Critical Error

Malice

**Critical Error** *Act 1, Scene 1*

It was beautiful, almost, the fire raining from the sky. Picturesque, like burning snow on a sunny day, or paint slowly melting to the ground.

Ryan, dazed by the blast, crawled across the scorched earth. Ignoring the burns, he thought of nothing but his family. Not that it mattered. Amongst the black sand, Ryan discovered his mother's heirloom revolver...

All that was left before him was ash, the fires ravaged everything from the coast to the forest. Whatever dark magic Capital City used to destroy us was meant to permanently ruin what little we had. Cursed to burn for all of time, Ryan's land was transformed forever to the Blister Fields. Ryan looked on, his family, his home, even the land itself. Wasted. Words fail to describe the way Ryan felt. His soul, in that moment, excised from his body. Left with nothing but malice.

*Act 1, Scene 2*

Every morning was the same. Ryan struggled to get up before staring at the lighthouse mirror. His eyes a ghostly white, with dark rings on his pale grey skin. Ryan was already 22 with 0 facial hair to speak of. Still wearing the only set of clothes he owned: his father's red and black peaked cap, a maroon overcoat with tails almost down to the ground, and burnt rags covering the rest of his scrawny body.

"If I had a single coin for every night I spent in these old clothes, I could afford an army of tailors," Ryan thought.

"Or maybe an army of soldiers," something spoke to him.

Ryan ignored the voice and pirouetted out of the lighthouse. He marched across the smoldering sand, pistol in hand.

Suddenly, a cry was heard from the rubble. Ryan didn't hesitate to help. A little girl and a slightly taller boy were spotted running from Fiends. Three bat-like demons manifested from the cursed fire, drawn to destruction and seeking to feed the flames.

Wasting no time, Ryan pulled his revolver on the Fiends. He fired once, a red light streaked across the air, but each fiend leaped off the ground, dodging the bullet.

Ryan called out, "Run for your lives, now!"

The boy took his sister's hand and they sprinted back towards the forest.

One fiend noticed the two, but before it could catch them, Ryan sniped the Fiend's wing, sending it striking into the ground.

Ryan said, "It's you all against me, only me."

"And me," something spoke to Ryan.

Ryan was caught off guard by a flying Fiend, slashing his shoulder and leaving a bad laceration. He made an audible yelp, but ever vigilant, Ryan readied himself for the next strike. The next fiend conjured a gust of burning sand which Ryan failed to protect himself against. Every particle singed Ryan's skin, doing significant damage.

"There's little hope for me now," Ryan ruminated, "surely my story won't end here, I haven't even started."

Ryan looked for something, anything, to help himself. "You know what to do," something spoke to him.

Ryan admitted to himself there was only one solution. He booked it back to the lighthouse, disengaging from the Fiends. But they were in hot pursuit.

While running, Ryan unloaded the last 5 bullets in his revolver, Malice, at random. Two shots landed, one on a flying demon, sending it back down. The second bullet landed a headshot to the Fiend chasing Ryan from the ground, executing it instantly.

Ryan leaped from rock to rock, but tripped before getting to the lighthouse door. The last fiend swooped down, but missed just as Ryan fell. Call it a felicitous twist of fate.

Clambering up to the front door, Ryan slid inside. He sprinted up the stairs, two fiends close behind. Ryan reached the top of the lighthouse; the two fiends break open the top floor, but Ryan was nowhere to be found. In a moment, everything exploded, fire engulfed the lighthouse as it crumbled, and Ryan was seen descending from the sky with a parachute.

"Officially homeless, well, why have booby traps if you ain't gonna use 'em?"

While surveying the ground, he spotted the forest he saw the kids run to. He had to find them and get them back home; it was the only way. He aimed for the forest and almost immediately got stuck in a tree. Strapped into the parachute, Ryan hung, helplessly.