Chapter 5：Rise Again (1/2)

A FEW HOURS LATER

Like someone returning from a bad dream, Mack opened his eyes, and a headache came before he even realized it.

'I guess I'm not isekaing.' he laughs at himself in his mind recognizing the roof of his bedroom.

Still laying flat on the floor of his bedroom, like a chalk outline from a crime scene, he searches for a cigarette in his pocket and lit it up, not even pulling himself from the ground to smoke or moving any part of his body that was unnecessary for the act of satiating his addiction to nicotine.

”I guess Plan B it is then.”

The bag is extremely heavy, so he walks a little off but still reaches the door of his house amidst the pain that assaults his head.

Mack then opens the door, takes a last drag of smoke from his cigarette, and throws the rest of the cigarette behind his back. Not even turning to look, he walks off his house.

The still lit cigarette hit a pile of papers and some small containers in a corner of the room.

Like a hungry wolf, the fire spread to the papers.

Mack, still walking, laughs to himself aloud, and starts singing a line of one of his favorite songs.

”... and you can have it all, my empire of.... dirt”.

In the middle of the night, Mack keeps walking off the house, while the fire consumes all the house walls and roof.

By the time Mack walked for a few meters, the heat assaulted his back, and one moment later…

~BOOOOM~

He heard a muffled explosion, and with that, the night sky brightened itself.

”Much better. Now I can see the path ahead”.

Unknown to Mack, his path would be anything but a clear one.

Amidst the night sky and trees, Mack kept walking in the city's direction, his old house, was in the outskirts of the city, surrounded by trees and close to a lake, the perfect spot to rest on the weekends but far from the city center.

Forgotten in his own thoughts and still dizzy from who knows what, Mack walked.