The Things We Do (Under Editing)

Kindling

Wraith allowed me two weeks to plan and pull together something big, but the time it took to prepare my operation gave me too much time to think, and just enough time to watch everything I'd been building start to crumble.

The first time I cancelled a study session with Elliot, he attempted a joke about me losing my newfound ability to rub my grades in James's face if I wasn't careful. The second time, he asked if I was alright. I just avoided him after that.

I was avoiding Mel and Kacie, too. I didn't have it in me to start lying to them again. Avoiding them probably made them more worried about me, but better that than them getting dragged into my mess.

Over my time working for Wraith, I'd tried so hard to keep my mind away from the filth of the city, the people who made it their goal to destroy other's lives, people like me. Suddenly, those people were all I could think about. I knew many of them were like me; dumb enough to sell their souls to the Puppet Master, but some of them truly seemed to enjoy the fire and brimstone.

Wraith himself clearly saw this whole situation as a game. He carried no interest in anything other than seeing the turmoil we caused.

And then there was Storm. Nothing about Storm made sense. His movements made little sense, and his potential motivations made even less. Whatever his goal, though, it wasn't my problem. For once I was actually managing to not care about his business.

You'd think that a city with as many masked criminals as Lenoir has would make an effort to at least prevent us from making a show out of it. However I managed to walk into a costume store and buy a replacement for my mask without even receiving an odd look. This time, however, I didn't bother adding any decoration. There would be no showmanship this time. Ash and blood would complete my costume.

Until now, I'd managed to not kill anyone. I was willing to do a lot, but I'd seen enough blood that I knew I didn't want it on my hands. There was no getting around it, though.

Wraith wouldn't let me off easy. This time it wasn't about choosing my life over someone else's. It was whether I valued my family's lives more than a stranger's. I was on a tight leash.

However this ended, my hands wouldn't be clean.

It was dark when I once again found myself in the tunnels underneath the city. The damp darkness was almost comforting. For once, I was away from the eyes of those who didn't have the slightest idea what I was going to do to them. I couldn't stand to have them look at me without the hatred that I deserved.

I made my way slowly through the sewers and subway tunnels. Soggy stone walls and the patter of rat feet were, unfortunately, familiar enough that I barely noticed them. I wandered, down, around, and back, covering as much ground as possible before the sun rose. If I'd had more time, I would have taken another night to cover more tunnels, but gathering my supplies had run down my clock.

Explosives had become something of a specialty of mine, and the tunnels ran under every major part of the city. I'd marked a few major locations on my GPS were the main force of my attack would focus, but I scattered the bombs elsewhere as well.

I'd been told the city had to burn, and this was where the fire would start. Really I was taking a page from Hangman's book. They'd collapsed a several buildings and ended with a street, but in order to satisfy Wraith, I'd need to do it on a larger scale. It all had to go at once, crumbling as the ground beneath it caved.

With my plan set, I decided to get out of Dodge. Wraith wanted my part in this known, so it wouldn't do to be at the epicenter of the explosions. I didn't go home, though, and I didn't sleep. The only place I could stand to be was the rooftop overlooking where disaster would happen. That's where I sat, alone in the night, hoping that dawn would never come.