Office Ablaze!

[DoF Archive]

Date: 7/24/2002 9:40 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Spiteful Vinegar


Office Ablaze



The young man lay there, motionless on the dark office floor of Colonel Matthew Algiers Simon. Minutes passed. Minutes turned into an hour, and one hour turned into three. He blinked back to life during that third hour, the acrid stench of burnt flesh and his own sweat mingling to overwhelm his stuffed-up nose. Once aching bones allowed it, he sat up, hands immediately groping for a light switch. After moving around what seemed to be the
whole room, he gave up hope of finding the light switch -- the thought that he was still sitting down never once crossing his mind.


Why is my face wet? he couldn’t help thinking to himself as too-abused hands ran themselves over his face. Never once had he cried in his adult life, not in front of another person -- not even in front of himself.
Why can’t I move my leg? His left leg felt as if it had fallen asleep, but on a much greater magnitude. It felt like his leg was dead.
Why am I here? He was used to finding himself waking in strange places, but on the floor and not reeking of alcohol? This was different. His head was spinning, yet he hadn’t had a single drink.
Why do I smell burnt? He sniffed, sniffed again, and then touched the top of his head. A sigh of relief was heaved upon finding that his hair was still intact. But what was that smell? As far as he could tell, his skin was not scorched, torched, or even harmed in the least.
Memory was finally coming back to him, and the night’s actions became clear to him. He’d been shot. He’d been shot three times. Where were the bullet holes, though? That part of the night had not yet come to him. The gun was remembered, as well as its wielder, Ms. Stone’s overgrown bodyguard. Hands ran down his leg in a brief inspection, finding no bullet holes or open wounds.
Bullets aren’t blue. He remembered now. He hadn’t been shot at all, but had been magicked. That had to be it.
Why am I still alive? This was a reasonable question for him to ask himself. After all, hadn’t Virginia told him he’d be handed over to Colonel Simon in a little black box? This worried him. Worried him more than anything else at the moment.
Am I going to be tortured? He swallowed hard. There was no way that he’d be caught now-- not with that thought in his mind. Fingers fumbled around in his pockets for a lighter or match book. One was always there, and tonight proved to be no exception. He pulled from his pocket a small, silver torch and a red generic lighter. These would have to do.
Aha! There’s the light switch! A flick of his finger had a flame rising from the red lighter, giving tired blue eyes the chance to seek out the light switch to the office. He finally stood, then, reaching out to turn on the light. The feeling had begun to come back to his leg, and he could finally put pressure on it. Easy steps were taken toward a desk in the center of the room. He moved behind it, lowered his shoulders, and shoved
the desk toward the door; a feat in itself since he hadn’t yet cleared it.
Once the desk was at the door, he let fingers delve into pockets again, drawing from them a bottle of cheap cologne. The foul smelling liquid that had been previously used to mask the scent of alcohol on the young man was poured all over the surface of that desk, leaving it highly flammable. The empty bottle tossed aside, he lifted the torch.
His grip tightened around the gun-shaped, silver torch and squeezed the trigger, a flame so hot that it was unseen to the eye lashing out to catch on the flammable scent and set the desk ablaze. A smirk slid onto his face. His emotions were mixed at this moment, torn between whether or not to be happy that he was getting revenge, or to be angry that he would have to keep on running for his life.
That should do it. This would subdue any that might follow him, he thought to himself and moved away from the flaming desk. A hard punch knocked out one of the office’s windows and he stepped through it, sprinting off into the night.





..Life Sucks