*** City

Christian burst through the door and slammed it shut after him. He looked around frantically but couldn’t find her anywhere. He ran into every room knocking down tables and chairs as he rampaged through the house.

“Gloria?!”

The riot’s outside had gotten out of hand and before Christian could realise things were getting to ugly, Gloria had disappeared. He hoped that she had come back to the house, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. The house seemed to be intact but there weren’t any signs to show that Gloria had come back. Christian’s inside’s twisted around when images of Gloria lying in a pool of her own blood on some pavement with people walking all over her.

“Gloria?!”

He ran up the stairs two at a time and opened doors in attempts to trying to find Gloria.

Christian had grown very fond of Gloria. At first she bugged him with her optimist outlook on everything they did. She would go through every single risk when it was just robbing a small store but now he found it a massive comfort. She was company to him and he had never had much of that in the past. He would only ever be a comfort to himself and that got lonely. So he needed to know that she was okay.

He opened her bedroom door opened, the last room, and found only darkness. “Shit.” As he was about to give up, as he looked closer he found a lump in the bed. Gloria.

He walked up to the side of the bed and gently pulled the covers back.

Gloria had been hiding under the bed sheets for over an hour. She had curled herself up and scrunched her eyes shut trying to block out the sounds of the people running outside, their loud voices and the sound of the machines being fired at them. Her hands gripped the bed sheets tightly and she didn’t want to move. She pretended she lived in her own comfort, her own bubble where nobody got killed.

“Gloria, come on, get up.” Christian shook Gloria but all he got in return was a strangled sob. Christian stepped back, not used to seeing people cry in front of him. He looked down at her small frame and couldn’t help but feel responsible for her pain.

“Ch-Christian?” Gloria slowly opened her eyes and saw him standing in front of her. She couldn’t’ see his face but she recognised his build She slowly reached out her hand and Christian quickly held onto it. “D-don’t make me g-go back out there.”

Christian kneeled down next to the bed and held onto her hand tighter. At this point he was grateful that they were enveloped by darkness, he didn’t want her to see the pain that was written all over his face. Christian cared deeply for Gloria.

Gloria held onto his hand tightly thankful for the company. She was usually scared to show Christian that she was afraid of something, but tonight everything had gone mad. Cars were set alight, houses were being destroyed, and people were going crazy.

People were getting killed.

Gloria hid her face again and tried to block the images. She tried to picture Christian there with his smile, on one of his good days. His smile was slightly lopsided but it was a smile that would lift Gloria’s spirits. She concentrated on that smile.

“I won’t make you go back out there. I’ll stay right here.” The affection in his voice caught Gloria off guard but she didn’t show it but deep down was thankful for it, and it made her well up once again.

He moment shad was cut short when a several loud bangs were heard downstairs. Gloria shot up from her position and stared at Christian who had made his way over to the window. He peered through the curtains and his eyes grew wide with fear.

“Don’t!” Christian waves his arms in the air and Gloria held onto the bed sheets once more.

“No!”

Christian ran over towards Gloria and pushed her from the bed onto the floor, dragging the bed sheet with him. Gloria was about to ask why when the bed started to blow up in small places.

The house was being shot at.

Gloria began to panic and scream. She held both hands against her ears as the shooting continued. Christian frantically grabbed the sheet and dragged it over them both and he wrapped himself around Gloria and whispered into her ear in attempts to calm her down.

“You are fine Gloria. Breathe, okay. Shh. It’s going to be fine, concentrate on me.”

At first Christian didn’t think it was working but after a couple of second Gloria began to calm down and held onto Christian for dear life.

There was smashing noises coming from downstairs and the voices outside got stronger and stronger. Gloria concentrated on the rhythm of Christian’s calm breathing. She placed her head onto his chest and listened to his heart beat and for a couple of seconds that’s all she could hear, and she wished she could have stayed there forever.

Christian had always been good in bad situations. Something clicked inside of him and he’d just calm down and wait. It was an element to him that most people didn’t expect him to have seeing as he was so destructive himself. Christian held onto Gloria and gently began to stroke her hair. He closed his eyes knowing he’d never have another chance to hold her so close.

“Why can’t this end?” Gloria whispered as another gunshot was heard.

“I wish it wouldn’t.”

Gloria slowly raised her head and looked at Christian even though she could not make out his face.

Christian sucked in his breath and moved his hands to the sides of her face. “I really wish it wouldn’t.”

Within seconds everything had changed for the two. Christian’s lips were attached to Gloria’s and Gloria reacted as if it had happened a million times before. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her closer, not wanting the feeling of losing her again.

His mind raced back to when he opened the door trying to find her. His mind was at a million different places thinking that she was hurt or killed and he wasn’t able to help, but now he was doing something.

Tears rolled down Gloria’s cheeks and she pushed herself closer to Christian and she ended up falling on top of him, and that’s when Christian stopped the kiss.

Christian pushed Gloria’s hair back and felt her tears as he slowly rubbed his thumbs across her cheeks.

Gloria could feel Christian’s warm breathe on her face and she shut her eyes imagining his face, she was in complete bliss in the middle of the mayhem in Murder City.

“It’s stopped.” Christian gently pushed Gloria off of him and quickly made his way out of the door. Gloria stayed where she was looking down to where Christian was lying. She placed her hand on the floor where he was and began to cry. She pulled the sheet up and curled into her small ball once more.

Christian ran into the kitchen, and collapsed to the floor in a flood of tears, in Murder City.