Firestarter

I blinked again. Again, again, and again. There’s no way this could be happening. It’s impossible. The same house that had been standing for over 100 years…burnt down? Just like that? How? What?

No. Not possible. I’m at the wrong house. This must be the crazy lady’s house. Maybe she finally decided to do something about not wanting to be in this town.

Well, I almost convinced myself that, until I saw my mom and dad standing out front of the burnt rubble, crying. They wouldn’t cry over the crazy lady’s house burning down. In fact, they might throw a celebration if it did.

My mom saw me, and immediately threw her arms on me. “Tom! Tom, it’s horrible…where were you?”

This was weird. They were actually concerned for me? Me, the burden? Me, the failure? Did they remember who they were talking to?

I froze up, trying to think of a lie fast. “I, um, had a club late at school.”

“Well, we’re glad you made it home.” My dad said.

Okay, this was really weird. He cared. He legitimately cared about my safety, and it scared me more then the burnt-down house did. That didn’t matter right now. I wasn’t sure how to feel about my parents taking concern over me. I kinda felt good, but also angry they didn’t think I could take care of myself. If you trust me to walk home, why can’t you trust me to make it there? I didn’t say anything though, just let my dad continue talking.

“We have no idea what happened here. The house just burst up in flames, with a poof, just like that. I don’t understand what could’ve caused this.”

I once again froze up, and felt like crying myself. I knew exactly what happened here, and I knew it was my fault, mostly. But there was no way I could tell them, for three reasons:

a) They wouldn’t believe me.

b) They’d send me to a mental hospital. (Well, maybe the meals would be better, and I could be excused from school for a while...

c) They’d both be all like, “Who is this Adeline? Is she your girlfriend? You shouldn’t be dating, you should be focusing on your studies blah blah blah.” Typical things parents say to scare you.

And I really don’t feel like dealing with all that right now on top of all the other stuff I have to deal with. Man, just earlier I was wishing for something interesting in this town…but I didn’t mean this interesting. I wish I could reverse time and stop myself from saying that.

I really wanted to run away. Run away to somewhere safe. Maybe I’d run away to France, I heard French people are nice. Or maybe Australia. Yeah, they speak English. I could adjust to that place pretty quickly. Though it’d take a while to get used to say “’Ello, mate!” And I could only pray my Australian foster parents didn’t eat kangaroo for dinner or any crazy thing like that. Though maybe kangaroo is good?

But I knew there was nowhere to run. Not even to Australia. If I didn’t act soon, that place and all their crazy accents would be destroyed too, which would be a shame; Australian accents are fun to listen to.

I had to stop the shadow beasts before they destroyed something more important to me then my house.

I had to stop them before they killed my parents. I had to stop them before they killed Adeline.