Chapter Seven

I'm just gonna go straight into it.

°.°.°.°.°.°.°.°.°.

Leo's POV

"Ah schist." I say out loud, when Sally comes back into the kitchen and gives me a look.

Sally rolls her eyes and gestures for me to get out of here.

I instantly start heading toward to window but Piper holds me back.

"Your not leaving me that easy, Valdez." She says, with a small smile.

Then she turns to Nico and says,"Just go from room to room, but stay in the apartment."

Nico rolled his eyes, but walked over to me and grabbed my arm.

He shadow traveled us to Percys bedroom as soon as Sally opened the front door.

"Hello, what's this about a boy?" I hear Sally say through the thin walls.

"Leo Valdez. He just turned 17 a few days ago."- Really? I haven't paid attention to the date-The man says clumping inside.

"Is he here? Short, Latino? Not very bright. Probably looks like he's been taking a stroll through a sewer."

"Hey!" I say before I could help myself. "I'll show you not bri-"

Nico clamps his hand over my mouth and shadow travels us to the kitchen.

Piper looks at us with surprise, but Nico says annoyed,"Make Leo shut up."

Piper rolls her eyes at Nico but turns to me and whispers, charmspeaking, "Shut up until I tell you otherwise, Leo. Now go, Nico."

I open my mouth to respond, but I can't speak.

I really hate charmspeak.

I stick my tongue out at Piper, before we're back in Percys bedroom.

"I've already told you I don't know the boy, and my son and his friends are here of course you're going to hear people talking."

"Take me to them."

I hear someone walk from to kitchen to the living room.

"Hello, what's this about?" I hear Paul say. A smile in his voice.

"A boy," the officer says impatiently. "His name is Leo Valdez, age 17. Curly, black hair. Skinny. Rude. Have you seen him?"

For a moment everything is quite, and I'm afraid Paul will confess and rat me out.

But then I hear Paul answer, no, and my heart goes back to its normal pace.

"I'd like to see everyone in your apartment right now, even so. I'm aware that your son has friends over, why?"

"School project." Sally replies quickly.

"How many kids?"

"Uh.. Seven. Though with these kids it seems like more." Paul answers trying to lighten the mood with a joke.

"Bring them here. Now." The officer orders.

"Yeah okay." I hear Sally mutter.

"Percy! Get in here with your friends."Sally shouts, though knowing full well they're right around the corner.

"Comin'!" I hear Percy yell back, and then I hear shuffling and the grunt of the police man, unconvinced.

"Is there anyone else here?" The rude police man questions.

"N-no. J-just us." Frank stutters, clearly lying.

"You better not lie to the law, boy-"

"He's not lying." Piper interrupts confidently. "There is no one else here."

"I'll have to have a look around-"

"No one." Piper repeats, and suddenly I believed her, even though I was the someone.

Charmspeak.

Everything is quiet, then I hear the man say, "Yes, but it's my job to look around."

I hear footsteps and Nico grabs my arm, getting ready to shadow travel if necessary.

That's when the door opened on my face.

I silently thank Piper for that- curse, but the thud of the door connecting with my face was loud.

My hands go towards my nose, and as the light is turned on.

Nico already shadow traveled us to another room.

I look at Nico in pain and he just puts a finger on his lips, a sign to basically say "Shut up".

Throwing my hands in the air I try to yell at him for his stupidity because Pipers charmspeak is still in effect, but he just ignores me and listens.

"What was that?" The police demanded.

"Probably nothing. This door is old and gets stuck sometimes." Paul explains, making an excuse.

"And that noise?"

"Uh, the noise of the door getting stuck?-What are you doing?" Percy says.

"I am looking under the bed for-"

"Monsters?" Hazel suggested.

"No! I'm looking for the boy." The man says exasperatedly.

"I told you he is not here." Sally states firmly.

"I'm sorry ma'am but I have a permit."

All is silent, then Paul says,"Just do your business and leave."

"Gladly."

I hear the sound of tables moving and closets opening and the annoyed sigh from Sally.

"What do you even want him for?" Sally asks and I can just imagine her glaring.

"Oh, all sorts of things." The man says, his voice muffled as if he's looking out the window.

"Well for one, he's a runaway. Major, runaway. And all his foster homes blame him or say he did something. So he's obviously troubled. No doubt messed up in the head if you know what I mean."

Honestly, if Nico didn't have hold of my arm the policeman would have been attacked by a small scrawny teenager.

I mentally swore like a pirate. It wasn't always my fault. Most of the foster parents sucked, not my fault.

"And he's stolen. A lot. Small things really. Clothes, food, that duffle bag he always has with him. But all those things add up. He's in debt for almost three hundred dollars, and that's only for the thefts he's been caught for!"

I subconsciously reach for my duffle bag around my arm. I didn't know I was that in debt.

"Well, I'm sure that's exaggerated." Sally says, trying to find the best in this situation.

But that's the thing. With me...When stuff sounds really horrible in my life, well, that's pretty much the way they are.

"No, ma'am. But some officers, friends of mine, still want to interrogate him."

My heart literally stops. Interrogate..What the actual heck?

I hear Percy's bedroom door close, and another open. Probably a guest room, or the bathroom.

"Some people on the force still don't believe that kids story. His mother dying by an accidental fire. Matches, he said. Yeah, sure matches. He can kiss my shoes if he thinks we'll buy that story."

"Sir-" Percy starts, but the police keeps talking.

The voice closer to this room. Nico shadow travels us back to Percy's room, probably the only reason I started breathing again.

The man's voice comes front the room we were just standing in.

"That boy is dangerous. He killed his mother at the age nine. Nine. It's sick. I've had to threaten him with my gun sometimes, just to get him in the back of the police car. He's not very cooperative. And he's always making jokes. Most of them don't even make sense."

"Sir if you-" Percy says once again, more persistent this time.

"Now hold on. Get one thing straight. You seem like good people. So of you see that boy hear of him or even think you see him call the police. He's a freak is what he is."

By this point, my hands are shaking. Nico is pinning me to the wall so I don't go do something stupid.

I'm not a freak. I'm not, I swear. I'm trying to change, I..I don't want to be a freak. I really don't want to be different.

"That boy...that monster-"

"Get out." Piper says I can barely hear her.

"Wha-"

"GET OUT!" Piper says screaming at the man, her charmspeak was so powerful I almost ran out of the bedroom, if not for Nico still pinning me.

The hear a bunch or shouts but the front door opens and slams shut.

Nico lets go of me, and I stay where I am frozen.

"Leo?" I hear Piper call me looking in the wrong room.

They would find me in a matter of moments.

I don't want them to find me like this. I'm not myself. I-I'm different.

I don't want to be but I am.

I start taking steps toward the window, but hesitant before opening it.

I don't have to do this, but at the same time, I do.

The police are right. I am a freak a....a murderer.

A thief a runaway. 

Troubled.

My hand lands on the window lock, and I vaguely see Nico shaking his head.

The room door opens and I unlock the window.

"Leo...?" Jason says putting his hand on my shoulder, my back is to them.

But he sounds underwater. Everyone does.

I feel like I'm drowning, but not quite.

I feel numb.