Young Writers Society

"Run for your life! It's Pyrospook! The Wicked Wizard is here!

I smiled internally. It has been a while since the last time I heard people cry in fear upon my arrival in a new city.

I entonned a magic chant.

A sudden fire lit my entire being, as if coming from inside my body. My hands became long and sharp, and my nails took a dark color. My mage tunic was magically spared by the hellish apparition, but I couldn't say the same for the flowers around me. People were fleeing before my flaring gaze, and I was delighted by how fearful I still was wherever I marched. It felt good to, at last, be feared and respected.

"Decked out with his scarecrow best, the Wicked Wizard shall destroy the pest!" I sang, overjoyed.

I opened my hand and aimed a random house. A fireball came out of my blackened palm and set the house on fire. I could hear children screaming inside.

"Devilish spirit, strength of all! Who shall be the first insect to fall?"

A group of men armed with rusty swords made the delightful mistake to approach me. With a gracious movement from my hand, I created a fire circle around them. They could not escape. They could only scream in pain and pray for mercy. But they would only burn slowly.

"After the insect come the rabbit. Save your life, hop for it!"

I tranquilly went past the burning men and threw more fireballs at the pathetic houses all around me. Over the screams and desperate rushes of the people, I could already hear some habitations collapsing, consumed by my dancing flames. This time, six armored knights stepped in front of me, two of which on their horses, with spears ready to impale me.

More entertainment.

"There it is, the persistent nuisance! Let me approach you, let me watch you dance!"

I chanted once again, eager to play with my new toys. A rain of fire balls fell down from the sky and hit the city even harder. The knights and the horsemen abandoned their positions and ran away, their armor in flames. The horses fled with them but fell on the ground after a couple of quick steps.

Nobody would escape my flames.

I stopped walking for a moment and looked around, satisfied. I took an abandoned branch in my hand. It immediately took fire, to my utmost enjoyment.

I had no words to describe my forbidden lust. More than causing destruction and chaos around me, more than the almighty feeling I had when doing so, more than the satisfaction blazing bodies brought to me, it was the beauty of flames that pleased me the most. They lit everything in their chaotic path. They carried my infernal vendetta. They brought despair to the ones who once brought despair to me. I went down in flames because of their foolishness: so would they because of my fury. I could not be more content. But I too, one day, will be consumed by my own flames. I knew and felt it: it would not go on forever. Yet I had to enjoy every minute of destruction I caused, for the simple reason that I was treated as evil, and decided to become evil.

"You...You monster..."

I looked down. A wounded kid was staring up at me, full of hatred.

"You're the enemy of God, aren't you? You're Lucifer..."

I gently smiled at the kid.

"You know, little boy, Lucifer means light bringer. He used to be an angel, an Archangel even, but was banished. I'm not Lucifer, kid, but you could consider me as a modest emissary. I do bring light, but a kind of light that only I can enjoy. And that's good enough for me."

Tears of sheer rage came out of the boy's eyes. It was almost touching.

"You'll perish! You hear me?! You'll PERISH! You'll have to wash your disgusting hands after all the crimes you've done, and even after a thousand times, they'll stay as dirty as they should!"

"How troublesome. Then I simply won't ever wash my hands."

For some reason, my answer seem to confuse the kid.

"You... You won't ever wash your hands?"

"No."

My palm silently approached the kid's face.

" 'Cause I'm evil."

The kid didn't even have the time to scream: his body was instantly consumed. At least this one didn't suffer.

While walking away from the destroyed city, I couldn't help but wonder why was washing my hands so important to the kid's eyes. People really put too much attention into meaningless details nowadays.