"What was the point of fighting for a better world when all the good things in it seemed to constantly fall?"

Elizabeth, Gowan, and Saleem tried to usher Emilio back into the safety of the cinema, but he just wanted to sit on the ground. For once in his life, he just wanted a rest. He didn't care if there was someone lurking, ready to come and take him. He was just ready to stop.

"I'd just like to be alone," Emilio muttered into the candlelight.

The trio standing nearby looked at each other awkwardly. He wasn't exactly their friend, but he was also a part of their weird shadow family and they couldn't just leave him. Especially not after he'd lost his wife.

"Please, I'll be fine." Emilio was still large, even when sitting on the floor with every fiber of his being sinking down to show absolute defeat.

Without a word, Saleem began to wander off toward the part of the foyer where tickets and concessions were purchased.

Elizabeth looked to Saleem wandering away with one candle, back to Emilio with the other, then looked down at the candle shared between Gowan and herself. She looked to him for guidance. He shrugged and jerked his head towards the direction of Saleem.

Elizabeth knew that Gowan was right. If something snuck up on Emilio he would do his darndest to fight it, even if all he wanted to do right now was to stop existing. She had met with so many veterans before, but she could not figure out what made this man tick.

The pair left him in a pool of light on the cinema floor as he wished.

The concession area was somewhat an open space. Gone were the days of everything hidden behind a counter. One could now simply pick up what they wanted and then pay as they ordered their tickets to the movie.

The buttery scent of popcorn seemed to linger on every surface, even though the heat had been out for some time.

Gowan traced his finger over the ring of the plexiglass door and slid it across. "Why didn't we raid this place when getting our food? It's way closer."

"I guess we will be if the lights stay off." Elizabeth looked to the freezers. "Shot-not on fishing out the Maxibon soup though."

Gowan plucked a piece of stray popcorn from the shelf and gently threw it through the air, watching it bounce off Elizabeth's head.

She turned back to him. "What is it with you and throwing things at my head?"

He shrugged. "It's a good head."

For a moment, they forgot about the woman who had just flung herself from the balcony. They had to let themselves forget. Elizabeth took solace that the smoke was lavender. She assumed the lavender was for the good people. She had to.

Packets rustled and fell from a shelf a little way ahead of them. Elizabeth's heart finally remained at a constant rate. She didn't freeze. The light at the top of the shelving helped to calm her.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Dude, you can't just run off like that!" Gowan rushed to Saleem. "We've got you, but you have to have us too."

Saleem had the candle in one hand, and as many packs of sour candy as he could hold in his free arm. He turned to Gowan, "I do. I do have you."

He handed his candle over to the pair and took more sour candy in his arms. With that, he charged back towards the small pool of light that could be seen in the distance, through the panes of glass in the balcony barrier.

Elizabeth and Gowan followed from a distance and watched as Saleem set the pile down in front of Emilio.

Saleem took a bag of sour candy, opened it, and poured the individually packaged War Heads onto the floor. He looked Emilio directly in the eye. "Bet you I can eat more of these than you."

Elizabeth and Gowan exchanged a raised eyebrow, their breath abated. They waited for the eruption of anger or sudden onset of something racist.

Instead, Emilio held Saleem's stare back. He picked up one of the candies and put it in his mouth. Saleem matched. Emilio put another in his mouth. Saleem matched.

Soon, the men were sitting on the floor surrounded by small lolly wrappers, with tears in their eyes. It wasn't clear if it was from the large amount of sour candy in Emilio's mouth, or because he was genuinely crying, and perhaps that was the point.

Both men looked silly as their mouths bulged like chipmunks. Emilio was squinting and eventually could not hold it in anymore. Saleem's distorted face, and odd noise trying to hold all the candy in, made Emilio lose it. Between laughing and coughing, the lollies sprayed from his mouth like tiny pellets.

Saleem let out a muffled "Ah, fuck!" as he got hit in the arm by sugared shrapnel. This caused him to lose all of his candy as well. The two sat in the light laughing together as Saleem offered Emilio an actual sour candy quietly.

They sat in the silence for a little while, sucking on their treats.

Emilio looked over to Gowan and Elizabeth. "Enjoying the show, ya creeps?"

Gowan walked over confidently. "Well, I'm not gonna leave you unsupervised."

Emilio slapped his knees. "You know what?" He stood up and offered Gowan the bag of candy. "Yeah, that's fair."

Gowan accepted. "Come on, mate. We better get inside before Victor smacks Donovan with a bible or something."

He slapped Emilio on the back and they made their way back into the safety of the double doors.

Elizabeth helped Saleem pick up the candy wrappers and remaining packs of candy. "That was a pretty smart coping mechanism."

"Thanks," said Saleem, focusing on picking up the rubbish. "My dad always told us men shouldn't cry. Whenever we'd get hurt or something sad would happen, my mum would give us barberries to eat. They're these little, sour, red berries. We'd eat a handful and tell dad that we just had too many at once."

Elizabeth didn't know if she should address the not crying part, or the cute anecdote part. She couldn't tell how Saleem felt about the story. After trying to read his face, she just gave a soft smile.

"It came in handy later in life." Saleem reflected. "I'm only 20, but I've seen some shit." His thoughtful eyes got bigger and more serious. "It's easier to live with yourself watching a grown man cry into a sack of sour worms than it is to watch them convulse in their own vomit because nobody ever told them it was ok to feel."

For a while, he looked into the distance. His thick eyebrows furrowed before he jumped slightly. "Fuck. I mean, shit. I mean, sorry. This whole ..." He gestured to the balcony. "... This. It makes you reflect a lot, you know? Shit. Sorry."

Elizabeth couldn't help but feel those threatening tears creeping up on her again. She was able to suppress them this time. "I get it."

The door to safety stood in front of them and she welcomed Saleem back to his new, hopefully temporary, home. She knew Gowan could handle himself, but the triad of Victor, Emilio, and Donovan had her itching to get back. The water clock had been useless, but surely there couldn't be that much longer until the lights came back on.

She tried not to think about how she could no longer ignore the blood that soaked her clothes when the light came back.

Furthermore, she tried not to think about the blood that would stain her conscience.