The Unfortunates

Chapter Nine

It was dead silent in the shed.

Dead wasn't a good word to use, and I mentally crossed that description.

It was utterly quiet in the shed.

Mason and I sat on the same beanbag so everyone could have one. His arm was around me, fingers laced through mine. My cheek still burned where he'd kissed me.

Anna sat to my left, looking down, her hair covering her face so I couldn't see her expression. She was tapping her foot on the floor again like she had before our first mission. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap... Her whole leg shook with the motion.

Chase was scrolling through his phone, looking at the news updates of the event. He seemed like he wanted to say something, and opened his mouth, then looked around the room and closed it again.

Zenna sat in the beanbag furthest from me. She rubbed her hands against her suit. We'd all taken our masks off, but not our main suits. None of us wanted to put in the effort.

The little cold, metal chair that we'd fought over not wanting to sit in was quiet and silent in the corner, like it was missing someone. It seemed so stupid we'd fought about that now.

Mason was the first to speak. "We shouldn't be here," he said quietly.

Nobody answered for a second.

I leaned back in the beanbag and heaved a deep sigh. "Where else could we go?"

"My house. It's late," Mason said, looking at his watch. "Almost midnight."

Silence again.

The heater was quiet and still in the corner. Nobody had made the effort to plug it up. The only sound was the tap-tap-tapping of Anna's shoe on the ground, and the sound of ripping fabric and Zenna picked at a loose string on her uniform.

"Are we not going to talk about it?!?" Anna exploded suddenly, jumping up from her beanbag chair and staring at the room, catching every one of our eyes.

Her black hair was blown back from her eyes by the night wind swirling in through the window's crack. She brushed it behind her ears angrily. "This is stupid. We can't dance around what happened forever."

"What do you want us to talk about?" I answered, suddenly equally as angry. "We killed a Super. We killed a person. She's dead and gone and all the support we've built up over the past few weeks has gone completely out the window." I shook my head. "Now there's nothing we can do except for make sure it never happens again."

Mason and Zenna met eyes across the room.

I noticed it. "What?"

"Nothing," Mason said.

I groaned. "You know I'm not going to let this go, Mason. What was that look?"

"You're not going to like it." Mason cut his eyes towards Zenna again. "You tell her, Zenna."

"Nope," Zenna said. "You do it."

I grew frustrated. "Tell me now."

"Well, Zenna... was thinking..." Mason started. Zenna gave him a death glare from across the room. He winced a little and protested, "Hey! No minor mind attacks to make a point!"

I rolled my eyes. "Spit it out."

"Zenna and I were thinking," he revised, "maybe killing Supers... isn't all that bad."

An immediate response. "What?" I screeched, disconnecting my hand from Mason's.

Anna turned towards Mason, still the only one standing up, and looked like she wanted to slap him. "You're crazy."