The Unfortunates

Chapter Seven

The sirens were closer now as I bent over Anna. "Stop it! Go away!" I said, my voice cracking, to the people still watching and recording. They obediently shuffled back a couple steps, still not leaving us much room.

I gently turned Anna over, then peeled her mask off, trying to shield her face with my arms from the prying cameras. I heard gasps at the reveal of her face, letting me know that my attempts to hide her had been unsuccessful.

She was awake, but obviously injured. Tiny cuts dotted her face with a bigger raw spot on her scarred cheek, the electricity sewing them up as I watched. A bruise was already blossoming around her neck.

"Are you okay?" I asked desperately.

"Yeah, all good. Don't think I'm fatally..." Anna started, slowly, then coughed. She winced, squeezing her hands into fists. "Listen, you gotta get out of here, and you'll never do it if you have to carry me."

"Not leaving you, not an option," I said definitively, then put my hands under her arms. "Now help me get you standing up."

"No, really. Listen. You're not doing a very good job of keeping my face a secret, these people see it, my identity is out. We can't change that part anymore," she said breathlessly. "Leave me here. They'll take me to a hospital first, then probably a holding facility or something. I'm sure I'll be all over the news, and people will vouch to have me released in no time."

She took a deep, shaky breath. "Don't you see? This is already bad for Swift, but leave me here, and it'll be much worse for him. That's the whole reason we came."

Before I could process that, Mason and Chase walked up with Zenna's arms wrapped around their shoulders for support. Mason looked at me nervously as the sound of the sirens drew near. "She used a lot of power on that mind thing. She says she'll only be able to hold two of us, and only for a really short trip."

"I can get myself out. Let's rendezvous at the shed in an hour, alright?" Chase muttered in our ears, too quietly for the people recording to pick up. We nodded quickly and he blurred away.

"That leaves us three with no way out," I said.

Zenna looked up, her face pale, arm still wrapped around Mason's shoulder. "I really can only take two."

"I'm staying," Anna said, "Leah and I figured it out."

"Really?" Mason raised his eyebrows.

"Not really, no," I said, frustrated. "But we have to go. Now."

"If you try to take me, I will throw myself out of your arms in the sky and be injured a lot worse than I am now," Anna said, propping herself up on her elbows and wincing. "Leave!"

I looked at Zenna, who raised her eyebrows at me.

And I did the hardest thing I'd ever done.

I gave a single, heavy nod. "Let's go."

I didn't look back at Anna as Zenna grabbed our hands and rose into the sky, and the police spilled into the alley.

I couldn't.

But if now, because of my stupidity, I'd lost my best friend too...

I knew that I would never forgive myself.

***

"So, that was a complete disaster."

"No duh," I snapped at Mason.

Then I sighed, putting my head in my hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, I'm so stressed I'm not thinking clearly."

Mason, who was in the beanbag chair to my right, scooched over to me and put his arm around me. I moved closer to him until we were both on the same beanbag, and I lay my head on his shoulder.