44 Bald Heads Don't Catch Fire?!

Adrien, Kai and me stood in front of the house in front of the guard lining the front of the house. 

The main one looked around, "Is there a fire inside or are you kids smoking?" A deep gruff voice boomed at us. 

Kai side eyed me and I smiled at him, knowing what he was thinking. Kai nodded, "Oh yes, there's a fire in the kitchen!"

I nodded along with him, playing along, "We were cooking and I think the gas tank exploded!" Kai looked at me in interest. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head at the absurdity of my excuse. 

Gas tank exploded? Really, Ashe? I laughed on the inside and pointed the way to the kitchen to the confused guards. They hesitantly marched in one by one, guns in their hands.

Once they were in front of us and almost at the kitchen I whispered to Kai, "Now!"

Kai laughed and thrust his hands forward, swirls of blue and orange fire escaping his hands and setting the guards' pants on fire. They jumped and screamed like crazed street dogs, clutching their arms. 

Kai turned around and blew another blast of fire there and another here and one on top of a guard's bald head. The place exploded into a chaos of confused buff dudes. Since it was Kai, a VR-IRL Translate, who had put fire on them, it didn't cause any pain to the guards thankfully. They were simply running around at the fact that they were on fire. 

I tried to control my laughter but my smile died when Adrien clicked his tongue in disappointment at me. He sipped his orange juice in boredom, "Immature," he said and walked away. 

I shrugged and told Kai to aim at the other guard. 

"This is so much fun!" Kai screamed as he sent balls of fire flying around the house. He smiled and looked at me and winked. I laughed knowingly and walked forward to pick up a gun that had dropped from one of their hands. 

Closing my eyes, I aimed the gun towards the ceiling and placed both my hands on the trigger. I breathed in and out, this was going to be the first time I shot with a gun. 

Not thinking anymore, I pulled the trigger.

At the same time, Kai snapped his fingers and the fire created from the bullet shot exploded into colorful fireworks all around the inside of the house. 

The guards were still on fire but they had stopped moving as they looked up in awe at the fireworks sparks spread throughout the house in a colorful array.

In a trance, I turned to Kai who was staring up in satisfaction. "How did you do that?" I couldn't help but ask. 

He shrugged and looked down at me, "Instincts. I looked at you hold the gun like a scared kitty and reminded me of fireworks. So I made it."

I pointed to myself in confusion, "I reminded you of fireworks?"

He nodded, not looking at me anymore, "Beautiful, right?"

I elbowed him lightly, laughing, "The fireworks, or me?"

He laughed with me, "The fireworks, what else?" 

"Hey!" I screamed and pulled his hair playfully. He bent down and tried to pry my hands away, "Ashe!" he laughed trying hard to escape my hold. 

"Kids," the guard spoke and we looked up simultaneously and realised that the guards were still on fire. Kai and I broke apart and he apologised nicely to the guards and lifted his hands to dispel the fire. 

Before he could, I reached forward and caught his hand. 

"What? Don't you want me to put the fire out?"

"No wait. I need to try something first."

Kai nodded and dropped his hand. 

I focused on the fire and thought of what had happened before. The sink incident and the squirrel blood incident. Both of them had happened when my mind willed it to. If it was actually Phantasm, then if I wished the fire to stop, it would happen right?

So I closed my eyes once more and wished. 

"Um, Ashe? What are you trying to do?"

I opened my eyes and looked at the guards still covered in fire. 

I frowned, "It didn't work?"

"What didn't work?" Kai asked, I noticed his hands itching to do something now. 

"Never mind, you can dispel the fire now. I need some rest," I sulked and left him to do the rest of the work while I opened the door to my room and sat down on the bed.

Why didn't it work? I wished for the fire to go the same way I had wished for the squirrel blood to go. Then why didn't it work! I screamed to myself in frustration. What was happening to me?

I hastily searched my pockets for that invitation card which had unexpectedly appeared in my pocket before. When I dug my hands in to search, the card was gone again. "Huh?" I held my head in confusion. All this was wrecking my head. The pressure, the deadline, the fall of the company, stupid Adrien and now this…

"Need some orange juice?" I heard a voice from behind me. I looked through the windows and saw Adrien standing outside, smiling and handing me a glass of orange juice through the window. 

I reached forward, "Thanks." As I wrapped my hands around the glass, it floated away into the air along with Adrien. 

I blinked and realised that Adrien was actually not there and that it was my head imagining things. I grabbed a tiny ball on the dresser and threw it against the wall.

It bounced back and I caught it and threw it again. I sat there for a while, pondering on how to go about things now. I placed my head against the window and stared at the ceiling, unconsciously caressing the back of my neck to make sure that there was no latch there and remind myself that I was human. 

The commotion outside died down as the guard returned to their posts around the house, double alert. 

I sighed and slumped down on the bed.

"Ngh..mhmm…ahh…"

I frowned and grabbed a pillow to cover my ears from the noise. 

"Oh my…"

"Mmm."

My eyes opened wide and sat up straight on the bed, throwing the pillow away. The noises continued and I slowly turned to look outside the window. 

I didn't see anyone outside so I crawled my way over to the window and looked outside under it. I gasped, almost silently. 

"More…"

"Mhmm."

Ethan was on the ground outside the window next to Saye and all I saw were hands and shut eyes and weird noise. I stared at them both make out for a while before I coughed. 

"Um guys. Maximum results on soft beds rather than green grass, did you know?"

They didn't hear me. Instead they continued what they were doing. I pulled back and went back inside the room and grabbed my blanket from the bed and threw it on top of them. Only then did they stop and move the blanket away, looking up at me in surprise. 

I narrowed my eyes at Saye. She said she would get things done but I didn't expect it to happen this fast. 

"Ashe, what's up?" Ethan laughed like an idiot, scratching the back of his messed up head.

"Save it for another time, Romeo is still out. Saye you need to clean the toilets for today."

Saye huffed and got up to reel in the blanket. As she turned around to go, Ethan held her hand and pulled her in. She stood nose to nose with him, looking at him in surprise. 

'Poor Ethan…' I thought when I noticed. Their eyes. Saye's eyes were filled with amusement and surprise only. But Ethan's…they were filled with legit love, or at least what I thought was legit love. 

I shook my head and averted my eyes as he pulled her in to kiss her lips one more time. 

Saye laughed against his lips and kissed him back. I would have left them alone if not for the gruff scream I just heard from outside.

I scampered back to the window and saw a third person standing there. A pastry cover and a bunch of flowers fell from his hands and collided on the floor. 

Tears formed at the ends of his eyes and he looked at me standing there. He recollected himself then and laughed, looking away. Without saying a word, he walked away, anger clearly in his footsteps.

Saye froze and so did Ethan. Ethan was about to say something when Saye ran after the third person. 

"Darren, wait," she called as she tried to catch up to him, "Darren!"