Crash and Burn (1)

i think i've always loved you, lacey

**This chapter is VERY HARD. VERY HARD. Hence the delay. I struggled during my finals week while I was piecing some of this together. It is very long, but I couldn't decide where to end it. Enjoy the rollercoaster.

♚ ♛

ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.

"Soren!"

It came out scratchy and raw and frantic, but it didn't matter. Swallowed by the chaos that had erupted, it didn't make it far.

Glass shattered above me and footsteps shook the floor beneath me.

Everything was falling apart.

A dark silhouette blurred in front of me, collapsing to the ground with a thump. "No, Soren!"

And then another figure tumbled down to hover over me.

"Soren, Soren, no, Soren."

A shot shook the air with another wave of screaming.

Suddenly, there were hands grabbing at my sweatshirt in a panic, travelling to my neck to still me. Tucked underneath the bar and wedged between two barstools, I was sitting somewhere at the bottom of a catastrophe.

Everyone was screaming.

"Lacey, Lacey." Firm palms cupped my cheeks tightly and it made me cry out. "Fuck, Lace. Lace."

"Soren!" I cried, reaching for the shadow that blanketed everything in the bar. "Soren, Soren."

A round of gunshots sliced through the air just in time for him to dive forward. Somewhere above me, glass exploded in a cacophony of shattering fragments, piercing my eardrums.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

"Lacey. Holy fuck."

His lips were at my ear. His hands were around my waist. He was hovering over me.

He was alive.

"Soren!" I shouted again, looping my arms around his neck to bring him further into this nook of safety. Slews of screams and hollers for help reverberated through my limbs when he crouched lower to engulf me in his arms. "Are you okay?"

He didn't answer. A raspy, strained hiss in my ear was the only response I got before he ripped away from me to look over his shoulder.

And then a body came crashing down over him, knocking him towards me. My head bashed against the bar harshly and all I could taste was blood as I bit down.

"Fuck." Everything was spiraling. Spiraling into chaos.

But it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was clawing at any loose fabric that hung off of Soren.

All that mattered was that I pry him under the bar with me.

A storm of glass rained down just beyond the counter above us, glinting with the sinister pink hue that sharpened my vision. "Soren, get down!"

"Are you okay?" Soren yelled, appeasing me. His hot breath fanned my face as his fingers brushed along my cheeks. "Nothing hit you?"

I fisted his collar viciously, yanking him closer to me. He needed to stay down, stay hidden, stay safe. "I'm okay, I'm okay."

He staggered forward to collide with me for one second before tilting away. "Fuck, you're okay. Okay. Okay." Fingers combed through my tangled hair as his words were swallowed by another round of gunshots.

"I'm okay!" I tried to scream past everything else that was falling apart.

Fumbling away from me, his jagged silhouette slid out of the shadow of the bar. A fresh fringe of red and pink danced along those scattering curls as he whipped his head around.