For Everything

Why Love Is A Murderer (Extended Chapter)

The rest of the day Gale and I didn't know what to do. I felt horrible. I couldn't get Felicity's expression after she caught us out of my mind. The way she looked at me, they way she cried, it broke me down that day. I was broken, beyond fixing. Nothing could help now, and from now on there would only be pain, and nothing else. I went home, worried that night. The next morning I went to school worried too. I didn't see Felicity or Alex that day at school, or the next day, or the next day. They had completely vanished, which worried me even more, until Tuesday came. I was supposed to meet with Dr. Amber after school today, but that didn't exactly happen. It was a completely normal day in the morning, until I went to my locker. That morning, I had gotten to school a little late, so by the time I got there, students were everywhere. I had seen Gale but I told him I would meet up after I got my books, so I walk over to my locker. It looked normal on the outside, but I could tell something was different about it. I didn't know what though, so I opened it anyway, and that was my fatal mistake. As the door to my locker opened, a loud bang sounded and suddenly I was flung back across the corridor, hitting my head hard on the opposite wall and crumpling to the floor. I cup my head in my hands and squint to see what's happening. I can't see much, my head throbs and everything is suddenly covered in a piercing light that hurts my eyes. I probably have a concussion, mild hopefully. I manage to sit up, a ringing penetrates my ears as soon as I get a good look at what happened. All the students are frozen where they are, some are on the floor, lifeless. I look at my locker, or where it was, at least. The whole wall of 221B lockers is covered in a black stain. My locker, now a giant hole in the wall, collapses in itself, flakes of red and grey ash float into the air. The floor is covered in ash and tattered pieces of book pages. The locker exploded, I had a bomb inside my locker. I manage to stand up, but with difficulty, my head still throbs and the ringing in my ears isn't going away, but I still stand up. All the students look at me for a second, at least until another bang goes off down the hall. I look up just in time to see several other students fly in several directions and the wall of lockers is engulfed in smoke and ash. I see other students trying to access their lockers.

"STOP!" I shout, wincing at the pain it causes in my head. All of the students look up from their lockers, stopping what they're doing. 

"The lockers!" I shout before everyone goes back to what they're doing, "They're bombs! Don't open them or else they'll blow up! Everyone get away from the lockers and evacute the building!" I sound so professional but I don't care, my head hurts too much to care. The students are in danger, and that's all I care about. The students don't move, everyone staring at me with curiosity, they all look like sheep. I try yelling again but just get drowned out by someone else's yelling. I don't hear what they're saying at first, it's all just muffled nonsense, but then it becomes clearer. 

"Fire!" someone shouts from down the hallway, "Fire! There's a fire! Help! Fire!" I look down the hallway to where the voice is shouting to see bright orange flames leaping out of the hole in the wall the other exploding locker created. Sure enough, there was a fire, and it was growing rapidly. Apparently several other students saw the fire too because before I can do anything, students are pushing, shoving, and screaming, all trying to get out of the school. I begin getting pushed as well, moved towards the door, before a hand reaches out and grabs mine. I look up to see Gale, worried.

"Are you okay?" he shouts over the screaming students, getting pushed with me.

"Yeah," I shout back, wincing at my throbbing head. The ringing is starting to go away, but not much, "What's going on?"

Gale suddenly looks grave, turning white, "I don't know." He doesn't say anything else, he doesn't have to. I immdeiately knew what was going on, and all these students were in danger. 

"We have to get everyone out before they get to them!" I shout to Gale. He nods back and we shove our way against the current of students, towards the fire, towards death. We shove past everyone and stand in the hallway, alone, with the fire. It races towards us, angry and full of hatred, down the hallway. The fire is coming quick, but I see a way to get past it. It's a narrow passageway, but there's a staircase next to the wall where the second locker exploded. We can't go straight or else we'll walk into the fire. If I can get to the staircase in time, we can get to the second floor and get those kids to safety. I consider running out of the school, but before I can step, another bang comes from the ruins of my locker and I turn around. Fire begins creeping out of the hole in the wall and the floor is ignited in orange tongues of heat. No use going back that way. The fire is coming from both directions now, trapping Gale and I, but I'm not giving up. Without thinking I sprint to the staircase. It's a race now, me against the fire. I didn't really think of Gale before but I hope he's following me. I reach the staircase just as the fire does, but I'm too slow. I jump onto the steps to feel something dragging my foot back. A searing white pain penetrates my shoe and burns into my ankle. I drop down to the ground, screaming in pain as the fire burns my foot. It's hotter than I expected, there must be gas or something flammable nearby. I close my eyes and bite my tongue as a hand grabs the back of my collar and starts dragging me up the stairs. I look up t see Gale, and eventually find my feet. I limp up the stairs with Gale not looking back to see the fire. I can feel it at my heels, not wanting to see how close it actually is. We reach the second floor to see children running everywhere while teachers try to corral them to safety. Fire trickles up the staircases everywhere, illumniating and heating everyone. I was so focused on the fire I almost didn't see the children falling and not getting back up, or the gunshots that got closer, and closer, and closer. I look up to see two people walking towards us, carrying guns, and shooting at everyone they see. As they get closer I gasp. Even though I knew it was them, seeing Alex and Felicity just made this even worse. They planned all this, just to get back at Gale and I. They don't see us yet, so I begin running towards them, as children on both of my sides are being shot at. Before I can reach them, Gale grabs me and tugs me over to an open classroom. He slams the door closed and covers the window. It's completely abandoned, no one in it.