Wintersmyth or Winter Smith?

Chapter 36- Standing Up

Winters pov
I woke up to darkness at first. As my eyes adjusted I realized I was in my room. How did I get back here? I got out of bed slowly and went to my bathroom and took a shower. I remembered everything from last night. The attack. The train. Shawn. The last thing I remember was falling asleep in the ally with Henry. I got out of the shower and got dressed and walked into the man cave. I got a bowl of cereal from the snack-o-matic and sat down on the couch and ate. Ray came in a few minutes later. "Hey winter!" I nodded. "Hey. Um how did I get here last night?" I asked. "Henry carried you. He didn't want to wake you up. He told me about what happened. You okay?" I nodded. "Yeah a few scrapes and bruises but nothing major." Ray shook his head. "No. I mean are you okay?" I knew what he meant, but I didn't want to answer that question. Mostly because I don't know. "I guess so. I mean superheroes are supposed to be tough right? Physically and emotionally. I just can't believe Shawn actually tried to kill me!" I said shaking my head. "Look, there is always going to be people who hate you. They don't think you're on their side. But you have to remember that you are. But if someone attacks you, you have every right to defend yourself. Shawn shouldn't have tried that. That was his fault and his consequence." He said sitting next to me. "I know, I just wish he didn't have to die for it." Ray nodded. "You should go out and do something today. Find something to get your mind off of things." I nodded. "I saw a sign in town that the animal shelter is looking for volunteers, I thought I would go check it out." "Great idea!" He said and got up and left. I took a deep breath. In order to get over something, you have to keep moving forward. So I texted Henry to see if he would be interested in going to the shelter with me. He loves animals so I already did knew his answer. We met at a bus station and started walking. "Hey thanks for bringing me home last night." I said and Henry smiled. "It was no problem, you looked like you needed the sleep and I wasn't about to be the one to wake you!" He said laughing. "Well I did need the sleep so thanks." He put his arm around my waist. "My pleasure. Your light and easy to carry! But how are you?" He asked looking at me carefully. "I'm okay. I just don't really want to think about it. But how are you so okay with all of this?" I asked. "I don't know. I guess when j think about what would have happened if I hadn't done what I did, I don't regret it for a minute." He said kissing the top of my head. "Yeah, I just hope I don't hear about it at all today." I hoped, I was let down majorly. Every news stand we passed newspapers had headlines with "Boy Found On Tracks" and "Boy Attacks Girl And Kid Danger Stops Him" even "Kid Danger... Murderer?" Shawn's picture was all over the TVs. And blurry camera footage from the subway of Shawn stacking me and kid danger saving me, with the words scrolling across the bottom "Who's the mysterious girl?" I kept stopping and staring and Henry just pulled me away from all of it and kept us walking. Eventually we reached the shelter and talked to the manager and she agreed to let us help for the day. We fed the animals and played with them and made sure they all got to the vet on time. By the end of the day I was exhausted and happy. I got to hang out with Henry all day and we completely forgot about what happened yesterday. We headed back to the man cave when we were finished. We hung out and watched TV until Ray came running in. "There's a big car pile up in downtown Swellview lets go!" Henry and I jumped up, but then Ray held his hand up to me. "Winter you don't need to come with us I think we got this on our own." Ray said. "Are you sure because I could help-" Henry cut in. "No it's okay we got this you just stay here." Henry and Ray blew their bubbles and were in costume. "I'll give you a call when we're done." Henry said and gave me a peck on the lips then ran to the tubes with Ray. "Just give me a call if you-" "UP THE TUBE!" Try yelled at the same time and were gone. "Need me." I finished after they left. That's been happening more and more lately. They don't need me. Because we've been doing such a great job crime has practically disappeared. It's like they don't need me anymore. I went back to the couch and changed the channel. The news came on and Shawn's face appeared again, but this time I wanted to see. "As many of you may know, 14 year old Shawn Marinau's body was found on the tracks of the Swelltrack subway train this morning. Officials are still confused about what went down last night, but all they have to go of of is a poor quality security camera video where it appears Shawn attacked a girl with three other men and tried to push her onto the tracks to be hit by the train, but kid danger showed up and took all three down, however, Shawn was thrown into the tracks and was hit. Take a look." Once again the blurry bad quality video popped up on screen. It was all replayed. The horror that I experienced was now public in poor quality. When it was finished the news reporters came back on screen. "Now there's been a lot of dispute about whether or not kid danger is responsible for Shawn's death. We've been receiving comments with opinions on this and a lot of people seem to believe that kid danger should be arrested for murder. So now we would like to open the phone lines to whoever would like to share their opinions." I immediately grabbed the phone. No one was calling the boy who saved my life a murderer. It rang then I got put through. "Hello your on the air. What's your opinion on the situation caller?" I stood up. "I think that whoever thinks kid danger is a murderer has no idea what it's like to actually have to do that job. Kid dangers job is to save innocent civilians. From the looks of it, that girl did nothing and Shawn jumped her. Actions have consequences, that has to be learned. Kid danger saw someone in trouble and he acted. He saved me- er I mean the girl and then defended himself from an attack from Shawn. It's sad he had to die like that but like I said before, actions have consequences. That must not have been easy for kid danger either, knowing he killed someone, but he's a hero, he will always be a hero. And anyone in his position, deny it or not, would have done the same thing." I stopped go breathe. "You make a very good point. It did look like self defense." "That's because it was. The video may be blurry, but what happened is crystal clear." "And what's your name caller?" I rolled my eyes. "My name is no one. I'm not important. What's important is that people don't just throw around murder accusations without actually understanding what's going on." "And you believe you do understand?" The announcer asked. "Yeah I do. I guess you could say I experienced it in 3D." "Wait what? Are you the girl in the video?" I hung up and shut off the tv. I was tired of these people. Ingrates. A little while later Henry came down the tube. "Where's Ray?" I asked. "He's parking the man copter." I nodded. "Cool. How was it?" I asked. "Not serious. Only minor injuries. I saw the news on the man copter. I know it's you who stood up for me." I nodded. "It was me. People were calling you a murderer! You saved me! Shawn attacked you! They can't call you a murderer!" He looked down. "Yeah they can. I killed him." He said quietly. "You don't believe them, right? You not a murderer!" He wouldn't look at me. I walked up to him took his face in my hands and kissed him hard. "Your not a murderer! It was self defense and you know that." He shook his head. "Call it what you want. He's dead because of me. It won't change." "I don't care. It's not your fault please don't blame yourself." He continued to look down. "Look at me! I would be dead right now if it weren't for you! You would never see me again! Don't you get that?!" He looked into my eyes the. Pulled me into a hug and held me tight. "I know. I would never let that happen. It's just been a rough time." I nodded still in the hug. "I know." He laughed a little. "We're so not normal." He said. "No kidding." I said deep in thought. First they don't need me on jobs, now Henry's killing people to protect me and everyone started hating him. I'm ruining everything. I'm tearing this world apart. His world. I don't truly belong here. I've known that deep down for a while.