Chapter 6: Fire Flower
Two things. Number one, as often, Petunia was on the verge of a panic attack.
Number two, she had a huge secret: she'd been the owner of several dozen houses and counting.
It was because there wasn't anything better than starting over in a newly made home since, in her eyes, it was the cleanest her living space could ever be. As for how she kept getting new houses built, she knew a certain beaver that treated her with patience and kindness. She was always ready to lend a hand and do him favors in turn. She'd never think of leeching off of him!
No one else seemed to mind or notice, since they never questioned why her addresses kept changing. Then again, self-awareness was a lost trait in many of her friends.
Petunia had only been in her newest house for a few days. The cause of her distress at the moment was a floor plan she'd discovered. For some reason, Handy had built her an attic this time around.
Her attic. A part of her house that hadn't been cleaned for four days. It may as well have been four years.
When she poked her head into the attic she almost choked and started hyperventilating. It looked bare, but her superpower was sensing every speck of dust within a five mile radius. She spent some time crawling around with a magnifying glass, sanitizing every square inch of floor. Then she had to wonder if the walls needed to be cleaned, then the ceiling…it took her hours to reach a point where she was satisfied. The last thing she had to do was put a light bulb in.
Petunia leaned the magnifying glass against the window, then left to fetch the bulbs. Sunlight pooled into the lens and cast a razor-thin spear of light onto the bottom rung of her stepladder.
When she came back, Petunia was too busy fussing over the bulbs to notice anything else. Most of them weren't facing the same way, and none of them were facing the way she wanted them to.
Knock knock knock!
She failed to hear the knocking, or see that the base of the ladder was cooking. She set the now organized box down, humming as she climbed to replace the light. Her bushy tail came centimeters from catching a stray ember.
Knock knock knock knock!
She grunted, a little unsteady as she screwed the light in. She pulled the chain a few times to make sure it worked, then glanced down and gasped.
The box of bulbs were disarranged! Mortified, she began reordering them again, this time to accommodate for the missing one. She coughed through the building haze of smoke.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
CRASH!
Petunia jolted like a cat, bristling. It sounded like someone had cut her front door down...with an axe!
One of the light bulbs randomly exploded, catching the side of the face. She squealed as she fell off the ladder, covering the side of her bloody cheek with a hand, and then shrieked. Her ladder had spontaneously caught fire! Petunia scrambled up and bolted before the flames could snag her tail.
The rest of light bulbs exploded one after the other into fireworks, stinging her backside with searing particles of glass. In her panic she slipped and tumbled down the attic stairs, landing painfully to the ground.
Petunia turned white with terror, screaming her lungs out. A masked intruder was standing over her, holding an axe.
Oh, he'd forgotten to ditch the potential murder weapon.
Flippy carelessly tossed the axe aside. He had to keep his respirator on, though. He knew he couldn't be breathing in smoke.
I have way too many triggers, he thought dismally. At the moment he could only find ways around them—managing them and his…other side had to come after helping his friends.
Petunia was still screaming. He pulled her up and guided her to the kitchen; it would be hard to keep a bucket line going with just the two of them, but she at least seemed to finally catch on. He spirited up to the attic and attacked the flames with the first wave of water. The fire had nearly spread to the entrance by that point.
A jittery and panicked Petunia met him at the attic stairs, where they switched out containers. As Flippy was throwing more water, his heel went straight down into a weakened part of the attic floor.
Not this again! The floor gave away and took him with it. He landed on Petunia's coffee table, bouncing off to the floor. A few pieces of burnt ceiling fell after him and began smoldering on the carpet.
"Oh, oh!" Petunia came clamoring down the stairs, rushing into her kitchen. She came back out, pulling the spray gun attachment of the sink with her and took aim at the hole, firing a pressurized jet of water. It was like she was holding a miniature fire hose.
Flippy was startled and amused all the same. It made sense that she'd literally jet spray her dishes to make sure they were spotless. He hopped on the table, guiding her on where to shoot. Liters of sooty water ran from the attic and trickled down into the living room, making a mess of the carpet.
Only when he was sure they were in the clear Flippy cautiously went up into the attic, stamping out the last patches of fire. He removed his respirator, letting out a sigh of relief. Things had gotten touchy for a moment, but least one of his friends wasn't a smoldering corpse.
THUD.
And there she went. Petunia had fainted, just from imagining the mess she now had to deal with. Flippy picked up sirens in the distance and was miffed at how long it'd taken the fire crew to respond. He'd phoned them on his way there.
He hefted Petunia over a shoulder, stepping through the hole he'd made in her front door. He wore a smile as he worked on resuscitating her, much to the confusion of the first responders when they arrived.
It was because he knew that, by now, something else had been erased from the Book of the World: Ignoring the rules of fire safety!
He was beginning to think that he could do this and avoid any casualties. His back twinged and he winced.
You're only one person, The Book of the World told him when he'd reached it. Well, I mean, bear. I know the dangers of telling someone else about me, but don't you want to trust someone else to help you?
Flippy hesitated, then outright pretended he hadn't even seen the message. The Book flew in front of his face.
Not yet? Fine, keep ignoring your feelings, it said. But don't you dare get sloppy on me. All it takes is you messing up ONCE at the wrong place and wrong time. You won't know the real meaning of disaster until you're seeing your worst fears coming true!