The Unfortunates

Chapter Ten

Homeless.

Living in a bigger city like New Conlan, I'd seen plenty of homeless people on the streets before. Living out underneath storefronts, holding out their little tins for money, hoping a kindly soul would drop a five dollar bill into it so they could buy a meal that day.

Maybe I wasn't as bad off as they were. I had a roof over my head and a beanbag under my butt, helping to take the edge off my soreness. But I knew I couldn't stay here long—Anna had been connected to the "New Conlan Super Killing," as they'd called it on the news, and her shed was bound to be searched again soon.

I scrolled through the local news on my phone. Even half a day later the only news story I could find was the story of Wildflower's death. There were some videos of the event, but most were terrible and scratchy and didn't shed much light on what had happened.

I still felt so much guilt.

I couldn't believe I had a part in killing a person. Taking the life of a human being. It was beyond my wildest nightmares.

And it made me a little nervous that Mason was so eager to do it again.

The door to the shed burst open and Mason barreled in, like he'd been summoned by my thoughts. I jumped a little, then winced as my back cracked a little, sending pain down my spine.

"Hi," he said breathlessly.

He was wearing the same orange jacket he'd worn when he burst into the first meeting of the Unfortunates what felt like so long ago. His cheeks were the same rosy color they were then. He looked around like he was expecting someone else, but it was just me.

"Hi," I said back, softly. "Is Anna okay?"

"Yeah, Mom didn't find her," Mason said, then lowered his voice as his brow creased with sympathy. "I'm so sorry about what she said and did to you."

He shook his head. "My mom isn't... the easiest person to deal with, at the moment. She's had her fair share of problems, but that doesn't make anything she does right. She's just impulsive, and angry, and... just wasn't a good person to meet. For the first look at my family. You probably think everyone in my family is crazy."

Now I was the one saying, "I'm sorry." I looked up at him and motioned for him to sit down. "I don't think anything bad about your family, promise."

He nodded and sunk into the same beanbag as me, very close and warm from all the layers he was wearing. "I wanted to say... about what happened in the closet, before she found us..."

I felt my face heating up, suddenly embarrassed. "Don't worry. It's okay if you didn't mean it. It was impulsive of both of us, I guess. We just met and we're in life-threatening danger now 24/7, it's probably not a good time for a relationship."

"No, that's what I wanted to talk about." Mason glanced at me then glanced back at his feet. "It felt real to me. I wanted to ask... even though it's stupid and careless and we're so young and... so unfortunate, I mean, it's no wonder that we would be unfortunate one more time, with the thing that matters most..."

He trailed off.

"God, I'm not usually this tongue-twisted."

"It's okay."

"Well, here goes." He took a deep breath and took my hand. "Leah. Will you be my girlfriend?"

I blinked.

Here was the question.

The question I'd prayed for him to ask me since I first lay eyes on his handsome face.

And yet...

"I don't know," I said honestly, uncomfortably, looking down. "I like you so much, I really do. But I'm so scared something bad is going to happen to one of us. And..." I steeled myself, "I'm a little uneasy about how much you wanted to kill more Supers. I can see the logic, but nothing can justify taking someone else's life."