Everything was burning.

Smoke hung heavy over the club.

People were screaming.

Screaming in pain.

Screaming with grief.

People were turning into Glitches.

Evan couldn't move. Smoke filled his lungs and he coughed and coughed. Smoke was the only thing that filled his was stuck under something, unable to move or cry for help. He wouldn't have been heard anyways for the screaming and the crackling of fire was overwhelming. He choked on the smoke, his eyes spilling uncontrollably with tears.

He turned his head, seeing a man who had been sitting with them. He was stuck under fallen cement. His eyes glitched as he reached with claw like hands towards Evan. Evan struggled to get away, fear and adrenaline running through him as he tried to get out from under fallen debris. His hand curled around the neck of a broken bottle as the Glitch grabbed onto his arm, clawing at his jacket and trying to get at his skin. Evan rolled and stabbed the sharp shard of glass into the Glitch's skull, blood spurting around the glass. The Glitch screamed as Evan pulled the glass out and stabbed it again and again and again until the screams faded away.

"Evan…" Through the smoke, Marcel was suddenly there. He pulled debris off him, glancing nervously at the destroyed Glitch beside him and the bloody broken bottle held tight in Evan's hand. His head was bleeding from a wound on his head. He could have stayed outside, but he had to find his friends even if it was the last thing he'd ever do. He seemed to be struggling to stay awake, the pain from the wound on his head getting to him. "We have…" He trailed off, coughing violently. "Have to get out…" He grabbed onto Evan's free hand, pulling him to his feet unsteadily. He turned, pulling Evan towards the way out. "We have to get out...We have to-"

Hot blood splattered onto Evan's face as Marcel's throat was slit suddenly. He stared with wide eyes as he fell at the feet of the Glitch in front of him. Evan staggered back, not wanting to look at the Glitch. Brock stumbled towards Evan, blood dripping from his claw like hands. His head had been crushed from falling debris. Even through the all the blood, Evan could recognize Brock anywhere.

His eyes glitched violently.

"Brock no...Please...I need you…" Evan stammered. His eyes watered through the smoke and the heat made him sweat. Fear paralyzed him. Brock wasn't going to attack Evan. He knew that. The Glitches didn't want to attack him.

But he couldn't let Brock exist like this.

"I'm so sorry…" Evan whispered, holding the broken bottle tighter as Brock stepped closer towards him, stumbling over Marcel's body. His eyes were also starting to glitch.

Around Evan, Glitches stumbled through the debris, some with faces that Evan recognized, some he didn't. He looked desperately for Jonathan or Tyler or Sydney, for anyone who could stop him from destroying Brock who kept staggering towards him, his once happy, lifeful eyes now empty and glitching.

Brock was gone and all that remained an empty, violent shell that wore his face.

Evan took a deep breath and swung the bottle, the glass cutting open Brock's face. Blood oozed from the cut, dripping onto his torn shirt and the burnt floor. The Glitch screamed in anguish, as if it had been betrayed and stared at Evan with wide, glitching eyes. Brock lunged towards him, his claw like hands grabbing onto his arm and pulled open his flesh. Evan panicked and stabbed the broken bottle through Brock's eye, blood splattering onto Evan's face. The Glitch screamed in agony, clawing blindly at Evan. No one could hear the screams over the fire and the others turning into Glitches.

Evan stabbed the Glitch again and again and again and again and again. Brock dropped to the floor and didn't get back up again.

Evan didn't have time to breathe for Marcel had gotten back up, his wide eyes glitching wildly. Evan wailed, tears streaming down his face as he stabbed Marcel over and over and over.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Evan wailed, blood dripping from his hands. "I'm sorry…" Tears fell from his eyes as he dropped the bottle. He was surrounded by Glitches. He stared, looking for anyone else in the wreckage who might still be living. The smoke hurt his head and the heat was starting to become unbearable. Evan wondered if he could just let the fire take him and turn him into a burned Glitch like other others. Their skin was blackened and peeling, blood dripping from the third degree burns. He had to get out of this hell before it consumed him too.

Taking one last look at Brock and Marcel's burned bodies, he turned, bending to pick up a metal bar that had fallen from the rafters. It burned his hands but it didn't matter.

Nothing matters when you can't die.

He curled his hands around the metal as he swung it at the nearest Glitch, it's skull shattering under the force. Another hit brought it to the ground. He spun, dodging a Glitch that was screaming at him in anger. He swung at another Glitch, the burning pole catching the Glitch under the jaw, the force ripping it's flesh open as it's head shot back.

"Evan!" A scream echoed over the screeches of the Glitches and the fires burning around him. He turned, seeing the girl with hair so blonde, it looked red as it reflected the glow of the fire. Her eyes suddenly widened and claw like hands dug into Evan's chest as arms wrapped around his neck. He struggled against the Glitch, unable to get away from it as it sank it's teeth into his neck. He screamed in pain as the Glitch tore at his flesh. A sudden gunshot deafened Evan, the Glitch flying off Evan in a spurt of hot blood. Sydney grabbed onto Evan's arm, pressing her hand to his neck to stop the bleeding. "Why aren't you Glitching…?" She stammered, looking from the wound to his eyes.

"I-I...I don't know."

"Let's get out of here." She shook her head, leading him towards the closest way out. She would fire her gun at the Glitches that tried to come near them, the sound hurting Evan's head. He held his metal, bloody bar tightly in his hands despite how much it burned.

Fresh air filled Evan's lungs. He suddenly stumbled and fell, landing on burned pavement. The cool night air surrounded him, and he drank it in.

"How many Glitches are still in there?"

"Too many."

"Let the place burn and take those monsters with it."

"How did it happen? Why did so many people Glitch?"

"It shouldn't be possible."

"It's almost like another Glitch turned them all into Glitches…"

"Evan!" Jonathan was suddenly there, his arms around Evan tightly. "I'm so glad that you are okay...I thought you were a Glitch...I thought you were gone…" He sobbed, shaking Evan who couldn't move. Tears fell silently from his face. "Evan...Your hands." Jonathan reached to take the bar away from Evan but recoiled from the scorching heat of it. "Let go! Let it go, Evan." Jonathan said softly. Slowly, Evan let the bar drop from his burned hands with a metallic clang to the pavement. The noise hurt Evan's head.

"Where is Brock? And Marcel? Where are they?" Tyler cried, the side of his face cut open and oozing blood. Lui sat beside Daithi on the pavement, both of them bloody and shocked from their Come Back. They struggled to remember what had happened.

"They're gone…" Evan stammered.

"What?"

"I had to destroy them...I couldn't let them exist like that..If I let them continue to exist as Glitches...That would have been the cruelest thing I could have ever done…" Evan cried. He looked up at Jonathan, grief contorting his face as he began to sob uncontrollably. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault...You did the right thing."

"Did I?"

The city passed by in a neon haze. A blur that Evan begged would stop existing. He leaned his head against the car window, listening to the engine as Jonathan drove in silence. No music came from the radio.

"Do you think…" Jonathan started to say after a while but stopped himself and thought more about what he wanted to say. "Do you think that there was a chance that Brock could have survived?"

"No."

"Oh…Do you remember Brian..and his despair? That many people couldn't be despairing right? They couldn't have become Glitches so easily."

Evan closed his eyes. He hated neon. He hated noise.

"He could have let them live. Brock and Marcel didn't deserve to be destroyed like that."

"They were Glitches, Tyler."

"They were still them...They were still in there."

"No they weren't. Evan knew that. You remember what he said about how he doesn't want to suffer when he becomes a Glitch? He doesn't want any of us to suffer either."

"We are still suffering. We are always going to suffer and then we are going to become Glitches and continue to suffer."

"Shut up, Lui! You sound like Brian!"

Evan laid on the red couch, staring back at the owl mask on the table across from him that stared back with it's bright yellow eyes. Evan wondered what that mask had seen. He wondered if it had seen the memories that kept popping into his mind. Images of doing things that he knew he didn't do haunted him. He wished that the memories of that night, of the fire, the burning flesh and his friend's glitching eyes, were things that he had never witnessed either. He wondered if the owl's yellow eyes had seen what happened to Brian.

"What happened...happened." Jonathan sat across the room by the window, his arms wrapped around himself as if trying to comfort himself. "None of us would have let them continue as Glitches. We love them. That's why they had to be destroyed."

"Shut up!" Tyler cried suddenly, the sound of glass breaking making Evan jump. He sat up, looking to the kitchen where the glass that had been held tightly in Tyler's hand finally shattered. "They shouldn't have become Glitches. They had more time."

"We never know when we're going to Glitch, Tyler. How do you know that they had more time?" Lui demanded, glass crunching under his red shoes. Tyler couldn't answer him. "We never know…"

"Brian knew." Tyler whispered. The room felt heavy. Evan could hardly breathe as the grief that filled the room drowned him. Memories flashed through his mind. He remembered rain and screaming till his throat was so hoarse, it felt like he would cough up blood. He remembered reaching, reaching, reaching, and grabbing nothing but air.

"We can't be like him. We can't make each other give up." Evan said, his voice shaking. Tyler and the others looked up at him, surprised that he would join in on the conversation. They thought that he didn't remember. "Brian...Brock...Marcel, they would all want us to keep going. They would want us to enjoy what we still have while we have it. They would want us to enjoy every morning and every afternoon and every night. They would want us to enjoy every leap of faith, and every time we step on the gas in our cars. They would not want us to despair over them. That would turn us Glitches."

It had rained all night and into the day. As the sun had risen, Brian found himself on the roof of the apartment, looking down at the pavement far below. He had wondered if there was more to this world than what he had seen. He remembered how his friends treated him. He had wondered why he ever called them his friends. No one in their right mind would want to be friends with them. He felt alone in this world. Alone and bruised and tired.

So very tired.

"Hey Brian, you bitch! Where are you?" Evan's voice had come from the stairs behind him. He didn't turn. "We're gonna go down to the pier! Jonathan wants more fucking popcorn! Brian?" He closed his eyes, trying to will himself to lean forward just far enough. "What are you doing?" Evan was behind him now. Brian had been surprised that he didn't push him. If it had been any other day, he was sure that Evan would have shoved him from the ledge and laughed. "Brian?"

"Go away, Evan. Just go the fuck away!"

"No! What are you doing?"

"I'm tired, Evan!" Brian had turned suddenly, almost losing his balance on the edge. "I'm so tired of you! I'm so tired of everyone and the way you fucking push me around like I'm nothing to you! You don't fucking care about anyone but yourself! I fucking hate you! I hate you all!"

"Brian please! I'm sorry! If you feel that way, you can tell us! Not freaking me out by standing on the roof of the building." Evan had snapped.

"You won't listen! I told you before!"

"When?"

"I can't count all the times!"

"Just get down from that fucking ledge and let's talk about this, okay? Come downstairs. We'll go to the pier and we'll get some good food and it'll all be fine. Just come down from the ledge."

"I'm done."

"Brian."

"Fuck you." Evan had looked away when Brian spit at him. Brian was glad that he couldn't see Evan's expression under his owl mask, the yellow eyes burning into Brian. He had almost wanted Evan to push him from the ledge. Instead he didn't, only took a step back from Brian, towards the stairs and held out his hand.

"Please...Step down from the rail."

"I'm so done, Evan. This existence. It's too much. I'd rather be a Glitch than continue to exist like this!"

"Don't say that!" Evan had cried, looking up at Brian with wide eyes. Brian had wondered where this kind of caring had been before when it mattered. "Don't say that you would rather be a Glitch. Don't say that! We care about you, Brian! I'm sorry that we have been such fucking assholes to you! We can make it better! We can make it all better."

"No. No you fucking can't make it better." Brian had yelled back, tears stinging his eyes. Evan's eyes as widened, looking at the ledge behind Brian. He had only to take one step. "Nothing is ever better in this world. It's just violence and blood and then we come back again and do it all over again! There is no point! I wish it would just end! Just get hurt and then never come back again...Wouldn't that be grand?"

"Stop this."

"It'd be so nice...To only suffer once. Then it's all over. No coming back. No Glitches. Just nothing."

"That doesn't exist, Brian. Stop saying this things!"

"Why?" Brain had stared darkly at Evan who stared back, his eyes wide with fear and sadness. "Does my despair upset you?"

"Yes it does! You are my friend, Brian!"

"You never treated me like one!" Evan hadn't known what to say to that and Brian was glad that it shut him up. He turned away from Evan, looking back down at the pavement below and the purple neon lights that illuminated the apartment building in the dark, pouring rain. Evan had screamed Brian's name repeatedly but it went unheard. Footsteps had echoed on the rooftop as Evan got closer, reaching for Brian who finally leaned forward far enough.

The rain had washed the blood away as the Glitch got to his feet and staggered into the dark.