Six of Crows One-shots

As bloody usual

The explosion had left everyone dazed, all in pretty bad condition at how close the bomb was, Nina and Matthias being the farthest away and Kaz and Wylan, the people actually working on the bomb, being the closest. Nina moved to where Jesper lay as he was the first one she saw, she helped move the pole that had fractured his arm off of him.

"Wylan.." he groaned, voice hoarse but eyes live with worry. "Hush Jes, wait here, Matty will help you up. I'm gonna go see if I can't help Inej." With that, the Grisha girl sat up, she felt for her power and thanked every saint when she found that she could not find any dead bodies in close proximity to herself. She moved toward Inej, helping the lithe girl up. She was farther away than Jesper and had basically gotten a few scratches. "Could you see what happened?" Nina asked, dust and ashes covered Inej's face. "Kaz and Wylan were making the bomb, something started beeping and Kaz managed to grab Wylan and pull away but I didn't see much else- it-..." she fell silent, it exploded then. Nina grimaced.

The Fjerdan came behind them, coughing and waving away the smoke with Jesper by his side with his bad arm cradled into his chest. "Wylan?" He asked, eyes glistening fearfully. "Haven't checked yet." Inej forced herself to her feet and they stood in a circle for a moment, preparing themselves for the worst.

A gunshot close up got nasty, but a bomb? Their was a next to none chance either of them would make it, Nina nibbled on her fingers, wanting to reassure that neither were dead, but every time she imagined voicing it, the ugly word yet, would fall right after the words 'they aren't dead...yet.', because it was the truth, what lived now could die later. After gathering his wits, Jesper started walking into the smoke, body rigid and tense, not a single twitch came from his usually jumpy self. The others followed, fear swirling amidst the smoke in the darkness of the half blown building.....

Would you like me to continue?? Would you like to know what is on the other side of the black smoke?

Warning... be prepared for the worst ahead...

The silent build up was as thick as water, it seemed so innocent, and yet when suffocating in it, its intent was so clearly to kill. Soft whispers bounced around in the dark, nobody was quite sure what made it. Perhaps Kaz or Wylan, maybe the drag of a bloody limb on the creaking floor as they stood or perhaps... perhaps it was the remains of the bomb, twitching as though it had a life. A shudder passed through the group like a ripple as a gust of a freezing breeze blew through the now broken roof. Light would have been useful, but the black night of Ketterdam glowered upon them and the moon had hidden in fright.

They moved slowly, eyes scanning and blinking, tearing as the last wisps of smoke were dragged out the room like the whole in the roof was a cigar and the entity on the other end was an addict. Blood, it covered the floor boards where they were now standing, shoes gripping the floor tighter in the sticky substance and making a noisy smacking sound as the shoe was picked up off the floor and put down again by its owners worried feet. "Saints.." a whisper from an unknown angle. Nina stared upon the horror, right in front of them, was a circle clean from ash and smoke, the bomb. It lay a few feet away, looking perfectly untouched. Nina took a step backward, colliding into a solid for, behind her.

"Saints!" She screeched, surprise taking away her breath. She whirled scolding Matthias for standing so close,  a old sailor looked down at her, his grizzled jaw and steely blue eyes giving away nothing. "Are you all right?" He rumbled, voice heavily accented but in a unclear language. Nina nodded, gathering herself and turning to her wary friends. "How long where you here?" She asked, softly trying to contain her worry. "A few moments, I stopped in to ask if everyone in the building was alright, saw it explode." He kept a calm manner of talking, as if this was such a natural thing that happened every Tuesday to him.