Burning Revenge

3

The fire bregade, ambulance and police arrived about twenty minutes later. While the firemen were trying to get the fire under controle, I was sitting in the ambulance while a police officer with thick, brown hair and warm, kind eyes was sitting opposite me holding a notepad.

"And you're sure you didn't see or hear anyone come in?" he asked for what felt like the 100th time.

"Yes, I'm still sure officer. I was asleep afterall," I croaked. The smell of smoke was still stuck in my nose. "It had allready spread so far.. I only just managed to get her out." Pictures of the flames flickered infront of me and I winced. I don't think I will ever be able to light a candle again, I thought staring at the rests of our house.

The officer gazed at me sadly. "How old did you say you were?" he asked quietly.

"Sixteen." "And your sister? Jemma?"

"Five. She's only five," I whispered gazing past him at Jemma who was sitting in another ambulance, covered in a grey blanket. She looked... dazed.

"Where are your parents?"

At this, I felt the familiar feeling of sadness, disappointment and anger spread inside me. "Gone. On another super-important meeting. They couldn't find a babysitter in time, but they left anyway. Leaving me alone with Jemma as nearly always." I felt my throat tighten and forced down the angry tears.

The policeman bent forward and patted me awkwardly on the sholder for a few moments. Then he lent back again and scribbled something into his notepad.

It was silent for a while between me and this policeman, whos name, I read on his badge, was Officer Eveland. I coughed and asked quietly "Officer Eveland?"

"Hm?" I looked down into my lap and took a deep breath. "Why aren't my parents back yet? I left them thousands of voice mails from this other officers phone, and they usually have their phones on all the time..." I let my voice trail off, hoping he would find an explanation that didn't involve anything bad.

He didn't disappoint me. "Perhaps they're still in a super-important meeting talking about super-important stuff," Officer Eveland said smiling.

I tried a smile myself. "Yeah. Perhaps." I knew he was trying to cheer me up, and it worked a little, but the pain that someone might have really wanted to kill us in this fire, couldn't be erased.

"And you're sure that someone set the fire on purpose?" I asked staring at my bare feet. He took a few moments before he answered.

"Yes. There were fingerprints and more evidence of another person in your house at the time of the fire. But the fingerprints aren't clear enough to scan our data bank with, so... we're at square one on this case Olivia."

I felt tears fill my eyes and I bit my lip. Someone tried to kill us. BURN us. I felt scared and hurt. What had we done to deserve this? All my life, whether at school or elsewhere I had been known to be a nice person. I didn't have any haters...did I?

I wiped another tear from my cheak and looked up at Officer Eveland. "I'm guessing you'll be wanting to ask more questions, since you don't seem to be a person who likes to stay on square one, Officer Eveland," I said quietly, sitting up straight and pulling the blanket closer to me.

He smiled and took a deep breath. "What is your parents occupations?"

"Both of them are doctors. Well, surgants really, but also very well known scientists. They're pretty good, which is probably why they have to travel this much."

"Right.. and: Do you know if your parents had any enemies or stalkers, or anything of the sort?"

I frowned slightly and wrinkled my nose a little. "No. Not that I know of. But then again, they hardly ever talk about work or where they were going to, let alone any trouble there. Our only conversations were about school, homework or medicine."

"Medicine?" he asked, confused. "Yeah, I'm only sixteen, but guess who could operate a tumor out of your brain blind-folded?" I said with a sniff. He stayed silent, his face full of confusion and disbelief.

"I was just joking," I gave him a tierd smile, "but I really do know a lot about medical stuff. It's all they seemed to live for.." I added sadly.

Officer Eveland shut his notebook and patted my knee softly. "I think that's enough questions for now," he said warmly "I'll go and fill in the inspector."

As soon as he had left, I jumped out of the ambulance and limped over to Jemma. When I sat down next to her, she put her arm through mine and leaned her head on my sholder. She sobbed a little and whispered so quietly that I could hardly hear her " Liv, Mr. Cuddles is gone and I'm hungry.." Mr. Cuddles was a huge brown bear thr size of Jemma and he was her favourite cuddle toy. He was given to her a year ago by Mum and Dad when they came back from America. "We're so sorry, darling!" they had said holding out the bear towards Jemma. "We promise we'll be back punctually next time." Next time. There always was a next time. But somehow, it never came. Our parents were always gone, Jemma hardly knew them! I was the one that was always there for her, not Mum or Dad. All they cared for was their work.

"It's okay Jem," I said hugging her tightly to my chest, "everything's going to be fine. We'll get you a new Mr. Cuddles and something to eat. Does that sound alright?"

Jemma turned and crawled onto my lap and cuddled up to me. Although her weight on my bandaged leg hurt a little, I didn't care. She was my little sister, and I would protect her. No matter what.