"Wie fühlst du dich?" Mrs. Keene asked. She pointed to me with worry on her face, that had been there since classes had started up again.
[how do you feel?]

"Terrible." I told her. She frowned.

"auf Deutsch," she said sadly, moving on to the next person and not even bothering to correct me or have me reply with something correct "auf Deutsch."
[in German, in German]

..:..::..:::..::..:..

"We need to go talk to that cop." Pete announced as soon as he caught sight of me across the school yard. He trudged through soggy flowers as quickly as he could and grabbed my hand. "Ryan and Patrick said they're staying here."

"We can't just leave-" I started, but he interrupted me with a quick shove on the shoulder.

"They said they'll cover for us. Let's go."

"Ryan is totally gonna rat us out, Pete-"

"No he's not," Pete rolled his eyes dramatically and stomped his foot against the pavement in slight frustration and annoyance "I have some information about him that his anatomy teacher could put to good use."

"Like what? Ryan is literally a fucking angel in that class-"

"This one time when he got drunk, he hijacked the anatomy skeleton and accidentally set it on fire after dropping his cigarette through the eye socket. Yes, yes, good job Ryan. Now, not only are both alcohol and cigarettes forbidden from entering the premises of this sad excuse for a school, but that skeleton was the teachers pride and joy. He rats us out, he's dead meat, and I'll literally kill him myself."

Before I could process what he'd said and contemplate how Pete knew that entire story, he grabbed my hand and I followed him the entire 23 minute walk down to the police station without objections.

On the way there I thought about what Brendon had said to me on one of the first few days, the first week maybe, about how he wanted to be a fire. I couldn't remember exactly. Time seemed insignificant now that I had nobody to count the days with.

After the memory of what he'd said resurfaced, I couldn't get the image of a fire out of my mind, for at least the past 9 days or so. It'd gotten so out of hand, I'd begun to classify myself as the fire instead of him.

And I also began to question which of us was the match that set our paper hearts ablaze.

..:..::..:::..::..:..

Pete flung open the swinging glass door and didn't bother to hold back his frustration and anger as he yelled "I need the cop that saw Brendon Urie last!"

A guy dressed sharply in a blue uniform and black tie stood up, his dyed red hair jumping around messily as he walked. "Who're you?" He asked with a slight southern accent, his eyes squinted at us suspiciously.

"I'm his... cousin. And this is... also his cousin."

The red haired cop shrugged, and either he didn't care or just didn't want to keep in what he saw, because he gestured outside and we waited for him. When he shut the door and stood towering over Pete but a little shorter than me, the sunlight gleamed off his name tag, which read 'J. Dun' and the name clicked as Joshua Dun, associated very closely with Tyler Joseph.

"You two got names?" He sniffed, swiping quickly at the side of his nose.

"I'm Pete, and this is..."

And they both turned to me, and I said the first thing that popped in my head. "Magnesium is the 8th most abundant element in the earth's crust, though not found naturally in its elemental state."

Josh squinted, confused, with his lip curled up slightly in an amused smile, and Pete muttered something under his breath I assumed wasn't praise for my quick thinking.

"Dallon. He's Dallon."

"Well, Pete and... Dallon, what d'you two want to know?"

"I wanna know what happened, that's what." Pete huffed, obviously trying to sound tough. But it clearly wasn't working as well as he thought it was.

Josh sighed and ran a hand through his hair, shifting his weight to one side and staring up at the sky while stuffing his free hand into his pocket. "Why should I tell you? It's none of your business."

Pete sighed and pulled out a couple bucks and some change, quickly counting it before passing it over. "3 dollars and 21 cents. Now spill."

Josh scrunched his nose and pocketed the money before standing up to his full height and staring off in the distance "Well it was pretty late, maybe about midnight or so. I was investigatin' a missing persons report, their last place recorded being the ledge your 'cousin' drove over. And I had my lights on so it lit up the road, and out of nowhere he came barreling through. I could've sworn he was stoppin', but the only hesitation was at the beginnin' of the curve, like he was just about to second guess himself. Then he jerked the car to the right and broke the barrier clean through the middle, crashed the front end into a tree, and slid down to the ground. I headed down there as quick as I could, but he wasn't with me for very long."

Pete stared at the sidewalk, eyes wide and mouth dropped open like he couldn't believe anything Josh was telling us.

"D-did he say anything? Before he..." I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence. Josh slowly shook his head yes and crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his gaze to the floor.

"I got down there and he was restin' on the steering wheel like it was a pillow. His chest looked crushed like a soda can, it was both a miracle and a curse he was still breathing. Hell, I hate to say this too, but he looked dead already. But he grabbed on to my hand through the broken window 'n said "tell them I'll see them again soon." And he paused and smiled and stared out from the windshield up at the sky then said "I can see her"." Josh stopped talking for a solid minute and blinked slowly a couple times.

I felt like my chest had been stomped on by an elephant. That was where his story had ended. I'd expected him to go out better than that, not nearly as soon either.

I assumed 'her' was Sarah. I wished it wasn't, not because I was jealous but because that meant he'd been so selfish to do that to himself. But deep down I knew it was for Sarah all along. It always was.

"I'm real sorry." Josh whispered and put a hand on Pete's shoulder. I hadn't bothered to check if he was doing okay until now, and it was apparent he wasn't very well.

"It's alright," I said for Pete, regaining his composure with shaky breaths "was there anything else in the car or was it just him?"

I'd known for a fact he'd gotten up and left before midnight, maybe about 11, maybe earlier. Which gave him an hour long window to do whatever he'd done before he bit the bullet. I could only imagine.

"There were a couple of pink flowers," Josh frowned, trying to remember "but I think that was 'bout it. Didn't have much but the flowers, the clothes on his back, and the smile on his face."

Is it a crime to smile once in a while?

..:..::..:::..::..:..

Pete slammed the front door shut behind him and started unpacking his backpack on the table, even though he only had two things in it; a bag of chips, and Brendon and Sarah's book.

"I have a theory." He announced, waving at Patrick and Ryan seated around our kitchen table.

"We missed you in class today."

"Right, because I was busy coming up with this theory."

Patrick sighed loudly from the kitchen and rolled his eyes dramatically "just tell us what it is. The nonexistent suspense is killing me."

Pete rubbed his hands together and shrugged his shoulders a couple times "so I was thinking he was sitting in his room because he couldn't sleep, and remembers he has to do something back home or whatever, because his hometown is on the other side of the forest. And he was saying how sorry he was the entire time, so he must've forgotten about someone. So he was driving and it was late and he'd had way too much to drink, and he saw the cliff and everything he'd been yelling before he left hit him, and there was an easy way out. And the stupid impulses he always got before doing something idiotic, drove him off."

"But who did he forget about?" Ryan mumbled, using the table surface like a pillow.

"Some things are best left mysteries." Patrick said, and everyone fell silent.

I didn't want him to stay a mystery. I needed an explanation. But then again, it might just be easier if I let him be.

In fact, it would be easier if people just disappeared because then there wouldn't be the heart shattering knowledge that they'd left too early or had been too young to experience a fate like that and live the terrible life they'd lived.

I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, that he wanted to be left unsolved.

[1600 words, 1/21/17, I feel like these chapters are getting progressively worse and worse and I'm sorRy but there only a few chapters left and I'm excited to finish this after like 5 months or something close to that I'm not good @ time]