111 Choices 1 (1/2)

Thirty minutes after the explosion, the girl alerted by the system arrived at the apartment and saw the disaster it had become. The place was like a scorching pit of hell. Or at least, the fire, heat, and screams made the scene appear like one!

It was very chaotic and noisy. and people panicking, shouting, and crying could be seen everywhere. When she turned her head to the right, she even saw a burly man with burnt hair and hideous-looking upper arm crying for help while escorting a coughing old woman out of the fire.

”Hey, folks! More manpower needed here!”

”Aaaaaaahhh! My house! My appliances! Everything I saved up for decades! Why are they all burning!!!”

”Damn! My unit is already turned into ashes!” said one of the men hammering the cement floor with their fists.

”Someone's trap on the third floor!”

”Help! I'm begging you, please help me! M-my mother's still inside!”

”O-officers! Please!!! M-y youngest child is t-trapped there too!

”Uggghh, everyone!!! I'm begging you to stop crying or shouting nonsense! Please help the others supply water to our boys here!”

”Bring out your damn hoses and pails! Grab even the bottles and gallons of mineral water from those stores! Just grab anything! Help transport water! These red guys' extinguishers are not enough for this!”

The firefighters were still doing their best to put out the fire. However, since the area was where mostly poor and middle-class families lived, a large number of houses were partially made of inflammable materials hence even without mentioning the apartment, three other moderate-sized houses were also devoured by the fire. According to the onlooker she had asked, the cause of this was the numerous explosives detonated from the apartment.

”Where's my sister!?” she questioned the man in black nearby which she knew was Gio's subordinate. Panic and worry showed from her voice, face, and eyes.

”Miss, she's safe. I rescued her from the roof of the house beside the apartment. I don't know how she gets there. However, the incident must have caused her some trauma because she kept saying she mysteriously teleported there.”

Sofony's nails almost dug through her palm as she balled her fists. She hysterically shouted, ”I asked where she is!”

She already knew that something was fishy about the fire accident. But instead of unveiling the truth behind it, she was more worried about Steffy's safety!

Is she okay? Was she injured? Did she become very traumatized?

She didn't know the answers thus she asked about her sister's location!

Finally, the man realized his mistake and corrected himself, ”She's with the firefighters' medic team. Let me lead you where the makeshift tent is.”

The girl nodded. A minute later, when she finally saw that Steffy was okay, just looking a bit lost and with a few scratches on her arms and legs she got after accidentally tripping on the ground earlier, Sofony finally managed to calm down. She walked over to the trembling girl curling in the corner and pulled her into her embrace.

”Steffy, sis is already here... You're fine! I won't let you get hurt again!”

The girl repeated this for two more times before the other woke up from her stupor and raised her head to the older sister.

However, Steffy's subsequent reaction baffled her. The girl's eyes widened as if Sofony appearing in front of her was something unbelievable. The girl kept shaking her head before she stuttered some words out,

”...Sis? Y-you're here?”

”E-eh? But you are at the apartment when it exploded!!!”

Her eyes also widened due to what she heard. She dumbfoundedly looked at the other girl and blurted out. ”I'm in the apartment?”

Steffy shook her head, acting as if she didn't hear the question. Her lips trembled when she said,”A-and you're also wearing our school uniform! You're with me a minute before the explosion! No, y-you're there less than ten seconds before that! And, and I suddenly found myself somewhere at the house next to our building! I, I appeared on the roof! Believe me, I'm not kidding! I-I really seemed to have teleported there!”

With knitted brows, Sofony went silent.

She needed time to digest the information she heard from her sister.

Almost a minute passed before she asked the system, 'That Clarissa came here...using my face?'

The damnable thing spouted many insults and nonsense before it said,

”....”

While Sofony's heart was continuously growing cold from the realizations that one by one dawned to her, Steffy still was not finished mumbling things to Sofony. The girl appeared to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown as she tightly grabbed on Sofony's clothes and asked,

”S-sis, are you really there when o-our apartment is blown up?!”

”I,... I'm glad that you're also safe. B-but did you also disappear from there like me? I-I really don't know what happened!”

”But I, I swear I'm telling the truth! I'm not lying! I'm really not lying!”

Steffy's eyes pleadingly stared at her, as though begging Sofony to believe her. The girl seemed like she was in dire need of someone else' assurance. Maybe in her current unstable mind, it's the only way she could believe that she was still sane.