Haunted || Leo Valdez

70 - Henry Likes Spinny Chairs

"Pssst!"

Something was hissing in Rebecca's ear. She opened her eyes, finding herself opposite from Leo, who was obviously asleep. It couldn't have been him.

Rebecca looked up and nearly jumped out of her skin, letting out a stream of profanities. "Anne, what in Hades are you doing in here?"

"Henry and I wanna talk to you."

"Now?"

"Of course."

Rebecca glanced at her sleeping boyfriend. "I don't want to wake him up. He hasn't been able to sleep lately."

"The invitation only extends to you, anyway."

Rebecca sighed. "Fine."

Slowly and carefully, Rebecca disentangled herself from Leo, who stirred and made a weird snuffling sound but didn't wake up. Rebecca followed Anne out of the room and down the hall to the queen's cabin, where Henry was sitting in the swiveling desk chair, spinning around in it like an overgrown five-year-old.

"Oh, grow up, Henry," Anne snapped as she flopped dramatically onto the bed. Her bright green plush penguin, christened Sir Sparkly Ridiculousness, toppled beak-down onto the floor.

Henry pouted. "You do it all the time!"

"I've no idea what you're on about."

"Yes, you do! Just last night I was in my room reading my vintage comic books, and I heard this chair creaking while you're spinning around in it!"

"You have vintage comic books?" Rebecca asked.

"Don't ask," Anne said. "He'll go on and on about it, and we don't have time for that. We need an outsider's opinion concerning the discussion we had with the Queens."

"Wait, which one?" Henry asked. "The one about how many ovens Katherine Howard has, or the one about updog--?"

"Updog?" Rebecca asked. "What's updog?"

"I dunno, what's up with you?" Anne said before dissolving into laughter.

Rebecca glanced at Henry, who shook his head. "Don't ask... about anything... especially not the ovens..."

Rebecca wasn't sure she wanted to know about the ovens. "Look, Anne, could you get ahold of yourself?"

Anne took a deep breath, trying to recover. "Yeah, sorry... my nerves are all... weird." She cleared her throat. "Right. I'll just tell you what the Queens told me."

Rebecca listened while Anne and Henry explained about the Wars of the Roses and the Queens' search for anything concerning Anne and Henry's part of the prophecy.

"So they think the Wars of the Roses had something to do with the prophecy, and that it might've left behind a clue about it?" Rebecca summed up.

"Basically," Anne agreed.

Rebecca sighed and sat on the floor, leaning back against the wall, processing what she'd just heard.

"So, what now?" She said.

"We're waiting for word on what they find at Stonehenge," Henry said.

"I wonder if they're planning to meet us in Venice," Anne said.

"I hope not," Henry muttered. "I'm tired of Cleves pranking me all the time."

"Technically, the jumpscare wasn't her fault," Anne said. "She was just standing there, and you weren't paying attention."

"She did it on purpose," Henry insisted.

"Okay, well," Rebecca said, standing up. "I'll let the two of you continue... whatever this is... I'm going back to sleep."