Fire

Going Red

Staring up at the cracks in the ceiling wasn’t helping anything, I knew that, but what the heck was I supposed to do now? First I set everything on fire, then I find out my face is all over the news, and now my skin is doing some weird smoking thing….

This was just getting worse and worse.

I groaned and buried my face in the comforter, gripping the pillow in front of me, trying to stop my hands from shaking.

Everything will be fine. Tomorrow morning I’ll find a computer and look up my aunt. She’ll know what to do.

There was no logic to that of course, because why on earth would my aunt know any more than I did? But it helped me feel better to pretend it was true.

Finally I persuaded myself to shut off the lights, slipping under the worn sheets, curling up in a ball and hugging one of the pillows tightly for comfort. Sleeping alone wasn’t anything new. I’d never had a boyfriend before, and even when I was younger I wasn’t big on sleepovers. This was different though, I’d never been this scared and confused before.

Right now, there could be police out looking for me. And my classmates are probably gossiping about it. The cheerleader Barbies are probably high-fiving each other. No, don’t think about the cheerleader Barbies…

My thoughts continued to tumble around at a frantic pace, and the only thing that finally slowed them down was that the day’s exhaustion starting to kick in. Slowly my thoughts became jumbled and confused, fading in and out, until the only things left were vague sounds and images. The faces I had seen that day. The owl-like man who’d given me the phone book, the blonde girl I had stolen from and finally, the mocking blue eyes of the boy at the coffee shop, electric blue and full of knowing, the slight curve of his lips as he stared, the dark curls that framed his handsome face.

It was with this image that I finally drifted into the waves of sleep, like a row boat come loose of its anchor. Taking him with me into my dreams.

It was confusing waking up at first, struggling out of the fog of sleep to find myself in a strange bed, staring around at my surrounding in panic until I remembered exactly where I was. When the events of yesterday came flooding back it didn’t do much to get rid of the panic.

I struggled to sit up, groaning at how stiff my back and shoulders were. Apparently the mattress wasn’t the best quality.

No surprises there.

There wasn’t much to do before I checked out, since I’d slept in my clothing. I shuffled into the bathroom to survey myself in the mirror and flinched. Florescent lights were never kind, even under the best circumstances and this was certainly not the best circumstances. My reflection grimaced back at me, dark circles under hollow brown eyes, tangled brown hair…

Shit. I look like the picture on the news. Anyone will be able to tell it’s me.

I took several deep breathes and tried to keep the panic down. There had to be something I could do. Shoving one hand into my jeans pocket I felt the change I had leftover. Could I buy hair dye with twenty bucks? And maybe a cheap pair of sunglasses? I chewed on a fingernail anxiously. Would that be enough?

The alarm clock told me it was nine in the morning, and the woman had told me that check out was eleven. So I had two hours to get down to the store, pick out some dye and do it in the bathroom.

Okay, gotta be fast.

Shoving the key into my pocket I bolted for the door, not bothering with the rickety death trap elevator. By the time I’d galloped down three flights of stairs I was out of breath, and only had time to gasp to the surprised looking clerk at the front desk,