Burn Baby Burn

I’d always believed in evil. Growing up in a strict Christian home you sort of learn that right off the bat.
It kind of makes you think there’s no good left in this world at all.
Well, I say that’s bullshit.
This world’s big enough for both to exist. You can’t have the wicked without the just.
Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
We never really think anything horrible like the stuff you hear on the six o’clock news could ever happen to us or even to anyone we know, but it can.
Ignorance is bliss.
Until the truth hits you in the face like a ton of bricks hurtling at hurricane speeds.
You might think you’re crazy at first, you’ll probably always think you’re crazy. You might even be able to trick yourself into thinking it was all in your head.
But I know.
I knew it the second they knocked at my door.
I sat, staring numbly at the TV trying to get my brain to shut up when they came.
I opened the door for two tall guys, one with hair a little too long to match his authoritative outfit. He almost looked like a little kid in an adult’s suit.
“Who are you?” I didn’t care to be polite.
“Andrea Venez-Lang?”
I narrowed my eyes, but nodded nonetheless.
“FBI.” They flashed their badges briefly. “I’m agent Everson and this is my partner Dodson. We’d like to ask you some questions about your sister’s disappearance.”
I eyeballed their fancy suits. The Fed, huh? “Why? I already told the sheriff everything.”
“It’s just routine ma’am. We’d like to verify your story with some follow up questions. May we come in?”
“Yeah, sure.” I stepped back and let them slip by me shutting the door and leading them to the table in the dining room.
“This is a nice place,” Everson began. I watched his hazel eyes take in his surroundings. “She lives here with you?” He nods as I gesture toward the coffee pot sitting on the counter.
“I live here with her. Our parents…” I paused, as I poured a second cup. “Aren’t around.”
Dodson took a seat and flipped open a note pad. “So Andrea when did you begin to suspect that Taylor had been kidnapped?”
Kidnapped. The word made me grimace. I joined them at the table setting the second cup in front of Dodson.
“Um…at about five. Her last class on Tuesdays ends at 1:50 and she’s here when I get home but she wasn’t. And there wasn’t a message or a missed call or anything.” I said monotonously.
They shared a look. “So there weren’t any signs of forced entry?”
“No, no, the, uh, locks were still intact and…everything looked normal.”
I internally flinched. If there was one thing I couldn’t do, its lie. They’d see through me. But somehow I got the feeling these guys weren’t the average officers of the law.
“Was Taylor acting strange before her disappearance? Anything out of the ordinary?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Strange?”
“Yeah like, she meet anyone new or, stay out later than usual, any of her usual habits changed?”
I stared at them, flicking my eyes back and forth between the both of them when I suddenly thought of something. “Why does the FBI care about one missing person? She’s only been gone two days.”
They met eyes again. “We think it’s something more than a kidnapping.”
I went cold. “More?”
Everson stared at me gravely. “Andrea, you have to tell us everything.” I nodded dumbly. “Everything.” It was obvious then. They knew.
“Look.” I bit my lip. “If I told everyone what I really saw, they’d think I was a head case for sure.”
They stared me down. “You’re the only witness, the only one that can help us help your sister now.”
Dodson's eyes were soft. Much too soft for how I’d expected an officer would be after someone just admitted to lying to the police. “Just try us.”
I sighed and replayed the scene I’d had running through my head for two days;

I was walking from my Psychology class in the west wing when I saw her and some new guy she was been seeing. I never liked him, rubbed me wrong way the second he opened his mouth. Too cocky, like he thought he was invincible or something. And the way he stared at her. It was creepy, possessive, borderline psychotic.
She liked it, said it reminded her of David, a guy she’d dated a while back, the longest relationship she’d ever been in.
But she wasn’t one to stick around for long, and he didn’t look like the type either so I didn’t expect it to last more than three weeks, a month tops.
They were walking to her car. He didn’t have one but he seemed to be everywhere all the time, from one side of the campus to the other just like that..
I don’t know how he did it.
The parking lot was nearly empty.
I was headed to her car too. I had a flat on my bike and I needed a ride home. But as I got closer I saw them fighting.
Screaming at each other, their silhouettes jumping around like shadows from a flickering candle flame. She got out and stomped away and he caught her yanking her back.
I didn’t know what to do, but I starting walking faster. He pulled her against his chest and kissed her hard.
She pushed but he wouldn’t let go.
I started running.
Then they ignited. A flame burst up around their feet and spread devouring them in a cocoon of bright cobalt fire.
I screamed her name and she screamed in his face. His smiling face. He looked right at me.

“And then they were gone.”
“Can we get a name on that guy?” I looked up at Everson through my blurry eyes.
“Alan Sykes.” He penciled his name down. “She’s not dead.” I said firmly. They looked at me. “I…I know I said there was fire, but they didn’t burn, it’s like they…teleported.”
They both stared at me and I felt like how I did when I’d gotten home that very day; wild, insane.
“You’re not crazy.” Dodson said sympathetically.
“So you believe me?” I asked dubiously.
They looked at each other. “We’ll find your sister, alright? We’ll do everything we can.”
“That’s what the sheriff said.” I mumbled. “You have to say that, don’t you?”
“We’re kind of experts on things like this; you can trust us, Andrea.” Dodson met my eyes and I just nodded, never thinking for one second, that his words might ring true.