A New Type of Realism

(18) Misfortune Teller

"Devyn, where's Kyle?"

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A stony silence had engulfed the group after Maggie's question. I bit my tongue.

"Dile?" Martin pressed.

"Woah, what is this, the Spanish Inquisition?" I tried to laugh their questions off, but to no avail.

"Is he dead?" Slade's whiny voice cut through the dense atmosphere. I don't know why he had decided to butt in, it wasn't like he actually cared about Kyle. It wasn't like he actually cared about any of us. I bet, the first chance he gets, he'll ditch us and leave us to rot with the infected, just to save himself.

"He's not dead, Slade." I cut him down.

"So then, where is he?" Slade hesitated to allow me to answer the question. When he thought that I wasn't going to reply, which of course, I was, but he was too rude to allow me enough time, he asked me another question. "Is he one of the infected now? Did he sacrifice himself to save your scrawny neck? Or did you take advantage of the situation and leave him to ro-"

"That's ENOUGH!" Maggie shouted. None of us had ever heard her yell before, and it was obvious from her appearance and first impressions that she really wasn't the type to raise her voice, but that was just what she had done. We all stared at her in shock, excluding Slade who sent a snide grin my way. I returned his smirk with a glare, showing him that he was toeing the line.

I brought my gaze back to Maggie, waiting for a sensible question to come up. Bewilderment seized my heart as I saw her expectant stare, and realized her intentions. She actually wanted me answer Slade's questions! Did they really think that I would do something like that?!

"Guys! Maggie, honestly, you know I wouldn't do that! I look up to him, he's like a second father to me, why would I...? You really think me capable of such a-"

"I don't know, Dile. I've known you for just over half a day. How can I trust anything you say? In fact, how can I trust any of you?" Slade stood up from his chair and eyed the group with suspicion.

"I wasn't talking to you, you paranoid freak!" It was my turn to stand up now, though Cooper stepped between us before anything bad happened.

"Leave him, he's just winding you up." He turned to face Maggie and Martin, who were now the only two who had remained in their seats. "Look, I think I know what's happened. The last anyone heard of Kyle was when he had gone to look for Dile, right?" I sat back down, I felt secure in my position now that he had taken control.

"Right." Maggie nodded as Martin spoke.

"So, when Dile came back and Kyle didn't, there's only a few things that we can assume; Firstly, he and Dile split up on their way back here for whatever reason, which is highly unlikely might I had. No sane person would have left someone who'd just been found. So we can pretty much rule that one out."

"You say 'sane'. How do you know Kyle's mental state?" Slade interjected.

"He's nothing like you." Cooper replied quickly, it appeared that his ability to counter Slade with wit was a natural born talent, and not something that he had to make any effort to do. "Now, secondly, and I'm afraid the cause for hope mostly vanishes here, Kyle got infected somehow and is now one of them." Maggie gave an outcry at this, though swiftly made an effort to contain it by putting her hand over her mouth. "Finally, we could assume that he's...in a better place. Unless..." Cooper turned to look at me. "Did you see him die?" He asked gently.

"No. He's not dead. He's just..."

"-joined the invisible choir? Checked out? Shuffled off the mortal coil?" Slade piped up.