"Annie?"

The sound of her cousin's voice crackling through her Android's speakers almost caused her phone to slip from between her fingers. Annie sat up straighter in her swivel chair, tightening her grip on her phone.

"Hey, Billy," she replied before pausing. She swallowed. Her eyes wondered across her desk, from the new stack of textbooks she'd recently rented to a row of framed pictures that decorated its edge. "Are you busy?"

"No, not at all. Are you okay?"

"I'm really not sure how to answer that." She picked up the mug of hot chocolate her mother had warmed up for her earlier and took a long swig. It had gone lukewarm. Chocolate drizzled down her chin and melted marshmallows clung to the side of her throat.

"How are you?"

She placed the mug down and wiped off her chin. "Look, Billy, I called you because I needed to talk about what happened over winter break with someone. If you don't want to talk about it, you're free to hang up. I certainly won't blame you if you do."

She'd spent almost ten minutes staring at his name and smiling picture in her contracts list, her gaze hovering over his number until she knew it by heart. For as long as she'd spent doing that, how many more times had she dialed and redialed her father's personal and work numbers? Though the clock on her wall drifted closer and closer to midnight, she couldn't imagine going to sleep now while his voice mail still echoed in her ears.

"I'd never do that!" He cleared his throat. "I know you said you told your mom."

She gave a weak laugh. "That was fun. Now she spends her half time on the phone with Dad's lawyers and the police."

"If it makes you feel any better, my dad's been stuck doing that too."

"It really doesn't." This time she gave a real laugh. "I hate to trouble you, but it's not like I can talk about this with any of my friends. Even discussing it with my mom is hard because… Well, I just don't think she'll understand why I feel this way."

"What do you mean?"

Annie reached for the box of tissues she'd left on her nearby dresser, cradling them like a child did a stuffed animal. Her waste bin was already half full of them. "Look, my dad and I never had a perfect relationship. He'd always try to pretend otherwise, though."

The police had said he wouldn't pick up, that if he had any working brain cells left he would have destroyed his phone and ran. Yet part of her had still expected him to pick up on the third or fourth ring and greet her with his usual "Hello, princess."

"Growing up, I didn't have much of a choice in seeing him. That's just how visitation works. When I turned eighteen, I almost thought of cutting him off. My mom wouldn't have blamed me if I did, and it would have probably saved me a lot of trouble. But… Well, I thought maybe he could change."

Billy was silent.

"So, I kept in contact and let him pay for school. You can probably guess how well that went." She shook her head. What the hell was she even saying? "Look, I've just been thinking a lot about him lately and trying to figure out how he could do what he did."

"I wish I knew."

"Do you really?"

That got a laugh from him. "Yeah, I guess not. But you can't help but wonder."

"I still can't wrap my head around it. Part of me wonders if maybe if I hadn't left with you and Uncle Thaddeus that things would have gone down differently. It wouldn't have been a great holiday for me, but maybe Dad wouldn't have…"

Fresh tears burnt the edges of her eyelids. Scenarios flashed before her mind like trailers before a movie.

"Annie, that wasn't your fault!"

"How do you know?" She hadn't meant to yell, but her voice was so loud she half expected to wake her mother. "Billy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… To…"

"It's fine. But I'm serious. How is any of that your fault?"

"Maybe if I were there…"

"Hey, considering what he did, I'm glad Dad made us all leave." He paused. "That way it didn't end up like our last Christmas."

"What do you mean?" She bit her lip.

"It's kind of a long story. The gist of it is that my first Christmas at grandpa's place ended with your dad punching my dad so hard he had to go to the hospital."

"What?" The tissue box slipped from her between her arms and landed on the floor with a soft thud. She didn't reach down to pick it up.

"Yeah, it really freaked me out. I couldn't believe my dad when he said we were going back again."

"I had no idea about that! Oh, Billy…"

He chuckled. "I think my dad's the one that needs your sympathy. So, do you think that was your fault too?"

She furrowed her brows. "No?"

"Then what your dad did to grandpa wasn't your fault either. He was just…"

"An asshole?"

"Hey, you said it, not me!"

Despite herself, she smiled. "I guess I just can't believe it happened."

"I feel the same way."

"And I just wish there had been someone there who could have stopped it. Maybe that person isn't me. Maybe I couldn't have stopped my dad no matter how hard I tried. But if someone could have… If things could have gone differently…" She pushed her bangs back away from her forehead. "Am I making any sense?"

"I know exactly what you mean."

Something about the way he spoke made her smile again.


Freddy ripped his headphones off, reaching for one of his crutches and holding it out like a sword. "Jesus, Billy, didn't your dad ever teach you that it was creepy to teleport into people's bedrooms in the middle of the night?"

Billy leaned against a nearby shelf, blinking against the dim light. "Yeah, well maybe if you'd replied to my messages I wouldn't have had to stop by."

Freddy's throat tightened. "What's so important?"

They hadn't spoken in almost a week. If he hadn't suddenly appeared in his house, Freddy would have kept it that way. Between school, his home life, and scouring the news online for breaking reports of emergencies and crimes, he didn't have time to spare for Billy's whining.

"I came to apologize."

"Great," Freddy replied, looking down to the floor. Images of the cave flashed before his mind, but he pushed them away. If he were to leave now, he'd only go to a place he knew Billy wouldn't know where to follow.

"I'm serious." He held his hands up. "Look, you were right about the superhero thing. If we have powers, we might as well use them."

Freddy met his eyes but said nothing.

"There are bad things in this world that, while we may not be able to understand them, we have ability to stop. And I'm tired of sitting around and doing nothing about them."

"You really mean that?"

Billy nodded. "And that's why I came to you. You're the one who knows everything about superheroes, right?"

Freddy grinned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." He scratched at the back of his neck. "Hey, you want to know something?"

Billy raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"If you're anything like me, then you are bulletproof!"