Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 110: The Great Mystery of Human Life

Harriet promised to take care of the body and the mess, and quickly shooed KT and Kira out of the tower room. Kira could tell she was upset by his passing, too, but at least she recognized she was the adult in the room. KT sobs had finally quieted and they sat quietly together in the Gatehouse parlor, sipping the instant hot chocolate Kira dug out of Denby's kitchen cabinets. It was strange to see how mundane that horrible woman had lived over the past few months when she wasn't out terrorizing her students and colleagues: there were still a few dishes in the sink; a half-eaten plate of chicken with Saran Wrap over it in the refrigerator; even a mug of cold tea with a lipstick stain on it. There was something equal parts upsetting and comforting to know that at the end of the day, Denby hadn't been The Teacher From the Black Lagoon; she'd just been a person whose hubris led her down an evil path.

Apparently, Denby had also died in the final assault on Ammut, but Kira thankfully didn't really remember much of that. She didn't remember much of anything, to be honest, not since she and KT tried to take the Sun Key. She'd been turned into a Sinner, that was obvious enough, but other than that, there was nothing but a void in her memory. It was sort of like waking up from surgery after being anesthetized: being in one place, blinking, then being in an entirely new situation. When she woke up, something felt decidedly different. Not bad, necessarily, but different— looser, almost, in her chest as though something had been removed, replaced, then removed again, and put back the way it was before. Violating. More than anything, however, it was just plain old disorienting. She'd only been under for a day, though; Kira couldn't imagine how some of the others felt. At the very least, her head didn't hurt anymore, as though her concussion simply disappeared. Harriet had said that by banishing Ammut, she would take with her all the pain she'd caused; maybe the head trauma was filed under that category. Either way, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Is it too watery?" she asked, breaking the silence she and KT found themselves slipping into. "I can add more of the powder if it is."

"No," KT murmured, the lip of the mug just resting under her bottom lip, "it's fine."

Kira nodded silently and took a sip of her own hot chocolate. She barely tasted it, though. Of course, she was relieved that everything had turned out alright in the end, and she was very grateful that the world as they knew it hadn't ended. There was just such a bittersweet taste to the victory, and the amount of work still to be done in repairing everything— physically, but more importantly, emotionally— that had been damaged by Ammut's reign of terror left her feeling more than a little exhausted. She still had to talk to Mara... and what could she say? What would she even remember? All Kira knew was that she wanted her best friend back.

"I can't believe he's dead," KT whispered, staring into the ripples of her drink. "I don't even know why I'm so sad... I mean, I know he wasn't perfect even when he's 'good', but I just can't help it..."

Kira had to handle this delicately. Even if she disliked the guy, didn't mean she had to say it. Besides, he'd just died. Wasn't there a rule somewhere about disrespecting the dead? "Well," she said slowly, taking another sip of her hot chocolate, "like you said, he was connected to your grandfather. And you miss him. I don't think it's strange at all."

"Isn't it?" she laughed mirthlessly, setting her mug down. "He hurt so many people, and I... I don't know. I feel silly for mourning him. I mean, I didn't even know him."