I woke the next morning to thoughts of what had happened the night before. A shiver ran up my spine as images of the dead bodies filled my mind. I reminded myself that what was done, was done. Even after I reset time, the only person who would remember what had happened was me—and only me. There was no reason why I should dwell on it too much.

  Shaking my head, I went downstairs to see Mom watching TV while having breakfast. The news was showing the aftermath of the explosions in daylight. The still smoldering debris showed just how much damage Delayed Explosive at tier 2 was capable of.

  “’Mornin’, Mom,” I said.

  “Good morning,” she replied, then pointed at the TV. “This is crazy! No one has said why the explosions happened, but there’s been over 200 casualties.”

  “That’s a lot?” I wondered.

  “Much less than it could have been,” she nodded. “Still a lot, yeah.”

  “So what are we doing today?”

  “I’ll drop you off at your father’s place after breakfast.”

  “Alright,” I said.

  I sat down with her to eat some cereal. The sweet and crunchy food did little to calm my nerves. Repeated self-assurance only made it worse. The dead bodies were there when I closed my eyes—writhing in blood like I was there in person and not seeing it through a TV camera.

  As I got ready to leave, I heard a commotion in the hallway. I poked my head through my doorway while throwing the rest of my clothes on. I focused on what was going on and recognized Grandpa Joe’s voice and Mom’s arguing about something. Grandpa Joe glared at me with a look that could only be described as pure hatred the moment I made my presence known.

  “You!” He yelled, pointing a finger at me.

  “Don’t yell at him!” Mom screamed.

  “He’s the one who blew up the ships!” He yelled back. “My own family. I can’t believe it! I’m going to take him—”

  “You will do no such—” Mom began, spreading her arms wide to block him.

  Grandpa Joe huffed and shoved his daughter aside. Mom bounced off the wall and onto the floor. Blood began dripping from her nose. She groaned.

  “What the hell!” I yelled. “Look what you did to Mom.”

  “Hell won’t be good enough for you, boy,” he spat. “You’re coming with me.”

  He reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I raised my arm to push him away, but I couldn’t! His grip was inescapable. I tried to activate Dominate Mind to make him let me go. The skill refused to activate! That was true of Flight, Spark, and any of the other skills I tried—and I tried all of them.

  “Follow me, or I will drag you,” he told me.

  His strong grip pulled me down the hallway. As I passed Mom, I saw here lying there unmoving. A pool of blood draining from her. A flash of memory of the dead bodied on TV ran through my mind.

  Grandpa Joe roughly threw me into the back of his car. He hopped in and cranked the engine.

  “My own grandson,” he muttered softly, shaking his head.

  The car ride was a bumpy and nauseating affair. With my skills and strength gone, there was little I could do but go along for the ride. I wasn’t suicidal enough that I would hop out of a moving car.

  When I sat up and peered out of the window, I saw the port and the city behind it, across the water. The cranes were broken. Some were still standing, while others were laying on the ground.

  Even in the car, I could smell them. The bodies. Seeing them was even worse. I remembered what I had seen the previous night—for like the tenth time. There was no way to shake it. I felt sick.

  “You like that?” Grandpa Joe asked. “Because this is what you did. You!”

  I said nothing.

  “Not talkative? That’s fine by me. Some of my friends are here to take care of you. It was an unfortunate accident. There weren’t 200 dead. There were 201.”

  My blood ran cold. I felt the presence of others around me, suddenly. I looked around. They each had a gun pointed at me. I looked at Grandpa Joe just as his hand squeezed the trigger.

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  I woke with a start, my heart racing. My stomach twisted in knots as I wildly searched around me. I saw that I was in my bedroom in Mom’s apartment. The clock told me the time was just after three-in-the-morning. I clutched my chest. I was safe.

  It was just a dream—well, a nightmare, really. I hadn’t expected my actions to affect me that much. Intellectually, I knew these were things I would need to do if I were going to make the system work. There was a huge gap between the theory and the application of said theory. It was a gap I hadn’t expected—though I really should have.

  After experiencing the fear, disgust, and helplessness both in the real world and in my dreams, I knew that the decision to kill all the animals of the world in a way where I couldn’t see the ramifications was the way it had to be. The farther from the action I was, the better I would survive, mentally. After all, if I broke, there would me no way for me to finish the system before the monsters arrived next time. That simply could not happen!

  The dream brought to the fore what I feared most: being taken away—or killed—before I could complete my mission. I knew of Grandpa Joe’s connections. He was the most likely to do what I dreamed of. In this life, he was the most dangerous person. And yet, I hadn’t put him under my control like I had with Mom. Maybe it was the love and respect for all he had done in the past. But I couldn’t be like that if I wanted to live. It was too big a risk.

  I debated running away at that moment, but decided against it. Having a safe base to work from was much too important. That said, if I were ever compromised, I knew I shouldn’t hesitate to disappear.

  I tried to go back to sleep. Like the night before, it didn’t come. My body was restless. I passed the time researching diseases and how they worked. I hoped that I could find a clue on how to make the skills work better than they did. While there was no direct upgrades outside of leveling the skills—at least, not without purchasing more features—I wanted to see what was possible on my own before spending the experience points.

  Mom woke early the next morning out of habit. She and I had breakfast together before we piled into her car to drive to Dad’s house. We made small talk on the way—though she was controlled by the System Contract most of the time. Every glance she made my way with any lucidity was immediately replaced by the glazed-eye look. Just because she couldn’t act like she knew didn’t mean she’d forgotten. I was certain that she understood what I had done—even if she didn’t know the reasons.

  Mom dropped me off at Dad’s, giving me a quick hug before driving away quickly. Dad poked his head out of the front door and looked at me. He waved and I waved back. As he went back into the house, I cast Spark just to make sure I was—in fact—awake. A small shower of sparks leaped from my hand. My mouth curled into a smile.

  “Scary what happened yesterday, eh?” Dad asked, while we sat together watching TV.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “The cause still hasn’t been identified.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Why’d you do it?” Dad asked, turning to me.

  His face was hard.

  “What?”

  “Look, kid, I know it was you—”

  My heart jumped. I opened my mouth to protest.

  “But I didn’t—”

  Dad glared at me as hey continued.

  “—I knew as soon as they said there was an explosion with no cause. A bomb without a bomb.”

  “—I—”

  “Look. I know you did it. I just don’t understand why. People died you know. Something like fifty dead or missing.”

  My heart raced. I considered how to answer. I was ready to wipe his memory and leave at any time, but decided to humor him for now while I thought more.

  “It was supposed to be zero,” I finally said.

  “Well no shit. Why’d you do it?”

  “Like I had much of a choice!” I yelled.

  Tears began to fall down my cheeks.

  “Sure you did. You could have no killed anyone!”

  “I was trying to kill animals. Not people! I need experience to build the system—as I’ve explained to you already—and I’m running out of time. Going back in time fucking hurts. I think I’ve got one more in me. Any more and I might die in the process—which dooms everyone! So I need to get as much experience in this life as I can. Anyone who dies now will come back when I go back in time anyway!”

  I rubbed the tears from my eyes as I let out the hard truth.

  “You need to listen to yourself!” Dad exclaimed. “Talking about murder like it’s a few broken eggs or some spilled milk? I’m disgusted by you.”

  “It’s not murder,” I said in a deadpan voice. “It’s manslaughter… and you can’t spell manslaughter without a man’s laughter.”

  “Do you think this is a fucking joke?!” Dad screamed. “I should call the police right now and turn you in! You fucking—!”

  I sighed and cast Dominate Mind. Like with Mom, I forced him to sign a verbal System Contract to do what I said.

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” I said. “No one will remember what I’ve done but me. When I return to the past, I will be the only one who will know. It’s something I’ll have to carry with me. I’m not proud of it. But like you said, I have to crack some eggs to make an omelet. Just be glad I can put the eggs back together at the end. I ain’t Humpty Dumpty.”

  I sent Dad on his way to do whatever he was going to do—with the understanding that he would not talk about nor mention what he knew to anyone.

  I still wasn’t completely safe, of course. There was one more person who would be able to figure it out. And he came over not an hour later. He and I sat on the porch under Soundproof.

  “So it was you,” Grandpa Joe said.

  “I’m afraid so,” I replied.

  “I had hoped you wouldn’t do something so utterly stupid.”

  “It was much stronger than I had intended—to be fair.”

  “Mmm. And now some of my friends want to know what’s up. I haven’t said anything yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”

  “Well, thanks for that,” I said. “I’ll be glad when this whole thing is over with.”

  I shook my head.

  “The whole mission is bullshit of the highest order,” I continued. “But I’m stuck with it and it’s gotta get done. One way or another.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that,” he sighed. “Well, if that’s all, I’ll be going.”

  “I do have one last thing to say.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He nodded. Then he stood up. As he did, I used the same trick as I had with Mom and Dad. Under a System Contract, there was no way for him to tattle. It was also then that I made my decision to go into hiding. If Grandpa Joe, Mom, and Dad could figure it out, then I was well and truly fucked.

  The final command I gave—as he walked away—was to forget me. My vision became blurry as I did so. I sniffled and let the Soundproof barrier fall before walking inside. I went up to my room and cried for a long time. I’d felt separated from people for a while. Now, it would be permanent.