Everywhere is Fire

“Rikki, I’m scared. Please let us go back inside,” I said. The moon shined down on me as the cool breeze swept past me, making me shiver.
“Danielle! I saw it in the house! We have to see what it is!”
 “It’s nothing!” I said. “Your eyes can play tricks on you, you know.”
“They didn’t! Not this time!” she said.
“You can’t be sure of that, Rikki. Why did you have to bring me along?”
“Well you’re supposed to be my best friend....”
“Ugh. I am. I’m just. . . scared. I mean we’re alone, outside, it’s midnight, and we’re searching for some sort of ghost. Who wouldn’t be scared?”
“Me, that’s who,” she said. A creaking noise came from the house we were going to. “Do you see?”
“It’s an old house. Old houses creak.”
“Let’s go inside,” she said.
“No, no, no. That’s a break-in. That’s a crime, Rikki. We can’t.”
“Go back home then. I’m going in.” That really sounded like a way to get out of this, but I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t leave Rikki in an old creepy house, even if she was fearless.
“Wait, Rikki,” I said. She turned around, bouncing her perfect blonde curls.
“What? I’m busy here,” she was biting her lip.
“Think this through,” I said. “What if someone catches you? You’re twelve. You could go to prison.”
“The old lady? Ha! She’s never going to catch me! One time, I was getting my soccer ball I’d kicked in her yard, and I was screaming at my mom, and she didn’t hear a word. She was in her yard sleeping.”
“What if she has her son over or something?” I asked.
“Quit thinking of different ways I can get caught, okay? I’ve got this. Really.”
 “Are you sure?” I said, grimacing.
“Yes. If you want to come with me, feel free. If not, just go back home.”
How could I leave her? I felt horrible! “Fine. I’ll stay. But only because your my best friend.”
She grinned. “Thanks, Dany.”
Oh, I forgot to mention. Almost everyone calls me Dany.
We started creeping towards to the door, and I said, “Rikki? How are we going to get inside?”
She opened the door slowly and quietly. “It’s unlocked,” she said.
She stepped inside. Once she was in, I stepped inside and closed the door behind me carefully. “Why are you even doing ghost adventures?” I asked.
“Because I’m curious. I love adventures.”
“And old ladies,” I murmured quietly.
The house color was painted a dull brown. I couldn’t tell if the sofas were brown or black. The house was really neat, nothing out of place.
Glass cracked.
Rikki cussed.
I bit my lip hard.
We crept in the kitchen to see a deep, black figure staring back at us.
I screamed. I knew Rikki didn’t have time to be mad at me, for we had to get out.
We scrammed for the door, as an old lady said, “Hello? Who’s in my house?”
The wet grass smushed under our feet as we ran. “Rikki!” I said. There was a full grown man walking down the street. 
 “Hide!” she said. I hid behind some bushes, where she hid behind a fence. Luckily, we could see eachother.
“Dan, shut up for a minute!” the tall guy said. “If we deliver the crack Tuesday, we don’t got to kill no one!”
“Maybe this was a bad idea, James. The cops know there’s been some dealin’.”
“No one’ll think it was us,” James said. “We mow dis old ladies lawn! We take care of her!
“Still, I’m backing down.”
James pulled out a gun. I gasped. Rikki looked as if she was going to cry.“I don’t need no snitching, Dan. You best be stayin’ with me.”
My heart pounded. “Okay. You win, James. I still get $15,000 dollars, though! Dis ain’t goin’ to change nothin’!” Dan said. I was shocked he could still say something like that in that sort of tone.
Rikki and I exchanged glances, knowing that these two were real trouble. “Wait a second . . .” James said. “You know those kids in the neighborhood?”
“There’s lots of ’em.” Dan said, making a confused look.
“I know, I know! You know, the two best friends. One with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles and the other one with brown hair, blue eyes, straight hair?”
“Yeah. What about them?”
“We’ll need their help to transport the crack. In the middle school, ya know?”
Rikki gave me her nervous glance. “We can talk to ’em tomorrow. Let’s get back home for now.”
Once we saw them going inside, we ran home. My home was where Rikki was sleeping over. Once we were safe in my room, we began to talk.
“What do they need us for?” Rikki said.
“Who knows? I know they can’t bribe us into it.”
“What if ....”
“Don’t what if! We’ll just say.....”
“You don’t know what to say, Dany. You never do.” That kind of hurt.
I could see the sleepiness in Rikki’s eyes. “Rikki, just go to sleep, okay? You’re tired.”
“I’m not! I want to stay up and think of options.”
“Rikki, we have plenty of time to do that. I’m going to sleep. You should, too.”
She glared at me. “Ugh. Do you have a death wish? If we don’t think out something, then they’ll kill us!”
“Pff. No they won’t. If they ‘transport’ it through us, we can call the police and tell them they set us up.”
“You don’t know how sociopaths work, Dany,” she said. 
 “It doesn’t matter. They probably wouldn’t want to kill us in the first place. We’re supposed to take the crack to the designated person! They need us!”
“Who cares? I have to weigh my options.”
 “Why don’t we just tell our parents?” I asked, sighing. I didn’t want this to be too complicated. I wasn’t going to deal with it much longer.
“How could we do that? Tell them that we snuck out of the house to search for a ghost and two guys walk up talking about transporting drugs? No. We’ll be in trouble.” She was angry, I knew that, but we couldn’t carry on about this. I mean, we’re just kids. 
 “With drugs having to do with this, we’re already in serious trouble.”