The last time Arbel saw her little brother, she was quite a bitch.
It's probably her job as a big sister but still, quite a bitch.
The last morning before Leo's disappearance was in the middle of summer vacation.
she woke up early to go to the beach with Rosie. She hated the sea, but she hated the heat more. The air conditioning in their house was always pretty crappy, another thing her mother said she would take care of and didn't. A bit like she doesn't take care of her own children when you think about it.
She got up in the morning and as she started to leave the house she could see that Leo's door was closed and his room was dark. Which means he's obviously sleeping.
Leo has always had trouble sleeping, to such an extent that her mother always said she would take him to the doctor to get it checked out. She didn't do it of course. their mother always was bad at doing things she said she would do.
Leo's sleep has only gotten worse over the years, and in the last few months it's gotten pretty out of control. She couldn't count the number of times she went to the kitchen to get a drink of water and found him sitting on the table like some rude brat. Only he really is a rude brat.
The point was that Arbel knew that Leo was probably very tired, and needed the sleep even more. So like any good sister , she opened the room and turned on the light.
Maybe she start to see why people call her annoying.
She had time to see Leo sit up abruptly, hair wild and eyes wide, before she slammed the door back.
arbel smiled widely as she walked away, hearing her little brother's screams and curses.
Arbel didn't know it then, but that was the last time she would see Leo.
when she come back from the beach there was no leo. but it was only the day after she really started feeling a little uneasy when she realized there was no little brother in sight.
She's not proud of it, and will probably regret it for the rest of her life, but Arbel raised a red flag only the second night she didn't see Leo anywhere.
She called his friend, a sarcastic bastard named Ben, and explained the situation to him. Ben for lack of nice words, lost his shit when he realized they hadn't seen Leo in almost two days.
Arbel's next call was not to her mother, who was unavailable for the next few months, Thanks to her research and crappy reception in Antarctica. and certainly not to her father. that in these moments either he is dead somewhere or he is dead as far as Arbel is concerned.
It was for the police.
At first they thought she was hysterical, but eventually someone there realized the situation and they started looking. But it was probably too late, because Leo was never seen again.
And Arbel's family's empty house just got emptier.