Chapter 44.

Loss.

Damien Reyes.

Time/Area: August 2nd, 2013. NYC

The bus was almost at Draxon by the time my phone started ringing, and upon shakily checking the caller ID, I couldn’t help but feel relief at the sight of Selina’s name. Mrs.M would not be happy at how late it was getting.

“Hey Selina.” I greeted, rubbing my eyes as I glanced to my right at Jason. His eyes were closed, but he hadn’t quite fallen asleep yet.

I was exhausted too, but I hadn’t slept the whole ride. I mean, seriously, how could I have? We had found out monsters could swim, we still had no idea what was up with Liberty island, and to tip it off, we now had Henry More’s phone number. In retrospect, the events seemed too random to be connected, but here we were regardless.

“Hey,” Selina responded, only slight sleepiness in her voice, “we’re still at your house.”

My eyes widened, not quite expecting that, “O-oh, you don’t have to wait for u-”

“Don’t flatter yourself Dami,” She interrupted, laughing, “We’re on to something!”

I smirked, “What,” I leaned my head back into the leather seats as the bus went over a speed bump, “did Lorica find something?”

Some shuffling could be heard from over the phone,

“Yea!” a new, older voice said, “I found something REALLY weird, dude!” Lorica squeaked.

I winced at the increase in volume, “Oh,” I chuckled, “ Hi Lorica.”

“HI,” she quickly shot, “Okay listen: the witness dude I got to meet described the monster he saw as a knight in metal armor?”

Knight?

Lorica continued, “And apparently, it was about to kill the guy when it suddenly jumped straight into the Hudson,” she paused to laugh, “to be honest, I think it’s a bunch of bull-”

I gasped, interrupting, “It swam?!”

More shuffling,

“No, ” Selina’s voice came back, “It tried to, then it apparently fried itself!”

I blinked, “So it..killed itself?”

“According to the witness, yea.” Selina replied, “Water must do something to it.”

“Ours tried to swim too,” I said, “But it didn’t die, it just headed to Liberty island.”

Shuffling-

Now it was Hiru speaking, “Wait, really?” he gasped, “Hey Lorica, didn’t you say your witness claimed it was heading towards the upper bay area!?”

I shook my head in disbelief.

The upper bay area was where Liberty Island was, “Th-that can’t be a coincidence.”

I heard more shuffling,

“So what do you think, D?” Melissa spoke, “You think something is summoning the monsters there, or do you think they just like the water?”

I gulped, “Th-the first one sounds more...plausible.”

Hiru came back,

“By the way, how’s Henry? Is his family all good?”

I nodded to myself, expecting this question, “Uh-yeah, he’s good. A little shaken up about it, but he’s good.”

I heard him sigh a breath of relief, “And what about you guys, you almost home?”

I rolled my eyes, “Uh...no. We’re actually going to be home by...ten?”

A cough, “Dude..Mrs.Mabel uh..wants the phone good luck don’t die bye.”

I looked to my right; Jason’s eyes were still closed.

“Damien Reyes Johnson!” Mrs.M’s voice pierced through my skull,

“Why is it that you’ll be coming back an hour late?!”

I cleared my throat, sitting up, “Lo siento Mrs-”

“Lo whatawhat?!” She interrupted.

I coughed again, “I mean...sorry Mrs.M, me and Jason got caught up at the Harbor.”

I heard her grumble a bit,

“Ohhh I can’t be mad at you two!” She conceded, “BUT GET HOME QUICKLY. I’m sending Hiru to meet you at the bus stop later, so no didlydaddling!”

I sighed, “Thanks Mrs.M, bye!”

She gave up the phone,

“I guess I’ll see you in a sec then dudes.” Hiru stated, “We can talk about everything once you get back, peace out.”

He hung up.

Jason magically ‘woke up’,

“Hey,” he said, “who was th-”

I glared.

Jason laughed a little, “Okay okay…” he surrendered, “but it would be really bad if something was summoning monsters.”

I nodded, “Yea…but what could do that?”

I continued, “I mean, I don’t know how much of this works still, but wouldn’t something have to be pretty…” I paused, “I don’t know…powerful to do that?”

Jason shrugged, “I don’t know, but that’s probably not the most important question right now.”

I frowned, “What is?”

He began to ring his hands, “Look- I don’t think that monster jumped into the Hudson by choice...especially if it like, died because of it.”

I groaned, “again with the controlling stuff?”

“Couldn’t..” Jason interrupted, “Wouldn’t that mean you could be controlled too?”

I looked down- I hadn’t thought about that one,

“N-no,” I said, “That ERL in my back gives me control over the monster, right?” I reasoned, “...so it’ll probably give me control over something like…hypnosis or whatever.”

Even though I said this, neither me or Jason were convinced.

I glanced down at my phone; we had around thirty minutes left in the drive.

“Well, I’m really tired.” I yawned, “Wake me up when we get there...”

Jason nodded, “No prob.”

----------

“Hello Damien.” Terry greeted me as I entered our void.

“Hey.” I waved, almost feeling more relaxed here than in the outside world, “So uh, what do you think?”

“It’s definitely...strange.” He spoke, his towering pitch black form bending down to look at me.

“No kidding...” I cleared my throat, glancing upwards at him, “And with all this talk of some kind of …force on Liberty…it makes one uh…wonder,”

His eyes narrowed, which was kind of freaky,

“You’re wondering…again…if fear is the most powerful emotion.” He finished my thought.

I sighed, sitting down, “I-I’m just..well...scared of the idea-”

He copied me, the height difference not changing all that much, “How ironic; that you should hold fear.”

I shrugged, “Well?”

His glow dimmed a bit, “Out of everything I know...Fear is the most powerful emotion.”

I grimaced, no longer able to accept such an answer, “But like,” I tried to phrase the question, “Even if you’re right, I’m not exactly a fully fledged…I don’t know…hybrid monster warrior.”

“You’re supercharged…it doesn’t matter.”

“Okay, but like what does that even mean again?”

“It means your brain…or my brain…was overloaded with enough of an energy surge to adapt the virus to something that could manage our increased amount of-”

I interrupted, now able to find a good question, “Right right right,” I waved my hands, “But like…how much?”

“How much…?”

“How much were we supercharged?”

Terry tilted his head, “Are you seriously this concerned-”

“Yes!!” I shouted, almost bewildered at the comment, “Terry, I’m actually considering the idea that there could be a freaking professor x monster mind controlling other monsters to do who knows what at the freaking statue of liberty!”

He blinked, the bright red glow of his eyes turning off and on like a light bulb as he did so, “Oh, well we’re like…really supercharged.”

When he caught my disappointed expression, he released a monsterish sound that barely passed for a groan, “Would you like ‘numbers’?”

“Yes, I would like ‘numbers’!” I shot, “C’mon, if you had to guess, would it be like 2 Mwh or something?”

I was shooting high with that, since two megawatt hours was literally 7,200,000,000 joules.

Terry thought for a moment, “Oh,” he said, “I remember that Morgan Ringer guy talking about that.”

He nodded, “From the Redlight sphere I consumed to supercharge, I think it was over 57,000 of those mwh things.”

57,000!!?!??

The heck is Redlight?

I stared at Terry for a long time, unable to comprehend that and kind of not wanting to,

“W-well,” I moved on, “Could there just be another supercharged fear monster then?”

Terry looked down, “I suppose so...but this early into the apocalypse” he shook his head, “I highly doubt it. There’s definitely more Fear mutants out there, but they die quickly from what I witnessed before meeting you. I think fear requires more electricity to sustain- which we don’t have to worry about because-”

“We have like 57000 MWh to spare?”

Terry nodded.

I didn’t, “Then why do I need to feed?”

“It’s a sustenance thing, I believe” he explained, “You feel the effects of not feeding to encourage that high number of power in our body to stay exactly that: a high number.”

I shrugged, able to accept that as an answer.

But I didn’t really like how he had said ‘This Early’. I knew the real ‘apocalypse’ didn’t seem to have kicked in, but it still felt awful. By all technicalities, some nearby country could totally be experiencing a full fledged monster invasion and we’d still not know.

“So you ‘highly doubt’” I restated what Terry said, “But it’s still possible.”

He huffed, “About as possible as you dying tomorrow.”

I raised my eyebrows, “You do realize I actually think those chances are quite high, right?”

Another groan, “I understand your…ironic sense of fear here, Damien.” he admitted, “But think of what we’ve accomplished thus far. Sure, I’m not providing your body with all of my power in order to maintain this ERL, but you should contain some portion of confidence.”

I frowned, almost annoyed that Terry was actually making some really good points.

But it didn’t matter what he said, I knew something was off. I had felt…something.

Heard…something.

Talked to…something…?

But when I looked at Terry, he obviously had no recollection of any voice, so I must’ve just been hearing things. But I could’ve sworn…

“I believe your friend is trying to wake you….if you’re done in here?”

I could feel my brain diverting its attention elsewhere…waking up.

“First, one more thing!” I spoke, grabbing Terry’s attention, “Can you just say it?”

“Say what?”

“That we….that there’s at least a semi-plausible chance there’s something more dangerous than us?”

“Why do you want me to say that-?”

“Because I don’t want to feel ‘confident’ if the confidence is just a lie…”

Terry slowly took this in, “Damien,” he said, “W-

--

-ake up!” Jason elbowed me, my eyes shooting open before darting about.

When I realized we were still in the bus, I groaned,

“Jason..I was in the middle of something.” I hissed, regaining my bearings.

Jason coughed, “Sorry, I guess, but we’re here.”

I scratched my head, looking out the window to see the familiar bagel shop on the street corner.

I was glad it hadn’t closed down yet ,like a lot of other small businesses had done, and it made me smile to know somebody I knew was okay. Mr.Drake’s bagels were just too good to get rid of, apocalypse or no.

“Oh right..” I looked back, “My bad. Let’s go.”

Once we were on the sidewalk, the cool night air rushed over our faces, basking our nostrils in the familiar pollution of inner city life. It almost made me miss Staten Island a bit (almost).

The roads were mostly clear, and it was so quiet that it almost seemed appropriate to whisper. Granted, there was still noise; it’d be an issue if there was none of that in Manhattan, but any New Yorker would think the absolute lack of it was ridiculous.

“Hey.”

Upon getting closer to Mr.Drake’s place, we could see Hiru leaning against the brick of an alley.

I waved, “Wassup.”

Jason followed my action, “Hey.”

Hiru walked over to me, fist bumping both of us before we began to walk down Draxon.

As we were walking, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ideas I had made in my head.

‘Something may be watching us’

‘Professor X monster’

What would be its goal?

Was it related to what might be going on at Liberty Island?

Was it more powerful than Terry? (All 57,000+ Megawatt hours of him?!?)

I just didn’t know, and that scared me.

“We’ll be fine.” Jason’s thoughts echoed in my brain.

I glanced at him, giving a shrug of slight disbelief before looking back at Hiru,

“So, is everyone still at the house?” I asked.

Hiru nodded as we turned a corner, “Yep, “ he answered, “ apparently the third witness is the most interesting looking one so far… though Melissa will probably stay up later figuring it out, and we haven’t exactly planned on going tonight.”

“Great, more interesting stuff” I thought, sighing.

Despite my mental exhaustion though, it did kind of make me smile to hear that everyone had stayed. It may be an absolutely horrible situation, but if I had to pick a set of people to go through it with, I wasn’t so sure I’d pick a different friend group.

Of course, if I could pick, I’d add Sarah…and maybe revive my family…or maybe Jason’s-

“Stop…this thing won’t turn off.” Jason’s thoughts tore through my brain once more, and for the first time, I felt bad thinking of something. I glanced at him, giving the apologetic look as I tried to stop daydreaming of fantasies that would never happen.

Never…

We had barely felt the air conditioning of the mansion before Mrs.M was upon me and Jason, Hiru now closing the door and inching away before he was caught up in the tide of Mrs.M’s fury.

I smiled sheepishly as she gripped both our shoulders (one in each hand).

“Y’all going to give me a heart attack!” she announced.

Jason tried to make an excuse, which I already knew was a bad idea,

“W-well we were only an hour-”

“I don’t care, Jason!!” she cut him off, the room’s temperature seemingly dropping upon hearing her voice increase in anger, “So would you just…be quiet!!??”

She hadn’t ever yelled like this. Or at least, not since I met her at the hospital.

I looked at Mrs.M, now able to notice the shakiness in her shoulders and the red along her eyes.

“Sorry…” Jason almost whispered.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hiru dashing up the stairs.

To be honest, I didn’t know if I should follow or stay next to Jason. I mean, she wasn’t really my family…

One second later, Mrs.M’s eyes widened, and all at once the remaining firmness in her posture was lost, tears now rushing down her cheeks and staining the purple long sleeve she had on.

Jason rushed to her side, wrapping his arms around her shoulders,

“W-what’s wrong-?”

“It’s your…” Mrs.M stuttered, trying to look up at Jason but not being able to, “I didn’t want to tell you…with everything that’s happened-”

“A-auntie?” Jason’s mouth slowly dropped, a slight tear forming in his eyes as they drifted down to Mrs.M’s palms.

Her right hand was fiddling with the ring on her left, grabbing and twisting the pearls engraved onto the silver jewel.

I didn’t know what was going on, and I couldn’t feel Jason’s thoughts, so I just stood awkwardly to the side.

“Auntie…” Jason gulped, “Wh-when did you say uncle was coming home?”

Oh…

Oh…

I frowned as vast amounts of tears appeared in Mrs.M’s face, now realizing what happened to Mr.Mabel...and why she always avoided the question,

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…”

“No no no!” Jason ignored his own tears, and I wondered how much will it took for him to be able to smile right now, “..he-we don’t know if he’s..dead yet!” Jason yelled, “He…he was just on a business trip, right?”

“In Paris…” I remembered.

I looked down as Jason’s thoughts were once again brought to my attention.

“Not again.”

“Not again.”

“Not again.”

Mrs.M began crying loudly, “Th-they found his body in the water… I was going to tell you, but I-”

She choked, “I just can’t…I just can’t anymore.”

Jason shook away his own tears, wrapping his aunt in a hug.

I stood there, feeling useless as he held her close.

“He’s gone…he’s gone…my husband…gone.”

Jason looked at me over Mrs.M’s shoulder,

“I’ll meet you guys upstairs, okay?” He mouthed, but I could hear his words ringing in my brain, “I’m going to stay with her for a bit.”

I slowly nodded, “I-I’m really sorry Jason.”

Another tear slipped from his eyes before I dashed up the stairs.

-

“Hey what’s all the ruckus down there about?” Lorica asked as I shut the door.

Even though we were inside, she still had her shades on.

Everyone was here, all sitting on or next to Jason’s bed.

Various personal laptops were set up around the room with various chargers to match, a lot of them being school issued devices that could never be returned. Paper copies of the Ember files littered the carpet along with assorted junk ranging from squashed chip bags to crushed soda cans.

I threw my jacket on the floor, anger boiling in my chest as I fell onto my mattress.

I clenched my fists tight, unable to stop the emotions in me from swelling up to the surface.

“D-damien?” Selina’s voice called out.

The overhead light of the bedroom began to flicker,

“Jason’s uncle…” I stated, my clothes beginning to flash dimly with the blood-colored static rushing beneath them, “He’s dead.”

I could feel the shock around the room, both from my voice and the news.

I tried to calm myself down, the lights slowly fixing themselves while I let my hands unfold themselves,

“S-sorry..I’m just…It’s getting to be a lot.”

Lorica was at least ten different kinds of confused now, her shades off and her hands raised upwards,

“T-the heck?” Lorica exclaimed, “Erm, d-did anyone else-?!”

Melissa stepped in, shooting me a questioning look.

I just nodded, Melissa then taking her sister to the corner of the room next to Jason’s fish tank to talk.

I didn’t care who knew right now…especially if it was just about my powers.

Hiru frowned, “Oh,” he muttered, taking a step closer to my bed cautiously, “...is Jason alright?”

“No.” I answered, “It was a monster that did it, I’m sure.”

What else could’ve done it?

Business trip in Paris…ends up dead.

Mrs.Mabel didn’t deserve this.

Jason didn’t deserve this.

I sat up, my eyes narrowing, “I hate this.”

Selina walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, “Hey,” she said, “It’s not your fault.”

I didn’t want to ever hear that again…

Selina nodded, “It isn’t…I mean it, Damien.”

I looked up at her; she was serious.

“The best thing you can do right now is just be there for him, you know that…”

I could only share the nod,

“I just..want to kill them.” I gritted my teeth, “Every single one.”

Everyone was at a loss for words.

The last couple of weeks had been plagued with so much death, I was afraid it would become common.

‘This early’

Lorica turned back to me, now finished hearing whatever Melissa had told her,

“S-so you are..okay that’s different..” She shook her head, obviously bewildered as countless questions seemed to bubble in her eyes,

“Is Sarah..like you?” she asked, “Cause if the two of you had secretly been like..the Wonder Twins I swear-”

“Lorica!” Melissa hissed, elbowing her, “Too soon for jokes, don’t you think?”

Lorica went quiet, “Sorry…” she said, “But like…I don’t know what the heck is going on…”

“No.” I replied to her question, standing up, “I-it’s just me.”

I frowned, then added, “I haven’t seen my sister since I found out I was...erm, different.”

Lorica slowly nodded, “Okay…” she said, “But like…different how?”

The question was fair, and it would be silly of me to think Melissa could explain everything in two minutes.

I took a deep breath, raising my palm upwards.

Before she could ask what I was doing, my hand began to gleam crimson, the brown of my skin no longer visible in the searing red haze as the temperature literally went up.

The lights in the room again began to flicker, basking the room in complete red without competition.

Lorica’s eyes turned to globes, the amber of her irises rebounding the light in wonder,

“Oh…my…gosh.” She said as I stopped the light show.

I dropped my hand, the lights returning to the normal, unwavering state. “Different like that…”

Just then, the door opened, Jason walking inside.

When he caught us all looking at him, he frowned,

“I-I’m fine guys…” he lied, “Auntie...she’ll be sleeping now, so could we talk about the third witness like...tomorrow?”

He scratched his head, looking at Melissa from across the room, “S-sorry, I know you guys all found cool stuff-”

Melissa ran up to Jason, pulling him into a much needed hug,

“Of course.” She breathed, pulling away before looking back at everyone else,

“Let’s go guys. I'll work on digging up more info on the third witness at my house.”

Hiru nodded, “Yeah,” he agreed, nodding towards Jason, “Then we can all meet tomorrow- just…take a minute, dude.”

Everyone said the typical ‘Sorry’ and ‘Hang in There’ on their way out the door.

I told Selina I’d text her later, but she understood why I couldn’t talk then.

We were both still in our bedroom, and I had started to clean up what trash remained on the floor.

I frowned, watching as Jason went to his closet,

“Mind if I have the...bathroom to myself right now?” He asked, grabbing a change of clothes and a towel before looking at me.

His thoughts seemed to be full of anger, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

I gave the best apologetic smile I could muster, “Not at all, dude… take your time.”

-------

Once Jason was in the shower, I turned off all the lights, grabbing the TV remote before falling on my bed.

I sat up against the headboard, pressing in the power button as the screen came to life.

My frown deepened when I realized it was set to the news.

But I couldn’t ignore the flashing headline, and honestly, it just ended up making me more angry.

Apparently, according to some demographics, the rate of muggings and homicides have increased dramatically in the past couple of days. Crime was running rampant, and it wasn’t even restricted to just the downtown parts of the city.

According to the New York Daily reporter that was on, a murder had been reported close to Tribeca, which was where Selina lived.

“Even the rich aren't safe from one of the many, horrible symptoms of the ‘monster fiasco’” the reporter had said.

I groaned, wishing I never turned on the TV as I flicked it off again.

More things to worry about.

I slid off my headboard, finding rest on my pillows instead.

After I had slipped under my bed sheets, I sighed as I stared at the roof, the only noticeable sound ringing from the water flowing in the bathroom.

How much worse would things get?

What terrible thing would happen next?

The idea of someone actually dying never seemed so inevitable…so real.

It was like all our life’s clocks were just shortened without a glance, and it was taking everything I had to make them keep ticking. In a way, I felt responsible for all this.

I had the power.

I had the responsibility.

“Ugh…” I sighed, “Now I’m starting to actually sound like a superhero.”

A superhero could probably do better than me. No, he would do better. There was no question.

I willed Fear Sight into my eyes, temporarily lighting up the silk of my sheets in a dim red. I directed my attention to the wall, frowning when I saw Mrs.M.

From her elevated position, I could tell she was sleeping, but her fear levels kept fluctuating like she was in a nightmare. It was like her whole body was some kind of bright red emergency light:

Off and on and off and on…

I stopped my glow, trying to go to sleep instead of thinking.

…

I was still awake.

I was still thinking.

Maybe Jason had fallen asleep in the bathroom…

I groaned, shuffling to get more comfortable.

After nothing worked, an idea came to me.

“The harbor…”

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, feeling the familiar burn in my ears as I began to traverse the various echoes in the city.

This was both my least and most favorite ability. It was the best because I could hear virtually everything in the city, and It was the worst…well…for the same reason.

I went past the sound of the shower, past the sound of Jason’s tears, and past the tossing and turning of Mrs.M.

Once I was outside- I pressed through the flicker of street lamps, through snores of the homeless, and through the few cars on the Williamsburg bridge.

Now I was out of Manhattan.

Maybe I was in Brooklyn.

A couple of seconds later, I was in New York Harbor.

I managed to smile, my eyes still closed.

The peaceful sound of the waters were calming, so I decided to stay there.

Every once in a while, I’d hear a boat go through, but it only added to the scene I was picturing in my mind.

Tension unrolled throughout my body as I lingered on the water, barely even noticing when I had drifted off to sleep.

----

“As I was saying..”

“Sorry..” I muttered, the void forming around us as I recalled what we were talking about earlier, “Go on.”

Terry’s eyes increased in brightness, “I…ah, whatever.”

Terry’s body seemed to shake, “I’m…sorry.”

I blinked, “O-oh..kay?”

“And I admit…” he sighed, the words flowing out of him clearly uncomfortable to utter, “There could be something…more powerful than me…”

I nodded, both relieved and disappointed, “Yeah…” I said, not enjoying all the bad news experienced in the last hour, “I figured.”

“But I don’t want you to…stop being confident.”

I glanced up at Terry, “What?”

“I get that the last couple of days have been…hard on you, Damien,” Terry grumbled, “But you can’t just…not try because someone is better than you.”

I shook my head, “Well, I wasn’t going to…”

“I know I know,” Terry stomped around, looking more like a frustrated child than a man-eating beast, “I’m just making sure you don’t…go back to how you started.”

I just smiled, “How did I start?”

“Well, you were quite whiny, and you were all self conscious-”

“I’m still pretty self conscious.” Interrupted him, rolling my eyes, “And whiny? Seriously?”

“Okay, but now you can kick…butt!”

I had to laugh: hearing Terry say something so informal was kind of weird.

Weirdly refreshing, that is.

Terry laughed too, “My point is this, Damien,” he went on, “We possess this unique bond that other mutants don’t with their hosts.”

He tilted his head, “It’s our sort of…secret weapon,” he explained, “And I don’t want you falling into a state that makes any of this…relationship…too one sided.”

I nodded, understanding, “I get it,” I sighed, “I’ll be a good cop, and you’ll be a bad cop.”

Terry grinned, the unnatural, electrically burned teeth gleaming in the void,

“Sure…”

“Well,” I coughed, moving on, “Now that we’ve settled that...what the heck is a monster’s weakness?” I asked, not sure if Terry even knew.

“That was random…”

“No,” I disagreed, “Having the power of friendship is great and all, but it’d be nice to have something to fall back on.”

He sat down, “Different… mutants… have different weaknesses, Damien. Like that metal wearing one died when it came in contact with water.”

I groaned, “But is there something they..we.. all share in common?”

Terry shook his head, “I don’t know Damien- one would need access to those Energis notes to determine that answer...or a study of actual monster DNA. I assume, if there’s any place to find a flaw in the virus, it's in that building”

“Always comes back to those notes..” I realized, now thinking about Selina’s proposal.

“No,” I shot the thought down, “That’d be ridiculous.”

If I could get Doc’s notes, I could maybe figure out how to kill a monster, but it wasn’t worth the risk. We weren’t necessarily at that point yet…

“Well,” Terry looked up, as if in thought, “There’s always blunt force trauma I suppose.”

I winced,

“Yea, I guess so, although that ended up hurting me too last time.”

Suddenly, I felt my head shake,

“Ugh, is it daytime already?” I asked, feeling my form start to slip.

Time was really strange here, and I was beginning to think my perception of it depended on how drained I actually was in the real world.

Terry sighed, his body becoming a blur, “Goodbye Damien. Keep up the practicing- It is healthy for you.”

He paused,

“Who knows, maybe I’ll teach you that ‘Excess Energy’ move I was talking about on the field trip… since you’re doing so well.”

Did he just compliment me?

Before I could clarify that he did, I was pulled out of the common room, the void sinking around me as I was thrusted into reality.

Terry was right, about pretty much everything. I didn’t need to be too scared of some monster that could be better than me, because nothing else had what we had.

And, when we worked together, I was pretty sure nothing could stop us.

…naive