She stood, her back aching from spending so long in the hospital chair. She thought about the ache, and the squeak of the floor under her sneakers, and the chemical-solvent smell of the air. A nurse gave her a pressed-lipped smile, and she returned it, a reflex.
At least there was protocol here. Call the family, the friends. Ask the questions they might find themselves wondering about in the coming weeks and months, even if they didn’t care about the particulars now. Then go home, sleep.
Sloane didn’t need to wonder about burial arrangements. They all knew what one another’s preferences were—that was the sort of thing they had talked about in the days of the Dark One, the “In case I don’t make it” contingency. Albie’s was cremation. Ashes scattered at a Drain site, didn’t matter which one. No big funeral; he didn’t like crowds.
Esther was at a club when Sloane called; it was hard to hear her over the thrum of the bass. Sloane had to shout at her to get her to step outside. She gave the news like the doctor had: straightforward, clear, concise.
After hanging up, she sank into a crouch, her back against the wall of painted cinder block behind her. She watched the nurses shuffle back and forth in their Crocs and scrubs. She thought of Albie’s trembling hands and how he had shoved napkins at her that day in the bar so she could wrap them around her feet.
She stayed there until her legs went numb.
Chicago Tribune
CHOSEN ONE ALBERT SUMMERS DIES AT 30
by Lindsay Reynolds
CHICAGO, MARCH 18: Albert Tyler Summers, known to his loved ones as “Albie,” died yesterday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital of a drug overdose. He was thirty years old.
Albert is survived by his mother, Kathy, and his sister, Kaitlin. His father and brother were killed by the Dark One in the attack on Edmonton, Alberta, in 2005.
Albert was one of the five Chosen Ones who famously defeated the Dark One on March 15, 2010. He was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, in a cooperative effort with the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency, at the age of sixteen, when the elements of a classified prophecy singled him out as a candidate for the Dark One’s defeat. He was educated and trained in a secure facility with the other four Chosen Ones: Matthew Weekes, Sloane Andrews, Ines Mejia, and Esther Park.
He spent the next several years engaged in the struggle against the Dark One and his army, emerging unscathed from dozens of altercations, including, most notably, the Battle of Boise and the Springfield Stronghold. He suffered permanent spinal injuries as a captive of the Dark One in 2010 but still fought with the others in the final conflict.
Following the Dark One’s defeat, Albert struggled with substance abuse for years before entering the Assurances Treatment Facility just outside San Diego, California. In an interview in 2013, he said of his addiction: “I didn’t know what to do with myself after the fight was over, you know? It was like my brain was used to the adrenaline and kept looking for it afterward. It’s hard to learn a different way of being, but I think I have now. One day at a time. Now I try to only look at what’s in front of me.”
His friends and family say that Albert was a kind, generous individual with unwavering loyalty to the ones he loved. He will be remembered for his sacrifices of inestimable worth.
Services will be private. Donations can be made in Albert’s memory to the One Day Foundation, which funds drug-rehabilitation programs for low-income individuals.
13
SLOANE WASHED HER HANDS in the crematory sink. The soap smelled like Band-Aids.
Logistics had consumed the past day, with Ines dealing with Albie’s family and Esther making arrangements for the funeral reception from afar. Matt helped where he could, but the grief had hit him harder than the rest of them, and he spent a lot of time blank, awake but empty-eyed. Eddie had canceled his events and meetings. Sloane thought she understood; Albie wasn’t just one of Matt’s friends, he was someone Matt had led, and, for better or worse, Matt always took responsibility for his soldiers.
Sloane’s job was Albie’s body. They didn’t have to talk about who would do that part. She was the only one with the stomach for it.
She had signed all the forms and made all the arrangements. The hospital had given her a bag of the clothes Albie had been wearing when