Chapter 46 - I'm not a creep, right?

POV: Erwin (A/N I never mentioned it but his eyes are now hazel)

Ever since arriving, I'd been completely bored out of my mind. I wasn't even meant to show up but my PR manager forced me to go, saying something along the lines of "putting on a good face in front of everyone and subtly advertising the company," even though we didn't need it. We're doing fairly well. Amazing in fact. She just wanted me to suffer for making her work overtime on her fiancé's birthday. She knew I hated events like these because I had to grin like a maniac at crappy jokes told by sixty year old men or I had to entertain the flock of females like I'm sort of birthday clown. Worse of all, I couldn't even tell them to fuck off and shut down any attempts of getting into my pants because once again, it was a bad look. Acting fake 90% of the time was draining all the motivation out of me. I outta just ditch my company and move to Germany to drink beer at the pub all day.

My PR manager mentioned staying there for at least two hours so as soon as the two hour mark hit, I bid my farewells to my very, very dear friends at my table and go for the exit. Except once I was a couple of meters away, I froze on the spot because of something unexpected present in the hall.

Nerovsky Poston entered and if his wind-blown tells you anything, it's that he wasn't originally invited. His expression gave that away. No one entered a birthday party with urgency and anxiety written all over their face unless the birthday person was their best friend and they were extremely late.

What's Leo's favourite employee doing here? If I'm not wrong, this party is for the... well known and I'm pretty sure he has no background of such. Which begs the question... how did he get in? The man frantically looked around as well as analysed the hall, which was odd because he was not looking around in awe. He was looking around like he was trying to find something on the walls or just looking for something among the people. Interesting.

My initial purpose of leaving had vanished and opted on watching what the guy was doing instead. This was slightly creepy when you think about it but I was just a curious person. Luck seemed to be on my side because he didn't seem to notice me so I could study the man in his natural habitat. Ok, now I sound really creepy. I'm not. Nerovsky called someone on his phone (he's too far for me to eavesdrop) and throughout the conversation, his face was settled with a serious frown and he was constantly analysing the people around him as well as the surrounding. It began to become concerning. Nero ended up staying on the phone the entire time while he looked at every guest. More specifically, the back of their heads? Now I'm past confused. What's he looking for at the back of people's heads. That went on for what like two minutes before the glasses man seemed to have some sort of epiphany and bolted for the... dancefloor? Was he frantically looking for a dance partner and the only one with the perfect head is the right partner?

With a small shrug, I weaved through the guests to get a closer look at what the man was up to.

POV: Nero

If I was planning to bring this place down with bombs, where would I be?

"I don't know, somewhere where'd you wouldn't hit by the explosion?"

I didn't mean to say it out loud to Aiden but it happened anyway. "Wait, why the fuck would the dude be in the building then? Why are we inside the building? He could be outside."

"I don't know, he mentioned to his sister that he was going to be here when it happens. To see it unfold?"

"So it's a suicide attack?"

"I don't know. He never mentioned whether he's going down with Nori but it would kind of make sense if that's the case."

"Why would it make sense?"

"Well because–"

At that exact moment, I had some sort of realisation and interrupted Aiden's explanation again. "Wait! You said he wanted to see the entire thing. That means he would be somewhere where you can clearly see all four of the bombs, more or less. Which means the centre of the room... the dancefloor!" I immediately sprinted towards the destination, while listening to Aiden sing one of Detective Conan's opening like the weeb he was.

While the dancefloor wasn't completely crowded, there was still a fair amount of people. Three more minutes. I know I looked like some dancing octopus, trying to move while swaying to the beat in order to blend in and for the first time, I actually was glad Aiden wasn't here. Nope. Not you. Not you either. You're a female. Not you. I hope not you, you're too hot.

There was a minute left and I'm panicking. Aiden said something through the phone but I couldn't hear him over the adrenaline and throbbing of my ears. I felt myself sweating buckets and I was stressed beyond control. Was I wrong about the dancefloor? Did I fuck up? I was beginning to think that was the case when all of a sudden, someone walked past me and I caught a glimpse of a single helix piercing... on the right ear. My body moved automatically as I dropped my phone to grab him by the arm and turned him around to check his other ear and sure enough, there was a small tattoo of a sparrow behind his left ear. Thirty seconds left.

It went by all in slow motion.

I faced the perplexed but stressed looking man towards me and looked him dead in the eye. He was quite young but definitely gave the aura that he was in his late twenties. I looked down at his left hand to see that he was holding a small box with a red button on it. I looked back up again and his face was now filled with sheer dread but it didn't stop me from saying, "don't you dare..."

But he dared alright. He pressed the fucking button. Whether it was out of spite or panic, I can't tell but the bitch pressed it. So I had about a second to push Rothwell onto the ground, tap into the devil's magic and create a face mask (top cover the top half of my face) while yelling, "πεδίο δύναμης (force field)!"

As ordered, a black yet semi-clear dome forms over the people just before the marble pillars exploded and the ceiling and walls began crumbling down on top. I really didn't want to do this. Now I'm in danger of getting exposed. Confused attendees were all screaming and were either running around like headless chickens, holding onto each other or just looking up in a paralysed state. Everything was still crumbling around us and Rothwell was getting a feel on what was going around us, which gave me time to look around and think of the next step.

Ok so now I have a bunch of people under a force field and I have to get out said people. Debris is still falling on top and around us. I think the exit is blocked. I looked towards the exit to find that yes, it was blocked and we had a wall of debris that was about 5 meters tall. I looked a bit to the left and froze. You've got to be fucking with me. My brain stopped completely functioning as my eyes landed on Erwin. Who happened to be looking right back at me. With widened eyes of surprise but a grin that said, "Oh I've caught you now."

It was also at this moment that Aiden decided to crash in (how he gets through my barrier every single time is a mystery to me), deeming him a couple of minutes early. He had a bandana tied around his mouth and was floating above us, between Erwin and I. In my peripherals, I could see Aiden looking between us before asking, "Uh, did I miss something?"

I whipped my head towards Aiden. I didn't bother hiding my anger I asked, "Assden, you fucking lied to me!"

"Huh? What on earth are you about? The building exploded and the dude is right there."

"Not that you dimwit! YOU SAID THERE WAS NO ONE WE KNEW!"

"THERE WASN'T?"

"Then care to fucking explain why Erwin fucking Fonzo is here?"

"Uh he got invited? So what?" Aiden got a proper look at the man, not just his side profile and his eyes widened drastically and his jaw drops, leaving him agape. He quickly shut it with a click and pointed at him. "It's you! You're–"

"Leo's best friend," finishing off the sentence for him. I continued to add on, "you brought me to a party where Leo's fucking best friend was attending."

Aiden looked back at me and he snapped back. "How was I fucking meant to know that? It's not even my fault!"

"I TOLD YOU HIS NAME LAST WEEK!"

"I DIDN'T LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW!"

"AND NOW LOOK WHERE THAT HAS GOTTEN US!"

"Well excuse me, we would've been in this position regardless of whether I knew his name or not."

"Would we?"

"Are you telling me you wouldn't have come here if you found out about Erwin earlier?" Aiden was mad. He had his fists clench and they're shaking in anger and disbelief.

My eyes softened a tad bit but the tone of my voice didn't change. "No! I would've just found another to do this without exposing myself."

"Well, it's too fucking late. We're in this nightmare and now we gotta work around it."

"Well got any ideas, Einstein?" I spat out in disdain.

"Are you seriously being sassy with me right now?

"Um, are you guys just going to forget I'm right here? Like I can literally hear everything you guys are saying." that came from Erwin who looked entertained by our quarrel but also offended. Probably because we completely, intentionally ignored him and would continue to ignore him. We reiterated that fact by saying, "Shut up!" at the same time. Fonzo put his hands up in defeat.

I turned back to Aiden to argued with him some more when an unexpected voice from behind, stopped me.

"YOU ruined EVERYTHING!"

I turned around to face Rothwell who was standing but trembling very hard in shock and rage. His eyebrows were knitted together and he was sporting a mean scowl. His fists were clenched like Aiden, ready to punch anything that came his way.

"Oh, he's back online." That was a completely unnecessary comment from Aiden. The comment clearly went over Rothwell's head when he continued to add on.

"You ruined EVERYTHING! Who do you think you are to interfere? Everything was going perfectly. Why did this happen? Why did you do this?! It was perfect. The plan was perfect."

I quickly inserted my question before he continued on his tangent. "The question is, why did YOU plan to blow the people around you?"

"She deserved it, that's why. She didn't get her consequence because of you. You know what, I'll do it manually. I'll kill everyone here on my own, after killing you."

"Wait, that doesn't technically answer my quest– oh shit!" I was interrupted by the semi-insane man pouncing at me with a knife in his hand. Where he got it, I have no fucking clue but he's about to stab with it, in the chest. Before the tip of the sharp blade could touch, however, he was knocked back by a kick in the ribs by Aiden. He was charged up (literally) and stood in front of the man, ready to have a go at him. He quickly glanced over his shoulders to look at me and instructed, "I'll take care of him, you find out a way to get out everyone safely and do it before the cops manage to get in here." I totally could've blocked that on my own, thanks.

With that being said, Aiden grabbed Rothwell by his collar, charged the sole of his feet and shot up through the force field and debris, into the night sky. He promptly disappeared. By now, people who hadn't already fainted were staring at me and Erwin like we are some circus act but a confusing circus act. The stares were annoying. The debris was annoying. Erwin was annoying. This entire thing was annoying. My day was annoying. I was tired and exhausted. But more importantly, I was disappointed that I still don't know the motive behind this entire situation. So disappointed, I had to express it out loud.

"Dammit, I still don't know the motive though."

Erwin gave out a fake cough to get attention (which works) before stating, "uh, yeah. I might be able to answer that actually."

Of course, he did.