The deep orange flames licked at the concrete walls of the school as Hayley Jakobs poured the last drop of gasoline at the front door and threw the gas can in the burning building. She closed the metal doors and ran down the stairs that led up to the school.
This was the third building that Hayley had set on fire this month. She had just moved to a small town and already hated it. Everyone knew each other and there was no privacy. She was used to living in New Jersey where it was easy to blend in the background and not be known by anyone.
She ran into the small patch of woods that was located behind the school. Twigs snapped under her feet as she wandered deeper into the woods. It was around seven at night and she knew that she had to flee the scene before the firemen showed up to douse the fire so that it wouldn’t spread.
Hayley used to set fires in New Jersey also. She would set fires to release the pain she felt. She was bullied at school and that took a toll on her emotional state. She felt like she was burning on the inside so she started setting fires to relieve that feeling.
The first fire Hayley ever set was in her backyard when she was fourteen years old. She stole one of her mom’s lighters and lit a napkin on fire in the backyard. She was fascinated by the flames and how they turned the napkin into ashes and burnt some of the grass before she dumped a glass of water on the flames. She was hooked on fire ever since that moment in her small backyard.
She lit her first building on fire a few months later. It was an old Cineplex that shut down because it had too much competition. It was an accident that led to a bad habit. She didn’t mean to light that place on fire but when she did the adrenaline rush felt amazing and after that she couldn’t stop. She was setting a box on fire next to the Cineplex but it got out of control and caught the side of the building on fire. She got scared and ran all the way home so that she wouldn’t get in trouble.
She would pour all that anger and sadness she had into the buildings that would be engulfed in flames by Hayley’s purple lighter she stole from her mom’s purse at fourteen years old. She couldn’t help it and it was like her own release instead of self-harm like most depressed teens resort to. That was the only way she knew how to calm herself down and had to release the pain or it would destroy her.
Being in fire was like heaven for her. She would love hell when she got there. She loved fire more than she loved her own mother. It was the only thing that got her through life and she hoped she would die in a fire so she could die with her best friend by her side.
Hayley looked back from the middle of the woods and saw the smoke that covered the sky like a blanket over the small town. She was proud that she actually had the nerve to set the school on fire and kill her worst enemy while she was at it.
Ricky Germaine was a boy that had bullied her ever since she moved to this town. He told everyone that she had sex with him and spread all these rumors about her that weren’t true. So she told him two nights ago that she wanted to hook up with him but not to tell anyone they were meeting up or she wouldn’t show up. Of course he showed up because he had wanted her from day one and the only reason he spread those rumors was because she turned him down.
From day one Hayley had thought that Ricky was sleazy. He had long, greasy black hair and cold brown eyes. His nose was too big for his face and he wore clothes that looked like they belonged on a forty year old motorcycle fanatic. He didn’t even own a motorcycle but he acted like he did.
Inside that school was Ricky’s burning body. She tied him up and he didn’t object because he thought she was into that kind of thing. He didn’t notice something was wrong until she pulled out the gas can from behind a desk and poured the gas all over his body. She lit him on fire and then ran out of the classroom.
Hayley got such an adrenaline rush from seeing her worst enemy burn alive. She felt like she could lift a truck off a person if she wanted to. When her hand hit the flames by accident it didn’t even faze her because of the adrenaline running through her body like the flames were running through the school. She loved that feeling and just wanted to bask in it but she knew she couldn’t because she would either get caught or die.
After she looked at her work for a few more seconds she headed for home. She left the woods that she ran into and started walking down the street. She looked down at her yellow dress and brown boots to make sure she didn’t do any damage to them. Then she ran to the library that was open late for the college students and checked out a book about World war two. She made a final stop at the convince store on Collins Street to get her back pack she hid behind a dumpster. Then she went home.
“How was the library?” Hayley’s mom asked not looking up from the stack of bills and check book in front of her. Her mom was always too busy to see if she was telling the truth about going to the library.
Hayley and her mom were left by her dad when Hayley was twelve years old. Her dad met someone who was less attractive and older than her mom but apparently her dad and this woman clicked and he left them for her. She had children and now her dad was there new daddy and had no time for Hayley.
Her mom worked hard to pay the rent and they had to move because New Jersey was too expensive and her mom found a job here that paid more than her old job at the factory. The house was cheaper and her new job was paying more.
“It was great, I found the book I needed,” Hayley said holding up the book that her mom didn’t even bother to look at. Hayley wondered why she even bothered to check out the book in the first place.
“That’s great,” her mom said with a wave of a hand and that was the end of the discussion. Hayley went up to her room and set the book on her desk and her backpack on the floor.
She lay in her bed and pulled out her lucky purple lighter, her only friend in the world, and stared at it as she pondered what she would set on fire next.
