When the news came, Bill was surprised. Not that they died, but that they comprehended his words. Or, well, they tried to. The blonde sat on the edge of his bed, eyes flicking across the screen as the news panned out in front of him. A few girls came on screen, crying as they attempted to describe the scene that none of the cameras were early enough to catch. Bill observed them with a visible frown.
"One of the other students... I don't know who she was- she was up on the second floor. She asked him why he was doing this." A girl who was still dressed in darkly-colored pajamas told a reporter, "And he answered, 'Because it doesn't matter.'"
Bill sighed in exasperation. "That's not the point I was trying to make, you idiots." He muttered, as if the dead students could hear him, "That's not the point at all."
He closed his laptop and stood before walking to the door. It was safe to say that his experiment was unsuccessful. But that was only a small deterrence. He still had all the wonders of being a human to look forward to. Bill grabbed his top hat and his cane before heading outside.
It was early morning, and the sun was just beginning to rise. Blood still remained on the sidewalk where the students had landed. Bill could see it from where he stood across the street. The boys' dorm was adjacent to the girls', and Bill had always questioned that. Was it really the best idea to put a bunch of hormonal college kids so closely together? He glanced at the reddened cement and shrugged. Apparently it wasn't.
Bill resumed his walk, going on his merry way to the coffee shop around the corner. It was a really good thing that they opened early, because Bill had been wanting to try it for a long while. Upon entering the shop, the waitress told him in a rather nonchalant manner to sit wherever he wanted. He gladly did so, choosing a booth against the far wall.
Bill didn't observe the shop immediately. He took a few moments to daydream, thinking back to the class. He'd been so sure that none of the students had taken anything from his brief lesson. The professor clearly did, and that was enough for him. Why continue to bother trolling the beginners when he'd already bemused the master?
But Bill had made a critical error. He hadn't given the students enough credit. Apparently a couple of them had actually dwelled upon what he'd said. He smiled a little at that realization. Hey, he was actually able to break through to a few of the imbeciles. Sure, it only partially so, but still. It was progress.
The waitress came back to take his order, to which he responded, "A cup of coffee with everything." He didn't know what he wanted to put in it; it was too difficult to choose. Besides, who knew how long it would be until he was able to have a cup of joe again? He wanted to try it all so he wouldn't miss out on the experience later.
The waitress appeared bewildered, but accepted the vague order nonetheless. She vanished within the kitchen, and Bill went back to pondering the situation. He regretted not being there to watch them die. He supposed that he could just look back in time and watch it like a movie, but it wouldn't be the same. Besides, it wasn't important. It had happened regardless of his presence, and the important thing was how Bill dealt with the aftermath.
Now Bill had to think like a scientist. He had to use logic, of all things. Who would have thought that he – a being so long independent of the laws this universe – would adhere to the thought of structure? Had Bill been told this a couple of millennia ago, he would have never believed it. But he was a long way from home, and logical thinking was the quickest way to get things done in a universe that operated upon it.
The waitress set a mug of coffee down on his table. Bill quickly dismissed his previous train of thought to focus on the liquid. "Oh, thanks! I really needed this..." He paused to stare at the cup. Human coffee. How peculiar. "Heh, look at me." Bill murmured to himself, "I'm going to drink it like a person....!"
Without any further hesitation, Bill lifted the mug to his face and took a huge gulp of the beverage. God knows how much sugar the mixture contained, especially considering that every type of creamer was put within it. It was still extremely hot, and it burned his throat like fire. Bill paused, savoring the agony. Pain was an amazing feeling. It slowed time down, forcing Bill to feel every second of it. Einstein once said, When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.
Ol' Albert was right. This was Bill's first encounter with pain, and he couldn't get enough of it. Nothing made him feel more alive. He paused, staring at the hot liquid with wide eyes. Then he abruptly lifted the cup to his forehead and turned it over.
The beverage scalded his whole face and neck. It soaked into his clothes and began to burn his chest and arms. It felt as if fire was spreading all over his body. Laughter rose from Bill's throat, growing louder with every passing second.
"Sir! Are you okay? That was scalding hot!" The waitress exclaimed from a few tables away.
"Haha, I know! It feels great!" Bill exclaimed, staring at her with a wide grin. "Hey, can I get another one of those?"
The waitress stared at him in shock for an ill-defined amount of time before leaving to get the manager. It was clear that she didn't know how to deal with this. Bill didn't want to fool around with the manager, so he left some money on the table and stood to leave. But he noticed a familiar girl staring at him, and stopped.
It was (y/n), from the book club. He could recall studying her in the library, and reading her like an open book. It was easy to read the minds of every human, hers included. But what he found there was a little more... interesting than what he usually came across.
(y/n) was suspicious. If she wasn't yet, she would be soon. She could feel that something was up with him, and Bill took that as a threat. Although he knew that she had no chance in hell of finding out his true identity on her own – there's no possible way that a human would just have a lucky guess and decide that he's an astral being – she still had the potential to ruin his plans. He had to drive her off; put her down the exact opposite path. If even one human got to asking dangerous questions, god knows what would happen.
Bill had to take preemptive action.
"Oh, hey! (y/n)! Fancy meeting you here!" He exclaimed as he stopped by her table, "How's the book club going?"
(y/n) stared up at him in confusion, but still answered. "It's okay, I guess."
Bill grinned as he stared down at her. "Lovely, lovely! What're you doing there? Math homework? The answer is forty-two. Well, now that that's solved, come on! Walk with me!" He turned and began to walk away, not bothering to look back. He exited the restaurant, then set off down the sidewalk at a quick pace.
(y/n) caught up in a matter of seconds, just as he had expected for her to. "Wait! Where are we going?" She said as she struggled to match his brisk pace.
"Oh, you know. Just a walk. It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Bill said as he gestured towards the robin egg blue sky. All he had to do was confuse her with small talk long enough to hook her into a conversation. Then he could start the real distraction.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't get the chance to. As he rounded the corner, he could see a crowd near the spot where the students had fallen. There were about two hundred people, all of whom were chanting, "Jump, jump, jump!"
The professor stood at the edge of the roof.
"Oh, for the love of-" Bill sighed as he stared up at him. "Ben, no.."
"Why... Why are they encouraging him?!" (y/n) asked from beside him, clearly horrified.
"Well," Bill said as he tore his gaze away from the man, "they didn't form a huge crowd to not see someone jump. It's a little thing called deindividuation, look into it. But that doesn't matter right now." He shrugged off his coffee-stained tailcoat and straightened his top hat before running towards the building.
Space was a simple concept, and Bill had learned to conquer it just as he did time. What should have taken him five minutes took five milliseconds. He was atop the roof in no time, standing next to the professor. "Oh, Ben, I thought that you'd be clever. Or at least a little smarter than your students. But look at you, stooping to their level. Pun intended."
The professor stared at him in horror. "You! You made us think this way! You're the one that made us realize..." He looked over the edge again.
"Realize.... What, exactly?" Bill pressed with a frown.
"My life only matters to me. You said it yourself; I'm worthless. They were worthless too. Nothing matters, so why are we still here? It's only logical to end it now-"
"You're an idiot. I gave you so many good things to go off of in that speech, and you pick out the worst possible bit to form this way off-track opinion. Ugh, just like a human." Bill scolded as he glared at Benjamin. The other turned and stared at him in surprise. "But-"
"But nothing! You didn't pick up all of what I put down, now you're really going to make me throw the rest at you?! Such idiocy; how are you a professor, of all things? Fine. As I've previously said, the human life is worthless trash, and a complete mistake. That's why you need to try to make something of it, you ding-dong!"
Ben stared at him blankly with wide eyes. Instead of trying to interrupt as he did in the classroom, he listened intently.
"Your life is an insignificant thing, just as every other human's is. That's why you should try to do something productive with it, and actually contribute to society. Every human on this planet has the wrong priorities, and I'm trying to make you get yours in shape. I gave you a completely different understanding of time, Ben. You could have easily done a little bit of studying on that. I guarantee you that if you had, you would have been set on the road to becoming the next Einstein. A hero to the science community. You could have contributed to the world by giving it something it would have operated on for the next few centuries. I see every variable, Ben. I know everything that was, is, will, and could have been. You could've been great, but you only saw half of my point and now you're going to willingly die worthless. Way to go." Bill clapped slowly as he turned and walked to the stairs. "Do us all a favor and come back off that ledge. Don't want you getting pushed over by a breeze or something."
Ben hesitated. It was clear that he wasn't sure whether or not to trust Bill, but the wheels in his mind were clearly turning. After a few minutes, he succumbed and backed away from the ledge.