The Promised

Two

"Hello! Are you awake?" Leo calls.

I forgot I gave him a key. I groan and turn onto my back. "In here," I call to him.

"Sleeping beauty! I take it you slept well." He opens the shades, and I resist the urge to hiss as the sunlight pours into the room, half-blinding me.

"You would be right in your assumption." I throw the blankets over my head.

"No, none of that." He pulls the blanket off my head. "Let's get some breakfast."

"I don't want to. Let me enjoy my peace!" I realize something, I haven't picked up Leo's thoughts.

"Leo, I can't hear you!" I say in excitement.

"Al, are you okay? Can you hear me now?" he yells, grabbing my face.

"No, I mean I can't hear what you're thinking." I roll my eyes.

"Diva! Don't fucking scare me like that!" He clutches his chest dramatically.

Such a drama queen.

Leo is beautiful. He has short bleach-blond hair and aqua blue eyes. Tall, fit, perfect, also one hundred percent gay. I realize that I've totally become his hag, and I'm more than fine with that.

"Why do you guess that is though?" I ask.

"Probably because you slept after six weeks of no sleep. It takes mental concentration to block. Do you recognize the amount of noise I have to block from the other side daily? That gets hard as fuck to do when I'm too tired," he explains.

"So you're saying it's possible to better control whatever the fuck this is?"

"Yes! What the hell do you think I've been telling you for the past year?" He sighs.

"I know, it's just been so hard lately." I pout.

"Well, that's because your brother brought some strong shit in here. You sure he isn't dabbling in something dangerous?" Leo asks.

"I have no clue. He won't talk about it. When I tried, he told me he wasn't insane like me and walked away. Whatever was in here broke our photo yesterday." I nod over to the picture sitting on my dresser.

"What? You're telling me the spirit made something move?" he asks in disbelief. The expression on Leo's face is not comforting.

"Move? No, it flung the damn thing almost across the room." I shiver at the memory.

"Al, that's not good. That doesn't sound like a regular spirit. That sounds like a demon or at least, not your run-of-the-mill ghost."

I roll my eyes once again. "There are no such things as demons, Leo."

"Bitch! Are you serious right now?" He stands up and looks at me in disbelief.

"Yeah, okay, I can believe in negative and positive energy, but demons? That's farfetched."

"Girl! You read minds! You saw a picture frame fly across the room, a shadow spirit haunted you for the past six weeks, and you're still on your skeptical shit?" Leo huffs.

"I can't help that I don't buy into all the mumbo-jumbo," I reply.

"All the shit you've experienced throughout your childhood—I just can't with you right now." He walks out of the room.

I jump out of bed and follow him. "Leo, don't get mad at me!"

"How can I not be mad at you, Al? You call everything I believe in bullshit, but not only that, you refuse to believe what you've seen with your own eyes. What you live daily!"