Upheaval: Day 17

Word Count: 102,007

Summary of Events:

After what Leon felt was a long time the competition started, only to have the dances pass quickly; it was then announced that Leon had won, which astonished Leon, who offered the prize to Rhoenne because he felt bad for her. He was taken backstage and told in no uncertain terms that he was not allowed to give the prize away — and accidentally got hit in the cheek by a door. At home, Leon couldn't find his mom anywhere, which made him highly nervous while he went to get ice for his cheek . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Leon wrapped the ice chunk in a thick dishtowel and closed the freezer, as well as putting the hammer away, before hurrying up to his room without bothering to turn any of the lights off.

He found all the locks on his door were done up and so started undoing them, which was a tricky process with only one free hand that was trying to get it done as fast as possible. He wanted to hide away in the one place he knew was safe for a bit. He could go out and look for Mama later.

Once he finally got into his room Leon slammed the door behind him and sat down against it, holding the ice chunk against his cheek with pressure despite the fact that doing so made his cheek hurt frightfully.

Thinking about his pain would hopefully get his mind off the fear of being at home in the dark and completely unsure of where Mama was. Usually when he snuck in after the competition she was sitting in the dining room or could be heard talking to herself in her room. The silence of this house was uncommon, and was the very reason he'd rather open his window and pollute the backyard than go out even so far as the bathroom down the hall if he needed to relieve himself in the middle of the night.

It wasn't common that Mama went out on late-night excursions to the cemetery. Usually she went in the middle of the afternoon in full daylight. When she went at night was unnerving, even though Leon was typically safely hidden away in his room when she departed.

Hearing her through the door both when she left and when she came back, moaning and groaning like she was dying from some grievous wound, was the scariest thing he'd ever heard in his life, and had haunted many a nightmare over the years that had left him sitting wide-eyed in the corner of his bed with his light on until the first light of dawn coloured the sky out his bedroom window.

With the house as eerily quiet as it was, there was no other place Mama could possibly be than at the cemetery visiting Natalia's grave for some unknown reason.

Leon didn't want to go look. He'd never accompanied Mama on her after-dark grave visits; in fact, he'd gotten out of visiting Natalia's grave anytime as soon as he could. He didn't see the point in the visits. Mama purported that she saw Natalia in the house, so why did she have to go visit the grave?

Even more so: why did she have to go visit the grave after dark, and accompanied by such unearthly and demonic moaning as she uttered?

Regardless of why she did it, in order to ascertain her position, Leon was going to have to go down to the church to see if she was there.