Revenge Driven

Chapter I

     Whatever the speed limit was in my small town neighborhood, I knew I wasn't following it, not by a long shot. I gunned my old Ford, stretching the capabilities of its speed in a way that law enforcement, and my mother, would not approve of. The blinking, flashing skyline of Las Vegas blurred into miniature, cookie cutter houses, with children playing out front as the sun sat low in the sky, the moon was just starting to peek out from the polluted air, with the beginnings of stars twinkling merrily like fireflies in the atmosphere.

     Over the monotonous sounding voices of the news-casters coming out of my radio speakers, I could hear the sound of police sirens going off, very close now. Yanking my turn signal on and barreling onto my street, I abrubtly slammed on the brakes, silently thanking my mom for signing me up for Little League Soccer. Being a goalie had given me decently quick reflexes. However my poor car, which was getting up there in miles and age, screeched to a halt as the brakes made an unnatural high pitched whining sound. Thankfully though, I narrowly avoidied hitting one of many news vans blocking off the small cul-de-sac along with small huddles of neighbors. Typical media folk, always quick to the scene ready to report some fake news. Oh god, please let it all be fake.

Wrenching the car into park, I threw open the door and jumped out, before freezing in place, staring. The sight that greeted me almost made me turn around, hop back into my car, and drive as far as I could in the opposite direction. It was worse then anything I had seen on the TVs back at the diner. It was real.

     The bright flashes of red and blue from the parked police cars made my already blurry vision swim. My head pounded as the blood roared in my ears. Dust drifted through the air, dirtying my tangled curls before floating up towards the cloudless expanse of the orange-tinted evening sky. The voices of various reporters and news personnel jumbled together in my head, seemingly incomprehensible to my senses as I stood, paralyzed, staring as the scene out of my nightmares played out before my disbelieving eyes. It seemed all the more real now that it was actually in front of me.

     The remnants of my home, reduced to mere rubble under my very feet. The remaining structure stood, a beacon, ablaze with small fires as smoke poured out of the ruin. My blackened lawn had been turned to charred dirt on the ground, the tall oak tree I had spent many a summer in, smoking, as fire danced across its branches, the rubber tire swing from my youth half melted, fallen from the branch it once hung from for so many years. My mom's scratched, beat up Honda, covered in stickers, sat in our driveway, dented and singed, smoking slightly from the blazing heat emanating from the coals of my home. The roof of our small ranch was caved in, flames licking the surface letting clouds of dark smoke billow up towards the sky. Muscular men in thick woolen suits struggled to hold a large hose in place, aiming it towards the inferno before them. The water consumed the house, diminishing the flames in a matter of minutes, leaving only ash and dust behind. Ash and dust. So that's what had become of me. I barely registered the crackling of broken glass and bricks under the sole of my Nike's before a police officer started toward me, a disapproving look on his face.

     He was tall and fit, but not in an attractive sort of way. He seemed too old for that, more like he could be my father. Salt and pepper hairs clung to his jaw and upper lip forming a scratchy beard, matching that of his hair under the navy blue hat. His voice was deep and firm, commanding attention. He reminded me of the old grocery store manager that once kicked my mother and I out of our local Food Lion for riding on the carts down the long aisles, but he was only slightly kinder. Normally the memory would have brought a smile to my face, but now it just made my anxiety swell. A hand on my shoulder made me jump, jolting me from the confines my mind. The police officer was staring at me and I realized I had missed everything he said.