We couldn't hear any other sound but the storm and our breathing.

"I'm scared." I whispered.

He turned to me. At least I think he did. I stared blankly toward his shadow- the shadow that had the power of bringing courage and warmth to me. He was everything I had at that moment and everything I had in the past few days. The darkness was killing me because I couldn't see him, his eyes, his hair, his piercing. I... I...

"...Sebastian?"

"Hum?"

"I love you."

His breathing sound stopped at once.

       "W-what?" He stammered.

My eyes moved to my lap and I started rubbing my nails although none of us could see. "I love you."

We stayed in silence for seconds which sounded years. Until I felt his body collapsing against mine.

"Shit, Angelina..."

His hands found my arms and rapidly moved deeper to my back, pulling me into a hug. I squeezed my eyes shut and enjoyed that moment, letting my mind get lost in his chest.

"I love you too..." He whispered.

Everything was so soft and so unbelievably beautiful I felt tears coming down my nose and darkness wasn't that scary anymore. I'd actually forgotten about the storm. I just knew... he felt the same way.

A click. A switch. The car cracked open and Sebastian and I jumped 20 feet apart. Oliver Snowfields faced us with a flashlight, his body surrounded by water.

"Come on!" he shouted, "The building is falling down!"

I rubbed my eyes and frowned but still couldn't understand what the hell was happening, until he grabbed Sebastian's collar and pulled him to the rain. "We are inside Oxygen building. Take Angelina out of here." He said out of patience. Splash! - Sebastian's sneakers thumped when released over a puddle.

Oliver extended a hand. "Go with Castle." his voice passed thought the water to my ears. I stepped in the rain with him, shaking from head to toe. He took my hands and put them together with palms up. A cylinder of ice was formed there, burning my skin slightly. I closed my fists around it, feeling Oliver's eyes above me, and just opened after the ice turned into metal.

I clicked my flashlight on.

"That's my girl. Be safe." Oliver gave a light squeeze on my wrist. I watched as his shape met other shapes and they trotted away, becoming more and more blurry. If we were inside Oxygen that was not rain... Maybe was coming from the plumbing that supplied the lakes and fountains up there.

"Can I have the light? Thanks."- Sebastian took it from me. His tone sounded dry for some motive. I had to walk behind him like a duck while the flashlight searched all walls and corners. Whichever direction I turned, the same falling landscape came into view as though we had never left the first spot.

After some more minutes of torture I saw it, the EXIT sign gleaming red on the distance. The door opened and closed smoothly, leaving all noise and wetness behind. I raised my hands to clean my face.

Punch!- Sebastian hits the wall with the bottom of the flashlight, breaking it off.

"I don't like the way he treats you. And I don't like the way you look at him either."

"What?"

"You think I can't see? I'm not blind, you know."

"Wha-"

"Snowfields is like my boss, Angelina. How do you think I should act when I see you two that close? I feel like p-"

      He cut himself off. "I know this is not the time for an argue... I just think..."

He changed the hand holding the broken thing and stared at the wall. A motion sensor hidden somewhere had already painted everything yellow.

"Sebastian" I blurted out. "I don't care how many times you are going to be angry with me because of Oliver, but I do know that I can't live without-"

"You can't live without me? Ah come on!" He snapped- "How did you two meet? Room 9? Is he teaching you martial arts? I'm sure you fell for Oliver Snowfields from the first moment you saw him, am I wrong?"

"Sebastian!"

"He can take you to his room and cuddle with you in his bed, is that what you want?"

"Stop!"

       "And if he shows up here right now and says he wants you, would you go with him?"

       "No!"

       "Maybe you're too young to understand, but most people just say they love each other when they do know it for sure. It's too bad to be deceived. Very bad."

He crushed every inch of me with those words.

And we heard a loud bump coming from the door he'd just closed. A little girl stood there, showing her baby panty by using her skirt to dry the eye region.

"Lucy??"

"Hi, Sebatian..." She let go of the skirt and nudged a sandal against the other.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I heard you. I heard you and I came see why you wasn't with us, but I don't know why your so mad."

"You heard me?" His mood had changed completely. Sebastian squatted slowly in front of her and caressed her little ears. "That was good... and I am not mad!"

She chucked and pointed at me. "You're mad at she"

Sebastian glanced at me and turned to her again. "Your guardian must be dying right now. Do not ever do this again, okay? and you are coming with us." He wrapped Lucy between his arms and got up.

       In one moment my head was heavy as iron and in the other was light as a feather... That's when he looked at me and in his gaze I saw a request. An apology request. His eyes showed how regretted he was, without a word needed.

•••

The emergency alarm was still ringing and a crowd was standing in the parking lot. There were from adults in suits to children with flowered crowns, all of them dripping water and acting like the world was ending. Lucy moved to the ground and ran to them, specifically to a woman who had another baby in arms. I saw her hugging Lucy and kissing her cheeks. I felt lonely.

My ears caught Sebastian cursing under his breath. "Angelina I need to go back."

He didn't even respond my what- When I saw, his shape was already in the base of the building.

"Sebastian!!"

"Don't follow me! I just need to save a thing from my locker!" he yelled.

We were in the maze- something I hadn't noticed when Lucy was with us. I didn't know which part of Oxygen the maze was part of; to where it could lead or for what people used it. I just knew Sebastian was crazy and I wanted mom; and besides, running on a cement floor is dangerous, one slid and you can say bye bye to your knees.

We got to the stairs. Part of my brain was screaming to pull his shirt but the other was begging to follow and keep him alive. As if I myself could keep someone like Sebastian Castle alive.

       The path suddenly turned left and he slammed his shoulders against a door.

       "I told you not to come."

The door closed behind us, and we looked at each other. It was all silent, there was no water, motors or people to be heard. Except for our heartbeat. Until the first noise called our senses back. And that was no ordinary sound. It was a human gasp, and it came from ahead.

There was a couple standing right in the middle of the hall. Their skin looked like a cockroach's crust; their clothes like two potato sacks, tight around the woman's breast. They stared at us- eyes opened to every source of light they could get, and as though it was possible to tell they were old by the appearance, their eyes told the contrary. They were like movies with baboons who had just bumped into paradise islands in the desert... We could almost see the blood leaving their faces if there wasn't a layer of dirt covering everything...

       But there was a particularity with the woman. There was a moment when our eyes met and from then I blinked no more. She was different.

A total stranger

incredibly

familiar.

       Her hands slowly slipped into the man's, as searching for some proof her company was still there. The man held her, and I sensed how strong that grip was. It made my heart jump in awe and I smoothly moved my gaze to his face. Our eyes met. He automatically twitched his mouth, biting the corner of his lips... in which I could see the bright of a little piercing.