Enders

Enders (33)

The next few days were... strange.

Aiden practically locked himself away in his room, only coming out to eat. He didn't say a word to anyone if he didn't have to, but it wasn't like we were going to force him to try to interact with any of us. I could only imagine what he was thinking.

Lena pretty much lived in the DAU, sleeping in Kristie's old bed after it was deep cleaned, just so it wouldn't feel so weird using it now that we knew who had really been sleeping there. She was more social than Aiden was, actually being in our company, but she didn't say much. It was obvious how much Nick's death affected her, since he was her only friend outside of our group.

The rest of us had never been too close with Nick, so it felt awkward when we tried to comfort her about it. After trying a few times, Dex and I decided it would be best if we just didn't bring it up until she did.

Plus, I couldn't help but feel guilty. Nick had been the person least involved in all of this. He had no reason to even be there, beside to help us just out of the goodness of his heart. And because of that, he died. He was the only one who died.

Unless we were counting Kristie. But none of us were so sure what exactly we were calling that loss just yet. I wasn't so sure we'd ever know.

Everyone was powerless now, which left an unanswered question hanging in the air: what were we going to do now?

Hank and Nay didn't press any of us for any reason, understanding how fragile we all must have been during this time. I was sure even they had been affected by the news, since they had been tricked as well. No one had seen it coming, so we had all felt duped and betrayed.

We all felt angry, too. Shouldn't we have been able to see it? A grown man was able to act like a ditzy teenage girl for nearly two years, and all of us were none the wiser. Even though I had actually managed to defeat him, I couldn't help but feel completely incompetent. It felt like I hadn't accomplished anything at all, and I was sure Damien was laughing up at me from hell because of it.

Sitting in the RV, none of us were saying anything. It was one of the rare times Aiden had actually come out of his room, but the feeling in the air was a solemn one. None of us knew what we were supposed to do anymore.

Aiden was heartbroken over Kristie, while Lena was heartbroken over Nick. Even though I could feel that she had never returned his romantic feelings for her, she still cared for him as a friend immensely. And because he never would have been there if not for her, she blamed herself for his death, not listening to me no matter how many times I tried to tell her it wasn't her fault.

Aiden was much more quiet about how he felt. It was clear that he was heartbroken and angry over Kristie, but he would never say who he blamed or what he planned on doing to try to make himself feel better. He isolated himself from us completely, with the rare times we actually did see him, he'd be silent. I knew losing his powers made a big bruise to his ego as well.

The fact that he was silent, however, concerned me the most. We knew Aiden for being loud and obnoxious, blaming everyone else for everything that went wrong and never taking responsibility for his actions or what problems they may have caused. But the fact that he wouldn't even speak to blame someone for this mess was the most telling thing of them all.

We all couldn't even hang out normally anymore. We tried to, but every hangout would just turn into a silent get together where none of us said anything to each other, much like right then. Every now and then maybe someone would say something, but soon we would be enveloped in silence once again.

Dex's hand ran up and down my back, soothing some of my anxious feelings away. He had been the only positive for me in the days since Damien died, but even his presence wasn't enough to make me feel completely better. It crushed me to see everyone else around me in just as much pain as I was.