"- chart shows the trend in sales over time."

I was spacing out during one of our corporate events. They were supposed to be informative, helping us understand how we could help the company. But I was confident in saying that most of us found it mind numbingly boring.

I procured a pen, along with one of the many free notepads lying on the table. My first thought was to start a game of noughts and crosses, but a glance at my seat neighbours quelled it. They were staring at the projector, but with glazed over eyes. Disturbing them would be rude. So I just decided to doodle.

The first were a couple of poor renditions of pokemon. I didn't play it, but my nephew loved them. I had picked up a bit of knowledge from his excited chatter, a much more pleasant one-sided conversation than the one I was currently being subjected to. But with those out of my system, I just took to making random scribbles.

As I drew it, it made me think of fire. I didn't know why, but the shape of my doodle was very indicative of flames. I brought my line back to the start, finishing the doodle in an easy line.

As I completed it, there was a whooshing sound. The doodle flashed, a football sized ball of flames wrenching itself free. It shot upwards, slamming into the ceiling tiles and spreading out in a wave of heat. The tiles instantly caught fire, soon followed by the wail of the fire alarm.

Screams filled the room, as my colleagues saw the result of my doodle. It jolted them awake, leading to a stampede as people tried to flee. I followed suit, less in fear of the fire, and more in fear of what people would think if they knew it was my fault. We poured through the exits, as the sprinkler systems finally activated.

When we got outside, I realised that in my escape I had taken hold of my claimed notepad. Glancing at my doodle, I saw the line had become blackened. The blue ink I had used was gone, seemingly burned away.

I tucked it away, concentrating on getting past this aftermath first. I wanted to know just what I had done, but this was neither the time nor place. Whatever this was, I had a feeling that letting other people realise it was my fault would not bode well for my privacy or autonomy.