The First Ignition

In just a matter of minutes, Anastasia's plan to spend the rest of the day by herself suddenly went crashing.

As she was about to go outside and into the castle's field, a startling blare reverberates from the opposite end of that hallway. It's so loud and sudden that she feels like her non-existent heart is racing for a mile an hour.

Perplexed, she swerves to its direction and takes a moment to contemplate whether it's a good idea to just barge in there or not.

"It can be anything, though. What if that guy's in danger?" she thought in evident concern.

Though Zen has kept her locked up in that place for who knows how long, Anastasia can't help but care for him since she's well aware that his presence is far from trivial. He also looks after her despite her stubbornness and hesitation to trust him, and he doesn't treat her like a captive at all.

With these in mind, she decides to tread the path towards the source of the explosion regardless of the consequence. Little did she know that she'd be getting more than what she bargained for.

"What the...?!"

After a short while of running, Anastasia ends up gaping in flummox and bewilderment right after arriving, eyes as wide as an owl's.

It turned out that her destination was this small, cordovan-walled room that was practically half a kitchen and half a rubble. She could tell that it's the former since there's a ton of cooking utensils and equipment all around, but then, what makes it the latter is the fact that the oven is on fire.

"Oh, Sia!"

Standing a good few meters away from the scene is her captor, a flabbergasted look splattered on his face. Going by how he's wearing an apron, she can already tell that he just messed up his attempt to bake whatever it was he's intending to make.

"What are you stalling around for?! The world is burning and you're just gawking there like an idiot!" Anastasia exclaimed in a flap before getting a nearby bucket and hurrying over the sink.

But then, just as she's about to obliterate this fiasco, she finds herself stiffening at the scorching sight all of the sudden. It just happened that the flickering flames begin to cast shadows of her past for some reason - a tragic incident where she marked these perilous red-orange hues as her most dreaded nightmare.

Anastasia only stood there for a fraction of a second, trying to recall more of it but to no avail. All she could remember was the feeling of blistering anguish along with obscure scenes.

Shoving aside her stupefaction, she then proceeds to splash water on the blazing oven until the fire eventually dies down.

"Oh, I see... This was just like back then... Sia is..."

While Anastasia was busy trying to extinguish the flames, Zen only watched from behind her with a reminiscing expression.

Her worry-stricken face and panicking gestures are causing a certain memory to play in his head - a similar occurrence and the same agitated reaction from a distant past. He recalls how she said the exact same words when he committed this monstrosity that day.

"Phew... That's a close call. I thought I'd be seeing ashes," she voiced out in relief after successfully rescuing the oven, both hands on her hips.

With his head still floating in daze, Zen just continues staring at Anastasia longingly. Everything seems to be going according to how it happened before, and he can't help but be glad that she didn't really change.

"Just when I thought I could never bring back the past, you suddenly came like this and reminded me of it..." he mused in silence before mustering a satisfied smile.

Anastasia, on the other hand, is nowhere close to doing the same. Despite the fact that he caused all this mess yet acted useless the entire time, he still has the guts to grin to himself.

With that, she finally comes up with one final impression on him.

"This guy's nuts," she incredulously stated, a bit ticked off.

"Hey, what are you smiling for? You do know that you almost flip this whole place over, right?" she then blurted out, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Nothing~ The way you came to rescue just reminded me of the good, old days," he playfully reasoned while crossing his arms.

How Anastasia wishes that she knows what he's babbling about now. Not only will that answer her question on what exactly happened before, but it might save his image as a sane person.

"Is that how you always reacted to this kind of situation? You're always calm about everything. Seriously, makes me wonder if you're really a human," she pondered out loud, a faint trace of skepticism laced in her voice.

At this, his grin slowly drops.

Anastasia is a bit surprised to find Zen looking dead serious out of nowhere. That's when she realized what she said - she, a zombie, just suspected a living if he's truly a human.

"Hmm... Was that too much?" Anastasia asked herself, tilting her head quizzically.

While she's wondering what she did this time, Zen then suddenly starts to approach her, frame unsmiling.