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Leo had some kind of gift, Jun had figured. She could see things. Good and bad. When things worked out well in the end. And when they didn’t. The older woman had wrote it off simply as coincidence, but as time went on, with the events that taken place, she knew she could no longer ignore it. It seemed every time something bad was to come, the blonde would somehow sense it.
The first time was when Jun was going to run some errands in town. The moment she was about to leave however, Leo had come downstairs complaining of a bad headache. She was hot to the touch. Jun took her temp and the young girl was running a high fever. She checked her throat and saw it was bright red. Jun changed her plans and took her to the doctor instead.
Some days later, after the appointment she found out there had been a crash at the intersection she went through to get to the store. A car blew right through the stoplight into oncoming traffic. Three people died. Jun could only sit in silence. Would that have been her? That was the intersection she always took. If she had gone at her usual time, would she have perished? At the time, it could only amount to luck. Leo just happened to be sick, and that made the older woman change her plans. She wasn’t sure if it was “fate” of some kind that had protected her, but she decided not to ponder it too much. Things happened. Plain and simple.
Then the second time came. The day Asuka was supposed to go to a concert with Lili. The pair met up at her house early that morning and were about to head out until Jun came rushing downstairs to the pantry, searching for meds. Leo was running a high fever and having a bad migraine. She was miserable. She cried into Asuka’s shoulder pleading to make the pain stop. Worried and not feeling good leaving Leo, the girls decided to cancel their plans. It was just a concert. There would be plenty more.
That decision may have saved their lives. The next day Lili found out there was a fire at the venue due to the fireworks they used on the stage. It wasn’t planned. It was a last-minute addition, something to get the crowd excited. Then a flame caught on the curtain, and it only spiraled from there. Many people were dead. Burnt to death. The others barely got away within an inch of their life, but not without paying for it in burns and other injuries.
It was a miracle they just decided to stay home. Leo was sick at the right time and place. Who would have figured. Again, Jun wondered if there was something greater at work here. That somehow Leo sensed something was wrong. But she let it go. It was just a coincidence. Nothing else.
Yet Leo’s premonitions would continue. Jin was doing work on his car in the garage, despite Jun’s urging for him to take it into the shop. The young man refused. It was cheaper and faster if he just did it himself. He knew what he was doing. He just had to fix the exhaust pipe. After he put the car jack in place, he went under, back pressed against the skateboard as he slid beneath.
Then Leo came out to the garage in a bad state. Her head hurt, and she wanted to know where the excedrin was. Jin slid back out from beneath the car and sat up, puzzled. Was it another migraine? He was about to go to her when out of nowhere, the car jack just gave out. A resounding slam echoed throughout the garage. Jin and Leo could only gawk. The car now sat on its behind, the corner of it crinkled. Bits of metal were scattered across the floor, silver and black in color.
Jin quickly got off the floor and went over to Leo.
Had he stayed for a second longer beneath the car, his middle would have been severed, as if being sliced by the guillotine. Or violently chunked, as if someone were messily trying to chop him up, like a slab of beef. He and Leo quickly went back inside, and let Jun and Asuka know what happened. Both sides were horrified. Had Jin waited a few more seconds he would have been dead. Leo just happened to come out and rouse him from under the car at the right moment. It was just dumb luck.
Or was it?
The question sat at the back of everyone’s minds, long after Jun called the tow truck. That jack had always been reliable. They’ve had it for years. It was usually when they bought new jacks that they broke. Jin would end up going back to his old one anyways. Why would it suddenly snap like that? Asuka was the one to broach the subject.
“Hey Leo, how you feeling?”
“Hm? Oh, okay I guess.” It had been a few hours since the jack broke, and Jun had given her some meds.
“Better?”
“Yeah, better.”
Asuka gingerly grazed her hand across the younger girl’s forehead. She wasn’t warm anymore. Maybe a little flushed still, but she didn’t seem sick.
“Huh. Just as quickly as it came it went.” She noted. Leo shrugged, looking back down to her sketchbook.
“I guess.” Asuka took a seat next to her on the couch, close to her.
“You remember the last time you got sick?”
“The last time?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmmm…” Leo wondered. “Probably, like a month ago? Right around you were supposed to go to that concert.”
Silence pooled into the room. That’s right. The concert.
“Do you remember how sick you were?”
“Yeah, I felt really miserable that day.” Leo noted, not looking up from her drawing. “I had a migraine. And a super gnarly fever.”
“When did it start?”
The blonde shrugged. “I don’t know. Just kinda happened, I guess. Why?”
“… no reason.”
Even when the conversation sort of fizzled out from there, the thought still sat at the back of everyone’s minds even as the night passed. Jun walked on eggshells around Leo every time the blonde expressed any minor notes of discomfort, headache, sneezing or what have you. But time went on. As did the days, and the weeks. And soon, the older woman was beginning to forget about the whole thing.
Until the incident with Asuka happened.