It took me a while to realise Jake not only stopped moving, he stopped breathing as stared at the fire wide-eyed, his face as white as a ghost, body trembling. He was so caught up in attacking Cyan that he hadn't even noticed the fire, but now that Cyan laid dead underneath him, there was nothing to distract him from our situation. I called out to him several times, but he was unresponsive. I staggered getting up and ran over to nudge him forcefully, but it had no effect on him. If we were going to get out of there, it would have to be up to me. Jake had gone into shock and wasn't going to be of any help.

Clumsily I moved closer to the fire and turned towards the flames. I tried to balance the distance from the flames so I was close enough to weaken the plastic zip tie, but far enough so I wasn't absolutely scorching myself. Still, every now and then the flames would kiss my bare skin as they danced around. I had to bite my lip to keep myself from screaming in anguish. I remembered Jake's stunt with the lighter and couldn't help but think how pathetic it felt compared to now. Who would've thought that I would actually be put into a situation where I would have to literally burn for him? Well here I was, and I was determined to break this zip tie. I strained again against the plastic. It still wouldn't budge.

Suddenly Jake collapsed onto the floor. Adrenaline swept over my body and kicked it into high gear. With a grunt, I shifted backwards to place my wrists directly into the flames to speed up the process. It was weird, I expected excruciating pain as my forearms burned, but in that moment, I felt nothing. My mind was too focused on one thing – survival.

"Break, damnit!" I screamed just as the plastic finally snapped, freeing my hands.

Not wasting a single moment, I ran over to Jake and grabbed his arm to lift him off the floor. He was barely conscious so I draped his arm over my shoulder and dragged him out of there. The smoke was getting so thick, it was hard to breathe. My muscles felt sluggish and my lung burned while I struggled to support Jake's weight. I could feel my mind starting to fade as we went through the door way. It was getting harder to stay focused, but I would not give in. This would not be our end.

I had hoped for some relief in the hallway, but the fire had spread far ahead of us now. The air quality was just as bad as it was in the bedroom. As I kept dragging Jake, my eyes searched for a quick exit out of the building. However, all I could see around me was fire. More and more fire around us. Endless fire. How did it get so bad from a few candles? The world started to spin and I stumbled onto my knees. I coughed so hard that I had to let go of Jake. Fear flooded my mind. We weren't going to get out of this with me dragging Jake, but there was no way I was leaving him behind. This fire I started would be our undoing. If only I had ignored that email. If only I hadn't got on that plane. If only I hadn't searched that abandoned building. If only I had left him at the train station. If only I hadn't so selfishly pushed for us to go to that stupid rave. If only I hadn't sought to strike Cyan first to make a statement. If only I had trusted Jake. If only I had stopped trying to play hero when I was as weak as I am. Tears streamed down my face.

"Jake, please!" my voice strained between coughs. "Wake up!"

I shook him harshly in desperation. His head turned slightly to look at me. There was barely any life left in his eyes, which only made the sobbing worse.

"What the hell have you done!?" a voice shouted.

Ahead of us, two silhouettes stood with assault rifles trained on us at the end of the hallway. As if our situation wasn't dire enough, they would ensure we didn't escape, like hellhounds to our own personal hell. Meanwhile, parts of the ceiling started to fall around us. Time was running out.

"Go back and help Cyan or else!" the man ordered.

How could he expect us to help anyone in the condition we were in, even if Cyan was still alive? At this point, we couldn't get ourselves out, nevermind helping anyone. Somehow the guns they were carrying didn't even faze me anymore.

"Go on, shoot me," I laughed mockingly between coughs. "What's bullets going to do now?"

Jake suddenly shifted up onto his knees weakly. I could see he was grasping at straws to stay conscious.

"Jake? What are you doing?" I questioned.

He mumbled something in response in German. In his confused state, I wasn't sure whether he thought he had spoken in English or whether he thought he was talking to someone else. The only word I understood was "MC".

"Jake, don't do it!" I yelled. "You can't possibly dodge their bullets!"

Out of nowhere, Jake jumped on top of me, pushing me down flat on the ground. He then gave the wall beside me a heavy kick. The impact caused a chain reaction of walls and ultimately a large section of the ceiling to fall between us and the men at the end of the hall. Meanwhile Jake shielded me from falling debris. I could hear one of the men screaming in pain. I looked out, but all I could see was a burning lattice blocking our path. Just as I turned my attention back to Jake, he started fighting to get his leg out from a fallen beam. Quickly, I wiggled out from underneath him and kicked the beam away. Jake lowered his head, huffing from the lack of oxygen.

"...find MC..." Jake muttered before struggling to get up onto his feet.

I hesitated for a moment as I watched Jake shuffle through the burning debris towards the entrance. Mentally he was an absolute mess. I had no idea whether he was in the now, trapped in his memories or somewhere in between. I went after him and wrapped my arm around him so I could support him again.

"I'm right here, Jake," I forced a smile. "I'm right here with you. You're going to get out of this. We both are."

Looking around, I realised the earlier collapse had cleared the way to an opening in the side of the building. Gently I urged Jake to turn and head for the exit. Although it was only a few paces away, it felt like a mile. Behind us, more of the building collapsed. I tried to push Jake to move faster, but he was so weak. I began to doubt we would make it. My muscles were at their limit and if Jake lost consciousness, I wouldn't have the strength to get him out. Closing my eyes, I began to say silent prayers to whatever deity would listen. Then, like a miracle, we were hit by the sudden cold of nighttime air and oxygen flooded our lungs.

Immediately we both collapsed onto the ground, desperately gasping for clear air. Every single muscle in my body ached as if I had just participated in a triathlon. The sudden drop in temperature caused my body to shiver. Was it always this cold outside? I tried to take in my surroundings while my eyes adjusted to the dark, but I couldn't make out anything that wasn't in the immediate vicinity. I glanced over at Jake lying face down on the ground and noticed his sleeve opposite me was smouldering. He was oblivious to his predicament so I clamoured over to pull his hoodie off of him and threw it to the side before it got worse.

Not a moment later, my hair was suddenly grabbed by its roots and I was forcefully pulled away from Jake. I clawed at the hand holding me and screamed at the top of my lungs, but this did nothing.

"You're going to pay for this, bitch!" a deep voice yelled into my ear.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground at the feet of three large men. The first man shouted to the others in German and they leant over to grab my wrists and ankles. I kicked and flailed, though it hardly made any impact on these oversized monsters. Out of nowhere the first one went down with a loud thud, which caught the other two by surprise, but they didn't have time to react before a metal pipe slammed into the back of the second's head. There was a resounding cracking sound of his neck breaking near the base of his spine and he went down.

The third one jumped to his feet and blocked the pipe from impacting his collar bone. Jake and the thug wrestled for control of the pipe, but ultimately Jake was the weaker of the two. He was greatly disadvantaged being he was still under the effects of severe smoke inhalation. That and he was half the size of the other guy. He lost control and took several hits from the metal pipe. The sound of the pipe hitting his torso hauntingly echoed through the night. I sat up in terror, lost at how I could help Jake. In that time the first thug came to and stood up to assist his comrade. I glanced over at the second thug, who was either dead or unconscious, and I noticed his handgun peaking out of the back of his shirt. Without hesitation I grabbed it, turned off the safety and shot a warning into the ground.

"The next one goes into your skull!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, absolutely trying my hardest to sound convincing.

In actuality, I wasn't sure if I could hit one of the two thugs without hitting Jake. The thugs turned to look at me and while they were trying to determine whether I was a plausible threat, Jake punched the one with the pipe in the kidney and ripped the pipe out of his hands while he was reeling in pain. As he lifted the pipe to bash his head, the other thug moved to attack Jake and I panicked. I squeezed the trigger and a bullet hit him squarely in the chest. This gave Jake enough opportunity to hit him in the crook of the neck to make sure he fell to the ground and stayed down. Then Jake went absolutely ballistic on their bodies alternating between the three of them, pummelling their heads with the pipe while howling into the night.

Meanwhile I sat back on the ground in stunned silence over everything that had just happened. It wasn't until flesh flung off the pipe onto my face that I snapped back into the present. I flinched and swatted the debris away. My eyes followed its trajectory on the ground and I realised it had been brain matter. My repulsion was short lived though as I heard sirens approaching.

"Jake! We have to get out of here!" I yelled.

Jake couldn't hear me, or wouldn't hear me. Absolutely unhinged now, waves of aggression and frustration flooded out of him. Somehow I had to get him to stop. We had to get out of there before the authorities arrived if we were going to have any chance of escaping. I jumped up and ran over to him, wrapping my arms around him from behind. I hugged him tight until he finally stopped and dropped the pipe. His body shook in my arms.

"Come on, let's go home," I whispered.

Jake nodded weakly and turned away. Together we stepped around the bodies and out the back of the property into the alleyways. As we turned the corner, flashing lights reflecting off the bricks caught my attention. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure none were in actual line of sight to us. There was shouting followed by a series of gunshots as the cops rounded up the remnants of Cyan's crew. Miraculously as we weaved through the alleys, no one came our way. That meant we could shuffle back towards our hideout in peace, neither one of us speaking a word to each other.