I am currently a sophomore at Colorado School of Mines, majoring in Chemical Engineering. My hobbies include reading, writing, and playing tennis.
It was a little past dawn when the teen stirred, his eyes scrunching before flickering open. It took a moment for him to remember the events of the night before; the corpses, the fire and most of all, his dead twin. He jerked upwards with a panicked cry, his body crashing back onto the bedroll as his broken ribs and wrist flared in agony.
“Would you rather wear a hard hat or a lab coat?” Professor Mark Seger is generally known around campus as the pyromaniac who teaches in Coolbaugh Hall. He makes the day of his students, putting on engaging demos that are not only educational but also entertaining. But what has made Mark Seger who he is today?
It was sometime past midnight when Isidore saw the dim reflection of the moon on the ground. Dropping the reins of his mare, he knelt, letting his pants soak in water from the soil. His eyes, accustomed to the dark foliage, managed to make out what seemed to be a handle. He frowned gently, letting his hands wrap around it before pulling.
The trees swayed slightly in the gentle breeze, their leaves rustling as a horse thundered by. Isidore leaned forward in his saddle, ducking underneath the branches that wanted to introduce him to the hard surface of the forest floor. Experienced hands tugged gently on the reins of his mare, bringing her to a slow stop before dismounting.
Fire was spreading from house to house, consuming the wood as the kindling it was. Had one looked closely, there were bodies littering the dirt paths, most donning fatal wounds and if they didn’t, they were charred beyond recognition. There was next to nothing left in the once populated village. Death has visited, collecting the souls of the departed.