The Things We Do (Under Editing)

The Good in Us

There were a lot of things I could have said when my best friend stepped onto the roof, but that would have required me to be able to do more than just stare at her.

Eventually Kacie took a few hesitant steps forward. "Amy?"

I jumped to my feet immediately, screaming a handful of curses at Storm, followed by, "Why did you bring her here!?"

He only managed to hold my gaze for a moment before looking down and away. There was no answer.

"Amy?" Kacie tried again, taking another step.

I clenched my jaw and balled my hands into fists. Storm had crossed a line by telling her about me, and Wraith wouldn't let it go if he found out.

"Please." Her voice was small.

Slowly, I turned to face her. She stood picking at her nails and pressing her lips together. I'd never seen her so unkempt outside the comfort of her room, purple hair half falling from a ponytail, no makeup, a pink sweater that almost completely hid her hands, and shorts and flip-flops that must have left her freezing. Storm had clearly dragged her straight out of bed.

I'd have to hit him for that specifically later.

I licked my lips. "What are you doing here?"

"Storm told me what's going on..." she trailed off. "I was... I was hoping I could stop you."

"... I wish you could. You did for a while." Carefully, I turned back to the city beneath me. The ledge I was standing on was only about a foot wide, and I was lucky I hadn't slipped when I'd jumped to my feet. "There's too much at stake, though. And now that you know, there's even more."

"What's at stake? Why are you doing this Amy!?"

I almost smiled. "You should know the answer to that. There's only one thing that I would burn a city for."

I couldn't hear her answer, but I knew she had guessed right.

"We puppets are controlled by our master. Defying him only gets us tangle in our strings." I didn't elaborate further, but she was smart enough to fit the pieces together. "It doesn't matter. You need to leave."

There was silence behind me for long enough that I could almost believe they'd already left, but I wasn't that lucky.

"... No."

She could be so difficult sometimes. I spoke to Storm instead. "Get her out of here. She doesn't have to be a part of this. Just let her live her life."

Kacie nearly screamed at me. "Don't do it, Amy! There has to be another way!"

"I'm being controlled by a man who's been playing games with the lives of people for at least thirty years! I'm not good enough to beat him!"

"Yes." her voice lowered. "Yes, you are. Even if you're not better at this game, you are better than him, because there is good in you."

I didn't hear my friend's final words in her voice. I heard them in Wraith's. It was the same thing he'd told me when all of this began. He had been right, I suppose. But that didn't matter now. I told Kacie the same thing I'd told Wraith that day, the same thing he'd back to me mockingly so recently.

Invisible hands grabbed at my throat again as I spoke. "I'm pretty sure the only thing in me at this point is Ramen, Red Bull, and spite." I could taste the bitterness of my words. Kacie had no response.

"You should listen to your friend."

I swung to face Storm with a full snarl. "Why did you have to rope her into this!? Everything was fine! She was safe! All of that is ruined because you told her who I am!"

Storm flinched. When he answered, I barely heard him. "I had to make sure you didn't head down a path you couldn't return from"

"I stepped down that path when I took this job. There is no stopping now. My puppet master has proof of everything I've done, and he knows my family. He will hurt them to keep me working. There is no day that I will not put them above a hundred strangers. I'm selfish. I'm not good. I'm not like you."

He actually laughed at that, a dry, almost broken sound. "What happened to me being a horrible person?"

"Oh, please. You can drop that act. We both know it's not true. You caught me when I fell and bandaged my wounds when you didn't even know who I was."

He shifted his feet. "I told you. I thought you might be useful."

"And yet you're trying to stop me." He opened his mouth but I pushed on. "When I kidnapped Anna, you were so adamant that I needed to let her go, only giving in when I swore that no harm would come to her. Even then, you were the one that let her go."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"You're the only one that could have found her. No one else had the chance to leave a tracking device in my boot." The blood drained from Storm's face. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that you used that same tracking device to find me before Copycat put a bullet in my brain."

"Alright, so I like children and I'd rather you not die. In case you've forgotten, I've actually killed people." His arguments were getting weak, and he was starting to back away.

Kacie was struggling to keep up with what was happening, and was bouncing her attention back and forth like this was a tennis match.

"Maybe, but I happened to stumble across a file on you when I was in Detective Corum's office. Fun fact: everything you've destroyed was made by J-Tech."

Once again, Storm opened his mouth, but I was on a roll and didn't plan on stopping.

"The most interesting thing was that you never left a mark at the scene of the disaster. You just announced your involvement afterwards. It took me a while to figure out why the police never managed to find you when they tracked your signal, but it was because you weren't there. Your videos were never live. You never caused any of the problems; you just took credit for them. J-Tech didn't want to have to admit fault for their failures!"

If it were possible, I'd have said that my words turned Storm to stone. He just stood there, staring at me like I'd grown a second head. "How did you... when did you..."

Really I hadn't even realized that I had sorted the whole mess out so completely until I'd practically yelled it at him. Maybe yelling it at him was what has worked it all out.

Kacie had also gone still, and her eyes were wide open. She was getting more information than was probably safe for her, but Storm and I were too focused on our argument to care.

"Ok, fine." He sighed and dropped to a crouch, knotting his fingers in his hair. "Congratulations. You've figured me out. Now what?"

"You have your reasons for what you do. I have mine."

"Maybe, but I'm fighting for my freedom. You're giving in."

I met his gaze, watching the way the morning sun shifted their color. Only seeing him at night, lit by dim lamps, I'd mistaken him for someone whose eyes were always dark and cold. In the sun, though, they were lighter and warmer, despite what was happening.

"I'm not like you, Elliot."