Pyro

Am I back home?
Is it over?

What is that scent?

I opened my eyes, only to be met with darkness again.
However, I struggled to breathe.

The air was thick and it smelled of…

…smoke.

My eyes widened as I tried to move – my arms and ankles were still bound together.
I could hear the flames above and felt the temperature rising quickly.

I screamed and struggled against the rope again.

“Help!”

There was a small amount of smoke settling to the floor, but it was enough to cause me to choke.

“Help…!”
A gasp for air.

“S-Someone…! Please help me!!!”

I don’t want to die alone, burned alive!
I don’t want to die like this!

“Alessandro.”

No, he’s back!
He’s back to finish me off!

“No! Get away from me!”
I tried to squirm away, only to find that I wasn’t moving very far at all.

The tears soon fell from my eyes.

I don’t want to die…!

A soft soothing hand on my cheek. A familiar touch on my hip.

“P-Pyro…?”

The blindfold was removed, allowing me to see after the past two days.

I looked around to see that we were in a basement-type area, but the fire hasn’t reached us yet.
No…there wasn’t any fire on the ground. The walls, however, were in flames.

My eyes soon met with the man next to me.

Hazel eyes glowed as I was met with his bone-chilling smile.
He wasn’t burned nor did the smoke stain him.

However, there was a large amount of blood on his clothes and hands – some was splattered on his face as well.

“Pyro…?”
He slowly sat me up, cutting the rope from my wrists and ankles.

I coughed again, losing my ability to breathe properly.
I choked and gasped, but I couldn’t get any oxygen into my lungs.

“It’s okay, Alessandro. I’ll get us out of here.”

I was losing my vision as I felt my body being lifted from off the ground.
I tried to take another breath, but failed.

I gasped for air one last time before my eyes slipped shut.

//πυρ//

“I needed more time…I needed more time!”

That voice…

“This wasn’t supposed to happen yet…! I’m not supposed to tell you yet!”

Pyro…?

“Not enough time…Not enough time…! Fuck!”

I opened my eyes to see a ceiling above me – the ceiling to my room.
I moved my arms and legs – no restraints.

I slowly sat up, smiling slightly.

I’m not dead…and I’m back home!

My smile faltered when I looked across the room.

Pyro was on the floor, back against the wall, with his hands in his hair.

Blood-stained clothes…Blood-stained cheeks…
Blood-stained hands…

He let out a small chuckle as he tried to wipe off the blood from his face, only smearing more on in the process.
It caused him to laugh more and a little louder.

I swallowed thickly, an uneasy feeling rising in the pit of my stomach.

Who is this man?

He looked up at me, his laughter subsiding and his smile fading.

“Alessandro…”
“What…What did you do?”

My voice was almost at a whisper, but still loud enough to hear.

“Marco was a bad man… He always was a bad man…”
His lip quivered.

“He hurt me…He hurt Mother…and he hurt you, Alessandro…! I had to stop him…!”
His hands trembled, still wet with blood.

“I wasn’t going to do it this early…but he kidnapped you…and he touched you…! I…I was so angry…I just couldn’t wait any longer…!”

Tears now rolled down his cheek, taking some of the blood with them.

I stood up slowly and cautiously walked towards him.

“What did you do to Marco, Pyro?”

The answer was obvious, but I wanted him to say it.
I wanted it to be confirmed by him.

A sad laugh started his response, but the smile was gone in an instant.

“Look at me…You know exactly what happened to Marco.”

I stepped back a little, the uneasy feeling increasing.

“And the house…?”
“I started the fire afterwards.”

I sat onto the edge of the bed, not knowing how to respond.

I said I wouldn’t make any accusations, but…

“Pyro…Were you responsible for all those fires?”

He dropped his head down.
I felt my hands tremble.

“A-Answer me…!”

“Not all of them.”
My breath hitched.

“What do you mean…?!”

“The three abandoned buildings…The house owned by the woman Pietra…”
He grew silent.

“What else, Pyro?”

He choked back a sob.

“What else?!”

“…The school…”

I felt nauseated. I thought I was either going to throw up or pass out.

He slowly stood up, finally looking me in the eyes.
I didn’t think. It was too late to do so.

My fist had already collided with his cheek.

“How could you?!”

He landed on the floor, where he remained, not looking at me again.

“A woman lost her home! A child lost his life because of that school fire!”
“You don’t understand…”
“Excuse me?!”

He spat some blood onto the floor before speaking again.

“I wanted you to understand…but I knew you wouldn’t.”
I scoffed.

“Then enlighten me, Pyro! So that I can understand!”

“Only if you’re willing to listen to me…Right now, you still want to scold me…then you’ll want to turn me in to the police. Then you’ll want to stop loving me…”

He sniffled, not moving from his position.

“You’ll stop loving me…even though you said that you wouldn’t…”

I bit down on my lip.

I did say that.

I sat down next to him on the floor.

“I’m willing to listen…”

He rolled over so that he was lying on his back.

“The three abandoned buildings…The school…Marco…Pietra…They’re all connected. How? It’s simple: I wanted revenge. The idea was burned into my mind since I was eight.”

I nodded for him to continue.

“I was seven when my father died, and that red scarf was all I had left to remind me of him. My mother couldn’t handle the sorrow, so she resorted to drinking the pain away constantly.

She didn’t abuse me. She just became more and more neglectful as time passed.

When I was eight, she met another man. I didn’t want anyone to replace my father, but if it made Mother happy, I would be happy.

However, the man she met was Marco – a liar, a cheat, an abuser.

He would harm Mother for the smallest of reasons, and then he would come after me.
Mother was still in too much sorrow to notice – she didn’t want to lose another person she loved.

It was only a matter of time until he gave more of his attention to me.
The beatings got worse. And the times he touched me increased.

Mother still didn’t notice.”

He paused and sat up, resting his back against the wall.

“The three abandoned buildings that I set on fire, they were all previously owned by Marco. He did terrible, horrifying treatments in them that some women and I got to experience.

Beatings, electrocutions, burnings, rapes…some women were lucky to experience one or two and live. However, those who escaped alive only went back home to take their own lives afterwards. I experienced all of the treatments, and was lucky to live through all of them.”

“So…the burn marks and scars…?”
“All from those treatments.”

He absentmindedly rubbed a burn mark on his left wrist.

“Pietra was his assistant, and his secret lover. She was the one who brought women to the buildings and gave them electrocutions. She made sure to leave plenty of permanent reminders all over my body.

I didn’t kill her, though. She was only a pawn. I just took what was important to her.

Marco, however, deserved what he got. Especially after what he did to Mother.”

“What did he do…?”

“One night, he beat her mercilessly. Choked her, cut her with a shard of broken glass, and raped her. I watched all of it happen, and something in me just…snapped.

When he fell asleep on the couch that night, I placed a hand onto his shoulder, and his shirt just went up in flames.

I still remember how fun it was to watch him panic…

However, he was able to take off his shirt and put it out.

‘Bambino Demone!’ was what he cried out.
‘Bambino Demone! Bambino Demone!’

When he packed his things and left, I thought everything would be okay. I thought everything would return to normal.

Mother wouldn’t stop yelling at me after that.
She would constantly tell me that it’s my fault Marco left her and that she’ll never be happy again.

That’s when I knew she stopped loving me.”

The uneasy feeling slightly subsided as sympathy replaced it.

“What about the school…? Why did you set fire to the school…?!”

“I hated it there…I hated it so much…

Constantly alienated throughout primary school.

Tortured and betrayed by people who I called ‘friends’ throughout lower secondary school.

Violated and silenced by the first person I loved in upper secondary school – he gagged me and fucked me in the locker room and took a picture of me on my knees, bent over with his cum leaking from my ass…! He told me that he would show the picture to every teacher in the school if I didn’t do whatever he told me to…!”

He broke down into tears, hugging his knees to his chest.

“I hated it so fucking much…! I hate this town so fucking much…! But I didn’t want Leo to die…!”
“Then why…?!”

“He wanted to…He saw me in the hallway with a match. I told him to go back to class, but he only shook his head. He said he wanted to play ‘Hide-and-Seek’ while I set the place on fire. He said that if no one found him before it was too late, he would gladly die…!”

He shook his head in disbelief as he let out another sob.

“It was for the best, Alessandro…I saw my younger self in him. I didn’t want him to grow up into another undesirable human being like me. It was for the best…!”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Now you know…Now you know why I set those places on fire and murdered Marco. It’s now your choice, Alessandro. You can choose to understand why I did it…and maybe we can start over…or…you can choose to turn me in and move on with your life.”

A small smile made its way onto his lips.

“I won’t mind…I got my revenge…I got to be with a person I loved who truly loved me back, even if it was just for a little while…”

Inhale. Exhale.

I wiped a tear from my eye and stood up.

“Come on…You need a bath.”
“You’re…You’re not going to turn me in…?”

I knelt down in front of him and placed a kiss to his lips.

“It’s like you said – we can start over, right?”

He stared up at me, slightly shocked, but nodded.
I helped him up and led him to the bathroom, turning on the shower.

He stripped all the way down.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
He shook his head.

The water was warm enough and he stepped in.
I leant against the closed door, glancing at him every once in a while.

“If we’re going to start over…I want you truthfully answer my question.”
“…What is it?”

“…What’s your real name?”

A moment of silence.

“Vincenzio…After my father’s middle name.”

I smiled slightly.

“I like that name more.”
“Mother used to say that too.”

“What happened to your mother?”
“I ran away from home two weeks after the locker room incident. When I came back…”

Silence.

“Pyro?”

Still nothing.

“Vincenzio?”

“…She’s dead. There’s no need to worry about her anymore.”