The sun shone radiantly in the morning sky. It was a glaringly spectacular moment. If you were asked to attribute an expression to its brilliance, you would without a doubt quote it as exuberant.

Isabelle’s face shone with an equal brightness, but her face was marked without expression.

The thought of such an erratic outcome was beyond her expectation. The bellhop, without a word entered the letters that carefully spelled out ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ into the idyllic cash register. She spoke with no titillation. Her voice was nonchalant and her face without unnecessary expression “It is done.”

She raised a finger from her clasped hands and pointed it upward. Isabelle followed the bellhop’s suggestion and her head swiveled to a glance into the seemingly placid sky. There was nothing offbeat from the cerulean colored sky and the soft white of the clouds. Isabelle looked back to earth to meet Edward’s queer smile. Pestered by her lack of attention to the situation she looked back to the sky for an answer.

There she saw it.

It couldn’t have been larger than a penny at this range, but she saw a small black speck that was incongruent with the rest of the azure sky.

“It can’t be…”

She turned back to Edward who was now standing directly below where the bomb was likely to strike.

“You’re crazy….” Isabelle’s face was harangue and twisted with disbelief.

The tiny speck grew to the size of a baseball.

“I’m afraid I will be meeting you on the other side.” Edward said serenely.

The baseball grew to the size of a fish, at which point you could hazely make out the tail and the body of the bomb.

Isabelle’s mouth grew dry. Her hands twitched with fear. She slowly stepped back, encumbered with the thought of the truck load of diamonds she had yet to receive.

The bomb developed into a small car. By now you could distinctly tell its head apart from its tail.

Isabelle turned around and stretched her foot out ready to run. She covered four feet before her exhaustion set back in and she tumbled onto the ground. The cut on her left-hand tore open and blood slowly began to ooze out.

“There’s no point in running away…” Edward deepened the girl’s sorrow “This bomb should be able to take out the entire city.”

The bomb was now just a few seconds from impact.

“What are you trying to achieve?!”

Edward closed his eyes and let her words soak into his cerebrum. He kept his cool smile and replied audibly

“You will understand once you wake up—”

The bomb struck the ground with a clang.

Isabelle’s world turned white. She couldn’t see anything, feel anything, touch anything.

She could only make out the isolated sound of a bell.

‘DDDDDOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN—’

And then everything went black.

END OF ACT 1 ~ RUSSIAN ROULLETE