-Chapter 11: Villans-

-Kris-

"You said she went down there?" Zeke asked me, pointing down the dark ally.

"Yes. I followed her here, then went back to the house to wait for you." I explain. "Can you go down there and find her?"

"You're fucking crazy." He says. "This is how murders happen."

"You have a lighter." I snap at him. "Use it."

He gave me this 'what the fuck' face.

"You're coming with me then." He said. "You forced me to go to this party; you're coming with me to this murder, ally."

I shrug. "That's fair."

And he lit the lighter.

We start walking down the ally and calling out for Jessie. We see two figures seemingly in a struggle at the other end.

"I-is that Jess?" I whisper, unsure.

Zeke turned his head to see. He blew out the light and continued to walk forward.

"Zeke, stop!" I whisper yelled.

He got up behind the two figures and relit the light, revealing Jess holding another person in a headlock.

She spun around, let the person go, and pulled out a gun. Zeke screamed and fell back.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled.

"What does it look like?!" Jess yelled.

"Jess, you know as well as I, that holding people at gun-point is wrong!" I say in a calm yet frantic tone. "You need to stop. Put that thing away."

"Yeah, so?!" Jess snapped. "It's the only way I can get easy cash around here! I hate doing this, but with a background like mine, it's impossible to find a job!"

"Jess, please calm down." Zeke stepped in, trying to calm Jessie down. "We can help yo-"

"STOP TRYING TO BE THE HERO!" Jessie yelled. "Jesus fuck, you always do this!"

Zeke took a step back. "I- s-sorry, I'm just trying to help."

"Well, tell that to that, Celeste girl!" Jessie snapped. "Where was your help the day she died?!"

I freeze. Why had she brought that up? She knew the effect that night had on him! Why did she bring that up?!

"You were there. So tell me, where was it?!" Jess yelled.

Zeke froze, Speechless.

"Maybe if you stopped trying to be a hero all the god damn time, she'd still be alive today." Jess continued, coldly. "Even then, Kris says you talk about her as if she was a goddess! You fucking act as if her death is the end of the world! You need to move on! Get over it!"

"How did you know about it?" He asked, defeated.

I look towards Zeke, who now had tears in his eyes. He stands there a few seconds more before running off. I look towards Jess. Anger plastered all over my face. Inside, my heart was breaking. How could someone like her say something like that?

"How low have you fallen?" I ask her coldly.

"W-what?" She asked. Only now she had realized what she had done.

"He wasn't the only one to lose her that day!" I said in the same cold tone.

"I-I-I'm sorry." She stuttered, tears flowing down her face.

"I'm not the one which you should be saying that to," I say before running off after Zeke.

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When I found him, the sight I saw killed me inside. I found him curled up into a ball and in tears. I hadn't seen him cry since he got here. God, Jessie, why'd you have to do this? Ge was sitting under the play structure in a ball sobbing quietly. I sit down next to him and wrap my arms around him.

"You poor kid," I whisper sympathetically.

He doesn't reply. Instead, he hugs me back and cries into my shoulder for a while. All that built up sorrow and sadness he had in him was let out.

"It'll be ok." I coo softly. "You'll be ok."

"N-no, I won't." He struggles to say. "It's all my fault."

I start to feel tears forming in my own eyes now. I wiped them away. I couldn't cry now. Not now.

"She wouldn't be dead if I hadn't shrugged everything off." He continued. "She said everything was fine, and I didn't question her."

"It's not your fault Red," I say, try to comfort him. "You never knew what she was gonna do."

He pulled away from our embrace.

"There were signs everywhere, Kris. She was practically begging for help. T-the cutting, the silence. They were cries for help." He said, defeated. "Maybe Jessie is right."

I pull him back into a hug. He buried his face into my shoulder.

"What she said was not ok," I say. "She had no right to say that."

"But she's right!" He exclaimed. "I was there. I could've done something."

"You didn't know what was gonna happen," I say in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.

He didn't reply; instead, Zeke sobbed into his arm. I didn't leave him until I was sure he was ok.