This is darkness I never thought I'd ever achieve.

I do warn you, and any of you easily frightened or depressed..

This will not be a happy chapter.

Aaron's View

*Play Song*

I am startled by a couple screams coming from down the hallway.

The screams I'm used to. I work in a hospital for crying out loud.

But what I'll never be used to, is her scream.

Aphmau.

The fire alarm goes off, as the patients's screaming only increases.

Fire.

Aphmau is still weak from the birth.

She can't run.

No.

Everyone rushes for the exit as I try to push past the crowd to get to Aphmau's hospital room.

Smoke starts filling the hallways as it starts filling my nostrils, its smell potent and strong.

I use my shirt to cover my mouth so it could help filter my oxygen but no such event occurs.

I start coughing as I ran, the wound in my shoulder searing with pain.

Eventually I start leaning down as I ran, most of the smoke mostly concealed to the ceiling.

I rush down the hallway, turning the corner to finally find Aphmau's hospital room, finding Katelyn and Aphmau, tied up and their mouth's duct taped, them both leaning against the wall.

Aphmau was crying hard, the soot starting to gather on both of them.

Then Katelyn sees me, her eyes widening.

She taps Aphmau's shoulder with her shoulder, Aphmau shooting her a angry look.

She then sees me, her sobs increasing.

I quickly come over to them, untieing them, while carefully taking the duct tape off.

The minute the bonds are off Aphmau, she leaps into my arms, wrapping her arms around as she sobbed, the smoke turning her clear tears black.

Everything around us seemed to have a tinge of red.

"Aphmau hey its okay. Wait, where's Angel and Lilith?"

Aphmau doesn't answer, she just keeps crying into my shirt.

"Gene took them and went somewhere in the hospital, I'll get Aphmau out of the building, you go" Katelyn informs me, helping Aphmau off the floor.

"No no, I want to come." Aphmau pleads, standing up.

"Aphmau no, its too dangerous......" I start but she stops me.

"Aaron..he took them—Gene took them." She says between sobs.

A bad feeling sinks my heart...

I try to shake my head of the terrible thought, but it keeps lingering, causing horrific images in my brain.

"Gene—didn't hesitate at killing Alex." She reminds me, my heart sinking more.

"Why would he hesitate with Lilith or Angel?" She sniffles.

"Aph, they're going to be okay. I'll make sure of it, but you need to stay outside the building ,okay? Its dangerous in here." I press my lips against hers, feeling her tears collect with mine.

We rush out of the room, down the hallway again, the fire still raging around me.

Though at the end of the corridor, is a scene, that makes me freeze.

"Daddy—" Lilith tries, but is interrupted by an elbow to the chest.

From Gene...

Furious, I begin to charge at him, but he stops me by holding a knife to Lilith's throat, him kneeling behind her.

She was standing up, her body tensed and frightened.

"Hello, Aaron. Long time...no see." Gene greets, a weird tone in his voice.

He press the knife closer to Lilith's throat, making her wince.

Angel was in a portable incubator from the NICU, at least safe from the toxic fumes.

"No matter what I seem to do, you just manage to have more children, don't you?" Gene says at me, Lilith softly whimpering.

My body was roaring with anger, a scowl on my face.

"Let. Them. Go. Gene." I demand, my voice thick with hostility.

"And why should I do that Aaron, why can't I just watch you suffer, maybe a bit more this time...." As he says this, he presses the knife even harder on Lilith's neck. She screamed.

I winced at her pain, anger and sadness warring in my chest.

"If you must know, I didn't just attack Aphmau because Lily wanted you back, I mean what was in it for me? I just wanted...to get to you." Gene smirks, a sickening thing.

"Whatever you want with me, leave my family out of it. You have me." I say, my body tense.

Gene chuckles, pressing the knife even deeper into Lilith's neck. So many screams. "Michelle Peterson. Age 5. Brain Aneurysm. July 14th. Exactly two years ago, on this day."

The name rings some bells, sending guilt into my body, the fire growing around us.

"Gene, that was a complication in surgery—"

"YOU KILLED HER! I trusted you to do the surgery on my daughter, but yet, you failed!" He yells, positioning the knife at the side of Lilith's neck.

No. No.

"Even Ein couldn't get the job done...so..."

He presses the knife deeper into her neck. Lilith's adorable little face, so very pained.

"You took from me, the only good thing I ever had, so I'm going to take, everything...from you."

"Gene. Please..." I plead—I beg, tears and horror blurring my vision.

Please, Irene...

"Now you can suffer, the same way I did."

I almost close my eyes, because I just couldn't watch.

Though apparently, Aphmau could.

"LIIILLLLLIIITTTHHHH!!!!!" Her sceams echo throughout the hallway, as Lilith fell to the ground, blood starting to leak from a long cut along her neck.

I opened my mouth in my shock, tears streaming down my face.

Before I could even get to Gene, the sound of a gunshot rings out as his eyes go wide, his chest revealing a gunshot wound.

As he fell to the ground dying, he whispers a few words.

"For you.....Michelle....."

Then his body went limp as his eyes become frozen in time, forever.

Police men and fire men then start to fill the hallway, the firemen trying to dose the fire.

I run over to Lilith's side, her body slightly shaking and becoming pale.

No......

Lilith please......

My breathes shaky and my heart ripping it self apart, I place my hands on Lilith's neck, trying to stop the bleeding, Aphmau sobbing at my side.

This is all my fault........

All this.......

Because of what I did.......

Because of what I did to some else's little girl.......

"Daddy?......Daddy.....it hwurts..." Lilith manages out, her voice whispy, her eyes pained.

"Yeah I know sweetie, don't worry, we're going to get help. You're going to be okay." I sniffle, knowing what I was saying isn't true, the blood still pouring slightly from the wound.

"Am...I dwying, Daddy?" She asks, her cute little voice ringing throughout my mind.

I couldn't answer her, my body eating itself from the inside.

"That's okway. At least...I cwan see Alex, rwight?" She asks, her breaths sharp, the color leaching from her already pale skin.

"Yes, my dear. Yes, you can see Alex." I answer, my whole body feeling very...cold.

"Some pweople say, when you die, its lwike, falling aslweep...so if I hwave nightmares, will you...will you stway with me?"

"......when I have nightmwares, I would want swomeone to stway with me, it would stwop my nightmwares. Dwo you want me to stway with you?"

"Yes, Lilith. Yes, I will. I'm not going anywhere." Remembering when she comforted Aph after her nightmares, crying even more, Aph screaming at my side.

"Daddy...please dwon't cry. Even if I'm gwone, you can stwill find me...among the stwars. And if you want to see me smile...look fwor the moon, you know, when it....lwooks like a smile. Cause...all the gwood people's smiles are in the moon..."

Then her once electric eyes, full of wonder and excitement, become still, frozen like an icicles, water frozen in time.

I've never hated a shade of blue more.

Aphmau collapses on Lilith's legs, sobbing loudly into her jeans.

Lilith's body goes limp, her lips ajar after saying her last words.

All the police men and firemen, acknowledging the situation, kneel down in respect.

Katelyn did as well, tearing up.

I grasp Lilith's cold head in my arms, sobbing into her hair.

What if...all this time...

Aphmau was my medicine.

But Lilith...

She was my cure.

This is the end.

Thank you my crystals for reading.

Please...

Have a day my crystals, where we think about all the children who died too young...

Ones like Alex.

Michelle.

Lilith.

Ones who died from violence or sickness.

Or even the ones who haven't even come into the world yet.

This book is dedicated to you.

To the children who left this world.

Too soon...