Chapter 5 Burn It Down

I put the box thing under my oversized shirt and held it together with my pants. I uncapped the keg and poured an ample amount in the small secret room, then I made a trail up the basement stairs. After checking to make sure there were no movements, I made a line out to the kitchen where I grabbed a box of matches and unlocked the backdoor and made a line out to his car. I'd wanted to burn that stupid bright red Audi since the moment I saw it.

He refused to buy mum a car even though she was always running errands both for the house and for him and also when I'd asked him for a car for school-even a used one, he'd refused! Then the next day after my birthday-which he failed to get me a gift for-he shows up with a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I poured as much as possible gasoline on it and moved away from the car. When I was as far away as possible, I rolled up a wad of newspaper and lit it on fire then threw it at the car.

BOOM! went my dad's favourite thing in the world. Such a beautiful, magnificent array of colours erupted into the sky, the force of it throwing me into the trashcan. The fall wasn't enough to wipe off my awed smile. If I'd known it would be such a pretty sight, I would have set it on fire a long time ago. People gave cries of alarm and a siren blared somewhere in the house, I was betting the fire had my father's attention now. The fire was already engulfing the house- at least it looked that way from outside but I knew it wouldn't do any real damage. We had a fire extinguisher on the second floor-dad was very paranoid- plus I'd only poured gasoline on the basement and there was a fire station within the community and they'd be here in less than three minutes. Right on cue, their alarm blared in the distance. That was my cue to get the heck out of dodge. I jogged away and left my father to explain the strange room in his basement to his fellow officers and the firefighters, but most importantly, why he was buck naked with another woman in his matrimonial home.

I was almost at the gate that separated our community from the outside world when I heard a car beeping behind me. I almost dashed into the bush for fear of dad somehow figuring it was me and chasing me down. It turned out to be a silver compact Honda that dad would never be caught dead in.

"Kiera? Where are you running off to?" A bemused Mrs Cook asked me from behind the wheel.

I exhaled loudly and opened her passenger door before she asked. Mrs cook was one of mum's church members. She was nice and a tad nosy, but mostly nice.

"I'm going to Dr Boyle's clinic, dad wanted me to tell him something. Could you give me a lift?" I flashed her a smile as I fastened my seatbelt, not giving her a chance to refuse.

"Oh. Okay. But why? And what are you wearing?" She asked, starting the car, thankfully.

"These are my comfort clothes."

"What happened dear? Why are you smiling like that?" She frowned at me.

"How Mrs cook? Happy, elated, joyfully?" Crazed? Admittedly, I felt a little crazed, and hyper. I wanted to run a million miles. I wanted to set the entire community on fire. There was a strange buzzing beneath my skin, an insatiable monster that just had its first taste of destruction and it wanted more.

'Give me more' it yelled. At the moment, I was hard pressed to find a reason not to. Dr Boyle's brown one story clinic came into view and I imagined the wide eyed look of horror on Dr Boyle's face to find it burning to the high heavens. I laughed with pure delight at the look of agony on his face.

"Oh my." An alarmed voice shrieked. I turned to find Mrs cook looking absolutely petrified.

The manic look on my face was probably enough to scare the living daylights out of the poor woman. I had no doubts that she was going to be giving my dad a call once she was away from here. The imagery of my dad answering the call buck naked with his house and car on fire snatched a deranged cackle from my throat.

Mrs Cook jumped once again.

"Thanks for the ride." I replied with a low, terrifying throaty chuckle and my disturbing smile. Mrs cook peeled away from the curb like the hounds of hell were after her.

Her fear delighted me. I wanted more of it. I strutted happily into the halls of Dr Boyle's clinic, wishing I had my black, beautiful wings to stretch out. Spying a brown bag out of the corner of my eye, I flashed the short human behind the table a smile that made her breath hitch and took the bag.

A flash of light across from me stole my attention and I was brought up short by what I saw. Reflecting in the glass back at me was a chubby, pale brunette with black otherworldly eyes. That would have been me in the mirror-obviously-but the malevolence in those black eyes and the way they flashed a brilliant red? Definitely not me. When a slow utterly deranged smile spread across a face that was mine, yet not, I was shocked into screaming.

What the hell? I shook myself to be rid of the strange sensation. I was hallucinating, that was all. The trauma of the last few days must have fucked my mind up somehow. This wasn't me. As a matter of fact, the last hour hadn't been me. Dad deserved what he got, sure, but I never would have entertained such a thought in a million years, let alone act on it.