The Perfect Solution

The wind rose suddenly in response to the words uttered. Blake had a solemn look on his face as he awaited his reflection's response. And eventually, he got one.

"So, in other words... You're giving up?"

Blake's finger twitched.

"It's the only logical thing to do. The police won't make it in time to save Lena so that leaves one of three options..."

He covered his mouth with his hand before continuing.

"One, I try to fight off the terrorists myself. I shouldn't have to spell out the problem with that one so let's move on."

He bit his inner lip slightly.

"Two, I give the terrorists what they want. I can tell that woman where I hid the pocket- or stasis bomb and try to ensure Lena's safety." 

"Risks are too high. Her behavior is too erratic. You can't reasonably say she won't kill you even after you give her what she wants. Plus, giving her the stasis bomb would basically guarantee the end of the world. Clearly a no go."

"Which leaves me with only one option... I do nothing and let whatever happened in your timeline happen again." 

Defeated, he lowered his hand onto the ground. It was uncomfortable to say this, but it was the most logical choice.

"Lena... has to die. Any other choice would lead to unnecessary danger to myself and the rest of the world."

Blake's head slumped as he finished talking. Out of frustration, he ran his fingers through his hair. He kept reassuring himself this was the best solution, but something was nagging at him on the inside. Ignoring it, he stood up. 

Back inside the mall, he dragged the paper bag behind him. It was small, yet it felt so heavy. It was a constant weight pulling him down as he traversed the countless empty pathways. 

Somewhere along the way, he noticed he'd started counting all the windows he was passing by, while having nothing to listen to but his own heartbeat and the slight rustling of the paper bag.

Window, heartbeat, rustling. 

Window, heartbeat, rustling. 

These were the things he kept focusing on for an amount of time he forgot to even keep track of.

The longer he walked, the more details were starting to disappear from the world around him. The ceiling lights and floor tiles were fading away, leaving only white in their place. 

*Ba dump*
The paper bag slipped through his fingers.

*Ba dump*
Blake stood there for a second looking down at it before leaning over to pick it up.

*Ba dump*
For whatever reason though, he couldn't stop himself from dropping onto the floor and lying down next to it.

"The mall was the furthest this one could get.", his reflection said.

Whether Blake heard that or not, he didn't show it. He simply lay there staring into the boundless void above him. His eyes wandered unconsciously. Was there even a point in looking anywhere else? He wondered this to himself since it was only white no matter where he looked.

To his surprise though, he saw a faint blinking in the near distance. A red light, and the more Blake looked at it, the brighter it became. It was the light of a surveillance camera. 

Blake sat up to get a closer look. Something about it was striking other than it being the only thing to stand out in the void he'd found himself in. There was no doubt. it was important, but why? 

For some reason, Blake's mind tied the camera to his earlier walk to the mall. And there was one detail Blake lasered in on specifically. The see through door he passed by on his way in. 

The void shattered. All the finer details of the mall came back in an instant as Blake muttered something to himself.

"...A security office. This mall has a security office."

After saying that, he looked to his left and stared at the paper bag.

*WHAM*
Eva was holding Ethan by the collar of his suit and beating him relentlessly. Sirens were blaring in the distance now. In reaction to this, Eva clicked her tongue and then turned her attention back towards Ethan.

"Where is it!?"

"I... don't."

*WHAM*
Ethan's face had turned into a bloody pulp by now. The prolonged and ruthless interrogation left him in a state where he couldn't even form coherent sentences anymore. 

After a while, he didn't even know what he wanted to say. It left him with no other choice but to lie there silently and take his beating. 

Any more damage could have been fatal, but Eva didn't care. Despite her exhaustion, she raised her fist again, pulled it back, and prepared to strike.

"Stop it! You're going to kill him!"

Eva's face hovered directly over Ethan's face. She turned her head slowly to look at the person yelling at her.

It was Lena.

Letting go of Ethan's collar, Eva got up. She turned to fully face the nervous wreck of a woman looking at her. 

Eva started her walk over. Her footsteps echoed loudly against the tiled floor. The walk over felt eternal, but everybody in the crowd knew it would eventually end and that nobody would like what was going to happen.

Every footstep sent chills down Lena's spine. There were a lot of times when she forgot to breathe and was forced to open her mouth to take in air. 

The footsteps stopped. Their echoes died down. And nobody even dared making a peep.

*Click*
Lena was now staring down the muzzle of a gun. She was so scared that she couldn't even tremble. Her body was entirely still as she waited for the unfair consequences of her actions.

Unblinkingly, Eva placed her finger on the trigger. And then...

*Kchk*
A staticky noise filled Lena's ears and reverberated throughout the entire mall. It was the sound of the intercom. The voice that came through sounded a little out of breath, but what he said immediately commanded the terrorist's attention. 

"I have the stasis bomb. And if you hurt anybody else, you're never getting it."

Lena recognized Blake's voice immediately and looked up in absolute shock with almost everyone else in the mall. 

"I thought you swept the entire building!", Eva shouted.

She scoffed in reaction to her subordinate's incompetence and then turned her attention back to the intercom. Folding her arms, she begrudgingly asked a single question.

"What do you want?"

"First, you'll release the hostages."

After brief consideration, she raised her arm and aimed her gun at Lena's head again.

"And what if I decided to kill them all instead?"

There was an unusually long pause after that. At first, Eva thought she was successful in scaring the person negotiating with her, but he responded back with complete calm. 

"If me keeping the bomb for myself wasn't good enough... then how about I just activate it right now?"

Eva's eyes widened in response to this. The sirens blaring in the distance were getting closer and closer. 

"That wouldn't be a good outcome for any of us. So how about you do what I say for now."

The sirens were deafening as Eva stared at the camera intensely. The voice on the intercom spoke up again.

"Letting them go is your only means of getting what you want."

It took a while and great consideration on Eva's part, but after what seemed like forever, she finally lowered her arm and let Lena off the hook.

"Fine. What else-"

She'd just barely finished enunciating the words when the voice responded to her. 

"Well, I've been running all around the mall to deal with this mess, so now it's your turn."

He paused before continuing.

"Station as many men as possible around the entire mall. And make it as hard as possible for me to leave without getting caught."

"What the hell are you thinking?"

"A game. I'll be hiding out somewhere in the mall, and it's your job to find me. the police will get here soon though, so you better make it quick."

Eva grinned as the voice finished speaking. She relayed the proper orders to all of her subordinates over a walkie talkie and then turned to the hostages.

"You heard him. Get out of here."

While most of the hostages immediately clambered towards the exit, one stood completely still. Everybody else frantically shoved past her and tripped over each other to get out. But she couldn't bring herself toleave. 

She was waiting. Waiting for her cousin who was being abandoned.