How to Start a Fire

CH15 [Kill Your Darlings, Act Two]

As I spotted him he was on his hands and knees, his fingers scratching over the floor desperately. He wouldn't stop screaming.

A werewolf officer, which I identified as Officer Wallace, tried to pull him up but he kept pushing him away just to go back to the ground. I made a few steps towards them until I saw that he wasn't scratching the ground.

His hands were digging through a thick layer of ashes.

I wanted to come closer and ask the officer what happened, but on the other side I didn't want to hear it.

I couldn't spot Aleksander anywhere... And he wouldn't leave Mamoru's side. Especially not in situations like this.

I didn't want to go back into this fight. I could already imagine how someone killed Mamoru and Curtis killed Millicent in his fit and I was all alone again...

Maybe I was lucky and they killed me, too.

But no, if I still had any importance to Gagnier they wouldn't hurt me, but they would keep me alive.

A vampire lashed out at Mamoru, but Wallace shot him at the spot, defending Mamoru now instead of pulling him away from the remains of his boyfriend... and I decided to join Wallace, at the very least.

I couldn't let this happen.

I ran up to him. "Hey, you have a second gun, right?" I yelled at him through Mamoru's screaming.

"Yeah, here!" He took it out and handed it to me quickly. "It's loaded, take care."

I grabbed it and looked for further threats. Most vampires were still busy with the werewolves and I didn't want to hit a wolf by accident, but Wallace didn't seem to consider this much of a problem- but he still missed all of his shots.

I stared down at Mamoru. By now he just made noises of agony, his hands trying to grab the ashes that simply escaped through his fingers. Aleksander's clothes were lying on the floor, covered in dust, together with all the bracelets he had been wearing around his left wrist.

I wanted to help him, but I had no idea what to do. Nothing could help him right there.

This was my fault... As Theodor said, if I had done the same as always, nobody would have died. My plan had failed and I couldn't believe I actually thought we were going to make it... especially considering how much of a failure I was.

"Oh, so roly-poly died." I heard Theodor's voice snarl behind me. As I turned around he calmly walked towards me with a serious expression. "Do we even need to discuss whose fault that is?"

"It's yours." I responded, holding my gun up at him again. "You are nothing but a nuisance. If you hadn't-"

"Is this really the place?" Theodor asked, pushing my gun to the side via telekinesis. "The boy is grieving."

"He wouldn't be if it wasn't for you!" I said and tried to fight against his power, but failed.

"It wasn't even one of my vampires who shot him." He said before pointing at Officer Wallace. "Ask him."

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Wallace yelled, pulling his gun up at Gagnier, but before he could shoot his gun was torn out of his hand and tossed away via telekinesis.

I just stared at Wallace. "What?" I asked in disbelief.

"He... he was fighting and... I tried to shoot another vampire and he just... jumped right into my bullets..." He said shakily, obviously trying his best not to cry.

An accident.

"And you absolute fucking moron just keep on shooting, endangering the other officers?!" I asked, ignoring Gagnier. "Do you want to hit the others by accident, too?!"