“Ms. Davis, is she lying?” Mrs. Carmichael asked, turning her attention toward the short woman. When she didn’t reply after a few seconds, Mrs. Carmichael pushed her a bit harder. “Lori, is this woman lying?”
“No, she isn’t lying!” Lori yelled, her eyes red and misty. “Of course she isn’t fucking lying! If she was, I’d have stopped this nonsense at the first sign she was.”
She stormed out of the apartment and I followed her as fast I could, narrowly avoiding getting my fingers crunched from her slamming my apartment’s front door. I expected her to be down the hall, so I nearly tripped over the small lady when I found out she had just sunk to the ground right by the door. She wasn’t crying just yet, and I could tell she was doing everything in her power to control her breathing. Maybe that was something she learned from her therapy sessions to help curb the anger.
“I’m sorry that this is the first thing I’ve talked to you about,” I told her, sliding down next to her. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“She killed Rory, Ethan,” Lori reminded me. “You know what hurts the most? That I could tell she wasn’t lying. Everything she said she meant with her heart. She really got duped, or at least she genuinely believes she did. How many people are dead because she helped McLeod? No, even without the illusions, she has to be held accountable.”
“We’ll figure something out, but we should listen to what she has to say.” Lori looked upset at the idea, so I tried to remind her of what was at stake. “If she really has information on McLeod and the rest of them, we need that to prepare, right?”
It took her a while to accept the idea. I wasn’t sure which silence was making me more uncomfortable: the one between us, or the one in my apartment where a killer was waiting. Finally, she just nodded. She wiped her eyes and took a few more seconds to regain her composure. No one was walking in the hallway, so we didn’t need to worry about explaining anything to any curious passersby. At least not yet. Mrs. Carmichael would have plenty of that to do for all of us. When she looked ready, I stood up and held out my hand to help her up, and we went back in.
All eyes were on us when we walked back in. With everyone staring at me, my face got warm. It was like being late and walking into a classroom where every student just watched you, except instead of those kids, one of them was someone who just had a sword pointed at my neck. I wasn’t even sure which one was the more nightmarish idea situation. As I expected, it didn’t look like they’d said a word since we’d left. I could have cut the tension in the air with a knife, or Val’s sword, and I was agitated by it. So, I tried to do something useful. “Does anyone want some sweet tea?”
Without waiting for a response from anyone, I poured out enough glasses for everyone there. Yes, even Val. I could still feel their eyes on me, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to at least try and improve the situation. I was the one taken hostage, and if I wanted sweet tea, it was my right to have some. I handed glasses to everyone. The way I saw it, we were hopefully past the part where people might be killing each other over my sofa, so we could move on to the part where we could start negotiating with each other.
“You know that it'll be difficult for me to outright believe your story, correct?” Mrs. Carmichael asked. “Even if Ms. Davis confirmed that you were telling the truth.”
“I understand that,” Val said, looking toward her feet. “I have nothing else that I can offer besides information. None of you have any reason to trust me after what I’ve done. All I can do is try to help the future.”
“Why don’t you fight with us instead of against us?” I asked. I almost immediately regretted it, but what else was there? Val just gave us some information and skipped away happy and rosy-cheeked? Wasn’t going to happen. Even if I didn’t hold as much hatred for her as Lori did, I agreed with my little friend that she couldn’t just get away with what she did. An illusion wasn’t a good enough reason for years of being at McLeod’s side. She had to do something.
“Are you kidding me? You want this mass-murderer to just join up with us?” Any of the composure that Lori built up out of the room was gone again. “Are you seriously that stupid, Ethan?”
Okay, ouch, that one hurt a bit. I wasn’t trying to make her mad, and it did look like she regretted what she said as soon as it left her mouth. Still, she didn’t apologize or back down from what she said. I didn’t either.
“Ms. Davis, I understand why you don’t like this idea, I really do, but it’s an option that should be considered.” Mrs. Carmichael tried to place a hand on Lori’s shoulder only to be met with an angry shrug.
“You just said yourself you don’t fully trust her!”
“And that’s still true, I do not trust her.” Mrs. Carmichael adjusted her glasses and matched Lori’s hard look. “This is going to escalate to a war, Ms. Davis. People will die and the world will change. It’s already changing. There is nothing we can do to stop it. As a leader with people under my care, I will do anything I can to mitigate the damage. If you have any misconception about me, where I’m somehow above using someone I don’t trust to ensure our survival, it’s time for you to discard that narrow-minded perception of me to view the bigger picture.”
“Why don’t we hold it to a vote?” Alex suggested before tempers could flare any worse than they were. He jabbed a thumb in the direction of Val. “Not including her, there are seven of us here. That would give us a tiebreaker in a vote.”
Before anyone else could pipe up, Mrs. Carmichael started the vote. “All against the idea? For anyone who disagrees with another’s choice, please handle that matter privately among yourselves. This is someone’s home and I’m sure Ms. Harper wouldn’t appreciate a second round to the screaming match that’s already taken place in her living room.”
Lori’s hand unsurprisingly went up. Shelly and Lizzy followed her, albeit much more slowly. Shelly’s eyes went from Val, to her sword, to me, before she finally held her hand up all the way to solidify her vote against the idea. That already decided the vote, but Mrs. Carmichael finished the formality. “All in favor?”
Her hand, Rebecca’s hand, Alex’s hand, and my hand all went up. Lori exhaled sharply through her nose, shutting her eyes tight. When she opened them again, I felt sick to my stomach when she looked at me. I knew us voting for this had to be killing her. I wished I hadn’t even let her know Val showed up. No matter how angry she was at the idea, I agreed with Mrs. Carmichael. It was going to be a battle of survival, and if Val could prevent us from ending up like the Pittsburgh she helped destroy, I’d be willing to take the chance on her. Lori stood up and marched over to Val, not at all intimidated by the foot difference in their height.
“I don’t want to be part of his plans anymore,” Val began, “so I’ll-”
She was cut off by a loud slap that echoed throughout the apartment. Everyone was ready for Val to react. Given how capable she’d been the couple times I’d seen her, I was sure she could have managed to dodge a slap from Lori. I was more shocked that she didn’t bother trying to dodge it. Val’s head jerked to the side and her blonde hair covered her face, shielding us from her reaction. I knew it had to hurt Lori’s hand too, since that was a harsh hit, though she didn’t show any signs of pain or discomfort.
“Wherever they send you, I’m going,” Lori said, opening and closing her hands at her sides. It looked like an exercise to keep her anger under control, and with all things considered, I thought she was doing a good job with that. “You’ll be under my watch here. You don’t breathe without me knowing. You’ll get no redemption in dying, if that’s what you’re hoping for. You’ll get no heroic or noble sacrifice, understand? Everything you do now is to make up for the thousands of people you helped murder.”
“When this is all done, I’ll give my life up to you. To you personally.” Val looked up at all of us. There was blood running from her nose and there was a strange look in her eyes. It was like a mix of despair, anger, and the look of someone who had no will to go on. Was that how I looked at my lowest? “You have my word.”
“Your word means nothing to me,” Lori said. “I will be the one to put a bullet between your eyes. Your actions, not words, will be what determines just when I do that.”
She walked by me, giving only a glare that told me just how much I’d betrayed her. That sick feeling returned to my stomach and I had to question if I made the right decision. We hadn’t known each other long, and she was genuinely the closest person I had to a best friend. She killed an innocent man so Alex and I didn’t have to. I had to hope she’d be willing to patch things up later, because in the moment, I felt like a complete scumbag. She had killed someone Lori saw as family, and I voted to invite her into our community.
Lori slammed the door shut and I went back outside after her. Even if I thought we needed Val’s help, I couldn’t just leave my friend out there to have her anger eat her up. Not with any kind of conscience I couldn’t.
“Lori, wait!” I yelled, jogging up behind her. She didn’t have a long stride, yet she was booking it down the hall faster than I would have expected.
“What the hell do you want?” She spun around and jammed a finger in my chest. I recoiled from the touch, like her anger and rage would rub off on me from her fingertip. “Are you going to tell me that you love her next?”
“Lori, you’re an empath, you’d know if that was the case.” I rubbed my head and took a step back so I could see her in full. “Look, I’m really sorry about it.”
“Ethan, I can feel that you’re sorry!” she yelled, throwing her arms up. She looked like she wanted to punch holes in every apartment door her eyes went over. “If you think I’m mad because I’m looking for an apology, you couldn’t be farther off the mark. I can’t believe you stabbed me in the back like that.”
“Well, what about Alex?” I felt embarrassed even bringing him up to save my own backside in an argument. He had voted the same as I did, and he was her crush. I just felt so mad when I looked into her brown eyes. It didn’t feel right that only I got the verbal lashing and the nasty glares. “You like the guy, right? So why didn’t you stare daggers into him like you did me?”
“Oh, I’m going to yell at him later. In a matter of minutes, my boyfriend and the guy I thought was my best friend just completely stomp on my trust.” She leaned in with a smile that was anything but friendly. “Don’t worry, I’m plenty infuriated to share.”
“Wait, you guys are...?” For a moment, I forgot about our fight and I was just happy for her. I had been so out of it dealing with my own life that I hadn’t bothered to check in on their progress. I guess there had been more than I thought.
“Yes, Ethan, we’re dating. A couple. Boyfriend and girlfriend.” She huffed, like she couldn’t believe that she was having to explain it to me. “When we got back, he pulled me aside and asked about the kiss on the cheek I gave him. I was so tired from driving over twenty hours on top of being awake before that, I just told him how I felt. He said that he wanted to get to know me better, which was the same thing I wanted, so now we’re dating.”
“Wow, congratulations, really.” I tried to smile at her, but when I looked into her eyes again, anger ran through my mind, instantly flipping my mood back around. “So, he just gets a free pass because you finally stepped up from pining after him? Your years-long crush finally decides to get with you and that’s all it takes?”
“No, you douchebag.” She jabbed a finger toward me again. I barely noticed it. My head felt so clouded, and I just didn’t understand why I was saying the things that I did. I didn’t mean to be mean. “He’s getting a ‘pass’ right now because I know he’s a pragmatic sort. When it comes to objective decisions about winning a fight, I already knew what he’d vote for, because he isn’t driven off emotional choices. That’s why I like him. That stability helps keep me from losing my mind like it does when other people are too emotional. What I didn’t expect was that you, someone who I thought was a good guy with a great heart, would disregard everything I went through to win a fight. A fight you don’t even know if we’re going to lose.”
“Well, you know what, Lori?” I was starting to raise my voice, and no matter how hard I tried to make myself stop, I couldn’t. It still didn’t seem fair to me that Alex was getting away with it because we thought different. “I’m sorry that I can’t have a personal investment in everyone you hate all the time. I’m sorry that I have my own thoughts and feelings that don’t buckle the second you’re hurt. I’m sorry that I’m not so emotional that I have to hate that woman every second I’m breathing. I had enough self-loathing going on to know it’s a shitty way to live, so I hope you can move past it.”
“You know why I hate her! You still can’t tell me I’m wrong!”
“I never did tell you that you were wrong!” I nearly slammed the side of my fist into someone’s door. It was only in the briefest moment of clarity that I managed to stop myself before causing some serious damage, probably to my hand. “But you aren’t the only one who’s lost someone. My parents are both gone. Shelly is the only family I have left, and she gave up years of her life for me. If I can keep her alive because Val wants to go turncoat, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I thought we were family, Ethan. Or at least something close to it after almost dying in that cave.” Her voice softened for a moment, but she still had a hard look in her eyes. “But hey, you got your parents killed, right? Maybe being your family is just a death sentence anyway, and I don’t want a bullet in my head. If I were Shelly, I’d watch out.”
The moment she finished saying it, her eyes went wide with horror. Actually, they widened while she was saying it, like she wanted to stop. Lori just couldn’t make herself stop once she got going. She covered her mouth like it’d take back what she said, or maybe she did it to prevent herself from saying more. There was still anger in her eyes, though it was quickly buried down behind a mix of other emotions that I couldn’t read. For myself, I was just trying to swallow down the lump that suddenly formed in my throat.
“Ethan, I didn’t...that wasn’t...” She struggled to find the words to finish what she wanted to say.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right on that one.” My anger had completely deflated, the wind in my sails gone, and I just felt miserable. I was sad about my parents and sad that someone I trusted used them against me. What bothered me most is that I trusted her enough to think that Shelly might actually end up dead just by being related to me. I rubbed the back of my neck and tried to think of something that I could use to get out of there. I didn’t have the fire left to be snappy. It was a situation that might’ve been best ending in awkward silence. Shocker, I was too awkward for the awkward silence when it made sense. “I’m happy for you and Alex. Really, I’m glad that you two found each other.”
I turned to make the short walk back to my apartment. I didn’t like how I felt on the edge of crying. I tried to tell myself they were just words. My throat hurt, my eyes hurt, my nose hurt, and my chest hurt. The simple act of breathing caused me pain. Everything was just hurting. I was on total autopilot, taking slow and calculated steps. I was afraid that anything more would make my body hurt worse. Everything I saw almost had this weird kind of haze around it, like I was in a dream. I kept hoping that I would wake up and everything that just happened would be gone. I could wake up, text Lori, and we could hang out. Just like normal, with no murderers involved.
I walked into my living room to an awkward silence like the one I should have left with Lori. All their eyes burned holes into me, and I froze up for a moment. So I couldn’t see them, I sat down on the couch and rubbed my eyes. None of them made any kind of sound. Not even Alex, who I expected to rip into me for fighting with his girlfriend. I hoped I wasn’t the only one having second thoughts about the whole thing. Even though Lizzy and Shelly weren’t as upset as Lori, they did still disagree with the decision to bring Val into the fold.
“We, uh, we had some words.” It was lame and vague, but there was no way I was going to repeat what we said out there. I felt ashamed of how I acted, and I was scared that they would be harsh on Lori for what she said if it got out. Maybe she deserved a harsh reprimand. She had given me a dagger to one of my most vulnerable emotional areas, and then gave the blade a firm twist on top of it. I just didn’t want to be the one to make it happen. She could tell them if she wanted to. “It didn’t go great. Sorry there, Alex.”
A gentle hand touched my shoulder. I looked up to see it was Rebecca. She had a soft look on her face, and she sat down next to me. I was still surprised that I didn’t want to jump away from her touch. In fact, I wanted to lean into it more. If there was ever a woman I wanted to give me a hug, it was her in that moment. “She needs time to accept it, but I think she will. Are you okay?”
“As callous at is to say, Ms. Davis will have to figure out how to make this work. She’s smarter than she gives herself credit for, yet her anger and outbursts are still concerns.” Mrs. Carmichael sat down on the other side of me, taking a long drink from the tea I gave her. I appreciated that she spoke up before I had to answer Rebecca, who started to rub my back in small circles with her hand. Mrs. Carmichael looked toward Val, who hadn’t bothered cleaning the blood from her face, though I did notice some of the tea in her glass was missing. “What can you tell us about Dii Consentes?”
“I have almost nothing on the other members,” Val revealed. I could just about feel the disappointment hanging thick and heavy in the room, especially from her. Everyone’s shoulders slumped and there were a few sighs. “McLeod kept most of us separate when he could. I only know about him, Heather, Eric, and of the teleporter he uses. Even then, I only know so much. McLeod was always expecting one of us to betray him eventually, so all the information was on a need-to-know basis.”
“All information is helpful right now,” Alex reminded her. If he was pissed at me, he didn’t go public with it. I appreciated that he was all business and didn’t try to make me air the dirty laundry right there.
“Right.” Val took a long breath and started to go into detail. “McLeod has absolute control of heat and fire. The danger isn’t just the fire he creates, but the other heat manipulation. In Pittsburgh, the bullets didn’t reach him because he simply made the space in front of him so hot that they were reduced to nothing. Yes, bullets were reduced to dust before they could become a danger to him.”
“How can we get anything close to him to even try and get the kill?” I asked. Part of me felt gross about casually mentioning killing a man, even though that man was a murdering sociopath himself.
“That’s just it.” Val began to sit down on the couch before stopping herself. Shelly gave a small nod, Val moved her sword, and took a seat next to Rebecca. “Without something that has the defense to stand up to his heat and fire, he’s almost impossible to fight in combat. He’s strong, fast, and has the best control of his Anomaly out of everyone I’ve ever met. The blue flames are nothing to him. He has little difficulty with heating the air quickly to the point it can vaporize anything to ash. His Sunblade is the only thing I’ve seen him have trouble with. I know it looked like he just used it in Pittsburgh after he absorbed all the fire. That’s not the case. That’s an aspect of his power that takes a long time for him to prepare and recover from.”
“That’s why he announced the Pittsburgh attack in advance, wasn’t it?” Shelly asked, looking stressed out. “It makes sense if that white sword thing isn’t just something he can pull out whenever he wants.”
“Correct,” Val confirmed. “He spent at least twelve hours each day between his attacks just absorbing the heat needed to successfully destroy Pittsburgh with that. Probably more. I don’t think I saw him sleep or eat one time. He can take in heat from his surroundings, even when it’s freezing outside, and he can store it in his body. McLeod is strong without trying, but when he is trying, he’s a complete monster.”
“That’s good news, right?” I was trying to be optimistic about the situation, but three weeks had already passed. That would mean that McLeod could be on his way with the force to remove this complex off the map. Maybe even flatten the mountain we were in. “That means he can’t just destroy cities each day, one after another, with as much ease.”
“Even if he can’t use that exact attack, he’s still the top of the food chain.” Val’s gaze drifted to her sword. She ran a pale hand over it like she was reminiscing about something. “There’s no one stronger than him. One of my Anomalies is enhanced physiology. I’m stronger, faster, and more dexterous than just about anyone else on the planet. That man can still hold his own against me in a regular swordfight. Genetically, he’s just superior, even with an Anomaly.
“And everything is symbolic with him. McLeod does things exactly how he wants to do them, not necessarily how he should do them. He could freeze someone to death by absorbing all the heat their body produces or in the surrounding area. He chooses to use a sword and fight ‘honorably’ because he’s powerful enough for that luxury.”
“What do you mean by ‘symbolic’, exactly?” I asked. Not getting symbolism was why my literature classes were some of my least favorites. Though the symbolism of a blue curtain didn’t seem to matter as much as the—apparently important—symbolism of a man who could vaporize cities.
“The sword is one of his favorite things,” Val said. She finally wiped the blood from her nose and corner of her mouth, but it had already begun to dry and it left a red stain on her light skin. “He thinks that guns are barbaric and that swords are tools befitting those that are noble. He thinks...thought of me as something like a daughter, which is why I have one. A sword makes use of both my powers, and he was all about us showing our powers. I couldn’t use my enhanced strength if I had a gun.”
“He does talk like a man who carries himself as an arrogant king,” Alex said. He also took a sip of the sweet tea, finally settling down enough to stop using his Anomaly. I took the tea as another sign that he wasn’t going to beat the tar out of me for saying awful things to his girlfriend. Not yet, at least. The day was still young.
“That’s a weakness and a strength.” Val got up and started to pace back and forth. “He’s rightfully confident in his strength, and that’s why there are people who support him unflinchingly. They crave the power, stability, and the possible future he brings for people with Anomalies. For a flock that was confused about who they were and what they could do, some see him as their savior.
“But that confidence means he does things like announces attacks and makes the grandest spectacle of everything. He made sure we either had someone working for the news stations to avoid cutting the broadcasts, or he just used force and intimidation to keep them going. He didn’t use a teleporter to come here because he simply doesn’t think he needs to. He only used the teleporters for the city attacks because he wanted to terrify normal people that he could show up anywhere. He wants to travel here normally, look for more cities to attack, and maybe even recruit more people.”
“Does he not see us as a significant threat?” Mrs. Carmichael asked.
“He does recognize the threat you pose, both in ability and number. That’s why he had us follow your team you sent to the Tomb Removed from Time. When I returned to him, he admitted having heard the name. He thought it was a legend as well. If one of Eric’s Anomalies didn’t let us track you down, we wouldn’t be having this discussion today.” Mrs. Carmichael looked annoyed at the revelation that he had some of the same info on the place that she did. Val seemed to notice, and her face softened. “He’s quite resourceful himself. Don’t take it personally. We were looking for people to recruit in Pennsylvania, and Eric just happened to feel a vehicle filled with four Anomalies.”
Chills ran down my spine thinking about how long they had been following us. That meant any of the times we were separated, we could have been killed off without issue. Well, I could have been. Alex was able to hold his own. When I was playing with Megan in the park, what would have stopped Val from killing us, Chloe, and Ryan? If Val really wanted to, it would have been easy.
Another silence hung over the room. Both Mrs. Carmichael and Shelly were deep in thought. If Alex was thinking hard about something, he didn’t show it as much as those two, just looking as stoic as ever. Val got up and kept pacing back and forth. All the while, I was just too stressed to think about anything properly. Even knowing McLeod was on his way didn’t carry the weight with me that I knew it should. Rebecca gave my shoulder a light squeeze of reassurance.
“If I may, why did the four of you decide to let me in?” Val asked.
“Well, I suggested it,” I said. “I don’t think it would have been a good idea to go back on it. We really will need all the help we can get.”
“My reasoning is largely the same. Despite her hatred for you, Ms. Davis believes that you weren’t lying to us, and I’ll have to trust her so I can start to trust you. As Ethan said, we’ll need every able body we can get.” Mrs. Carmichael’s deep-in-thought expression switched to a confident one.
“You’re not better than me, but you’re good enough,” Alex said gruffly. It didn’t come across as condescending, somehow. Just that he genuinely thought he was stronger, and for all I knew, he might’ve been. I almost chuckled at how much I liked his easy self-assured demeanor.
Rebecca was the only one that had difficulty answering. Her eyes kept dancing between everyone, even though no one else was looking at her, and she chewed her bottom lip. After a few seconds of fidgeting, she finally got up and looked around at everyone in the room.
“I was asked to fight with you only moments after learning I’d outlived my daughter and anyone else I knew in my life. The other option was to be kidnapped or crushed in a crumbling room. My entire life had been changed, and for me, it felt like it was an instant. I wasn’t learning or observing anything when I was held in stasis. I closed my eyes with a world and a family that I was a part of, and I didn’t have a lot of important stuff left to me when I opened them again.” Her eyes flicked to me for a moment before she resumed. “But I’m finding things that I like in this new world. The two of us might be different, but I know that it’s not easy to be forced to leave your life behind. That’s why I voted to bring her in.”
Rebecca had a point. Both had to leave the only things they knew behind, their entire lives, and Luna pressured them into just taking up arms and trying to stop the bad guys. Granted, I don’t know how many other options Val had. Going back to the people who had manipulated you for a lot of your life after destroying your previous life wasn’t the greatest option. Being imprisoned or executed were the next two that came to mind, and that’s where I stopped thinking about it. The decision was made and all I could do was try to work with it.
“Come, Val...?” Mrs. Carmichael trailed off, expecting the rest of her name.
“Just Val. I don’t have a last name.” Val crossed her arms and had an air of rebellion about her, daring anyone to challenge it.
Mrs. Carmichael sighed as if she was a spunky teenage daughter going through a phase. She probably thought it was something to test her patience or one last act of defiance from someone formerly under McLeod. If she was abandoned, though, she really might not have a last name. No matter the reason, Mrs. Carmichael departed with Val, who took her sword. I would have been worried, but since Mrs. Carmichael’s Anomaly was apparently exceptional regeneration, I thought she’d be the safest of everyone.
“I should get going too,” Alex said, checking the time. He looked a bit uneasy when he eyed the door where his girlfriend had stormed out not even half an hour prior. “There’s some stuff I need to take care of. Good to see you again, Ethan.”
“You’ve been quiet. How’re you, Lizzy?” I asked. Her face was scrunched up which made her scar more noticeable. Part of me was scared she’d get all over me about the Lori thing. I’d seen enough TV shows where if you pissed off one girl, her best friend would be at your throat with a knife, and I’d had enough women with bladed objects at my neck for one lifetime.
“I feel bad for Lori. She was the only reason I voted no. I didn’t really have a horse in that race.” She tried to put on her usual, happy face that could make just about anyone let their guard down, only letting a hint of how upset she was slide through. She came over and gave me a small, only mildly uncomfortable hug. Maybe it was for her sake more than my own. “Since everything is calming down, I have to get back to work. I’m sure Mrs. Carmichael will give us all the information she can in excruciating detail later.”
With her departure, there was just Rebecca, Shelly, and I. It felt way later than it really was, and I wanted to go take a nap. I almost excused myself to start on my silly puzzle. I couldn’t yet. I knew that there were things I had to take care of. Lori was the most pressing one. There was absolutely no way she wanted to see me, or maybe anyone, that day. Maybe she wouldn’t ever want to see me again. I really didn’t think I had considered her feelings enough.
I settled for the most useful thing, something that I should have been doing for the past three weeks. I decided to go do some training by myself. A space that big and empty would let me think. Rebecca still looked a little on edge, which made me want to invite her to blow off some steam. “Do you want to do some training together?”
“Exercise does sound good right now,” she said. I held out a hand that she eagerly took, letting me gently pull her off the couch. “I’d love to come join you.”
“And just like that we’re all going back to our routine?” Shelly asked with a snort. Like Lizzy, she gave me a quick hug before I left. “Whatever, I got some work to do myself. Ethan, if you get held hostage again, try to make it so the walk isn’t so far for me, okay?”
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Rebecca said.
Shelly folded her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow at the redhead. "Oh, I bet you're going to."
Rebecca's face became bright red and she looked down at her feet in embarrassment. I didn't want Shelly to worry, so I tried to come to her defense. "She's been helping me get out of the apartment for a little while. It's okay, I'm in good hands."
A wavering grin broke on my sister's face while Rebecca looked up at me. "Ethan, that's not what she...never mind, thank you."