Burned | John Murphy [ON HOLD]

┋┊Two┊┋

As the room burned down, Maggie couldn't move. She was terrified of what was going to happen to her and Murphy; she knew that fires used up lots of oxygen, and it was a crime. She didn't want to be locked up, so she decided to make a run from the room before the guard got there. Maybe she could make it out in time.

Murphy also decided to run, but instead of away from the guard, he ran to them. He grabbed Maggie's arm and drug her out of the room, turning a corner where he knew they'd be surrounded. He was planning on getting arrested, and he would take Maggie down with him.

She struggled against his grip, but in his anger, he was stronger than her. No matter how hard she fought against him, he had her trapped. "Murphy, let go of me!" she yelled, pulling away from him. "You're going to get caught!"

"That's the plan, sweetheart," he told her. As if on a cue, the guard had reached the two kids. There before them stood Marcus Kane and two guard members, Sam and Maggie's father. She saw something in her father's eyes that was a mix between disbelief and disappointment.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Maggie began to break down. Her eyes filled with tears, and she began to tremble. John didn't seem to feel any emotions; he stood beside her looking indifferent to the situation.

"Put your hands up!" Sam ordered them. The kids slowly lifted their hands, Maggie trying desperately to hold back her tears. Kane motioned for Sam and Evan to search the kids. When Sam approached Murphy, he lunged at him, punching the man repeatedly until he was zapped to the ground.

"Search them," Kane ordered.

Sam nodded to Evan, telling him that he didn't have to search his daughter, and the man nodded back in response. Sam approached her. "Please tell me this is a misunderstanding," he whispered to her.

She nodded in response. "I didn't do this," she told him quietly.

"I know, kid," he said. He patted her down, but he stopped once he reached her coat pocket. He reached his hand inside her pocket and pulled out the lighter Murphy used and looked up at her.

Maggie's breathing intensified. "No," she muttered. "No... no, I didn't do this. That's not mine, Sam; I didn't do this."

Sam sighed before saying, "Maggie Keagan, by order of the Ark, you are under arrest for arson."

"No," she cried. "No! I didn't do this. I didn't; Sam, please! You have to believe me." She grabbed onto his arms, begging him. "You can't do this! Please!"

"I have no other choice, Maggie," he said. "Stand down."

"Dad, please tell them I didn't do this!" she begged her father, but the man didn't even glance in her direction.

"Take them to the Sky Box," Kane ordered. Sam cuffed Maggie's arms and lead her away. From behind them, her father drug Murphy, following Sam.

Maggie hadn't stopped crying, even after they got to a holding room. "You're going to stay here until the first hearing," Sam told her.

"When's that?" she asked him.

"Sometime between a day and three weeks," he told her.

"Three weeks?" she asked.

"Possibly more."

Maggie let out a sob. "I'm innocent! You know this, Sam! You can't let them keep me here."

"On the Ark," the man told her, "you're guilty until proven innocent, and that lighter is solid evidence."

"Murphy put it in my pocket," she said. "You have to believe me."

"I do believe you," he said. "But the law is the law."

The door to the holding room opened again, revealing Evan, pushing Murphy into the room. "No," Maggie said. "You can not leave me in here with him."

"That's no way to greet a friend, sweetheart," Murphy spat at her.

"We are not friends!" she yelled. "You're an asshole! I'll kill you!" She lunged at him, but Sam held her back. "Let me go!"

Sam restrained her, cuffing her to the wall away from Murphy. She stopped fighting him, and she slumped against the wall, giving up. She watched her father and Sam leave the room, both of them disappointed in her.

When the door closed, Murphy spoke, "Better get comfortable, Keagan; we'll be here for a while."

"Go to hell," she spat at him.

"Aren't I already there?"