Vorfreude // Jake Riley

Chapter 6

I woke up to see Jake's uniform on the bed but he wasn't there. I had guessed Cannerts had him running errands so I went to search for him.

Having walked around for 15 minutes I grew irritated, there were only so many places he could have been. I then went to the lowest floor were it should have been abandoned but there were noises coming from a certain room. Before even opening the door I felt heat coming through the cracks.

"Jake?" I swung open the doors. What a saw caused me to jump back. There were dead bodies everywhere, blood covered their faces and a fire burned bright on the far side of the room. Jake was the one burning the bodies. I felt nauseous and grief stricken all at once, so much so I almost tripped on my own feet as I scrambled back.

Jake caught my arm and steadied me. "I'm sorry you had to see this." He led me out of the space and I closed my eyes trying to erase the images from my memory.

"How do you do it?" Seeing that many people, that had families and loved ones, dead could drive someone insane.

"Honestly I don't know, I try to not think too much, just move until I'm done for the day."

"I envy your strength, if you need me I'm in the room." I gave him a supportive smile and made my way back.

+++
Jake came in an hour later, sweaty and noticeably tired. Maybe not physically but his eyes seemed empty as if he were blocking out everything.

"Hey there." I whispered as he took a seat next to me. I could tell he forced a smile for my sake just to seem like he wasn't hurting.

After a moment of quiet he spoke, "you ever feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Well that's what I've felt ever since this cordon started. Everything's on me and I'm terrified by it."

"You could share the weight? I do want to help contrary to popular belief. No but seriously I wish I could take that pressure away." He looked up at me then as if something had occurred to him.

"I know you would if you could but right now there's nothing you can do. Except be her for me which you're pretty amazing at." I blushed then and grinned at him.

"You're starting to grow on me, you know that?" He chuckled at that and I felt my heart skip a beat. It seemed Jake Riley had not only grown on me but completely consumed my every thought.

"I could say the same thing to you." He said it seriously, quietly almost as if it were a secret between us. I didn't want to break his eye contact and we were snapped out of our moment.

"Officer Riley, Lex wants to speak to you he said its urgent." Cannerts burst into the room. Jake stood up quickly and followed Cannerts out, but before leaving he turned to look at me almost as if asking if it were okay to leave I nodded a silent goodbye.

A couple minutes later Jake was back, "Lex said something about an electric wire that was cut and it's causing destruction of property. He wants me to check it out before the reporters get ahold of it."

"I'll go with you!" I stood up grabbing my things but Jake stopped me.

"No, no way."

"Why not? I can fix the wire and I wanna help."

"Kendal I can't lose you! Okay I-I can't risk you being exposed, not again." He yelled at first but his voice became quieter once he realized he startled me. I didn't want him to feel bad but I wouldn't back down.

"I'll be fine okay? Nothing's gonna happen to me, I'll be by your side the entire time." Jake considered it and then slowly nodded. As his back was turned towards me I slightly cheered.

Jake led me to a room of clothes, "here put these on, no matter how hot it gets you keep covered okay?" I nodded and pulled on the shirt and the scarf over my mouth. After this Jake declared we were ready to go.

We had to walk a block to get to the wire. Once I saw it I knew it would be harder to fix than I thought. It was about three stories up on the side of an apartment building, there was a fire escape but besides that there was not much space to work. I had remembered to bring some of my tools which Jake made me promise to abandon in case I had to run. I think went forth and told him, "of course I will, it's not like I'm gonna grieve the loss of my xacto knife." He rolled his eyes at that but couldn't help a small laugh. I realized most of the stuff I said was to make him laugh, he was usually so tense and this way we both won. I could see him happy and he could forget the shit show going on in the cordon, if only for a moment.

"At least there's a ladder." I said as I started to climb, the tools were in a backpack I had found which helped make the climb easier. I got to the 2nd story and rested. I looked up to see the wire was spraying sparks everywhere. Good thing Jake had ordered full body protection.

I climbed up and finally reached the wire. I looked down once at Jake to see he wore the most mom look ever, I would have to make fun of him afterwards, he looked entirely too concerned with his hands on his hips. As quickly as I could I found the source of the problem and went to work. I would need at least 20 minutes to fix it. After ten minutes it started to look better, sparks were still flying but I would have to just cut off that part. I was almost done when a sound from the window behind me caught me off guard. I didn't mind it as I moved closer to the wire.

"Kendal!" Jake yelled from below and I looked down confused, he was pointing to something behind me. I turned around to see a child that had blood and mucus all over his face.

A/n: sorry I haven't updated in so long but I'm gonna try to write anther chap this weekend ps I'm writing this on the school bus and I'll probably upload it at school

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