Enders

Enders (17)

The first person I called once I finally calmed down was Nay, telling her everything that had happened. This wasn't something we could handle on our own, not anymore.

I could tell how horrified Nay sounded over the phone, even though she tried her hardest to act calm and professional. I knew her well enough to know how worried she must have been for the two of us, and she informed me that they were on their way and to stay where we were.

I knew it would take some time for them to get to us, whether it was by train or by car or by air. Dex was still outside with his mother, and I now stood in the living room, without a clue of what to do. I felt completely useless.

After a few minutes of deliberation, I slowly made my way to the broken front door. I pushed it out of the way slightly, leaving just enough room for me to slip out into the snow. I'd forgotten how close they were to the front door, stopping dead in my tracks when I realized I was only a few feet away from them.

Her bloody body laid in the snow, Dex standing over her with his back to me. I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't even know if he knew I was out there with him. I felt like there was nothing I could do to make him feel better.
"Hank... and... Nay are coming," I found myself slowly muttering, still unsure of my own voice and movements. "They told us to stay here and wait for them."

Dex said nothing. I didn't expect him to speak; I wasn't even expecting any type of response from him. I honestly didn't know how I even wanted him to respond.

I reached out slowly, wanting to comfort him, wanting to be there for him. My fingers only slightly brushed his shoulder before he spun on me, catching me so off guard I took a step back and almost fell into the snow.

His knuckles were bloody and bruised. I couldn't tell if the blood on his clothes were his, Tom's, or his mother's. He had a wild, crazy look in his green eyes that I'd never seen before. Without even meaning to, I gasped.

This seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, his eyes softening as his gaze landed on my worried face. That's when I realized that that wild, crazy look in his eyes was despair. Complete and utter terror and denial. He was hurting more than I'd even thought was possible. He was tearing himself up inside.

When he'd seen that he had scared me, he squeezed his eyes shut, covering them with his bloody fists as he clenched his teeth together as he tried not to cry. He didn't want to look weak in front of me. His eyes had been red, so I already knew he had been crying while I was in the house. I'd heard his screams. But he didn't want to break down in front of me.

I felt the lump in my throat grow and my eyes water again at the sight of him. The boy I loved was hurting, and there was nothing I could say to heal him.

So I said nothing, stepping toward him and taking his face in my hands. He stared down at me in shock, his eyes bloodshot and red and watery. Mine were the same.

I pulled him to me, his face in my shoulder as I wrapped my arms around him. This caught him off guard; he was so much taller than me and there I was, pulling him to my height so he was now bent over in an awkward and uncomfortable manner. But soon, her understood what I was doing. He wrapped his arms around me, and I felt my jacket growing wet.

His legs seemed to give out from underneath him and we fell, now crouched beside his mother's body. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful, even with blood running down her chin. He really looked so much like her.

When Hank and Nay arrived, they weren't alone. It wasn't like I had been expecting them to come by themselves, since I didn't think there was anything they could have done by themselves. There were people in the DAU whose jobs specialized in handling deceased superhumans, so I wasn't surprised when a whole team of people all in black were with them, not even paying attention to me as they made their way into the house or to Dex's mother's corpse.