Raven
When we arrive at the house, there are still reporters in front, so Alfred takes us around the back. He calls someone and the back door opens before we even get out. Ms. Kinders is there with Ms. Vanderbelt. They grab us before we get out of the car and make us run inside. Mr. Wayne surprisingly follows.
"Thank god you're all right," Ms. Vanderbelt has her hands on my face, but I shimmy out of her grip. She goes to inspect the boys next.
"Thank-you so much for taking care of them." Ms. Kinders is grasping Mr. Waynes hands. From the looks of their faces they've both been sobbing for a long time.
"It was the least I could do," Mr. Wayne says.
"Who died?" Richard asks in a tone that is so cold, I almost don't recognize it. Ms. Kinders and Ms. Vanderbelt look at each other and I can see the tears start to form again.
"Jessica, Martha, Thomas," the list goes on. Over twenty kids. The last name is the one that gets me though. "Mrs. Huntington." Not two seconds have those names left her lips when I find myself mysteriously on the floor. I don't remember falling, but my head hurts and it's hard to breathe. Mrs. Huntington is dead?
"Raven!" Garfield shouts. Richard and Garfield are on the floor with me a second later, but the only thing I can process right now is that Mrs. Huntington is dead. Mrs. Hunting is dead. She's the only one who knows about them. Who's going to protect me now?
"Mrs. Huntington...is dead?" the words are barley a whisper.
"I'm sorry sweetie." Ms. Vanderbelt says. No... no, no, no. She can't be dead. I can't do this alone... Who's going to look out for them? I don't even know what to look for. The most agonizing fear that I've ever felt rips through my chest. The lights start to flicker. Shit. I have to calm down. I take a slow deep breath; Richard puts his arm under my shoulder and helps me sit up.
"Thanks again for your help." Richard looks at Mr. Wayne. Then he turns to Ms. Kinders and Ms. Vanderbelt. "We're gonna go upstairs."
"I'll be up in a minute with the first aid kit." Richard puts his hand on my head and it comes away red. I'm going to throw up. My legs are jelly, but I manage to scramble up and the boys follow. I go into the girl's bathroom and they follow me there too. Garfield holds my hair while I puke my guts out in the toilet. When I'm done, I rinse my mouth out and take a wet paper towel to my head washing the blood away. I'd heal it, but Ms. Vanderbelt saw and I don't want her to know.
"Are you okay?" Garfield asks. No. None of us is okay. The only person standing between his followers and me is dead.
We go up to the library. Ms. Vanderbelt is there. She wipes the cut on my head with an alcohol wipe and puts a band aid on it. No one says anything, I think she's trying not to cry again. When she's done, she leaves.
The boys were fine earlier, but now that we're back the loss of their roommates and the other kids is weighing on them. It's hard to suffer through. I throw the book in front of me on the floor and then I go to the shelves and throw those books too. There's an ear piecing scream and then I realize it's me. Tears are streaming down my face.
"Raven..." Richard and Garfield try to stop me, but I push them away. I tear books up and throw them against the wall. This is not happening... This is not my fault. Should I have let them die? Why did she even bring us there anyway? Why did she die?
She was acting strange beforehand. Did she know? Did she know something bad was going to happen? The realization makes me stop in my tracks. She knew. She had to know. She told me at least twice not to use my powers. I never do. She didn't need to remind me at all. She knew. She knew. She died on purpose. I was supposed to die too. If I hadn't shielded us, we would have all died. I drop on my knees. Azar sent me here to die.
"It's gonna be okay." Garfield says. They sit on either side of me.
"No, it's not." I mumble. You're all going to die soon, because I used my powers. We were supposed to die together, but I ruined it. I look at them. They have no idea the horror that's coming. They think I saved them. They're so wrong, so very wrong. That blast would have been quick and easy. Jessica probably didn't feel anything. I should have been Jessica.
We sit on the floor for a while and then I get up. They try to follow me, but I put out a hand to stop them. I need to process this alone. I go back to the room. The other girls, the ones who didn't die, are all entwined together in Ginny's bed. They look at me and I wonder if they wish I was dead. If they didn't before, they will soon. I get in my own bed and pull the cover over my head. I was supposed to die... Did she know that?
In the morning Ms. Vanderbelt and Ms. Kinders try to get everyone out of bed to go downstairs and eat. There are too many people in the house already, so I don't. They don't make me. When breakfast is over Garfield and Richard come find me. They sit at the end of my bed. Richard has his laptop and Garfield has his handheld game. They don't try to make me talk to them and they don't say anything to each other. Around lunch time Ms. Vanderbelt opens the door and comes in. She doesn't like the boys being in here, but she's not going to say anything right now.
"We have some very special guests here to see everyone downstairs." She's still very sad, but whoever is downstairs has brought her a bit of joy too.
"Who?" Garfield asks.
"Go and find out yourselves," she leaves and Richard and Garfield get up.
"We'll be back." They know I'm not going. They're gone for a long time. I get up and go to the library to see if maybe they went back in there, but they're not here. I ignore the damage from yesterday and sit at our usual table. I start reading the book Mr. Wayne let me keep and shortly after the door opens. Garfield and Richard come in. Behind them are the last three people I want to see on this planet besides them. Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Zantanna.
"It's not usually so messy," Garfield laughs nervously.
"Hello there." Wonder Woman smiles. They stop a few yards away from the table. Their eyes scan me. What are they looking for?
"We didn't see you downstairs, but we wanted to say hello." Martian Manhunter said. "And thank-you, for your quick thinking at the ball. You saved many lives." Something in the library explodes. They know it was me? They look around alarmed for a minute, but when no other explosions occur, they calm down. Garfield and Richard don't look around though, they stare at me, as if seeing me for the first time.
"You and your friends were very brave. You should be proud," Wonder Woman says. I look at Garfield and Richard again. Did they tell them that it was me? I never confirmed or denied it, but they were right there, they saw... Why would they tell? They have to know I wouldn't want them to tell anyone. Are they that stupid?
"Are you okay?" Zatanna asks. Her question sounds like concern, but I know she didn't come here because I saved anyone. At the ball, she knew something was off. Maybe she can sense his presence somehow. I concentrate and try to sift them out. Martian Manhunter is too hard to read, Wonder Woman is mostly calm, but also sad and curious. Zatanna is guarded. She is almost afraid even and that is not a good thing.
"She's kind of shy," Richard says.
"She doesn't talk to anyone, but us." Garfield adds. I want to smack him. Sure, tell them everything they need to know, to prove that I don't belong here. Especially now that the only person who can protect me is gone. They move closer, as if we're all going to sit in the library and have a lovely chat, but I get up. I start to head towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Richard asks. I glare at him, because how dare he bring these people here.
"It was nice meeting you," Wonder Woman says with false cheer. I hear the boys make up some kind of explanation for my behavior and thankfully no one follows me.
The boys eventually find me in the basement.
"Why were you rude to the Justice League?" Richard asks sitting down. "It's the Justice League." More like my future murderers if they ever find out who I am.
"Why did you tell them about the ball?" I ask.
"We didn't," Garfield says. "They already knew... They knew we were your friends too." What? No... No... No...
"What's wrong?" Richard asks.
"Everything," I burry my head into my knees.
"Are you sad about Jessica and Martha?" Garfield asks. "And Mrs. Huntington?"
"Why are there still so many people here?" There are still lots of strangers in the house. Any of them could be them.
"They suddenly want to volunteer or visit. They think they're helping." Richard frowns. "All they're doing is getting everyone's hopes up, only to disappoint."
They do what they want to do quietly and let me grieve in silence. When it's time to go to bed we go upstairs.
The next morning, I don't go down for breakfast again because there are still a lot of strangers in the house. The boys meet me in the library when they're done. They bring me an apple. We all sit in silence again, even Garfield is quiet until right before lunch. The door opens and Ms. Kinders brings a man and a woman in. They were at the ball. We didn't talk to them, but I remember seeing them looking at Garfield and whispering.
"Good morning," Ms. Kinders says. "This is Mrs. And Mr. Dayton. They came to meet you, Garfield." Garfield is surprised. His mouth opens a little, but he doesn't say anything.
"It's nice to meet you." Mrs. Dayton approaches him first. She holds out her hand for him to shake and after staring at it for a moment in disbelief, he takes it.
"Nice to meet you too," he mumbles. Ms. Kinders steps out after seeing everything going smoothly.
"Why did you want to meet him?" Richard asks. I sense his concerns and I have them as well. Why now? Why didn't they talk to him at the party.
"Bruce said you had good friends," Mrs. Dayton smiles at Garfield.
"You know Mr. Wayne?" Garfield asks.
"He's a friend," Mr. Dayton says. "There are a lot of reporters coming today to interview some of the kids."
"We thought you might like to get out of the chaos for a bit and spend the day with us," Mrs. Dayton smiles. "We could go get some ice cream, go to an arcade maybe?" Garfield looks at us.
"Your friends can come too," Mr. Dayton says. The boys look at me, they know I'm not going anywhere.
"That's okay. Garfield, go and get out of here," Richard says. He looks at me and I nod. I sense nothing bad from these people. Perhaps they really do want to get to know Garfield. It pains me to think that he could leave with them and never come back, but it would be selfish to deny him happiness just to alleviate my own loneliness.
"Okay." Garfield gets up.
"Are you sure you won't come?" Mrs. Dayton asks.
"Thanks, but we'll be fine here." Richard says. He'd probably like to go, so I wonder why he doesn't. They head out and I look at Richard.
"Why didn't you go?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"Then you'd be here alone," he says. "And I don't think they wanted us to. They were just being polite"
"Will he be okay?" I frown. Richard shrugs.
"I don't know, but it's what he's always wanted." That's true... It's exactly what he's always wanted. Richard starts to do whatever he always does on his laptop and I try to read, but it's hard. I look at him while he types away at the keyboard. When the bad things started happening at the ball, he shielded me. We have become good friends this past year, but I didn't expect him to do something like that.
"What?" He looks up over the top of his laptop.
"..." I'm not sure if I should ask why he did that or not.
"What?" he asks again more impatiently.
"You protected me... why?" I ask. He closes the lid on his laptop and shrugs.
"I just reacted." He didn't even have to think about it? "It wasn't the first time I heard gunfire and my parents always told me if I heard that sound to get down. Less chance of getting hit." He lowers his face towards the table, so I can't see his eyes anymore.
"We traveled a lot. Sometimes the places we went were dangerous. We were part of a traveling circus." He fidgets in his seat a little and starts rubbing the inside of his left arm. "They got killed in Gotham. Someone wanted the circus to pay to be protected. The manager said no, so they cut they murdered my parents in front of the audience..." I don't think he's going to cry, but the sadness and despair that radiates off him is alarming. It's hard to shield.
"I'm sorry." It's not the right thing to say, but I'm not sure if there is a right thing to say when someone tells you they watched their parents die. He starts to mumble that it's fine, but it's not fine, so I reach my hand across the table and touch his arm. "So that's how you got stuck here?" He nods. He starts to say something else, but we hear voices at the door. It's Mr. Wayne. I can tell before the door even opens. Ms. Kinders lets him in, but then we hear her shouting after some kids in the hall.
"What are you doing here?" Richard asks.
"Hello to you too," he smiles. Richard is being obstinate, but I sense a little joy from him. He must like Mr. Wayne.
"Do you know the Daytons?" Richard asks as Mr. Wayne approaches our table. He nods.
"They're good friends," he says. Good. Hopefully they aren't just taking advantage of Garfield then.
"They came and picked up Garfield," Richard says.
"They saw him at the ball, but didn't get a chance to talk to him before..." he trails off. Would they have really talked to him then? And why are they interested in him at all? Is it because he's unique or did they think his jokes were funny?
"..." We don't say anything.
"Your teacher said you spend a lot of time here," Mr. Wayne says looking around. Richard's face heats up.
"It's not usually so messy," he glances at me and I roll my eyes. Who cares about the mess. Especially right now, when there are so many other things to worry about.
"There are a lot of reporters coming today to do interviews. Do you want to get out of here for a day?" Richard nods and then looks at me. I shake my head.
"You don't want to stay here," he mumbles. It would be nice to leave, to go with them. It might be safer, but like with Garfield, this is a chance for Richard. There is something about the pair of them, they'll bond better if I'm not there.
"I need to go talk to your teacher about a few things, do you want to meet me downstairs in fifteen minutes?" Mr. Wayne asks looking at his watch. Richard nods and we watch him leave. When the door closes Richard looks at me.
"I'll be fine. Please go." I mumble. He doesn't like that.
"You shouldn't stay," he stands up. "You're... different, it'll attract a lot of attention if you show up on camera. You didn't want anyone to know it was you, right?" I know he's right, but I also know how to hide. Leaving is riskier. I know this place. The rest of the world is unknown.
"I'll be okay. I'm going to go to the attic. They won't be able to find me there," I mumble. "Please, I'll feel better if you go."
"Why won't you come?" he asks. I shake my head, it's one of those things we don't talk about. He sighs and gets up. He goes to our shelf where we hide things and comes back with a candy bar and the phone he got for christmas. "You haven't eaten much of anything since we got back." To be honest, I hadn't even noticed.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" I can't exactly call Mr. Wayne if I miss him.
"I just feel better if you have a way to get help if you need it." How would I get help with this? I can't use it to call Azar. The police can't do anything for me. Still, I put it in my pocket because if it makes him feel better for me to have it, there's no harm in taking it.
"I promise, I'll be fine. Please, just go." He surprises me by hugging me for a moment and then he leaves the library. I don't even want to risk going through the hall, so I go up to the attic through the floor.