Wow, thanks Budi. Yeah, I agree with the "wanted" part. It would have been more consistent and correct except that I wanted to emphasize how we want to write intense stories, now. In the present. But yes, grammatical rules dictate that it should've been in the past tense. Regarding "after which" and "following that," I would just have to use the "writing style" excuse. Hehehe!
Thanks, Karl! Let's hope something comes out of this.