S'mores

I was woken up the next day by the sound of a phone ringing.

I reached out to check my phone, but it was dead. Did I forget to charge it, or was it broken? I had it in my pocket last night, so it wouldn't be a surprise. It got completely soaked, after all.

I stretched out and went to look for the source of the noise.

It was coming from one of the purses lying by the entrance. The one belonging to that Emily girl, I think. I took it out and turned it off without even looking at the screen. It's not like I would recognize the name of the caller anyway.

Well, it was likely someone from work. It was Friday, so she should have been at the office by now. It is only natural that someone would try to contact her when she didn't show up. It was not a concern for me though. I'd be leaving this apartment today.

I made myself some coffee and breakfast, thinking about what course of action should I take next.

I've already decided to start with the destruction, but how I should go about it still needed a lot of consideration. Normally I would just do whatever I feel like doing at the moment, but this time was different.

This time, the world would not be the only thing hunting me. There were at least two people after me as well, possibly some kind of organization, that I knew next to nothing about. Which meant I should proceed with at least a bit of caution.

Yesterday, they attacked me right after I broke the reality laws. Was it a coincidence? Or did they want to stop me from disturbing the reality too much? It was difficult to tell, as the first assassination attempt happened out of the blue, when I was simply strolling through the park.

Regardless, it would be best to start small. Try to take advantage of the fact that the world hasn't resumed sending any accidents my way yet. I needed to lure them out and learn more. The lack of information put me at too much of a disadvantage.

I looked around.

The apartment was nice, but now that the two women living here were suddenly unresponsive, somebody was bound to report it, and the police would come here soon. Although it didn't matter to me whether they would find the corpses and identify the culprit…

Might as well start by destroying this building today.

***

Not wanting to break the reality laws too much just yet, I went out to gather some gasoline. I stocked up some canisters in the apartment, and spent the rest of the day leisurely, just watching movies and napping. I waited till it got dark outside.

The sight would be prettier after dark, after all.

I only got to work shortly after midnight. I grabbed the canisters and went down to the ground level. Then I started climbing up the staircase, spilling the gasoline as I go.

When I was somewhere around the third floor, one of the apartments' doors suddenly opened. A middle-aged man walked out. He hasn't noticed me at first, his eyes glued to his smartphone, until he stepped into the gasoline puddle. He lifted his head and looked at me, as I calmly continued to empty my canisters.

"…What are you doing?" he asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Nothing much, just adding some fuel so that the building can burn nicely." I sounded completely disinterested. As if what I'm doing was a perfectly normal thing to do.

It took a moment for him to process what I've just said. His eyes widened. "What… are you…"

Although it would be funny to mess with him, I didn't have time for that. If I took too long, the gasoline might start drying out. Of course, it wouldn't affect my plans that much, but what was the point of my gathering all of the fuel then? I didn't want any of my efforts to go to waste.

So I tossed one of the empty canisters at him, hitting him in the head and knocking him out.

I quickened my pace. Let's just get over with it.

Once I was done with the staircase, I emptied the last canister on the rooftop and jumped over to the top of a nearby building.

I lit a cigarette, getting ready to enjoy the show. I still had the lighter from the first night. It was a nice, elegant, vintage lighter, not one of those cheap plastic ones.

I guess it was time to finally return it to the girl.

I rolled the spark wheel and tossed the lighter at the rooftop, right into the gasoline, igniting it. I raised my hand, breaking the reality laws a bit to help the fire spread even faster.

In less than a minute, the whole building was up in flames. I could feel the intense heat from where I was standing.

I should have brought marshmallows.

Well, I guess it was not too late. I could hear the sirens in the distance already, but I could still make it if I were quick enough.

I went to the nearest shop to pick up the ingredients, and was back on the rooftops in no time at all. I sat down and levitated marshmallows one at a time an optimal distance above the fire.

I enjoyed my s'mores as I was hindering the work of the firefighters, blocking their hoses.

Three hours have passed. As time went by, the fire kept spreading further, even without much of my intervention. People were screaming, burning, trying to run away, the whole area was in a state of panic. There must have been a lot of casualties by now.

I couldn't help but yawn. It was starting to get boring, but my attackers were not showing up. I was hoping this would lure them out, but was it not enough?

Well, one of them got injured the previous night. Maybe there was no one to replace him, and the second sniper was afraid to face me on his own?

I guess I had to try a bit harder next time.