Becoming a Monster

Even Raven found herself glaring in his direction.

She had been one of the few people who spoke with Bailey that morning, and no one needed to remind her of that. Ever since they realized Bailey was missing, Raven had already been going back over their conversation on her own, wondering if there had been something she overlooked.

Hearing Paul suggest that they had all chosen to do nothing only made those thoughts considerably harder to ignore.

Levi, on the other hand, seemed to be one of the few people in the room whose mood was actually improving.

He had remained mostly silent while everyone argued over Amara’s decision, watching the blame shift from one person to another with an interest he made very little effort to hide.

This was exactly the sort of thing he expected to happen once the hero was no longer around to hold everyone together.

Caring about one another had never been enough to make them function as a group. Someone still had to make the decisions when everyone disagreed, and someone had to be willing to accept the resentment that came with those decisions afterward.

Without that person, Levi had always wondered how long it would take before they started turning on one another.

Apparently, he finally had his answer.

“Guys! I don’t think he meant it that wa—”

Ishii had wanted no part in the argument from the beginning, but even he could tell how quickly things were getting worse. He tried to intervene before someone said something that couldn’t be taken back, only for Paul to turn toward him before he could finish.

“I MEANT EXACTLY WHAT I SAID!”