In Safe Hands 2: In My Arms (PuzzleShipping)

Chapter 2

SideNote:

This is what happened earlier in the morning, before the sun rose. So, yes. It is still a little nighttime.

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A young brunette teenager panted, running as fast as he could through his burning school.

"Jesse!!" He screamed, "Jesse!!!"

His chest heaved and the flames that billowed around him did nothing to help him breathe. He stopped, his mouth covered with a handkerchief. He glanced around, lifting his handkerchief from his mouth to make his calls louder.

"JESSE!!!" He yelled again, louder than he had been.

Suddenly, a voice answered.

"Jaden?!" It called back, being a young boy's voice that replied.

The brunette boy only just slid under a concaving classroom door when the flames that consumed the frame burned his arm. He screamed and jumped back onto his feet, clutching the blistering wound.

He sucked air through his teeth, walking through the classroom.

"Jesse?! You in here?" He shouted.

Suddenly, a boy around the brunette's age was found. His foot was stuck under a pile of smoldering and burning debris that trapped his entire bottom half of his body. The blue haired boy glanced up at the brunette, fear in his eyes.

"H-Help!!" He screamed, trying desperately to get unstuck, "J-Jaden!!"

Jaden ran over, forgetting about the burning arm that hung limply by his side and the burning sensation that swept through his body as he helped another friend.

"Jesse, listen here." Jaden crouched next to his friend, taking off his handkerchief.

Jesse looked at him.

"What are you..."

"I need you to where this. There is a exit that is being help open not far from here. Get out as fast as you can." Jaden wrapped the handkerchief around Jesse's head.

"Wh-What?! No!!" Jesse tried to stop him, but was silenced by the loud creak of metal that was being lifted.

"Jesse." Jaden said, gritting his teeth and biting back screams from both his burned arm and the weight of the metal he held for his friend to get away, "Go. Get out! Now!"

"Jaden-!"

"NOW, Jesse!! The building's about to come down on top of us!!!!"

Jesse scrambled to his feet, his mouth from behind the handkerchief gaping. Jaden let down the metal, a flame catching some fabric of it on the side of his face and a part of his neck. Jaden gasped, falling to his knees.

He tried to scream from the pain, but the damage done to the throat caused him to only rasp out. Jesse crouched next to him, his eyes wide.

"Jaden!"

"No." Jaden shoved him off, standing shakily up, his eyes full of fiery pain and his voice a mere whisper now, "Go, Jesse. Before you end up like me."

Jesse didn't want to, but the menacing glare he received from Jaden was a clear sign that he was not going to fight with him. Jesse reluctantly turned and opened a paper wall that stood in the doorway between two classrooms and ran to the exit into the hall, reluctant.

Jaden leaned on the wall, using it as a support so as to keep up and walking. He exited, where Jesse waited.

"Jes-" he began.

"Shut it, Jaden." Jesse returned, having Jaden limp onto him, "We're getting out of here together."

Jaden was too weak to respond he instead gave a slight nod. He limped along with his blue haired friend and finally, the exit came into view. Jesse sped up a bit, Jaden's feet began to drag. He panted and coughed, the smoke burning his eyes.

"I-I..." Jaden rasped out, having another coughing fit, "I...Can't..."

Jesse held him close, shaking his head.

"Yes...You can..." He reassured him.

Jaden fell silent, his strength greatly decreasing with every step he took. His eyes now watered and tears fell down his cheeks, streaking his ashen face like a zebra as his eyes tried to clear all the dust out.

Jesse made him move along, getting closer and closer to the exit. Suddenly, another scream could be heard, but this one was high pitched and feminine.

"Help!!" It shrieked, "Please!! Someone help me!!!!"

Jaden stopped, whipping his arms from Jesse and wincing when his burned arm was rubbed against and burned more. He glanced around, ignoring the pains from his neck and face.

"Alexis?!" He called back, dodging Jesse's attempts to grab him again.

"J-Jaden?!"

There it was again. Jaden was right. The faint call had come from the one person who didn't deserve to die.

Alexis.

"A-Alexis, I'm coming!!!" Jaden shouted, his voice scratchy still.

He ran back the other way, swallowing his pain with every burned limb he moved. He had to get back to Alexis.

"JADEN!!" Jesse shouted, running after him, "STOP!!"

"I CAN'T!!" Jaden hoarsely called back, "ALEXIS NEEDS HELP!"

Jaden continued, painfully and stiffly but swiftly skirting around fallen debris and burning furniture, without losing the sound of that voice. The voice still screamed, but it sounded a lot more desperate and scratchy than it was before.

"Please!!! Someone!!" The voice hacked with every word that left its mouth, "Anyone!! H-Help me!!"

Jaden ran through another classroom door way, having to quickly kick away burning debris in order to get in. His foot and ankle burned, and the weight he had on it made it worse.

Jaden looked in, ignoring the billowing pain that sprouted from all over in his body.

"A-Alexis?! You in here?!" He scratchily called out.