His words were breaking at each sentence, he struggled to keep composure. "And now... Ophelia won't get to see her daughter again, and the border patrol won't bring the body back to our village." He slammed the desk so hard I shook a little bit. "Goddamn it! The fucking taskmaster. Fuck."
"They couldn't possibly do that, can they" I asked ignorantly.
"They can. The president doesn't care about the villagers since they don't follow the rules or laws of the government therefore we don't have full protection. We've tried multiple times to charge for murders but the president has pardoned them."
Leo got off his chair and towards the window. "How could I have been so stupid?! I can't run this place any more."
I got up suddenly. "Yes you can Leo!" He turned to me. "I've seen you do great things for the community, amazing things. The school is thriving, people have a community, the village is slowly building something special. And I for certain can feel it." I placed a fist to my chest, "I feel it. And I can see it."
I continued, "I know that, you know, whatever you've been dealing with has been bad, I know that. And the deaths have been horrible. But we don't have the energy to allow for these setbacks."
His gaze didn't drop. "We have lost too much already. Let's not lose any more while we mourn."
Leo turned back to the view outside. I approached him. The air was heavy and I was unsure as to what I should do. He looked at me.
"I can't lose you." He whispered.
"You won't."
"How do I know?"
"Have some faith in me. As I do for you." The silence danced around us as footsteps outside approached.