Chapter 1: Betrayal and despair

"Life sucks…" muttered a man under the relentless downpour, clutching a bottle of potent alcohol but weirdly he was smiling. His name was inconsequential now, as nobody cared to remember it anymore.

In his youth, he had been subjected to relentless bullying. Despite his attempts to stand up, each effort was met with indifference from his teachers, who questioned, "What do you want me to do?" He even tried to fight back, only to face even harsher beatings.

Dark thoughts plagued him – he considered ending his tormentors' life or ... his own misery, but his cowardice prevented him from taking either route. Instead, he persevered, clinging to the notion that these were mere phases in life.

Had he known his parents? That was a distant fantasy. Found in a trash bin, accompanied by vermin and mold, he was discarded, unwanted. The orphanage became his home, where funds were scarce, and the staff's corruption left children malnourished. A death due to neglect was swept under the rug, a stain hidden by corruption's cloak.

After finally finishing his school, he got a job in a management company and was thrilled about it. After a few years of hard work, he thought he was finally happy. He found a lovely wife called Chloe with a very sweet personality and even found a pretty nice wooden house with 2 floors on a loan that, albeit in a very isolated forest , had its own charm.

Although his boss is the true definition of a "modern slaver" and seems to love exploit his employees and grind them to the bones and sometimes doesn't even pay them using excuses like "we can pay you once the company do better so better work harder". But despite some financial struggles, he was happy. He even discovered his wife was pregnant! It was a beacon of hope in his world.

"Honey, how should we name the children?" Chloe's question unveiled dreams of a brighter future. Chloe was a woman with a bit of character. She had long beautiful blonde hair, a round face and a pretty curved figure.

"Um, I'm terrible with names," Frederick confessed with a warm warm smile

He thought that the dark chapter of his life was finally over and that was his reward for not giving up … but life seems to say otherwise.

As the days advanced, his dream crumbled suddenly one morning. Frederick was about to hop off to work using his newly brought car, he heard his phone ring. After checking who was calling him, he saw it was his boss. With a disgusted face, he picked up his phone and with a fake joyous tone

"Hello boss ! Don't worry, I finished the work you send me yester-" however before he could even finish talking his boss, which had a pretty deep voice, said suddenly "You're fired." Before hanging up brutally leaving Frederick frozen for a good minute before he starts panicking and tried to call his boss again, only to be rejected every single time.

This simple sentence is in fact the start of his downfall toward madness

With a rushed movement, Frederick dashed outside and went to his company in a hurry to ask his boss what's going on. After reaching his workplace exhausted, he saw that all his stuff was in a box on the floor in front of the building he works.

Dejected and shocked, he went to his boss, that was busy laughing with his secretary. "Boss! What did i do wrong?! Please tell me! You … You can't just fire me like that, please! Give me another chance to repair for whatever I did wrong!". His overweight boss simply glared at him and said with a bit of disdain on his face

"Well, you're simply unlucky that I found out that you tried to report me for not paying for all hours. I treated you all like my children and you dare to falsely accuse me?! Now get out of here with your stuff before I call the cops!"

Totally distraught at what the heck had just happened, and before being able to say that he did nothing, the security kicked Frederick out of his workplace violently. In despair, he wanted to go back home but was too ashamed to tell his wife that works at home that he got fired. So he went to a grocery store and planned to buy alcohol and to escape his misery by getting drunken before going home.

In the grocery store, as he was loading his basket of random alcohol, his phone ringed. It was his best friend and also a coworker… ex-coworker. He took the call and said in a dejected tone, "Hey Jacob…".

On the other side of the phone, Jacob said in a sad voice, "Hey Frederick, i heard what happened today… I'm sorry to hear that. Are you at home? Want to talk about it?".

Frederick said in an even more depressing tone. "I went to buy some… stuff. Ill probably go home only tonight as I … I can't face my wife about it yet …Also aren't you supposed to be at work?" Frederick asked.

"Well, I'm indeed supposed to, but the pig let us a day off because he fears more people reporting him … Also, was it true that you reported him?"

Frederick said angrily and almost yelled in the store, "No! It wasn't me, but someone still framed me for doing it!"

Jacob then asked in a surprised tone, "What ? You didn't do it? Then who did?"

Frederick couldn't guess who could have done this as he was pretty invisible and had not any enemy. After a long moment of silence he just said "I don't know".

Jacob just sighed and said "Okay man, just call me when you are almost at home. Ill bring some alcohol and we could talk about it after your… discussion with Chloe. Also don't worry about it man, its only a job. You can just get another one just don't worry about it. Also if you need financial support, i can always help y'know ?"

"Thank you man, you always have the words to cheer me up" said Frederick feeling a little better before hanging up. Talking to his best friend indeed cheered him up a bit. After a moment of watching the basket with all the alcohol he took, he surprisingly put them all back on the shelves and said with determination in his head.

'No. I can't escape reality forever. I should go back and try to fix everything. I can still get another job. It is still much better than when i was a kid… I still have Chloe and Jacob and my soon to born child.'

With newfound resolve, he left the store empty-handed and took his new car and went back home, decided to find a way to fix the issue instead of running away from it. After, arriving in front of his home, it surprised Frederick to see that there was a car.

After double checking the plate, it was his best friend's car. With a delusional thought. Frederick thought perhaps he forgot and actually called Jacob to come beforehand … Or perhaps he just went in his house and made a surprise party to help him in this dark moment of his life… He then took a long and deep breath and silently went inside after parking his car pretty far from the house with trembling hands fearing the worst.

He then went inside the house slowly and checked where they were. As there was nobody at the ground-floor after double checking. He went upstairs and heard his wife and Jacob talking while as he was ascending the staircase.

"You did what?! He's your best friend how could you ?!" Yelled Chloe in a furious tone

"Listen, I'm sorry I… I panicked when the boss heard me talking about knowing who reported him… and I… I said in panic Frederick" said Jacob with a slightly dejected face and a bit of regret.

"But you were the one who did it ! Why didn't you just denounce yourself afterward?!" yelled again Chloe in an even more furious voice.

"I … can't" After a long moment of silence, Jacob finally said "Does he know that you're pregnant with my children?"

"I didn't tell him yet… I tried multiple times but i couldn't resolve myself to do it…" said Chloe with a bit of resilience

"Don't worry ill take care of our children if needed. Just don't tell him about us."

"But …"

"Everything will be fine. I called him earlier and he'll only get home tonight"

After a few minutes, soft moans could be heard in the entire house. But Frederick's mind was blank. There was nothing inside his head.A few minutes after hearing the conversation, he felt something shattering inside him. He tried again and again in his life and finally he was tired of trying and his already unstable mind shattered.

He felt painful. Very painful… The worst is that he knows that none will care about it. He knows that. He knows he is all the way back to zero again. Back to where he had no job. No friends. And none to care about him. He was exhausted and all alone again.

'I hate it. I hate it all. Why can't i be happy ? Why am I not allowed to be free from pain? I … I just don't understand what i did to deserve this ! I tried my best but really! But it isn't enough … It is never enough!'

It is only at this moment that he finally understood he can only count on himself. Under the moans, Frederick's green eyes lost slowly their brightness and finally turned colder than ice. He took a deep breath and with deadpan look in his eyes; he simply locked silently the bedroom door, leaving the key inside the lock with a bright smile but still with an icy look. If someone saw him at this moment, it would creep them out.

He then went downstairs as silently as possible and opened an old chest that he got from cheap and took out a few jerricans that he got for his chainsaw since he couldn't really afford gas in winter.

He then emptied all the jerrycans all over the floor around the house. After emptying every bit of the precious oil he just dropped the jerrycans

"Did you heard anything ?" asked Chloe in a panicked voice

"Its probably just something that fell over, don't worry" re-comforted Jacob. After a few instant, the moaning reappeared.

With the same smile, he went in the living room and unlocked a little cupboard with a key that was hidden under the carpet and took out a precious bottle that he saved for a long time as it was supposed to be for the birth of his child.

With no hesitation, Frederick opened the bottle before drinking a good amount of it and then put it on a table near the TV. After what he went inside the kitchen that had some plates and took out a knife that he newly bought and some matches.

Frederick went back to the living room and with a big of force cut a piece of the curtains before putting the torn piece of fabric directly into the bottle of the precious alcohol and left the knife on the sofa before going outside accompanied by his homemade cocktail molotov.

With another big breath, He watched his house one last time as he used a match on the piece of fabric that started burning. With a last look he threw the molotov inside his house. The fire was burning rapidly through the wooden house and a thick black smoke invaded the house rather quickly.

Jacob and Chloe quickly noticed that something was wrong after smelling something burning and quickly tried to open the door but found out to their horror that the door was locked. While Jacob was coughing, he tried to pass through the windows but found once again to his horror, that he couldn't! The bedroom had multiple windows but all of them were not big enough for anyone to pass ! While trying to escape, both of them noticed Frederick looking at them with deadpan eyes.

Seeing their attempt to go through the windows, Frederick said in a soft voice. "Honey, I told you we should've renovated the house and made the windows a bit bigger… Well I will not complain." As he was watching the house that he loved so much burn, he felt somehow good… If he can't be happy, none should be allowed to, right? Isn't that the infamous equality that everyone crave so much?

After a good 5 minutes of walk and checking. Frederick found the perfect tree and quickly started to "work on it"

In another part of the town, a burly man with a thick mustache was peacefully savoring his coffee when an alarm interrupted him brutally.

Hearing familiar alarm, the burly man stopped sipping his coffee and rushed at his firefighter uniform before putting it on as quickly as possible and rushed to one of the 3 truck that was mobilized before departing as he was the last one to arrive.

"Chief, someone reported smoke in a nearby forest, it seems that a house was caught in fire suddenly" said another man with a scar on his big nose

"How much time until we arrive?" asked the burly man

"Over 11 minutes as it is pretty far and the helicopter will arrive in about 20 minutes to ensure that the fire doesn't spread to the nearby forest" responded his colleague.

The chief nodded and started preparing his mind for the fire, albeit it is pretty small yet and only a single house was on fire. It will cause severe damage if the fire spread.

However, suddenly the truck in front of them stopped and the burly chief could see the thick black smoke but … He was still quite far from it? He yelled at the truck in front of "Why did you guys stopped !? The smoke is still far ! This road isn't wide enough for us to pass if you block the road so move your ass!"

Nonetheless as he was about to yell yet again he noticed that… a tree with a chainsaw stuck on it was blocking their way! It was indeed Frederick's little "gift".

It was to ensure that Chloe and Jacob didn't survive … Even though they were probably pretty much cooked by the smoke at this point. But he didn't want any unexpected survival so he took no risk and used his chainsaw to cut a nearby dead tree to block the only road to his house … making rescue late.

After running away from his house, he went back to the store to buy alcohol. There were many people inside, but a group of people caught the eyes of Frederick. It was a seemingly a family composed of a handsome father, beautiful mother and two very cute children.

They were all wearing clothes that seemed very expensive and of good quality. In fact, many people were staring at the family, too. Frederick could even hear some girls gossiping about them and how "cute they look together". But in the eyes of Frederick, it was almost like a direct provocation of the world to him. Frederick could almost see the world itself nagging at him. Nagging at what he doesn't have.

However, he didn't feel jealous at all. It even surprised him a bit. In fact he didn't seem to feel anything at. He tried to think of "good" memories of his life but ...everything felt bleak.

And then he thought of the burning house and without even knowing it, he was almost about to laugh out loud. The feeling of burning people to death somehow made him joyous, very joyous.

Frederick tried to stop himself, saying that it was disgusting to laugh at the death of people, but a famous sentence suddenly popped into his mind.

"Each one must invent their own path." (Jean-Paul Sartre)

This sentence looks simple at first sight but if you think seriously about it.

It has multiple meaning in fact. But what Frederick mainly remembers is that he doesn't have to fit in any societal norm as you don't live for anyone expect yourself.

He then calmed himself quickly adopted this point of view.

'I only live for myself. I only live for myself." Repeated Frederick in his mind.

And slowly but surely as he repeated this sentence, it was like if he was finally freed from an invisible heavy burden, he finally started to laugh. He was laughing so hard that people started to glare at him but he didn't care. Not anymore.

Only after a good five minutes, he finally stopped. And then with a joyous tone, he exited the store with a bottle in his hand.

Returning to the present, Frederick, at the top of a building under a heavy rain at night. He was thinking about ending his life by simply jumping, but … he didn't.

"Life sucks"

He just stood there. Watching the city, lively as ever. Thinking of how none will care if he died now. Perhaps someone will even be glad that a murderer that burned to death his best friend and wife killed himself.

But at this thought, he suddenly took a step back and laughed.

"…It is indeed a beautiful night to burn in heII but not yet. I will live on. I will succeed in whatever i'll do and ill prove the world that even if life is a bitch, i will live on and I'll rebuild everything from scratch again and again if I have to!"

The echoes of his determination resonated through the night air, carrying Frederick's unyielding spirit far beyond the city's limits. With each raindrop that struck him, he felt a renewal of purpose, a fire born from the ashes of his past, propelling him forward into an uncertain future.

Walking the streets, he calculated his next move. Entrepreneurship, illicit dealings, anything to rebuild his life. He cast aside remorse, embracing his own transformation. After those painful betrayal, Frederick lost all his humanity and won't hesitate to do anything necessary to accomplish his goal.

However as he was thinking about his future, suddenly everything went black.