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Chapter 8

"Now remember, he's going to imprint on someone. Probably me, since I was the one who inspired him to give life a second chance," Cindy said. This had gone to her head very quickly.

"Also, he is at an extremely high risk to make a second attempt. So no sharp objects, poisons, pills, weapons, or anything you can kill yourself with."

Rodrigo laughed. "I don't think you'll find anything here that you can't kill yourself with."

"Exactly. Like, Death, you've got all these knives out that need to be put away, at the very least. I could kill myself ten different ways with just the stuff on this table."

"Ooh, Zora's got you beat. She says someone could die forty two different ways from a dissecting tray," Death said.

Just then, Alex walked in with Marc and Zora.

"Hey, you're the weirdo who tried to get me to come down by offering me a puppy," Alex said.

"I also said you could have a cookie," Death said, like Duh, of course I said that, that's the logical way to talk someone out of suicide.

"I think I have something you're going to like," Rodrigo said. He lifted two white ovoids from a mold.

"These are your photon inhibitors. Thanks to the molds we took of your ears, they will fit perfectly without a connecting band and completely surround your ears so no light will get in. As an additive measure, their outsides are white, so light will be reflected off of them and away. If, by some small chance, a few stray photons do slip through, they won't be able to talk because they will instantly be absorbed by the inhibitor's interior, which is made of the blackest polymer possible," Rodrigo explained.

Alex set them on his ears nervously. A few seconds later, the tension left his face, replaced by the brightest smile any of them had seen. "They work."

Death clapped excitedly, then stopped when no one else did.

"Also, they are not the slightest bit soundproof. And I made these," Rodrigo pulled out headphone strings that had metal rods where the ear buds should be.

"You just plug them in to the jacks on the bottom of the inhibitors. You can still listen to music without being in agony."

"I-- I don't know how I can thank you all," he said. "You saved my life, in more ways than one."

"Just stay out of trouble. It's a scary world out there," Zora said.

"I will," he said. "Maybe I'll see you guys again someday."

"You will," Death said.

"Oh, he's not leaving," Cindy said. "He attempted suicide not even twelve hours ago. His foster parents gave him up for the twenty seventh time. His entire world has changed, in just about every way it can. There is no way I'm letting him get tossed back into the system, where no one understands whatever it is that's going on with him."

"That's not your decision to make," Marc folded his arms.

"Yeah, it is. I'm his therapist, and what I say goes," she said.

"You aren't a real therapist yet. And you won't be for a long time. I'm in charge here, and we can't have a kid underfoot, getting in the way. He'll be fine now that he has his weird ear things."

"You said that if I took the job, then ICE would give me my degree instantly, since I already know most of it anyway. So I take the job. And as a licensed therapist, I demand you let Alex stay."

"You demand? You demand?! If you think for one second that--"

"Marc," Death said gently.

He took a slow breath. "We will discuss this later. This conversation is not over."

He and Death left, no doubt heading to his office.

Cindy looked like she wanted to say something, but she just shook her head and left, clenching and unclenching her fists.

"Workout room's down the hall and to the left," Zora called. "You know, if you want to punch something."

There was a beat of silence. "Is it always like this here?" Alex asked.

"There's usually less yelling and we keep our dissent to ourselves. But yes," Rodrigo said.

"I can't believe Marc didn't see that coming and do something to stop it. I think Death is making him soft," Zora said.

Rodrigo chuckled. "What? What's so funny?" she asked.

"Of course Marc realized what would happen. He always thinks everything through, that's why he's such a good leader. It was staged," he said.

Zora rolled her eyes. "No it wasn't. None of this would've happened if it hadn't been for Alex, and he had just met Marc today. Right?"

"I never saw the guy in my life, I promise," he said, holding his hands out defensively.

"He didn't have to. Marc decides to recruit Cindy, and she doesn't want in, but for some reason Death has him convinced it has to be her. He tells her to wait around, and eventually a case has to turn up. Instead of putting her in the detention cell, like he normally would, she gets brought along. He could have reasoned Alex into coming down, or sent Death up. She can be surprisingly convincing when she really tries.

"But instead, they both botched what should have been an easy mission, forcing Cindy to swoop in and play the hero. Protocol says Alex should have been taken to a special rehabilitation facility, maybe enrolled in our school, but Marc decides to just toss him out in the street. Cindy has to take the job in order to prevent it, and now she'll work harder because she thinks it's her idea."

"It was all staged," Zora said, shocked.

"Pretty impressive, really. Cindy is a trained professional, and they completely pulled the wool over her eyes. Makes me wonder if she really is the best one for the job."

"They lied to us!"

Rodrigo shrugged. "They did what they had to do. The only reason they didn't tell us is because it's easier to keep a secret if less people know about it."

"It's one thing to keep someone else's secret, like covering up for people with abilities so they can decide if they want people to know or not. But you can't keep secrets from your own team. Its wrong, and one day it's going to cause trouble," Zora said, turning and storming out.