🌻FINALE SONG:
sunflower
//rex orange county

your breath caught in your throat and you froze in your tracks, chilled to the bone.

no, god please no. anything--anyone but them.

you tried your best not to panic. to not hyperventilate. after a few seconds your eyes adjusted to the darkness a bit as you saw various candles lit around the room and you could make out some shapes: some looking like furniture and others... like people.

then you saw them. him.

he was coming closer and closer and you couldn't move. couldn't breath.

you could see his familiar green eyes in the darkness and your heart dropped.

you knew exactly who this was.

his soft, pale hand rested on your cheek and stroked it with your thumb.

eventually you moved away, gaining courage to step back and flick on the light switch.

it was elliot.

--wait. no. it wasn't?

it was the spitting image of him, the same black hair with the same bangs, the same soft, green eyes.

but elliot didn't have an earring. or a scar above cutting through his eyebrow.

"w-who are you?" you asked.

"you don't recognize me?" he asked, his voice sickly sweet and calm. "i've been here the whole time. waiting. watching.. surely you've seen me around."

then it clicked.

this was the friend elliot brought to the auction. he was the cashier at the drugstore. he was the person you bumped into earlier with your drink.

it made sense. he'd been lurking around, going places he knew you were going to be and placing himself there, watching your every move.

but there were still unanswered questions: how did he know elliot? how did he know you?

and finally, who exactly was he?

"oh, sunflower," he cooed, stepping closer and closer towards you. you stepped back until you bumped into a side table, cringed from the pain, then backed into the wall.

"please," you said, tears falling down your cheeks and nose, gathering into one big drop at your chin and dripping onto your outfit. "please don't. leave me alone.."

he smiled softly. he was standing so close to you, you could feel the way his heat radiated through the tux. you could see the way his eyelashes delicately fell as he blinked and how soft his pink lips looked.

"my dear, haven't you realized?" the smile danced on his lips. "that simply cannot happen. i'm the only one for you, so i musn't let you go..!"

he leans in. his lips were growing closer and closer until--

until you push him.

and he knocks back into a side table on the wall beside you.

and a candle knocks over, catching a curtain on fire.

of course, you're too busy to notice.

he lunges at you, knocking you over and clamping an arm around your mouth and neck. you two roll around, until your teeth successfully sink into his flesh and he yelps, letting you go.

you get up, grabbing an old, heavy book from the side table you bumped into earlier and smacked him over the head, knocking him out.

his body lay limp and you run over to where you thought you saw bodies and you find alex and ezra. ezra's still knocked out but alex has regained consciousness and is struggling against his bonds.

you run over and look through all the furniture drawers for something--anything--sharp and finally find a box cutter.

you run back over to alex, trying to stay away from the fire you finally noticed as it grows larger and larger and hotter.

you take the gag, his tie, off his mouth and he takes deep heavy breaths as you work on cutting him loose.

finally he breaks free and you help him up from the chair he was tied to. you start to cut ezra's bonds but then hear a yell from behind you. you glance back to see the boy awake and running straight at you, so you prepare the box cutter for self defense.

thank god for alex-- he intercepted, knocking the boy over as he ran and tackling him to the ground, throwing punches as he rolled.

the fire was getting too hot to handle. sweat and ash stained your forehead and dress as you finally untied ezra.

you look around, trying to see through the smoke if there was another way out other than the locked door. thankfully, you found a window.

you drag him up, pulling him to the window and sitting him by it before grabbing a chair to boost yourself up so that you could get ezra through the window.

the smoke is getting thicker and thicker by the minute and you're running out of time. you cough and feel as though someone's got a hand around your lungs and is squeezing, but persevere and climb, opening the window as a wave of ash cascades out into the open and heats the grass.

you drag ezra upwards with you, boosting him out the window and into the grass. the fresh air must've woken him up, because he starts hacking and coughing. you yell for him to call 911 and tell the party what's going on and, after a minute of gaining his composure, he takes off.

you climb back down from the window when you hear alex yelp. the boy's got alex in a chokehold so you run and use all your strength to tackle him to the ground.

the three of you go flying and you feel ash and sparks burn your skin and hair, as well as your clothes. you ignore the pain the best you could and focus on keeping the boy on the ground.

alex is cradling his arm and tears are falling down his ash marked face as you struggle to hold the boy down.

he fights and eventually breaks free, sending your back against the hard concrete and the wind out of your lungs.

you cough and cough, watching as he grows closer and you feel helpless as you can hardly gain air, the smoke is too much for your lungs to handle.

then you hear a shout as someone crashes through the previously locked door.

"eli!"

it's elliot.

he seems to have sobered up.

"stop! don't do this, this isn't how you show someone you love them."

the boy, presumably eli, stops in his tracks and turns towards elliot.

"you don't stalk them, you don't threaten their friends and family, and you sure as hell don't kidnap them," elliot screamed.

"i read the texts you sent her..." he trails off.

eli stays silent, then starts to laugh. his laughing got louder, until it was hysterical.

he finally calms himself, a smile still ever present on his face as the fire roared.

"you don't know a fucking thing."

  eli runs at elliot, pushing him up against the wall.

you hear screams and run around, trying to find out where it's coming from down in the room.

you find a closed closet and break the lock on it, kicking it.

you open the slated doors and find jc and only just realize that he was previously nowhere to be found.

you get him out the window so that he doesn't  have to inhale anymore smoke and return to eli and elliot.

elliot seems to have him in a chokehold and is trying to get him to pass out.

he drags himself and eli closer to the window as you lead the way for him.

sure, eli was a psycho. but in some way elliot was connected with him and he sure as hell wasn't gonna let him die.

eli seemed to finally pass out and elliot dragged him with him.

"go!" elliot screamed, "i'll follow you out the window!"

you could see a huge gash from something along elliots arm and knew he was gonna need help getting up the window.

the fire was now polluting almost the whole area, confining the three of you to the corner where the window was.

it's crazy... it felt like the fights and the fire had been going on for hours now,  but it really had only been around fifteen minutes. less than that even.

"you're going first," you said firmly, looking directly into elliots shaded green eyes. parts of his face were already stained with sweat and soot and his tux was missing the blazer and tie, leaving him in only the white dress shirt and dress pants. the shirt was ripped and stained with dirt and ash.

"no," he said, his jaw working as he returned the stare you were giving him.

"if he wakes up--"

"i dont care!" you shouted, "you're hurt. get your ass up there before we get fucking burnt alive."

you helped boost him up, helping hin heave himself out the window, you took one last glance at the past out boy, hearing the sirens of the firetrucks and deciding that i'd be best for the authorities to take him and telling this to elliot, who agreed,  before hoisting yourself out the window.

you were halfway out with elliot pulling your arms when you felt hands grab your ankles.

you swore and kicked with all of your might, but got dragged back in with elliot screaming your name.

arms wrapped around you and cradled you as eli buried his face in your hair and held you close as fire surrounded the two of you.

"we'll go out together, sunflower. we'll meet in heaven and be happy once and for all."

"the only place you're going is hell," you seethed before biting his forearm. he screamed, as he already had wound there here. you scrambled as fast as you could, climbing up and out the window as broken glass, fire embers, and hot wood and metal cut and stung you.

you made it out and slammed the pain with a thwack and the force of a thousand boulders.

you took a deep breath before you broke out crying, the firemen and women rushing to all of your aid.

it was over.

once and for all.

you had won.