Duality

Chapter Three - Aftermath

This chapter is from Tina's perspective, because my brother (who is both my editor and beta reader, some of you may know him as 'Gas-ter,' and I believe he has a story up as well) was curious as to what she and Ryan were up to while Goldy and Unicorn almost hecking died. (most of it was running that was skipped over, as you'll see in, like, the first three paragraphs)
So that's what today's chapter starts with.

"Nine rings, forged in twilight,"
-from The Stars' Prophecy, line 1

They were late, and they knew it.

Tina hoped that Unicorn would appreciate the effort to get both him and Goldy alone. His crush on her was so obvious, a blind man could see it. Hopefully everything went well.

Ryan appeared to have similar concerns.

"I hope Goldy didn't dash his hopes again." He said as the two of them walked down the sidewalk, side by side. "I don't know how much more the guy can take."

She looked up at him, stopping on the sidewalk. Ryan stopped as well, looking back.

"Maybe if I tried-" she began, before Ryan gasped, cutting her off. He was looking at something over her shoulder.

Tina turned around, seeing a large column of smoke in th he distance, rising into the sky like a black pillar. She stepped back instinctively, so quickly that she knocked into Ryan, who held her shoulders to prevent them both from falling over. Tina would've relished the physical contact, but she was focused on other things at the moment.

"What?" She breathed, staring at the towering spire of smoke. Fires were rare in the city. Well, to the point where you would almost never see the smoke rising from a burning building, because the fire department always got there before too much was set ablaze.

"Wait." Ryan gripped her shoulders a little tighter, bordering on a vice grip. She ignored it. "Isn't that the area where Azzip's is?"

Tina's eyes went wide. "You're right!" She almost yelled, prying Ryan's hands off her shoulders. 

"We need to go make sure Goldy and Unicorn are alright! They could be trapped!" She started running down the sidewalk, Ryan right behind her. They didn't notice that the smoke had stopped rising from the building.

They got to the burned down pizza place in just over thirty minutes, both panting from both the distance and the speed that they had ran. The paramedics and firefighters had returned to their respective areas, seeing that the only person hurt was Azzip, who had managed to get out the back door and had been found around the corner lying on the ground, the front of his shirt torn, scorched, and bloody, like someone had attacked him with a hot knife, but had failed to cauterize the wounds.

Ryan ran a hand down the bricks, wiping the soot on his pants. "It's just the shell of the building. Everything else has been reduced to either ash or twisted metal." He pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. "The doors won't open either."

"This is weird." Tina said, staring at the ash-strewn husk. Then, quieter: "I hope they're okay."

Ryan walked over, pulling her into a hug. It was rare that he showed affection, so the simple fact that he did so spoke volumes.

"It's alright." He whispered. Then, when she didn't say anything, he continued. "They'll be fine. Unicorn's one of the smartest people I know, and Goldy..." He paused. "Well, oblivious as she is, I think she'd notice if the entire building was burning down." He laughed. It was a dry, emotionless sound.