Spark

Prologue

“Shut up, you idiot!” Despite being a computer whiz, my partner in crime is a complete dummy. We’re trying to rob a house, and yet Dummy thinks it’s a good idea to blast music.

“So sorry boss. Thought it would lighten the mood.”

“I don’t care what the mood is like!” I snap. “All I want is to find what we came here for.”

We search the living room and find nothing. I start toward the hallway when I hear footsteps. Then laughing. Then the voices of three very familiar teenagers.

“Why’s the front door to the mayor’s house wide open?” one boy says.

“We got to get out of here.” I say to Dummy. “We have company.” I sprint down the hallway with Dummy following closely behind. I hear a clink behind me, but I don't have time to see what fell.

We keep running until we reach the stairway that leads to the basement.

It has to be there.

I start searching around the well-decorated basement, but I find nothing of importance.

“Oh my God! There’s a fire!” Another girl says. I panic.

        “We have to get out of here.” I say. We race up the stairs, and I see destruction before my eyes. A trail of flames has spread from the table cloth on the table in the hall, dancing down the hall rug at a fierce pace. I realize that the origin of the fire was a vanilla-scented candle. It must have been what I heard Dummy bumping into on the way to the basement. As I calculate a way out, I catch the three teenagers out of the corner of my eye. And I swear, the girl who announced the fire looks straight at me.

So I find the nearest window, and I jump out.