Doctored Chance #NaNoWriMo2019

34 | The Crow

"T... Tobias," Vine Voodoo whispered, brown-gloved hand clamping over her pale lips.

"Toby?" Mr. Might breathed, his jaw slack and his eyes blank.

Confusion blew over their faces, twisting and turning over twitching brows and cheeks until it crystallized into something else.

Tobias slammed his hands against the rail and snarled with frustration.

Why were they happy to see him? Why were the tears in their eyes not of fright but of love and relief? Why did their caution and fear melt so easily into concern—not for themselves, but for him? Concerned for him? He didn't need their concern!

He refused to feel sympathy for the pitiful, pitiful looks on their pitiful, pitiful faces... His face reddened at their underwhelming reactions.

Pity. Pity. Pity.

If it weren't bolted so tightly to the floor, he would have torn the rail up in his wild aggravation.

Poppy Tris approached the ladder, regarding him with a religious awe, as if he were an angel. "Tobias, you're alive?"

"No thanks to you!" Tobias spat. He cringed and cradled his head, stumbling away from the edge of the platform with a gasp. His knees thudded heavily on the floor and he swayed, uncomprehending. Prickling stings, like the jabs of needles, danced a jig over his scalp. He touched where he had felt the blow, but found no blood. The pain receded as if imagined, for the third time.

He continued to stare at his trembling, bloodless glove, doubled vision restoring its clarity. What is this? What is happening?

"Toby, we thought you were dead!" Benjamin Jones cried, tearing him from his searching of the future. "Everyone thought you were dead."

Tobias's fingers clenched to fists and he leapt to his feet. "I was this close!" He staggered and caught himself on the control desk, ablaze eyes beating down at the man below as he indicated the chances of his survival with his fingers. A narrow gap between his thumb and index, small enough that they wouldn't even see it at their distance. "No thanks to your cowardice, I survived! Yes. I survived! By myself. Weak, ridiculed, underappreciated, always-teased 'Pajama Boy' survived. And what did I find? I found you on the television, lying through your pretty teeth: 'If there was anything I could have done to save him...'" Tobias laughed harshly. "What a joke!"

Benjamin's face slackened. Light glinted off a tear that had escaped his uniform goggles. His tan skin was paler than Tobias had ever seen, as washed-out as birch. "But, you're alive. You didn't need my help. I—"

"I never needed you more, Benjamin Jones!" Tobias screamed. He gritted his teeth and removed his glasses to tear the half-mask from his hideous face. Team Defiance gasped, both recoiling; Benjamin onto his hands and Poppy a long stride backwards. If the immediate bulging of their eyes and physical repulsion weren't enough, cruel emotions of mistrust and reproach mingled with the shock on their cautious faces. Heroes didn't have scars... remember?

"You abandoned me, Benjamin," Tobias continued dryly, "and you still came out of it a hero. The number one hero in all of Benediction... couldn't even save his so-called 'best friend', from a situation you caused, yourself!"

"The explosion was an accident, Tobias!" Poppy Tris pleaded. "He didn't know it would trap you."

The ground quaked, sending the thickest fall of dust yet. The heroes below covered their heads as rubble rained. One stream of dried lava crumbled and a leak of fresh liquid began to trickle down a basalt spire like molasses. Tobias ducked and covered his head with his arms, rubble like gravel skittered down from the ceiling, exposing pipes and sparking wires.