blood and dreams

Anger

The next day, Henry and Ray got up at the same time. They are breakfast in the man cave main room and hung out for a little while, Henry messing around on his phone while Ray watched movies. They were sitting next to each other, touching, but it didn't bother Ray that Henry wasn't paying any attention to his movie at all. It was almost comforting to him that Henry chose to sit near him even though he wasn't interested in what he was doing.  

When the movie was almost over, Henry remembered that Jasper and Charlotte were working today. His mood changed slightly, now dreading the rest of the day a little bit. He loved being around them when he wanted to be, but it kind of hurt how they were still going on with their normal lives and jobs and he couldn't. It also stung that they were still slightly different around Henry now. Henry was way more comfortable being open with them about his self harming than he was in the beginning, but things still weren't how they were before they knew. Henry wondered if it'd ever go back to normal. He tried to stop thinking about that. There was no way to tell. 

Henry planned on hiding out in his and Ray's room while they worked their shifts. It wasn't the best plan, but it could be worse. Seeing the two of them work on tracking down criminals and indirectly fighting crime without him hurt worse than boredom ever could. 

It was my job first, Henry thought, his eyes watering and face flushing pink in jealousy and anger. 

"I wanna try to fight crime again" Henry blurted out without meaning to. He squeezed his eyes shut. Did he really want to do this? He couldn't tell. Maybe it was just his anger taking hold of him. 

In perfect timing, the movie ended and the room went quiet. 

"Are you sure?" Ray asked, facing Henry now. He couldn't tell what Henry was feeling. His expression looked like a cross between anger and embarrassment. 

"I think so. I think I'm ready." Henry said. Even he didn't believe himself. But he has to start somewhere, right? Maybe this would be easy and then he'd get used to it again and eventually be able to go back full time. 

"I think you should come on the next mission again. I've missed you." Ray said.  

Later that day, Jasper and Charlotte showed up. Henry decided against hiding in the room and instead hung out in the man cave in case any emergency calls came in. Charlotte was at the monitors while Jasper was upstairs at the counter of the store. After only around 20 minutes of sitting around, a call came in. Charlotte answered. Henry waited anxiously to see what was going on. After a minute, Charlotte put down the phone. 

"It's the walldogs. They're at the Swellview sign again." Charlotte said. 

"Let's go." Ray said to Henry. 

"Wait, you're going, Henry?" Charlotte asked. 

"Yup" Henry said shortly, blowing a bubble. 

They left up the tubes and took the mancopter to the swellview sign. When they landed, they saw the whole group of walldogs were there. They immediately started punching and kicking them, taking down most of them without any trouble. Henry was doing good, and was proud of himself for coming along, when he saw a familiar face in front of him. 

"Veronica." Henry said, not making a move to hurt her. She gave him a dirty look.  

"Hey, what's your problem? I let you get away last time, remember?" Henry said. 

"Yeah, that was before I realized you were such an attention seeker." Veronica said coldly. 

"W-what do you mean? I thought we were good-" Henry started. 

"Listen, I saw the post! I know you're just a sick cutter, okay? You don't have to pretend like nothing happened." 

Henry was taken aback at her response. He thought she was just mad that he was arresting her friends again, but he never could've imaged this. It felt like hed been stabbed in the back. 

"I- it's not for attention, first of all. And I'm not sick." Henry said, defending himself instead of just taking it. "And you are in no place to tell me that there's something wrong with me." 

"Oh just admit it! Nobody would do that to themself unless they were sick. It's pathetic. You're nothing more than an attention seeker, okay? You just want sympathy. It's disgusting." 

"No I DONT! I DIDNT EVEN MEAN TO POST THAT! I TRIED TO KEEP IT A SECRE-"  Ray pulled Henry back gently. Henry was shouting now, his heart racing and his head spinning. 

"Calm down, it's okay, I'll handle her." Ray said, hugging Henry. 

Ray let go and walked towards Veronica. 

"You have no idea what he's been through. He is the last person on earth who would do something just because he wants attention. He didn't even want to tell his best friends, never mind the whole world. But you wouldn't understand that. You're not worth his time if this is how you're gonna treat him." Ray said. 

Veronica was speechless. She tried to play it off as looking annoyed, but really she just didn't have a good response. She shot Henry a dirty look as he tried to calm down. Ray just put her in handcuffs while she struggled and shouted at Henry. The police came and took the whole group away. Ray hugged Henry again. He was shivering. 

"I'm so, so angry Ray." Henry admitted. 

"That's okay. I would be too. You can be angry. Just let it out. You can talk to me about it." Ray said softly, leading Henry back to the mancopter. 

Once Henry was buckled, he sighed. 

"That was so mean, Ray. I can't believe she would say something like that. She's always liked me ... Is this what everyone thinks of me? That I'm just attention seeking, and pathetic, and sick? It's one thing when people online say it, but she said it to my face. And I saved her!" Henry realized he was rambling, but he didnt feel like he had to stop. 

"I feel so guilty now, like this is really really bad. It hurts. To know that a bunch of people are thinking all these awful things about me, and that they're probably right." Henry said. 

"Henry," Ray said, putting a hand on his shoulder while steering. "She's wrong. You're not any of those things. She's just a lowlife criminal, and you're out here saving people. You're not the pathetic one." 

Henry just looked down. 

"Don't let anyone make you feel bad about yourself Hen, you didn't do anything wrong." 

"Thank you for standing up for me" Henry said, now sullen.  

"Of course, that's what I'm here for. For you." Ray said. 

"She made me really mad Ray." Henry admitted again, feeling upset at himself. 

"It's okay to feel like that. She did a horrible thing to you back there, and I'm glad you got angry and stood up for yourself instead of letting her tear you down. You're really brave for that." 

"I don't feel brave." Henry said as the helicopter landed.  

"I promise you, you are." Ray said.