Ema's eyes grew wide and Klavier clapped a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming, but it was too late. A frightened sound escaped Ema's mouth.
"Who's there?" the voice asked suddenly.
Ema stood there, frozen in shock, but Klavier came to his senses, grabbing her hand and running.
They could hear footsteps behind them as they attempted to navigate through the maze of empty roads within the huge district of buildings.
The footsteps were growing farther away when they turned into a dead end. Klavier quickly pulled Ema to the wall blocked from sight but a large dumpster and crouched down.
Pressing her against the wall, he wrapped his arms protectively around her so that she was completely shielded by his body and the wall.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine," he whispered soothingly, gently rocking her back and forth.
A few minutes passed before they heard footsteps coming closer again.
Klavier felt Ema tense in his arms.
"I'll go out and distract her. Wait until she's turned around and then run," he whispered, beginning to stand up.
"Klavier! No!" she whispered urgently, pulling him back down.
He bent towards her and cupped her cheek with his hand.
"Fraulein, you don't need to be frightened. I'll make sure she doesn't come near you."
"I'm not worried about me. But what if something happens to you?" Ema asked anxiously.
Despite the circumstances, Klavier's face relaxed into a smile. He pulled her closer to him and gently kissed her.
"For a smart detective, you can be such a silly girl sometimes." He smiled and left before she could stop him.
No! Ema thought. She could already hear his footsteps moving farther and farther away and Narcissus' following.
Think, Ema, think! She told herself. She quickly pulled out her cell phone, calling the police but not bothering to say anything. They would be able to trace the call.
Ema hurried after the retreating footsteps. She was struggling to come up with a plan when she heard the voices.
"You can't go anywhere. It's a dead end. Where's the person who was with you?" the cold voice demanded.
"What person?" Klavier asked calmly.
"You know what I'm talking about," Narcissus snarled.
No! Narcissus has a gun! Ema suddenly realized. Why is Klavier baiting her?!
Without thinking, Ema moved into view.
"You won't get away this time, Narcissus."
Klavier was reeling.
Why didn't she get away? How could you be so stupid as to leave her alone? Did you really think she would have listened to you?
"Ema! My dear old classmate! What a pleasant surprise!" Narcissus had now turned around and trained her gun on Ema.
"We have all the evidence if your crimes now," Ema responded coldly.
Narcissus laughed. "And are you going to stick me in jail with them? Because it looked like you failed pretty miserably today."
Suddenly, the three of them heard sirens wailing. Narcissus turned at the sudden noise and Ema took this momentary distraction to throw her bottle of luminol testing fluid at Narcissus, hoping to knock her down somehow.
The moment the bottle hit Narcissus, she fired on reflex. When she realized what she had done, she turned and ran, only to be surrounded by several members of the police force who arrested her.
Ema had slumped to the ground. Klavier hurried over to her, only to find a bullet lodged in her shoulder.
"Fraulein…say something. You're scaring me," he said, kneeling beside her and brushing a few strands of hair away from her eyes. "How much is it hurting?" he asked bleakly, agonized to see Ema in pain like this.
"It's not that bad," she whimpered, her eyes squeezed shut from the pain.
Klavier cradled her in his arms and gently stroked her cheek.
"Why would you be so silly?" he asked, trying to distract her until the paramedics came.
"I couldn't just let her go after you like that. She had a gun!"
He kissed the top of her head.
"Promise me, Fraulein, that you'll never do something like that again."
"That'll depend on the situation," she mumbled, her words starting to slur.
Luckily the paramedics had arrived.
"She's losing consciousness," one of them said.
Klavier whispered in her ear. "Sleep well, Fraulein, and dream sweet dreams. I'll be waiting for you to awake."