[ WP ] You 're surrounded by fire in a building , you 've just fired your gun . What happened ?

Bailey's Office. Interior. 
 
 ___ 
 
 The last thing I see is a flash of light. The pistol falls from my nerveless fingers and clatters to the tile floor. At least there is no pain. 
 
 I float, rising above it all. Rising up with the smoke, looking down at my crumpled body. Looking down at the fully engulfed room. The fire hungrily eating the papers. 
 
 I find myself wondering: why? 
 
 What was so important that it led to this? I know the answer to that, intellectually. 
 
 The audit. The inevitable discovery. But emotionally, the terror and the desperation is absent. The drive to protect others that has driven me all my life and that put my feet on this path is gone. 
 
 I ’ m still distantly pleased that my family will be taken care of, that the depositors will be covered, but the emotion is muffled and distant. At the most, it is mild. 
 
 Much like the gratitude that Billy had come to me right away. It used to be so intense. Now I can ’ t... seem... to remember why that was a good thing. It let me go to the sheriff. It let me make the deal. 
 
 Even that drifts away as I rise. I rise and rise.
