Take Me Away (Neymar ; Marc Bartra)

Chapter 20

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize to you guys for the sudden short hiatus. Things haven't been well on my side recently, but it's getting better so I'll be sure to be updating again. Thank you all for being so patient and sticking around, I'm so sorry for keeping you guys waiting but I hope you'll understand <3 Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter! 

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The car doors slammed shut as Marc and I hurried off towards the scene of familiar faces, firemen and policemen gathering around the house; It felt like a post-CSI crime scene, that there was no chaos as the fire was already put out. God, it's difficult for me to get the image of bright glints of orange and smoke that filled up my thoughts out of my mind.

“What happened?” Marc barged and interrupted a conversation that was going on between Cristian and a policeman. His face darkened with confusion. “Nina? Where's Nina?”

An English Bulldog appeared and trotted from the back of Cristian's legs, Marc instantly bent over and accepted what seemed to be a greeting of getting slobber all over his face. That's Marc's dog, which is also known as his precious.

“It's only that part of the house that got affected, I'm sorry, man if only I came back a little earlier-” Cristian pointed towards a burnt window with broken panes at the side of the house. The pale grey walls surrounding it were covered in dark soot that were caused by the fire.

“Hey, no worries. If it wasn't for you it would've ended up worse.” Marc said with a slightly reassuring smile before attending to the police officer beside him that was clearing his throat.

I was surprised that he could still do that and remain so calm in a situation like this. If my house was on fire I'd turn into a mad-woman and let my anxiety get the best of me.

“That's Marc's award room.” I solemnly said to Cristian.

Being so close to Marc, I've been in and out of this house for a fairly great amount of times for the past couple years. Just a single look of that window had reminded me that it was the room where he would proudly display all the trophies, certificates and awards of his entire football career time line, ever since he was a teenage boy. I didn't know how bad the fire was, how long it went on for, how much damage it caused. If something were to happen to what the room contained, I don't know how Marc would feel about it. Thinking about that made my heart sank but yet again, I was praying for it to be otherwise.

“Exactly why this whole thing is obviously a set-up.” A familiar voice rang through my ears. Lifting my head, I saw Neymar. His signature look with a snap back loosely fitted on his head, also as if he was in a hurry and simply threw on some clothes before walking out the door. “It's not like Bartra lights scented candles, or has unattended electrical appliances when he's out. That'd be rather shocking, wouldn't it?”

I rolled my eyes at his horrible pun.

This went on for what seemed like an eternity. The crowd had dispersed but Barcelona players who lived in the neighborhood were all still gathered here while Marc and Cristian carried on conversations and revolving questions with the police. It was concluded that someone starting a fire here might be a likely possibility, but their motive remains unknown.

“I'm sorry, kiddo. I'll have to stay on and discuss about further investigations, check the camera footage and all that.” Marc came over and let out a sigh. “Not sure what the hell happened, but it'll be fine.”

“I can stay here with you,” I insisted.

“No, no. It's alright, it's getting late and Tello's gonna be here as long as he's here.” He pointed to the back where the police officer from before remained standing, scribbling something on his clipboard with a black ball-point pen. “I've called Neymar earlier, to come and take you home.”