Things Will Shortly Get Completely Out of Hand

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"...No." Leo answered before he cracked his eyes open to see who was speaking to him.

He didn't want to open his eyes very wide, lest he catch sight of Howie in his peripheral vision.

His fingers peeled open from the fist clenched around his crucifix, and there was a throb of pain in the image of the cross dug into his palm. Leo rubbed his hand over his face, brushing away sand and specks of dried seaweed, and then dropped to fumble at the buttons on the front of his coat. He hadn't quite realized how much warmer it was here than back at home until now.

His squinting view of the area found Maya. He didn't know her well, didn't know how long she had been here, or what her intent was. But she hadn't shot yet, if she had the means to do so.

Leo couldn't think of anything else to say in response to her presence, so he left it at that. He had spent too much time inside his own head just now to jump right back into talking with people. If there had ever been an illusion that things could be normal and okay, it was irrevocably shattered by now.

[Brackie]

"Alright. You planning on living?"

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Leo paused in the middle of shrugging his coat off. Maya's demeanor was making him uneasy (not that he'd been exactly content with things before she called out to him), and her question caught him off-guard.

He returned to what he had been doing as he mulled it over, sliding his arms out of his coat sleeves and letting the coat drop to the sand. That made the temperature a little more bearable, at least.

"I'm pretty attached to living, to be honest. Haven't ever really considered doing anything else." The ghost of a smile flitted across Leo's face, gone as quickly as it had appeared.

He wasn't sure if he should turn the question back onto her. There was no telling what she would do. There was no telling what he would do if Maya suddenly turned hostile.

Well, he'd probably just die, actually. Now that Leo thought about it, there didn't seem to be anything on hand anymore that he could have used to defend himself. Whoever had killed Howie had taken both his and Leo's bags.

As far as Leo could see, anyway. He wasn't keen on turning his head too far back in Howie's direction.

"What about you?"

[Brackie]

"Yup."

Maya moved her hand to her bag.

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"Oh," Leo breathed, and for a moment the world stood still.

...Well! You know that thought, the one Leo had just been having, about how he would probably lay down and die if things went south with Maya. All of a sudden, that wasn't such an appealing idea after all! Weird!

And so the world moved again, and Leo stood, jerkily, pulling his discarded coat up with him.

He'd had the fleeting thought somewhere in there that he wanted to cover Howie's body with it. Sorry, Howie.

Leo flung his coat at Maya, thinking-hoping-praying to hinder her for just a second. Sometimes all you needed was a second. He didn't wait to see if he was successful, instead spinning on his heel and breaking into a sprint away from her and Howie's body.

((Leo Menendez continued in Hellhound On My Trail))

[Brackie]

Maya was getting a bottle of water from her bag when a coat hit her and knocked her over. It was very strange.

Leo had left. Maya looked at the body, saw nothing of use, and left as well.

((Maya Spooner continued elsewhere))