TWO: Mistakes

Two Weeks Later

***

Alden lay in his hospital bed, watching rain spatter against the windows and stream down the glass in rivulets. Wummy lay beside him, and a handheld video game console was in his lap, chirping occasionally to remind him that he’d left his game on pause.

He winced and shut it off. The chirp was too similar to the high-pitched ringing he’d had in his ears ever since the disaster. The doctors and the healer had both told him the same thing—that there was a good chance the whining sound would stop on its own but it might not.

The console had been given to him at the House of Healing, right after his broken arm and wrist were mended. He was supposed to play with it often…something about maintaining dexterity in a healing limb. But he’d mostly been using it to distract himself from everything else.

It worked. Sometimes.

But not as well here in the children’s hospital he’d been transferred to a few days ago. The House of Healing was soothing in a way a mundane hospital never could be. Here, now, everything Alden saw reminded him that things were wrong and they would never be right again.

And he was a source of gossip for some of the staff. He knew it because he’d heard a couple of them talking just outside his room when they thought he was asleep.

Poor thing lost his parents in such a horrible way. And they still haven’t managed to reach any other family.

Do you know if he saw it happen? God, I can’t imagine the trauma.

It wasn’t like it was mean gossip. They all felt sorry for him. They all meant well.

But Alden hated it.

And nobody would tell him the truth about what had happened. Not the whole truth. Not even the grief counselor who spent so much time talking about being honest and open with your feelings.

His home had been destroyed, and his parents had died in a supervillain attack. The heroes hired by the city of Chicago had not been able to bring the villain under control without collateral damage.

Alden didn’t know what that meant.

How had they died? Why couldn’t he see their bodies? Which supervillain was it? Why…why had they wanted to hurt Alden’s parents?

If one more adult told him that it was all a terrible accident, one that was impossible for someone his age to understand, he was going to throw his console at their lying smile.

Just as he thought that, Nurse Amanda knocked once and then came straight in. At least she wasn’t smiling. In fact, she was wearing a worried frown.

“Alden, sweetie,” she said. “Someone has come to visit you. Now, you don’t have to see her if you don’t want to—”

“Who is it?” he asked quickly.

Alden had seen a few different visitors. His teacher had visited him three times, and she’d brought handmade “Get Well Soon” cards from the entire third grade. A couple of the nurses from the House of Healing had come as well. And the children’s choir director from his father’s old church had driven overnight all the way from Nashville with a tray of cupcakes and cheese straws.

Visitors were good. Visitors filled the room with noise so that Alden didn’t have to hear his own thoughts.

“It’s Hannah Elber, sweetie. The superhero.”

Alden froze, his mind flickering automatically to his dark, ruined bedroom. To flashing lights and a body—the body of the villain?—lying there torn open. The memory had a foreign feel to it, like it belonged to someone else. But at the same time it was too detailed and clear.

He hadn’t seen Hannah or Arjun since the day it happened.

He’d been in the bubble, covered by the blanket, for what felt like a long time. When the comforter was removed, he and Hannah had been alone together in the back of a van.

She’d written him lots of notes, explaining what was going on and what was happening.

YOU ARE INJURED, BUT YOU WILL BE ALL RIGHT.

MY SPELL IS KEEPING YOU SAFE AND CALM.

WE ARE GOING TO THE HOUSE OF HEALING.

THEY WILL HELP YOU.

IT WILL NOT HURT.

I WILL STAY WITH YOU UNTIL YOU FALL ASLEEP.

Where are my parents? Alden had thought, over and over again, willing the question to get through. Where are they? Did you rescue them, too?

Now, of course, he knew that she hadn’t.

“You don’t have to see her,” Nurse Amanda said again, seeming to mistake his silence for fear. “Just because she’s a superhero doesn’t mean she gets to do whatever she likes. I’ll tell her you—”

“I want to see her!” Alden cried, nearly falling out of the bed in his eagerness. His stomach muscles complained a little, but they were nearly healed now and he barely noticed. Hannah would know things. Maybe she would explain why everything had gone wrong. “Where is she?”

The nurse stared at him. “She’s downstairs at the check-in desk. Give me a minute, sweetie. She’ll come to you.”

###

“Oh, man,” Hannah Elber muttered, staring at her reflection in the polished metal of the elevator door. “I don’t think they’re going to let me in, Cly. I’m gonna have to go rogue and climb up the side of the building or something.”

“That’ll be a great look on the six o’clock news,” her friend said dryly through her earbud. “And I’d like to see you try it. You failed hard on the rock wall every time in gym class.”

“I should’ve come sooner,” Hannah said, ignoring the jab. “But I was waiting for them to find the kid’s aunt so I could talk to her and get permission, only it’s starting to seem like they’re never going to track the lady down, which just makes everything so much worse.”

“Hannah, it’s not your fault his parents died.”

“It is.”

“It’s really not.”

“Shut up about it.”

“No. You had to stabilize a building. In a crazy situation, fighting against a vill with weirdass powers. You aren’t perfect. You did your best. Arjun did his best. It wasn’t quite enough. Mistakes happen to all of us at some point in our careers. That’s all there is to it.”

For a moment, they both fell quiet.

“Is he…” Cly hesitated. “Is he going to be all right?”

Hannah closed her eyes. “You should have seen his face, Cly. Killing a civilian has always been his biggest fear, and the way he had to take the villain down this time… He’ll never trust me to do my job again, and why should he?”

“Hannah, nobody blames you. Not even Arjun.”

Hannah shook her head. “I promised him,” she said quietly. “I told him I had his back. I told him he could go all out. That’s our whole reason for teaming up. It’s the whole reason we’re here in Chicago where they had space for a pair instead of somewhere else. And I–”

Behind her, the woman at the check-in desk cleared her throat. “You can head on up, Ms. Elber. He’s in Room 3703.”

Hannah spun around and gave the other woman a bright smile. “Thank you so much! Have a nice day.”

“Wow, you really go all in on the public persona thing,” Cly muttered through the earbud.

“It’s an important part of the job. And it’s the least I can do to get that much right.”

###

Alden was by himself when the superhero arrived. It had taken actual begging to get the nurse to leave him alone with his visitor, but she finally relented. He could still hear her murmuring rules and warnings to Hannah through the door, though.

His heart was racing.

Excitement. Nerves. A little bit of fear.

He’d only met a hero once before the accident. It was in first grade. The school had held a special assembly, and a hero named Electric Yo-yo had come to talk to them all about staying safe during emergencies.

“Heroes are helpers, just like firemen and police officers,” Yo-yo had said, flinging a little orb of green lightning around the stage and calling it back to him like it was a pet. “Our powers might look scary, but that doesn’t mean we’ll hurt you. If one of us gives you instructions be sure to follow them so that we can keep you safe.”

Yo-yo had been funny. He’d given out pencils and stickers.

Alden couldn’t imagine him tearing someone in half.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Finally, Hannah stepped through the door, interrupting his thoughts. She had a nervous smile on her face. Her hands were in the pockets of her motorcycle jacket, which just looked like normal clothes right now without the sparkle of magic coating it. Her brown hair was pulled back into two French braids.

“Hi, Alden!” she said. “I just came by to check on you. Is that okay?”

She didn’t come an inch closer until he nodded. When he did, she walked over to the chair beside his bed and sat down. The vinyl creaked under her weight.

They stared at each other for a minute, neither of them blinking, then Hannah licked her lips and said, “Soooo, I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Hannah. Hannah Elber. My friend and I—”

“I remember,” Alden said quickly. How could I forget?

“Oh. Good. I thought maybe you wouldn’t because of the spell. You were awake inside of it, which was pretty unusual. Um…how are you feeling? Did they get you all patched up?”