You had to fight darkness wherever you found it regardless of the cost. If one gave up the fight everything of value would be taken away. If one fought, that might still happen, but as long as the fight lasted there was hope of something better. So I would fight on, but what a cost to bear. Anna was tugging on me and I looked over to her.
"I thought you said I was safe?"
From the level of misery in her eyes I could tell that she saw herself to blame for the destruction of so many taking place before us.
"They're not after you! It's me they want!" I glanced back at the building wreathed in flames.
Anna safe? Anna wasn't safe!
Anna wouldn't ever be safe as long as she was with me! I turned back to her and her eyes reflected the tears she felt for the devastation taking place outside.
"What?" She asked uncertainly as she gazed into my face.
I grasped her head and kissed her with all the impassioned bitterness and heart sickness I felt in this moment.
I let go and whispered, "I love you, but I have to go!"
I ran back towards the bistro's kitchen avoiding her wild attempt to grab a hold of me.
Anna tugged Kevin along behind her and hit the back door of the bistro hard with the side of her body. The rusty door clanged open so hard it hit against the brick siding with a loud bang. Anna stood panting in the alleyway with Kevin, who was about to have a fit. No one was in the alley!
"Tyre!" She screamed out at the top of her lungs.
Her fist came up to her mouth and she half bit it in the anxiety of the moment.
"No!" She screamed looking down the alleyway again.
Kevin started to become uncontrolled and she sank to her knees on the dirty pavement wrapping her arms tightly around him.
"Shhh! It's okay!" She whispered in the calming platitudes known especially by mothers.
Her words were lies though. Everything was not okay! Her dreams were shattering one by one, but for the sake of her son she fought to keep the grief she felt from coming out.
It took her three days of crying and watching the news coverage of the incident to come to a consensus of what to do. The reporters were covering it as an extreme accident caused by a heavy concentration of paint fumes, which had combusted and ignited gas lines that had caused the loud explosions.
They may have been fooling the public at large, but she doubted any investigator on the case would buy that theory. There had been fifty seven casualties and over a hundred others had been injured in and around the building as well as with the rescue operation. Anna knew why Tyre had run and she even understood his reasoning for doing so, but even then it still didn't make it right.