Jacob lounged on the couch for awhile. It was a comfortable one, worn and soft, but not so that it swallowed him. It was nice, but he was getting bored. Plus, his supply of matchbooks and lighters was gone. (He was running low on food, too so maybe he would get some of that...)

'Guess I better go out...,' he thought. Pushing himself off the couch with one arm that had a long, slicing tattoo that slid vertically down his arm. He could hear the wind wailing and ranting at the sides of the house, so he grabbed a long green army coat and headed out the door.

Taking long strides, he moved towards the Walgreens across the street. In order to get there, he had to walk down the sideway that lead though the small neighborhood he lived in, cross four lanes of fairly heavy traffic, walk down another sidewalk, then turn into the parking lot of a strip mall. The line of connected stores boasted two Mexican restaurants, a post office off to the side, a Walgreen, a small book store that was mostly made up of used mystery novels, a grocery, and a pharmacy. It had started to rain, and the wind whipped it hard into any poor person who happened to be out. People hurried into their cars, huddled under umbrellas, like dark smudges in a bruise.

There where a few brave souls who stood under the protection of the canopy, but not for long, most had only paused to relit a cigarette or to buy a drink from the soda machine. Jacob brushed pass them, getting a few annoyed glares when he knocked a few against the wall in his frenzy to get his fix.

He threw the door open in his excitement. The clerk glanced up from her cash register, saw the man standing in a frenzied state at the door, rolled her eyes, and went back to what she was doing. He headed right to the back, clutched several lighters and matchbooks jealously in his hands, ran back up to the cash register shoved the items in her face and stared at the top of her head impatiently. She deliberately took her time, thinking longer than necessary about magazine quiz she held in her hands. Slowly, she put down her pen-

-and picked it back up. Crossed out an answer, stared at it hard for a moment and put it back down.

"Need something?"

Jacob looked ready to tear her apart. He threw some money on the counter and waited, glaring. The girl looked down, and acted surprised.

"Oh! You should have said something!" she said as she scanned the item, scooped up the money with a one hand that ended with hot pink talons. She handed him the small plastic bag, and he snatched it up, threatening to rip off those creepy fake nails if she was going to continue taking so long to ring his things up.

"...and doesn’t this place have any other, better employees?"

Then he stormed back out into the stained world, which, currently, was the color of his room.

Grey.

Jacob sat with his back against the tightly locked wooden door. In one long, green veined hair, he clutched at a book of simple, slim sticks and in the other, a plastic tube filled with flammable fluid. These where his obsessions. More precious to him than anything, most of all the plastic bag that was filled with a meager few things to eat hanging limp from the crock of his left elbow.

Took a deep, shuddering breath and forced himself to put his alters up. He had work to do.

Going to his refrigerator and bending down to the bottom drawer, he pulled out a box. Not a very big box, about the size of a one that would hold a birthday cake. It was made of cardboard and rather heavy. Inside of it where three roughly egg shaped glass cups and some little brown black blocks that looked a bit like chalk, only darker.

He took a deep breath and prepared himself. On the floor with the box in front of his knees. He held one of the delicate cups in his hands and stared at it. There was something missing from it, but he couldn’t figure out what.

The bowl was like a bubble about to pop. It had the same rounded, swelling appearance. Small bubbles caught in the glass like grains of sand marred the otherwise smooth surface. But that wasn’t the problem, he liked that...

Maybe it was the stem, it looked a little to thin hold up the bowl. It wasn’t like it was going to be used or even set up properly, probably... He sighed and put the glass and bit of chalk stuff back into the box.

He sighed again, opened the door and sat in the door frame. Some time later he heard someone yell,

" Hey! Jac! Your not doing much, come to this party with me I don’t want to go alone and I don’t really know many other people that are going!"

Jacob jumped and looked around. Running down the sidewalk, he saw a little girl. Well, not that little, but she was short and she wasn’t that old, so she was 'little'. She was about Jacobs age.

"Umm..." Well, it was better than sitting here and getting cold. "Sure.."

He started to get up and walk toward her but was interrupted.

"Wait. Your not going in that!" He looked down and started to say that he didn’t find anything wrong with what he was wearing, but never got the chance.

"Look at it! Your all wet!"

So, to make her shut up, he went inside, grabbed a lighter, stuffed it in his pocket and walked back out.

"I thought you where changing!"

"Nope, went to get a lighter. Amy, if you don’t like the way I'm dressed, you can go alone."

She fumed at this, but there they where, stilling on their guest couch, listening to a red headed girl talk about the time her house caught fire and she thought that her face was going to melt. Jacob found the whole experience rather boring and was about to say as much when their host came up.

She actually was Amy's cousin, but she felt that she needed more people at her 'I'm -bored- So- I'm Throwing- A- Party' party and figured that if anyone could drag a lot of people to a party, whether she knew them or not, it was Amy. But she was disappointed. Instead, she brought some guy who looked like he was dieing of paranoia just being around all these people and was half soaked. She didn't want to know why.

Okay. Big grin, she is my cousin, I owe her.

"Hi...who’s that, Amy?"

"I am...Jacob. Hello."

"Hi..." she couldn't help herself, " Um...why are you so...wet? Your dripping all over the couch...could you dry off?" A few people had drifted closer.

Amy shot Jacob a posioness look that said she wanted to rip out his lungs right now. Jacob didn’t notice, he look much more relaxed than he had a second ago. Even he was aware of how drugged he probably looked, and even though for the most of the party he wore an expression akin to dead sleep induced by boredom, later on people would swear he was high the whole time and completely out of control. Taking out his lighter didn't help the situation much.

"You want me to dry off? Am I messing up your priceless couch? I'm so very sorry. Here, I'll do you TWO favors in one. Dry myself and the couch. Heh." Jacob no longer felt awkward, he felt completely relaxed.

And in control.

He flicked the lighted into life, set it to his pants leg and all hell broke loose.

A few people left as soon as he took out his lighter, but most stayed, thinking they where going to get an interesting show. What happened next was interesting, but defiantly NOT what they expected.

Jacob rolled his eyes in anticipation of the adrenaline high that he knew was coming. Though he wasn’t numbed this time, he was too far into feeling everything- the rushing of the flames, the dizziness that threaten to overcome him, the tension that comes with trying to regenerate to dwell on the sensation of pain for to long. After all, he had done it once that day, and his body was a little slower to recover.

Then, of course, there was just the mere feeling of fire, knowing that you could interact with it on a level more than just burning a piece of wood or a building or whatever- no this was far, far better. He could burn himself and survive. To do it over. To see the flames as they ate at him, never being sated.

And he was going to tell these lucky people witness it! They should feel honored! So what if her damn couch was going to get a little burned. If they didn’t appreciate his demonstration, then fine. All the more fun in scaring them.

"Oh my God!! He's going to kill himself!"

"I think he’s got explosives on him! He's going to kill us ALL!"

And the like rang out across the room. Needless to say, everybody was pushing at each other to get out of the room before he 'blew up'. Amy who had been sitting next to Jacob, moved like the very devil himself was after her when he set the lighter to his pants.

She couldn't understand why her friend who try to kill them all? He wasn't like that! Besides, he defiantly wouldn't want to kill himself in the process. That she knew for sure. But still, she, along with everyone else, was trying to desperately get out.

This annoyed Jacob. They where acting like the very world was about to end! It was making it very hard to concentrate. Someone ran up holding a fire extinguisher. The person looked vaguely familiar, maybe he talked to him before. At any rate, he squeezed the handle and Jacob was hit in the leg with something wet and foamy. Worse yet, the fire had gone out! He could sense it, and besides, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the stuff in a fire EXTENUSTER would make a fire go out...

He sputtered and was about to yell at the guy, but then he saw the concerned look. Jacob wasn't the hardest person to guilt trip, and this was too much for him.

"Ummm...sorry for scaring you guys...I just got caught up in...um..."

"I don't know what made you act that way, but are you okay? Let me see your leg.."

"Um. No. That wont be necessary."

And with that, he was off. Looks like he was going to have to move again...

---

No, I dont own Walgreens. Just so you know...

Oh yea, sorry this chapter is so boring, but hang in there...