Bad News (Coprolalia Part Three)

Chapter Thirty Six

June 12th, 2028

Madison Canter crouched on top of the flat screen TV in Ben Braeden's and Claire Novak's apartment as she silently watched the meeting.

"You look like you're going to fall on your face and take the TV with it." Jordan commented from where he sat basically next to her on top of the tower of DVDs and about five video games that no one could play because there was no video game console that she could see in the house. Maybe Braeden had hid it.

Madison had already taken off her socks and shoes, so in reply she curved her toes more tightly around the top of the TV. "I'm not gonna fall, Jordan. That was one time."

Jordan smiled and laughed. "Well, it was a funny time."

Madison stifled a giggle and reached over, scruffing his dark blond hair. "Shut up. I was still fifteen, and on top of that my body was extremely confused and still de-liquefying itself."

"You still look fifteen."

"Says the twenty seven year old who looks sixteen."

"Eh. We'll be around for way longer than most of them, so looking like a kid's not so bad. At least I don't look, like... eight or nine years old."

"That would have been creepy." Madison said.

"Not as creepy as you would've ended up if I'd been even ten minutes later that day in the hospital."

"If you'd been even ten minutes later or if Carter or Diana had decided to stay longer I'd be dead." She replied.

"Well, we are technically dead." Jordan said slowly. "What's our average heart rate again? Didn't someone check that four years ago?"

"Five to twenty BPM. Our hearts beat every three to twelve seconds." Madison answered.

She looked over at everyone. Almost everyone but them had been arguing for at least an hour or two about how exactly to attack Delilah Vlasta, Maxwell La Fue, their children, and Rome Young. It was sort of funny how they refused to think that their plan could go terribly wrong. Rose was bandaged up, and she didn't seem to be talking as much as she usually would be. Three people, two girls and a boy, who Madison remembered as Ben's doctor friends (Hayley the Banshee, VH the sniper, and the guy who was dating the tattooed Pheonix before she'd gone missing) were standing in the hallway talking separately from everyone else, though the guy kept glancing back at where Braeden, Novak, Rose, Carter, Turner, Emma, and someone who Madison didn't recognize but stunk of werewolf were talking in the kitchen. Brooke and the slightly younger Brooke were talking on the couch. Carter and Blake were sitting by the door, Carter on her laptop. Spartacus the dog was chasing Checker the cat around the whole apartment. Cora Jane and Tarren Farwell were kneeling on the side of the coffee table closer to Madison and Jordan, fiddling with a pack of Tarot Cards. Raphael was standing by the fridge watching the largest group of people talking, and a girl who smelled like a werewolf was just pacing nervously.

"Why are we even here, Jordan?" She asked him hesitantly. "We don't need to be."

Jordan shrugged. "I thought it would be interesting."

She looked over at him. "It's honestly sort of depressing. I mean, not only has everyone been saying that someone important will die, but doesn't that Banshee look scared?"

He tilted his head to the side and looked over at the Banshee for a few seconds before looking back at her with his pale blue eyes. "She could just be really nervous."

"Or it could be premonitions that someone's going to die."

"What do we care?" Jordan shrugged. "I mean... We hardly see any of these people anymore, and in a hundred years we'll still be around but almost everyone else except the archangels will be dead."