Everything seemed to happen so quickly. They carried out the motions as if this was a real scenario they were not expecting. Lou and Amory opened their door, staring out into the blazing flames, before shouting for the others to get out and going towards the bedroom window. Lou grabbed her phone and nothing else, while Amory did not even bother with his. He attempted to pull open the window, but he was too frantic and hazed, the heat of the fire warming his back as it began crawling into their room.

"Amory!" Lou shrieked, because she was now growing panicked. This was not apart of the plan. This was real.

She realized that the window was simply latched, but before she had time to point that out to Amory, he was using the alarm clock from the night stand to smash it open. He pushed Lou forward, urging her to go first, so she did. She climbed through the broken window, slicing her hand and knee in the process, before tumbling into the bushes outside. She rolled out of the way, giving Amory room to jump out as well, and they both coughed as they reached the outside air.

The oxygen from the outside fueled the fire within, and they watched as the room was quickly engulfed in flames. Lou and Amory shared a look, the first they had shared since Amory pulled the trigger, before Amory pulled Lou to her feet and they rushed around to the other side of the house, where the upstairs guest bedroom's window faced.

As they got there, they saw Nadia hanging over the edge, her butt resting on the window sill. It appeared that the upstairs group did not break their window but instead were able to open it and push out the screen. Still, Nadia looked nervous, eyeing the ground below her.

"You have to jump Nads!" Amory cupped his mouth and called up to her. "The fires catching quick, you all need to get out!"

Lou nodded, but then became distracted. The upstairs window was on the side of the house with the patio, which held the sliding glass doors. She noticed now that they were wide open, which seemed odd. There was no way they were open prior to the gun going off. She shook the thought away, figuring that Marc had forgotten to close them upon coming back with the gasoline tank, and stared back up just in time to see Nadia take the leap.

Amory heard a snapping sound then an ungodly scream, and he was rushing to Nadia before he had a second to even get his thoughts straight.

"Don't move her!" Marc called from above, punctuating the end of his sentence with a cough. Smoke had begun to filter out from the window upstairs. "She could have fractured her spine!"

"He has to, or you guys won't be able to jump out!" Lou pleaded, tears beginning to fill in her eyes. Why had she let herself crumble? Why hadn't she stood strong and come up with a less dangerous plan?

"It's not my spine." Nadia sobbed as Amory finally reached her, clutching her left knee into her chest. "It's my leg."

Amory smoothed her hair away from her forehead, gently. He felt like any way he touched her might make her shatter. He had never hated himself, he wasn't that kind of person, but in that moment he completely understood self-deprecation. This was entirely his fault, and now those he loved were paying for it. Nadia opened her eyes at his touch, and she gave him a small nod, so he placed his hands under her and picked her up bridal style, and she screamed the entire time.

Ophelia began to crawl out the window next, coughing so much that she shook. Rather than jump the way Nadia did, she turned and hung out the window, glancing once below before letting herself drop. It certainly hurt, but she didn't think she broke anything. Lou was at her side in an instant, dragging her away into the grass. Behind them, Amory still coddled Nadia as she sobbed.

Marc went next, lowering himself in a similar fashion to Ophelia. He had read once that you should jump out and try to tuck and roll, but he didn't trust his dexterity at the moment. Plus, if he injured his leg like Nadia, he wouldn't be able to run into town. He fell to the ground in a heap, coughing desperately as he tried to allow good air into his lungs.

"Cas!" Lou called out, because she couldn't see him in the window. Ophelia helped pull Marc away and Lou left them to tend for each other, standing close to the drop site as she readied herself Caspar to jump down.

Caspar pulled his head out the window and coughed, strengthened only by the sound of Lou's voice. The smoke was nearly black around him, so much so that he couldn't even get fresh air just from standing in the window. He pulled himself onto the ledge and knew he wouldn't have the strength to lower himself like Ophelia and Marc did. Still, he tried.

His fingers slipped almost immediately, causing him to drop down in a heap. There were no snapping sounds, but there was an 'oof' and a crunch. Caspar turned himself over, forcing the air into his lungs as he sprawled out on his back. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he feared he wouldn't be able to move even if he tried.

"We need to..." Marc paused, a coughing attack overtaking him. "We need to get away from the house, they have a gas stove that will blow any minute."

As if on cue, an explosion went off from inside, blowing out the first story window above Caspar and the sliding glass doors. Hot shards of glass descended upon him and flames licked the night air, extending out like hands trying to reclaim the group. Lou was undeterred, though, crawling through the grass towards Caspar like it was her only mission.

His eyes were half-lidded when she reached him, the glass littering his face and arms and leaving hundreds of little cuts. He seemed to sparkle in places where the glass was embedded, and she bit down on her tongue to stop herself from screaming out. As her face loomed over his, a small smile lit up his face.

"You have to move, Cas." She pleaded quietly, tugging gently on his arm.

Every muscle in his body said otherwise. Even his brain told him that he was perfectly fine right there, staring up at Lou as she was bathed in soft oranges and reds from the light of the fire. Still, she was asking him to move, and he would not be Caspar if he ever turned her down. He nodded slightly, though it hurt, then moved as best he could, which wasn't much.

After a moment of struggling, Marc joined Lou, and they both dragged Caspar away from the house. When they got far enough away, Lou sat with him between her legs, his back against her chest. She wanted to wipe his sweaty hair out of his face, or dust the shards of glass away, but she feared she would just make it worse, so instead she hugged him to her. He found her hand and squeezed it, and that was enough to make her want to sob once more.

They all sat in near silence for a moment, the only human sound amongst them being Nadia's quiet sobs, as they stared on at the Wright cabin. The flames were now overtaking it from the outside, and Ophelia screeched when the roof began to cave in. They knew that Tyler's body was amongst the flames, and silently they all feared that Vallie's might be, as well.

Without saying anything, Marc got to his feet. He paused, beside Ophelia, who was still sitting in the grass. She reached up and took his hand, and he squeezed her's before letting it go. He then went to Amory and looked at him for a moment, hoping his eyes could do what his mouth couldn't; tell him that he loved him. Marc would hug him, but he was holding Nadia, so he couldn't. Amory nodded, and Marc assumed he understood, so he tore off down the driveway.

Marc ran as fast as he could, ignoring the screaming in his lungs and the aching in his joints. He didn't have time to think, all he had time to do was run. It was dark, and his path was only illuminated by the moon, since he hadn't thought to grab his phone. If he were letting himself think, he might be scared, but he had no time for that.

Marc paused only once, coming to a screeching halt when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He was still near the top of the mountain, so there was some space of woods on either side of the road, rather than a straight drop off. To his right, he swore he saw a flash of movement. He paused, blinking out into the darkness, and the fear finally crept in. He wondered if it was a bear, but found that he would be more frightened if it was a person.

As he squinted into the woods, his eyes darting in all directions,  he didn't see anything move, until he did. He swore he did. A flash of long hair. Then it was gone, and he rubbed at his eyes and realized there was no hair, but only long branches and leaves, and that hair usually was attached to a person, which might be hard to miss. He listened for any sounds, but was met only with the crickets, so he tore off once more.

It had been a long night, he decided. His mind was simply being cruel.

Back at the cabin, the other's watched as the flames waged on. Ophelia was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, her brown eyes turned to a shade of amber as the flames reflected off of them. Caspar was still pulled into Lou's chest, and it seemed he was falling in and out of sleep. That wasn't good, she didn't think, because she wasn't sure if he hit his head during the fall. If he was concussed, he needed to stay awake, so she periodically squeezed his hand, hard, to jolt him back up.

Nadia was now sitting up, her leg bent toward her because it hurt to stretch it out. Amory was idly rubbing his hand up and down her spine, though he could not look at her. His knees were pulled up as well, his jaw set as he stared at the house in front of him. He was angry, which wasn't new for him, but he wasn't used to being angry at himself.

It was too quiet, he decided, and if no one spoke soon he would go mad. Amory cleared his throat, causing Lou, Nadia, and Ophelia to look over at him. Caspar remained resting against Lou, not bothering to look over.

"You know, a few weeks before Vallie's wedding, she tried to kiss me." Amory spoke, a few stray tears falling from his eyes. He didn't bother to bat them away. "She was drunk, like really drunk, so I stopped her. Then she left."

Lou looked at Amory, her heart breaking for him. He had never told her that before, and neither had Vallie, but she found she wasn't really surprised. It seemed they all had their secrets.

Nadia drew her eyebrows together, because that did surprise her. She had always been so certain that she perfectly understood the dynamics of their friend group, but that just completely proved her wrong. She never imagined that Vallie ever harbored any sort of feeling towards Amory other than a platonic love. It appeared she was wrong about a lot more than she realized.

"Why are you thinking about that now?" Ophelia questioned softly, resting her head on her knees as she looked sideways at him.

"Because." Amory finally angrily wiped his tears away, stopping his ministrations on Nadia's back. "Maybe if I had realized she saw me like that, maybe if I had seen her like that, too, none of this would have happened. Maybe she would have left Tyler for me, and maybe she would still be alive."

"Amory..." Lou spoke softly, though there was a chastising tone to her voice. She squeezed Caspar's hand once more. "You can't make yourself love someone, and you can't always save them either. There's millions of people in the world in bad relationships, do you think you can just steal them all away to keep them safe?"

Amory scoffed, but otherwise did not reply. He decided that they didn't get it, so he shook his head and wrapped his arms around his knees.

He wasn't interested in saving the whole world; just his.

After what felt like several hours, sirens reached their ears and they turned to see flashing red and blue lights racing up the driveway towards them.

Quickly, the scene devolved into chaos once more. EMTs assessed damage, worrying themselves with Caspar and Nadia first once they realized they were the most injured. They loaded Caspar onto a gurney first, preparing to put him in the back of one of the ambulances as the firefighters battled the flames.

"Can I go with him?" Lou pleaded, feeling so small as the EMTs busied themselves around him.

"You his girlfriend?" One turned, pausing after they tightened the straps around his chest.

Lou bit down on her tongue then looked at Caspar's face. She worried that if she said no, they wouldn't let her go along, so she simply nodded. The EMT hurried her into the back and closed the door, not giving her a chance to say goodbye to the others.

Marc stepped out from the back seat of one of the cop cars, a blanket thrown around his shoulders despite the heat. Ophelia rushed to him, falling into his arms as if she hadn't seem him in years. He had pulled it off, just like she knew he would, and she couldn't be more proud of him. He was capable of so much more than he would ever realize, but she planned to be there to remind him.

Another set of EMTs worked on stabilizing Nadia's leg, causing her to scream out as they set it, before loading her onto a gurney as well. Amory didn't ask to ride along, because Nadia didn't ask for him to, either. He didn't feel he deserved it.

Marc, Amory, and Ophelia were left at the scene with minor injuries that could be looked at later as the other three rode off. They were given oxygen masked, despite their protests, keeping them from speaking. They stared at the house, watching the stream of water the firefighters sprayed over it. There seemed to be a fear that if they couldn't get the house under control, the woods would catch soon as well, starting a forest fire. The thought made Ophelia nauseous.

A police officer sidled up next to the three, his hands in his pockets. He looked at the fire, then at their faces. He looked grim, and somewhat apologetic.

"We're going to have to take you guys down to the station and ask some questions."

They all nodded before looking at their feet. Ophelia prayed they would all be able to pull this off.

---

RIP Wright cabin I guess. goodbye Tyler's John Deere posters as well.

I made like a very iffy mock-up of the layout of the house, if it was at all confusing, so here that is!

the stairs start in the living room right outside the guest room, and the upstairs living room has a bannister and an open concept to see the first floor below, if that makes sense? the front door is the one in the living room, and the sliding doors lead to the patio. not that it really matters bc the house is doneso now, but i thought id still add this :)

How we feeling :')