set the world on fire

Lee Eunsook ✩ Arson ✩ 964 words
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She’s walking down the stairs. The bottle of gasoline is hidden in her cotton bag as she ventures into the underground subway station. She’s wearing her headphones and blends in easily with the rest of the commuters that are riding the subway.

They don’t know her and she doesn’t know them. It’s exactly how it should be.

She’s not here to make new friends either way. She’s wearing a long coat to prevent the cold weather from affecting her slim body. The train arrives 7 minutes later and she boards along with the other people on the platform. It’s a full train, there are people of all ages and she smiles.

At the end of her car she dips into the bag and slowly releases the cap on the bottle of gasoline and sinks the bag as close to the floor as possible. She waits for the liquid to soak through the material and slowly drip onto the floor, the unmistakably sharp smell of gasoline spreading in the car as she moves towards the next. People turn around to find the smell, look towards her but she’s already gone.

The bag is swinging and staining floor, seats and people and the more dense the cars become, the more often does she hit another person and with a slow mumble apologise. They don’t know what’s about to happen to them and they’re not supposed to know.

She makes her way through the entire train, small drops becoming a trail of liquid behind her. Right before she exits the train, she finds her box of matches and a cigarette.

The first step out has her lighting the match. She doesn’t light the cigarette but just gently blows at the match so it becomes embers before she carefully throws it back into the train. The embers ignite the gasoline and spreads rapidly through the train, following the gasoline trail she has left.

The chaos that ensues in the subway station is loud but she blends in easily as she slowly goes to find the stairs. She drops her jacket in the chaos as the flames at the ceiling and eats the train.

The next train that rolls into the station is quickly engulfed by the flames as well. The smoke is heavy and toxic and she can hear people coughing and crying while they fight for their life. She only observes the way the fire devours what it possible can eat. It’s beautiful.

The situation is chaotic and disastrous but there, in the middle of it all, are the flames, alive and beautiful. They’re living the life she never got to live. She feels proud of them. She remembers the time she sat the house on fire but this beats even then. This is giving them what they really deserve. They are pure in their orange beauty and she nods.

Someone bumps into her but she ignores them, fixes her gaze on the art that unfolds before her eyes. The smoke is dark and fills most of the subway station. It’s stinging her eyes and but she stands in the inferno that she created. It’s art. It’s life. She knows nobody around her in their panic feels the same.

An almost irrational annoyance springs to life in her. It’s not fair that people cannot see what beauty lies before them. Whoever found themselves in the train should be happy to be devoured by the only thing worth dying for.

She smiles a crooked little smile as she takes a step closer, a step into the dark smoke, only to get a better view on the flames at the subway ceiling.

Firefighters are running towards her down the stairs but retreats when they realize how toxic the smoke is. She doesn’t care. It’s her baby down there. She barely even hears the commotion behind her because it means so little to her, means nothing to the fire in front of her.

Her eyes are squinting to look through the black. She would have had a better view had she been on the other side so she could observe the flames there too but there’s nothing she can do. She won’t be able to get to that side.

She takes a step up and turns away quickly to cough and squeeze the tears out of her eyes. When she turns her attention back to the beautiful burning train she smiles a little. She hasn’t been able to give the fire everything, not yet. There are still fires to set, still art to create, life to grant.

A couple of firefighters run past her with masks.

The anger that surges through her at the sight almost has her running after them. They don’t understand how beautiful it really is to see the yellow, orange and red create the black. It’s a symbiosis only she understands. A masterpiece that she creates and everybody tries to ruin.

She doesn’t run after the first two firefighters, however, and more join the first. They’re helping barely living people up the stairs. She’s standing off to the side in the chaos, watching how her masterpiece slowly becomes just black, how the glowing care is slowly extinguished with their actions.

A tear trickles down her cheek as she observes what she has created slowly become nothing more than ashes. She likes the ashes but she likes the fire more. The hollow feeling in her chest only becomes stronger as the fire is extinguished and she bites her lower lip.

She’s crying and the firefighter that grabs her to bring her to safety misunderstands and says nothing. She’s crying as she loses another child, another masterpiece, another life. She’s crying just like the majority of people around her.

But they don’t understand. Nobody ever understands.

author's notes

This is the sequel to I See Fire. 
It was inspired by the Daegu Subway Fire and my thoughts go to all the victims. 
Thanks for reading.