You And Me Against The World | ✅

Chapter 73

We all hurry toward where the fire is. Tobias has already alerted the authorities and a fire engine is heard nearby. We arrive near the fire and Tobias holds me back and steps in front of me, shielding me from getting harmed.

Evelyn coordinates with a few of her people to evacuate the area and allow the firefighters to do their job, but also to avoid anyone getting hurt. We offer to help and together push bystanders backwards until the firefighters manage to contain the flames. The chief approaches us and tells us that they need to run a search to figure out what caused it, but he already found something disturbing.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Could we talk somewhere more privately?" he asks.

"Let's go over there," Evelyn suggests, pointing far away from the gathered crowd and out of the firefighters' way.

"What is it?" I repeat.

"We found two bodies," he states matter-of-factly.

"What?" Evelyn asks.

"Their bodies are burned beyond recognition, but given where we are I would assume they are factionless," he says and Evelyn immediately gets angry.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks loud and a few turn toward us.

"Mom, calm down, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it," Tobias tries to soothe her.

"I merely stated a fact, ma'am," the chief says.

"Please, there any chance of telling if they were alive when it happened?" I ask, thinking of how horrible such a death would be.

"Until a coroner establishes cause of death we can only speculate," he says with caution.

"Speculate," I encourage.

"Given the state we found the bodies I have to assume they didn't move. Which either means they were fast asleep or already dead when the fire started," he says.

"Thank you," I tell him and he returns to his men.

"Mom, there any way to check who is missing?" Tobias asks.

"I will get to it," she says. She walks away and tells one of her men something. Tobias embraces me and kisses my head.

"What are you thinking?" he asks.

"Is it a bad thing to wish them to have been dead when the fire started?" I ask and feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"Given what this looks like now I don't even want to know how it looked like from the inside. I think, as horrible as it may sound, that it would have been best for them to already be dead instead of dying like this, while fully awake," he says and rubs my back.

"What do you think happened?" I ask.

"I don't know, but this place isn't the safest to begin with," he sighs. After a while Evelyn returns to where she left us standing.

"I talked to a few of my men. They will run a search to see who is missing," she says.

"I will call the council and tell them about what happened and will personally stay in touch with the coroner to get all the information first," I tell her and she hugs me.

"Thank you."

"We should head home. We have a long day tomorrow and there's still a lot to do for Monica's interrogation," Tobias says and I nod. We bid Evelyn goodbye, but she stops us from leaving. We return to her house and she gives us the promised cake in a plastic container. We hug and kiss her goodbye and finally leave the factionless sector, heading towards the tracks. We don't wait for long until a train comes and we jump on.