“Is it okay?” Lookout asked.

“I’m—I’m going to go take care of it. It’s not bad,” Aiden said. He glanced back at Lookout, then stepped back into the dark, feeling his way back to the main room.

Brian watched Lookout’s expression change as Aiden disappeared into the dark.

Darlene faced down Lookout.

“I’m sorry.”

“You hurt the Chicken’s feelings.”

“I’m sorry.”

“All of us are messed up, you know. Chastity, Roman, Juliette, Amias, Aroa, Nicholas, Cherie, Jean Paul, Candy, even the unpowered. There are twenty of us and all of us go too far sometimes.”

“Yeah.”

“I scared you, the last time you hurt the Chicken. I’m trying to do better. I’m trying really, really hard right now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The thing about us… we’re family, before and after everything else. Roman and Juliette hate each other but they consider each other brother and sister. That’ll be true until the world ends or one of them dies.”

Lookout nodded.

“I think we have rules like that, that we don’t and won’t break. Family being one. You’re… part of this family, Kenzie.”

Lookout looked up, startled.

“You’re… similar to us in ways. So you’re part of this family, until you decide you don’t want to be. So maybe after today, you won’t be one of us.”

“But—!”

“Don’t! Speak!” Darlene raised her voice. The echo of her voice joined Lookout’s. Brian rose partially to his feet. “Don’t argue.”

The sound reverberated, hollow.

Lookout fell silent.

“We protect each other,” Darlene said. “I will give my life if it saves Chicken Little. My hand still hurts from where I broke stuff fighting that red assassin guy, every day.”

She was rambling a bit, her voice wild, emotional.

“My… Candy will forgive you, you know.”

Brian could see the hope in Lookout’s eyes.

“And I can’t let her. That’s how I protect her. Not if I can’t trust you. And I don’t trust you like this. Which means you’re not family anymore.”

Lookout hugged the pillow tighter, burying the lower half of her face in it.

“I planned that better in my head,” Darlene said. “I said everything I wanted to say, just not in the right order.”

“You did okay,” Lookout said, her voice small.

“I hope so,” Darlene said, staring at the girl for a few seconds, before ducking her head and walking into the darkness.

⊙

He was leaning against a wall, arms folded, watching Lookout lying on her side on the cot, her back to him. He felt small leaps of fear on seeing every small movement, but each was a fraction smaller than the last.

A commotion in the other hallway came distorted through the smoke, drawing his attention. Voices overlapped.

Tattletale felt her way through the smoke, one hand on the wall, approaching. She entered the room.