Guided by secrets

Harper's past

I read the rest of my old diary that day. Most of it was just boring reminders and me cursing at people that annoyed me. I walked into the living room and sat down. What Harper did was...unforgivable, I thought to myself. Why, just why were I friends with her?

Nowadays, if somebody did that to me, they wouldn't be forgiven. Not in a million years. I guess my old self was much more...forgiving.
I looked at the old clock above the TV. Gosh, it was already 11 o'clock. I should go to sleep.

Blackness. Silence. I looked at my watch worryingly. Of course. No light. You would have guessed it was around one o' clock by the sky though. Pitch black. I decided to go back to sleep. I close my eyes and yawn.

The fire alarm goes on. A thick, piercing sound. Smoke is coming from the bathroom and from downstairs. I can smell, or even taste the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I shoot up from my bed and run in the hallway.

The bathroom door is completely burned down and fallen into the floor.

Mum and dad are running out of their rooms too. The flames are just above the top stair opposite me. The right, where the bathroom is, is a dead end-smoke and flames everywhere. There are no windows on the left side of the hallway. My room is the only option.

Mum and dad race to my bedroom and we close the door firmly. My window is two floors above ground. Mum tries to tie up every single fabric she finds to make a long 'ladder' to escape. Flames have just reached the tip of the door. I try to open the window. Shit. It's stuck. Now we're all totally dead, I thought to myself. Dad comes over and opens it so hard, his hands get scratched. Mum puts the long line of fabrics down the window, having it first tied to the leg of my desk for support. The fire has nearly taken down the door.

I slowly go down first. One wrong thing and I'm dead, I think to myself. Wow, so that's what it feels like to be about to die. Clueless.
I try not to look down or else I'm sure to fall. I actually manage to get down.

Mum does the same. Dad is last, and he goes down so quickly; I can see flames behind him.

We start running once we're all on stable ground. I don't know where to. I just follow behind and sprint for my life.

I don't know what just happened. People are approaching us with blankets and other stuff I can't make out. They're all shouting things. I don't know where I am. I can see mum next to me crying. Dad is nowhere.

Next thing I know, I'm homeless. For a month until my parents bought a new house. I hate it.

I woke up panting. The same nightmare, for the hundredth time. That dream, which was very much reality, still haunts me around, wherever I go. It's still past over three years but I can remember it like it was yesterday. And what did start that fire, you will ask. Took me a lot of time to figure out, but it was Harper and her bitch gang.

Four confessions, a match and a lighter are enough in this case. "It was just a prank,"they all explained in tears.
A prank that ended up being my worst nightmare.
A prank that destroyed all my childhood memories.
A prank that burned down everything.

So yeah, it was just a prank.

Everyone in town learnt about Harper and her friends later on. Her parents nearly disowned her. Good.
Now she's convincing everyone she's changed.

But no honey, people don't just change.
You aren't queen bitch that tortures people one day and the other, you're skipping around with a flowery dress and act all dumb.

Even if you destroyed somebody's home. Even if you destroyed somebody's life. It's just too fake to believe.
That's why I'm her 'best friend' . They always say: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. That's why I'm talking behind Harper's back all the time, because now as a 'dumb and clueless personality' she's not supposed to react. If it was up to her 'queen bitch personality', she would have put a hair removal liquid in my shampoo bottle.
Now, she just smiles tightly.

But that's how you're supposed to act darling.

Major crimes lead to major apologies.