The Perfect Tune: A Burns Story

Chapter 7: Broken Heartstrings

Rains POV

We got up and ran to the source of the shout. It was Sharon, with Maggie crouching in front of her like a jungle cat.

"You!" Maggie shouted, pressing the tip of Jeb's gun to my chin. It felt freezing on my skin. I shivered. "This is all your fault! You led your little Seeker boyfriend here, and now he's going to kill us all!"

Burns stepped around me, mirroring Maggie's stance. "She didn't do anything."

"She's got you brainwashed too, huh Burns? I thought you were good. I accepted you," she growled.

He didn't back down, to my surprise. Burns was never much of a fighter. He'd always been the one to keep the peace, not to disrupt it. Even though this new Burns made me proud, in a way, it scared me too. People could get hurt because of me. I didn't want to be the center of fights. It wasn't in my nature.

"Stop!" I cried when the tension in the room had gotten too much. "This isn't getting us anywhere. So let's just go to Jeb and see what the deal is, okay?"

"Yeah," Burns said, leading me out. I could still feel his gaze fixed on Maggie, like laser beams.

We ran to Jeb's. And to our shock, he wasn't the one twirling in his desk chair.

"Shards," I whispered.

He ran a hand through his ash-blonde hair, smirking. "Ah, Rains. And, who is your friend?" He glared at Burns, his ice-blue eyes as cold as ever.

"What are you doing here?" I said, ignoring his question.

He tutted, wiping his gun off with the corner of his shirt. Jeb stood in the corner, hands up in the air like a criminal. Jared must've had the gun, I thought. "Rains, Rains, Rains. Insubordination? Not reporting runaway Souls? Treason? I trusted you, Rains. Loved you, even. And you just had to go and betray me. Do you even care how I feel?"

"It's not like you cared about me," I mumbled.

"I did. I bought you nice things. I'd loved you, I vouched for you."

"Vouched?" Burns interrupted.

"Ah yes, we'd better fill in the trash. My beloved Rains had been acting, strangely. She refused to speak to her Comforter, babbling on about humans and such. We really wanted her to see a Healer, maybe even get a new body. When she asked to take this mission, well Seeker Rise wouldn't have it. But I begged her to let you go, I thought it'd make you happy."

"You didn't mind my happiness. I knew about all those other girls."

I knew where my heart was now. Burns was the only one for me. He loved me. Not pretend love, like Shards. Real, pure adoration.

He looked surprised. "Other girls?"

"Glowing Sunshine, Ebbs and Flows, Curling Tendrils…" I ticked off the names on my fingers until I didn't have anymore to use. "We meant nothing to you, Shards." So many nice girls, all broken by this heathen. I knew Glowing Sunshine, such a pretty girl with long sun-bleached hair. After she'd met Shards, well, she doesn't talk anymore.

"I knew I was wrong to do that, Rains. But you held a special place in my heart."

My gaze was hard steel. "I was nothing to you, Shards. Just a thing to have sex with. And if I didn't want to, well you had a line of girls eager to. Didn't you?" I felt Burns' hand tighten on mine.

He sighed. "I guess I'm not going to get you back after this. Simple deal: I rat out your little friends to the other Seekers. You come with me, they can live in peace like this never happened. I won't tell Rises about your…attachment. I'm giving you a chance, here."

I bit my lip. Tears prickled my vision. I had to stay strong. What would I do? Of course I'd go with him. If I stayed…all these innocent humans, they'd never have a chance against a team of armed Seekers. Burns turned me so that I was facing him. The tears leaked out, regardless of my protest.

"You can't do it, Rains! You belong here!"

"I'm sorry, Burns," I sobbed. "I'm sorry I ever came here and cause you all of this trouble!"

"I'm not," he whispered, managing to smile. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." A single tear leaked out of the corner of his eye. My heart cracked.

I crumpled to the ground. All of my resolves melting like butter. "I'm so sorry Burns. I love you."

Shards tapped his foot impatiently. "Can we get this sob-fest over with?"

I stood up, giving Burns a kiss on the cheek. "I will always love you and you alone," I added in a whisper. "But I have to do this. For the humans."

I walked over to be with Shards. He patted my head, like I was some dog, or an obedient child. "You've made the right choice, Rains."

"Can we just leave and get this over with?" I said coldly.

"Of course, my dear Rains. It will all be over soon," he whispered, kissing my temple. Vile! Absolutely vile, he was. And when he was done messing with everyone's lives, he'd just move on to another place, another country, another planet.

He led me out, his hand gripping my shoulder like a steel vise. I love you, I thought over and over again, as if he would hear.

Burns POV

I stood there in Jeb's room for a long time. What had she just done? She'd left me, possibly for forever.

I didn't cry, or yell. I just stood there, feeling absolutely hollow inside. Like my entire heart being cut out of my chest. Because that was what Rains was to me. She'd taken my heart with her, when she'd left. She made me feel alive, and without her, I was as good as dead.

Wanda came eventually, and wrapped a blanket around me, taking me to my room. She pulled me into a hug. Not a Rains hug, a friendly hug. I accepted it nonetheless.

"I'm sorry Burns," she whispered. "I'm sorry we couldn't save her."

"She wanted to go," I said numbly. "She said it was best, for the humans."

She glared into space. "It's probably all Maggie's fault. She's been terrorizing Rains ever since she got here."

"Maybe. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I'd been too needy," my head was tilted to the side slightly. I didn't know what to think anymore, honestly. For all I knew this could all be a dream, and when I wake up I could be back on the Fire Planet, and none of this had happened.

"It's not your fault!" Wanda shouted, annoyed.

"I'm sorry," I was really tired. My eyelids drooped, but when I closed them, I'd just see Rains. Her and her perfection, crying because of that bastard, Shards. I hated the sight; it made me want to scream, to cry. So I kept my eyes open, my chest throbbing with each time I blinked.

"Don't be sorry," Wanda continued to shout. "None of this is your fault! So stop feeling bad about yourself and start thinking about the facts: you're going to go rescue Rains, and bring her back, or else."

"Or else what?"

"Then I will continue to sit here and scream at you until you agree." She crossed her arms, grinning smugly.

"Fine." That girl was a tiny little thing but her screams could shake the walls around her. And I wanted to save Rains. I just didn't know if I could find the strength. I thought of her pervious words. "I will always love you and you alone." What if that didn't hold true anymore?

"She does love you, Rains," Wanda whispered, staring up at the stars. "She told me yesterday, if she had to describe her love for you in a song, it would be long enough to last the lifetime that she wanted with you and you only."

"She really said that?" I smiled.

"Yeah," she mumbled before falling asleep next to my bed. I couldn't blame her. It was probably one in the morning.

"Goodnight Wanda," I murmured to her. I turned so that I was watching the stars. "Goodnight Rains."