The heartstopper

Chapter 43

Outside of the burning building, people were gathered across from the front parking lot as the firemen tried their best to put out the fire.

Nathan Ajayi and Youseff Farouq were doing their best to gather all of their students on the grass to do attendance.

Their students were a bit all over the place, it was hard to recognize them amongst the panicked crowd.

"23, 24, 25," Mr. Ajayi counted while Mr. Farouq tried to write down each of their names on a spread sheet that he had created on his phone. He didn't have his clipboard with a list of each of their students so attendance was a struggle. There were originally forty students to come on the trip, but nine of those students who'd travelled with them weren't leaving with them so there should be about thirty-one students to count for.

Students were working on finding their teachers. Darcy and Isaac re-found their way, looking for their friends. Charlie had been right behind them as they were evacuating but he'd disappeared once they'd looked back after being far enough away from the building. Elle and Tara joined soon after, without Tao or Charlie. They'd tried to search for their friends before heading back to their classes, hoping they were already there.

"26, 27, 28, 29," The teacher remarked. Only two more students. Mr. Farouq struggled to keep up with his list, trying to figure out who was missing.

"Have you seen Charlie and Tao?" Elle asked her teachers.

Mr. Farouq searched his list, not finding their names. "No..."

Just then, Tao trudged over to the group, looking out of breath, with a panicked expression.

"30,"

"Tao!" Tara exclaimed, relieved. Only one more person.

"Is Charlie here?" He questioned, searching the group for him.

Isaac shook his head. "Not yet,"

"He did get out, didn't he?" Elle wrapped her arms around her stomach, worriedly.

"He was right behind us while exiting, we must have just gotten split up, I'm sure he's somewhere around here," Darcy reasoned, turning her head to look over the heads of people.

"Alright, Nathan, I'll go see if I can find him," Youseff spoke, putting his phone down. The teacher jogged to the opposite end of the hotel, just in case Charlie was over there. He could have been searching for his classmates and teachers as they worried.

Charlie wasn't found. It was assumed that he was still in the burning building so the firemen were made aware of this information.

The firemen were searching for a total of seven people who were still not accounted for. Some of those people were probably just lost in the mass of people but until any of them are accounted for, they must still be assumed to be in the hotel.

The top half of the hotel was completely destroyed by the fire very quickly. The fire didn't take long to spread down the building, but the fire department had it partially under control enough that the bottom few floors, although would have tons of smoke damage and need to be completely reconstructed, the overall structure should stay intact.

The firemen were hosing down the third floor of the hotel, attempting to stop the fire from spreading from there on. With the size of the building, the fire would take a long time before it would be completely put out.

Out of the seven people still missing, one of them, an elderly lady, was found sitting on the grass. The others were still nowhere to be found, until, someone was spotted through a window on the second floor. It was unsure if it were just one person or more, but someone was there.

The person was struggling to open the window. They probably wouldn't be able to do it on their own, firefighters did their best to get to them. The fire was still very close to the window, so as firefighters tried to get them out from the outside, firefighters sprinted into the building to help them from the inside.

They got there just in time. There were two of them, two male teenagers.

Neither looked as if they would survive. They both had far too much smoke in their systems that they were barely breathing. One of them had briefly stopped breathing, but the EMTs hooked him up to breathing tubes after being loaded into the ambulance.

The person who had seemed to have been attempting to open the window had fallen into a coma after just barely opening the window.

The two boys were confirmed to be Charles Spring and Nicolas Nelson.

Their friends were in tears. Charlie must have run back into the building in search of Nick, and he did it. He found Nick and potentially lost his own life in the process.

---

This wasn't supposed to happen.

He wasn't supposed to go back for Nick. He was supposed to evacuate with the others, if only for once, he could have been less selfless. He clearly cared for Nick a lot. Maybe he had messed up big time by starting that fire. He didn't mean for Charlie to be in danger, he was so close to the exit when he started the fire, he thought that Charlie was safe.

He just wanted Nick gone. He had panicked, they were so close to getting on the bus and leaving, that he had to do something quickly.

Maybe Tao shouldn't have started that fire, but he had vowed to Charlie that he was going to be a better friend. He promised him, which is why he killed anyone who was in his way.

He killed any homophobic bullies that had ever tried to hurt Charlie, they got what they deserved. He killed some who he was unsure about. Maybe killing Imogen was a bit overkill, but she'd always be around Nick, and it was no secret that she liked Nick, she had asked him on a date.

It's not like he liked Nick to begin with, he was a rugby lad who always managed to get on his nerves.

Although Charlie was in love with him, it would save him from getting hurt by him in the future.

When he had heard that Charlie wasn't accounted for, he immediately went into full panic mode. He may have gone overboard just a bit. If he had killed Charlie, he would never forgive himself. He was already beating himself up over the fact that Charlie had opened the elevator to see the girl's dead body.

He wasn't meant to see that.

Overall, he didn't regret all of his actions, most of them truly deserved what they got.

Once they get home, they'd never have to speak about the Paris trip ever again. No one needed to find out what he did, after all, he did everyone a favor by killing Harry Green.

Additionally, he kept his vow that he had made to Charlie. He vowed to be a better friend after finding out that he had outed his bestfriend. This is what good friends do, right? But could he call himself that after all, he may have killed him!?

He might be a worse friend then he had thought.

A/N - Did I forget to mention that this was the final chapter? Anyway, I may create a sequel but, as of now, I'm unsure. If I do, I have the perfect plan for one.