He slams the car door behind him with more force than was required. Why did she always have to ask him? The voice of his mother recites in his ears; "You haven't met with them in weeks. What could be better?".

  The boy snorts. What could be better? Sitting at home, watching TV. Playing games. Basically avoiding all interaction with them. Why not? Only because everyone else in his life was trying to get him to do otherwise. Only when he wanted something was he almost always never allowed to have it. Who knew wanting to leave the world alone and rest was such a crime? Well, for better or worse he was going to do all he could to defy everyone else. As if they knew why, anyway, the boy thought as he walked up the stairs of his home and collapsed, in boredom, onto his bed. Checking his phone, he could see a few messages from his friends and his mum. That message was an old one, twenty minutes late in telling him she was waiting to meet him at the college. Useless phone. But as if he had a choice; getting a 4G phone is more hassle than it is worth. The date, 13th of July 2023. The countdown until work begins. The boy snorts again. Not today. Turning on the TV, he is met with more boring news of fuel shortages and useless anchors droning on about how the planet was punishing them for abusing our non-conservable fuel. To be fair to me, the boy thinks, it is hard to appreciate nature when the only glimpse of it is the far away hills in the countryside, not right outside his door. And he lived in a clean town! Imagine how those in London felt. Anyway, it was always left to people like him, he thought with contempt, to pick up the pieces even though he never made the decision to slow bake the Earth.

  His phone vibrates with another message. He picks it up. The ID shows 'Blazer'. Ugh, he didn't want to talk to him right now either. However, the message is interesting. It reads: Don't need to respond. Just check the news. Dutifully, he crosses to the remote lying at the foot of his single bed and changes channel. Instantly, the wining anchors are replaced with a deep sounding, almost grave one belonging to a black anchor who announces that the government has declared that they are investing a lot of funds into the building of a new town, free from the problems of inner cities. The anchor explains that details are short at the moment but more information will be reported as it is gathered. With that interesting note, the boy rolls over into a nap. When he wakes, it is because of his mother again. The boy yawns. "Hugarius, it is time to get up. You will not be able to sleep at night otherwise.".

  "I am disciplined enough." he responds with an air of annoyance. Hugarius's mother purses her lips, but says no more as she leaves the room with an air of needing to do more important tasks than argue. Hugarius groans as he rises from the slumber, dreams almost always more exciting to him than life currently. Rubbing his eyes, he is surprised as the meet the TV, still on. The anchor from before has been replaced with a white man with a clinical-looking face and a clean blue suit. This anchor is talking about scientific advancements in daily kitchen appliances. Making a mental note to mention this to his mother at some point, Hugarius staggers down the stairs, tired still beyond anything. Why did his mum have to wake him? He finds his sister in front of the TV in the living room. She seems glued to it as it describes some decades old tips on how to exercise. Hugarius frowns as he enters the kitchen after hearing that. His mother is working dutifully on what he presumes to be dinner. "What is it, mum?" he asks her in a curious voice.

  "Dinner." she responds with a cheeky smile. "Why do you ask every day, dear?".

  "Well, it changes every day you see..." Hugarius responds with an equally cheeky smile.

  His mother laughs slightly and shakes her head as she returns her full attention to dinner. Resisting the urge to ask her where his father is since she needs to concentrate, Hugarius decides to find him himself. He searches and it does not take him long to find him, in the stuffy, reading area of the house, surrounded by books and data that Hugarius personally would either be too confused or too bored by. His father looks up "Hey. What do you want?". That was his father, through and through. Blunt but not unkind. Straight to the point unless there was something that required a different type of conversation.

  "Dad, I was wondering if I could borrow your books on materials and healthy eating?...".

  "Sure," his father responds, waving a hand airily to one of the small shelves on the left side of the room. Hugarius thanks his father and eventually finds the two books he was looking for. Hugarius then leaves his father's study to let him read in silence. Reaching his room again, Hugarius sits down on his bed and begins reading the book titled 'Healthy eating and its wonders for you.'. By the time he is finished, he knows at least five different herbs and ten different vitamins that contribute to perks like increased bone strength and feeling less tired. Setting the book back where he got it from, Hugarius returns to the kitchen and receives a bowl of carrot and chicken soup from his mother with a 'thank you' from him. A relatively normal day by all standards. However, how long that can last with the looming A-Level results and possible careers to choose from was another worry.

  The boy awakes after sleep, last night's meal so plentiful that even now he is not yet hungry. He checks his phone and is unsurprised to see a message already from 'Burner'. He opens it and it only has a link. Curious, Hugarius taps it on his phone. It loads a video of the local news website. The title: 'Local Buildings In Flames. Perpetrator Responsible or Accident?' Curiosity heightened, Hugarius presses play on the video. It loads a scene of destruction; showing several buildings in flames, promising buildings too, found at the edge of the town. The video transitions to a female news anchor who explains "Yesterday at around 10pm, several citizens nearby the popular pub The Swallow witnessed fires suddenly break out slowly in each building, quickly spreading due to, as police say, opened bottles of paraffin inside the buildings. The fires quickly spread, lapping up the buildings and obscuring almost one hundred meters around them, restricting both police and fire teams' response time. The fires were battled valiantly at around 10:20pm, with the buildings soon safe but blackened by the fires. What reasons would drive someone to attack these sets of buildings? Who knows? But the man in charge of the buildings' construction and renovations is Alan Tuftwood, a rich banker but rumored to be corrupt, seems to point to a planned attack by a perpetrator, not an accident. Police investigations continue.".

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Hugarius turns on the TV, unsurprised to see the same video of the buildings alight. From the view, it seems someone in the pub took it on their phone with surprisingly steady hands. Another message on his phone from earlier this morning from 'Burner', sent before the video link, reads 'Hi, Hugarius. I know you are likely asleep but I think you should know that it was not me who set those buildings alight. And I know it wasn't anyone I know because they were at my house. That's worrying. I recommend staying out of that area as well. The police think the attack was too big and too coordinated for the area to be safe. They are keeping it as closed and barricaded as possible. And Alan Tuftwood doesn't seem too happy.'. With that disturbing add to his already changed day, Hugarius walks downstairs and is also unsurprised to see his sister and mother already discussing it at the table.

  "I think it was an accident." Hugarius's mother says, but she sounds unconvinced by her own words. "People are just careless sometimes, and Tuftwood isn't necessarily corrupt.".

  "Yes, but people do not wait for what is true always. Someone is likely very angry with him." His sister says wisely.

  "Are you sure it wasn't.." His mother begins to say, before stopping short with a concerned glance at my sister.

  "No." Hugarius says confidently in response. "It wasn't him. It is someone else, or as you say, an accident.". He quickly makes himself a bowl of wheat biscuits and devours them, suddenly hungry.

  "I'm going to ask around. Someone must know something." his sister declares.

  "You'll do no such thing! Everything is tense enough without you being nosy." his mother commands firmly. His sister responds by flumping back down on the seat she'd got out of, defeated. Hugarius of course, says nothing, deep in thought.

  "Hugarius?" His sister asks tentatively whenever she is about to ask for something.

  "Yes?" He responds unencouragingly.

  "Could you take a walk with me?".

  "Why?".

  "Please?".

  "Go on." His mother says. "It'll do you some good.".

  "Doubtful." Hugarius replies moodily before dumping his dishes beside the sink and following his sister outside. Once a considerable distance from the house, his sister exhales in something like relief. "What?" Hugarius asks in bored curiosity.

  "Well, I asked you to go with me because now Mum isn't here to tell us off.".

  "Why would she?" Hugarius asks in a slightly suspicious voice.

  "Because we are going to find out what happened to this town to make someone set three buildings on fire." She responds with the air of having a plan and indicates for me to follow her as she heads in the direction of the upper part of town. Her brother does follow her, trying to keep pace. They fast walk, even run at times, until they reach the high street/ high square. As expected, the air is tense. No one in living memory knows of a bigger, more televised incident happening in the town.

  "Tell me, how are we going to find out what happened to make the attack happen if there are thousands of people in the town alone? Assuming the perpetrator was from here..." Hugarius asks his sister in a skeptical voice.

  "We see about the rumours of Alan Tuftwood." She says confidently.

  "Look, if the police think it has anything to do with him being corrupt, then it is most assuredly not. The police are chasing their tails." Hugarius responds dispassionately.

  His sister does not respond, but he senses her frustration at his pessimistic attitude. However, he proves to be correct as the rumours are wild, probably not a grain of truth in half of them and any actual evidence is closely guarded by the police as the investigation is still ongoing. She returns home defeated and disheartened, he returns bored but unsurprised by the day's events. Their mother is of course suspicious that they took much longer than usual to return home, after the last time that day they left was at lunchtime, nearly six hours ago by the time they were home. They ate their supper, his sister chattering on about rumours while Hugarius mostly sat in silence, eating his mushroom soup and bread instead of talking. They both head up to bed afterwards, and lay down on their beds.

  Later that night, the figure observes the boy's house as their gaze sweeps over the town. Then, their eyes move on. The fire was just the first attack. A diversion. And it had worked. The police were chasing non-existent clues on the other end of the town; sweeping for evidence that doesn't exist and enforcing an area the figure was no longer interested in. Their plans were bearing closer and the police would continue to receive no evidence. They were simply a diversion in themselves. The figure breathes out, the steam quickly dissipating in the cold night air.