Page 72 of Wrong Squad, Right Mess

“Will their bodies be reclaimed?” someone called out.

I stopped being able to hear the answers, the roaring in my head far too loud.

My friend—the only real friend I’d had—was gone. She’d been so afraid that The Pitt would end her, and I’d told her she was worried for nothing. I’d thought that her fear was outlandish, but in the end, she’d been right.

The fact that she’d managed to take out The Pitt first felt like a hollow victory.

Yun deserved a happy life, she deserved a future with laughter and a house and a damn dog. Instead, she got oblivion.

Jin finished the conference, and I had no idea how I ended up in one of the private rooms above the lobby of the Guild headquarters. I must have walked there, but I couldn’t remember it.

How was it possible that she was gone? I’d always know the unfairness of the world, had never been foolish enough to expect it to all work out as it should, but it had never hurt me nearly as much as it did right now.

A knock on the door had me calling for them to enter, my voice empty. I’d had one job, to tell the world what had happened, to stand up for Yun and the men she’d died with, but I hadn’t even been able to get through that.

What does it matter? She was gone forever. What did dead souls care about what the living thought?

The door opened, and a young woman walked in, a low-rank esper who ran errands for higher-ups. I had no idea of her name, hadn’t spoken to her. She was just one face in a sea of them.

Normally I offered a smile, even flirted a little. It meant nothing, but being jovial like that tended to make all of life easier.

I just didn’t have it in me at the moment. “Yes?”

She had an envelope, her hands trembling. Nervous, was she? “You received a letter.” Her voice cracked a little, proving how anxious she was.

I held my hand out, seeing no reason to prolong this all to make her comfortable.

She set the envelope in my hand, then rushed from the room. I stared down at it, not shocked by its appearance.

I often got letters to my official Guild address. Sometimes they were fan letters, sometimes hate mail, sometimes requests for guiding from espers who had been turned down by official channels. Some of those in the last category thought a personal plea might get them moved up the list.

It rarely worked, but it was my job to read everything sent to me.

The paper tore as I opened it, no return address on the front giving me clues. That led me to think hate mail, probably something calling me a whore, or an abomination, or perhaps it would prove to be someone who at least had an entertaining insult.

The letter was handwritten—a rather nice touch for hate mail. At least they’d taken the time to write it all out by hand. The only thing more touching would have been a letter created by cutting out pieces from magazines and pasted like an old ransom note. I hadn’t gotten one of those in decades.

Probably too difficult to find the magazines anymore…

I forced my mind to focus on the words written.

Hey,

You once told me that life gets better. I don’t know if you believed it, and I didn’t, but I finally figured out what you meant, and I’m glad I hung around long enough to find my better. Now I just hope you find yours.

Love,

Blizzard

I stared at the letter, the words sinking in and that tightness in my chest loosening.

Then again, if anyone could have survived this, if anyone was tough enough to make it out, well damn…

She sure was my best bet.

* * * *

Yun