(*sorry for the short chapter btw*)

Everyone sat around Olivia Shew's and Steffi's bodies, who they had dragged from the staff room. Black streaks of watery char ran down their faces, the sprinkler system had burst to life just in time to give a sense of hope, but the fire had already done its work. Chiara's body was unidentifiable, a severely blackened outline of her body remained still on the ground in the staff room, melting away as the water washed over her. A misty black water spread across the floor, and was quickly mixed in with shades of scarlet red as the crusty dry blood that had made a home of these girls bodies washed away.

Olivia Shew and Steffi had remained unconscious during the fire. In the panic of the flames and trying to save Chiara, these girls had laid completely silent and unnoticed in the corner of the room, their lungs filling with super heated and smokey air. Now they lay lifeless on the wet carpet, blisters scattered across their red skin, ash coating their soft faces and darkening their charred uniform.

The girls sat in silence, trying to recover from the mental trauma and physical suffering of the fire. They had lost Chiara to the flames, they had lost Olivia to the flames, they had lost Steffi to the flames. They had almost lost Alex, Joanna, and Jemima who ran back in to try and save Chiara, but their attempts at doing so were empty.

Some of the girls sat with their head in their hands, some sat looking to the ceiling, some hugged their knees to their chest and rocked themselves back and forth, and some simply stared at the bodies and let silence flow through their tears.

Izzy sat with her legs beneath her, she looked to the bodies, feeling herself in their minds, feeling their unfelt pains curl into her. She slowly lifted her clenched fist from her shoulder, and brought it into her view. She took her fingers out of her palm with smooth movements, opening to reveal the red and raw skin that was used to swipe the fire from Sarah's hands. Shivers of guilt echoed down her neck, as she remembered what she did. She saw chiara's innocent face in front of her, she saw the way she screamed and arched her body in pain as the fire etched its way further into her body. The fire I caused. She saw Olivia and Steffi's careful skin being crept up on and bitten into by the fires teeth, she saw invisible pain and suffering in their closed eyes, she saw the fire trapping them in a prison of its own heated torture. The fire I caused. She saw the smoke suffocating all three of them in their final moments, she saw herself standing, doing nothing to help, doing nothing to do anything at all, she was another burden to take care of as people were being burnt alive by a merciless fire. The fire I caused.

Izzy stood up, slowly and silently, she didn't want to disturb anyone in their time of mourning. Sarah noticed her stand, she looked at Izzy up and down, almost feeling sick to see her move so fast. Her lip quivered as she contemplated saying something to her, but Sarah decided against it. Izzy turned her eyes away from the dead girls, and began slowly walking away. A silence so loud filled her ears, she felt heavier with each step she took. She had no idea where she was going. She didn't care, she just wanted to leave.

She found herself waltzing up to the 5th floor, her legs were weak from the climb up the stairs, they ached as she walked over to the fence on the balcony.

She looked at the horizon and saw a faint red light starting to peek its way over the sea, she felt a gentle breeze on her face as she took in the surroundings. She relived the moment over and over, she could only see herself standing there doing nothing, after she had done something so stupid, something so fatal.

She let out a shaky breath and covered her mouth as she began to cry into the cold dawn air. She let it consume her, she wanted to feel all of the guilt and pain and horror that she deserved. She craved it, she craved for the bad things in her to win over the good. She didn't want to feel happy or relived or contempt, she didn't want to feel like that ever again. She wanted a war to rage in her, she wanted the good to be demolished so she would only feel the pain she deserved. The pain she craved.

The soft whir of the breeze ran through her wet hair. She pulled herself over the railing and onto the rocky landing on the other side. She felt pain so strong that she couldn't escape it with tears, she couldn't escape at all. She took steps to the edge of the landing, she didn't walk, not quite, each step was its own movement, they were disjointed and slow. She peered down to the floor below her. She thought of memories from before all of this, memories of happiness, memories of her family, memories of normal days, memories of a bland life that was a true heaven. The fall would be big enough she thought, mouthing each word to convince herself. She looked over to the horizon, she saw the sun shining subtly into the night, changing it to day. She let her toes hang over the side. She felt dazed as she thought about it, about everything. She had killed three people. A stupid and selfish mistake caused her to be a murderer. She stole their lives from them, ripped their futures from their bodies and tossed it into the fire. She took one last look at the orange sun, he hair glowing in the brisk light. Her eyes captured the tones of the sunshine in beautiful specks of gold, and if you were to look at her now, standing on the edge of the landing, staring into the morning sun, her curly hair perfectly matching the red hues of the light filled sea, her hands by her side and water drenching her body, you'd almost think she was ok. She turned away from the sun, and let her heels hover just over the edge. She felt no surge of panic, no adrenaline or second thoughts. She stopped crying almost instantly, something about what she was feeling made her want to stop, she looked at her hand and whispered

"Angels can fly"

And she jumped.