I want to be a statue.

No one ever really pays too much attention to statues, they just get to stand there all day and observe everything. Nobody would be staring at me right now. The neighbours, police officers, and firefighters wouldn't all have their beady eyes planted on me.

I look down at the scorched ground in front of me to avoid their gazes, but I can still feel them looking.

"Emerald."

Jane Leblanc comes over to where I'm standing and tries to give me a hug, but I push her back.

I need answers, not a stupid hug.

I march past Jane and under the yellow caution tape that borders the yard.

"Hey—you're not supposed to be over here." An officer intonates, but I ignore his demand.

"This is my house!" I reply vehemently.

"Ma'am I'm sorry, but you'll have to—"

"You listen up."

My voice is shaky, but somehow manages to come off just as irritated as I wanted it to. The officer looks at me with a surprised face.

"I want you to tell me everything you know."

"Well, early this morning at around four o'clock, we responded to a call that one of your neighbours made. The house collapsed before we could fully extinguish the fire."

"Good job." I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?" He asks, placing his hands on his hips.

"N-nothing, continue."

"We're still investigating, but at the moment we have evidence that supports a possible case of arson."

"Arson?" I inquire.

"We believe that someone set fire to this residence." The officer says slowly, as if to make sure that I grasp what he's saying.

With my heart in my throat I prepare to ask the next question, something that could either relieve me, or tear me apart.

"Did..." My voice trails off, and my eyes start to swell with tears.

"Everything will be alright." He interrupts, gently placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Did you find a body?"

My heart skips a beat.

"Was anyone in the house when it caught fire?"

"Yes—I mean I wasn't here but.."

"But?" He says carefully, knowing that I'm on the verge of breaking down.

The first tears trail down my face slowly, running over my cheeks and off my jawline, hitting the ash filled snow. He pulls me into an embrace, but it reminds me of Amy so I pull back.

"Is it possible that they could have escaped?"

I don't respond.

"No, she had LIS, and even if she managed to crawl downstairs I—I locked both of the doors." I explain.

The tears turn into a full on sob, and my body begins to shake convulsively. A few other officers start to jog over to where we are, and I turn my back on them to cry in private.

The other direction is no better however, as all of a sudden the neighbours are all talking to one another. Gossiping amongst each other on a topic they don't have the slightest clue about.

I've half a mind to go over there and tell them off, but I see Elizabeth standing amongst them, and my sobs come to a stop momentarily. When she sees me crying, her eyes widen and she rushes over to me.

"Emerald, are you alright?" She asks, pulling me into a hug.

Like Jane, I push her away from me.

"This was all your fault, wasn't it?" I exclaim.

"What are you talking about?" She says, her brows furrowing.

"No one else had the motive to do it!" I hiss, "You just got me drunk so that you could burn the house down!"

"Emerald, hear me out!"

"Just leave me alone!"

I walk right past her, but she grabs my arm and pulls me back to her.

"I didn't do this but I might know who did." She whispers.

"Who?"

"Isaac and Will," she explains as we walk away from the crowd of people, "They talked about it before when I was angry at you, but I-I thought that they were joking!"

"Weren't they at the party last night?"

"No, Isaac said he had to study. I don't know why Will wasn't there."

I wipe the remaining tears off of my cheeks, and begin to walk faster.

"Where are you going?" Liz asks.

"Isaac's, William's, whoever did this!" I exclaim, stopping to face her.

"I don't think we should."

"I'll just go by myself then!"

"Do you even know where either of them live?" She asks.

"No, but I'll figure it out!"

"You do that!" She yells, "You can kill Will and Isaac, but that won't change the fact that they burned the house down!"

"You honestly think I care about the house?! They killed Amy!"

"What?"

"You heard me!" I exclaim, "Amy was in there last night!"

I can feel more tears coming on, so I start running faster and faster, until Liz gives up and stops following me.

I remember that Will invited me to a party a couple of years ago, but I don't have a phone to check my emails, so I head over to the library to use a computer.

When I get there, I log onto my account and scroll down through the list of deleted emails until I find the one I'm looking for.

I go to print it out, when I see a sign taped on the wall:

"PRINTER FEE: 50¢."

I check my pockets but don't find any change, so I go over to a bookshelf and grab a random book. After sneakily ripping a page out, I grab a pen from the front desk and copy Will's address down.

I stand on Will's front porch until I muster up the courage to knock. When I do, his Mom answers the door. She's in a robe, with her hair in a messy bun.

"Hello!" She says, looking a bit surprised to see me at their door so early.

"Is Will home?"

"He's still asleep." She informs me, "I can wake him up if you need him for something!"

"Yeah that'd be great, thanks."

"Are you a friend of his?"

"Yeah I am! I just need to ask him a question about something."

She tells me to come inside, and shows me to the living room. I sit down on the couch and try to plan out what I'm going to say as she goes upstairs to get him.

A couple of minutes later, he sleepily stumbles down the stairs and into the living room. The moment he sees me he tenses up, and takes a few steps back.

"Emerald? What're you doing here?"

I know that once I start talking I won't stop, and I don't want his mom to hear me yelling, so I suggest that we talk outside. He hesitates at first, but I give him a phony smile as if I don't know about anything.

He puts his boots on without looking down, as though he's afraid that I might attack him while he's not looking.

"So, what are you here for?" He drawls, yawning in the middle of the sentence.

"I think you know, dumbass!"

He gives me a puzzled look, but I don't buy it at all.

"How'd you do it William?" I ask, taking a step towards him.

"Do what?"

"Set my house on fire!"

"Excuse me?"

"What, you think that I wouldn't notice that you burned it to the ground?"

He tries to come up with an excuse, but nothing comes out.

"You're going to confess right here and now, or I swear to God I'll storm in that house and tell your mother everything."

"Alright, I did help — but it was Isaac's idea! I tried to talk him out of it but—"

"You're pathetic when you're lying," I say between clenched teeth, "Tell me the whole story."

"That's the truth!"

"Fine then! Where are the supplies you used to do it?"

I walk over to their garage door and lift it up.

"Isaac has them." He blurts out.

"Really?" I say, picking up a garbage bag and dumping it out.

Inside of it is a half empty can of gas, a few lighters and two pairs of gloves.

"Give me that!"

He kneels down and tries to put everything back into the bag. I take the opportunity to grab a shovel that is leaning against the wall closest to me.

I think about what I'm about to do for a millisecond, before remembering the reason that I came here.

Revenge.

The shovel hits his head in slow motion, with a resonating clunk.

Unlike Elizabeth, one hit doesn't knock him out cold. He attempts to grab the shovel from me, but I knee him in the balls. He crashes to the ground in agony, and I hit him over the head again, this time a little harder.

My mind is racing with ideas of what to do with him.

Maybe I'll cut his fingers off! No, that's too gruesome for me.

I wish there was a way that I could let him experience what it feels like to burn alive.

I look over to where the bag of gasoline is, and an idea pops into my head.

I lift his body into a wheelbarrow, and place the garbage bag on top of his lap. I then wheel him out of the garage, and into the woods behind his house.

Part of me wants to tie him to a tree and burn him alive, though I know that I could never do that. Plus, it's more fun to give him a chance to escape.

The chance he never gave Amy.

"Let's get you lost, shall we?"

I push him deep into the woods, knowing that the snow will soon cover my tracks up, making it harder for him to find his way back.

I spot a small circular clearing up ahead where there is a patch of frozen grass, and I stop there. I tip the wheelbarrow over, and his body falls out.

Next, I break some branches off of the trees that surround us, and lay them between the trees in piles. As I grab the can of gas out of the garbage bag, I realize that what I'm doing could be considered insane, but I don't care enough to stop.

I drench the piles of wood with gasoline, along with the bases of the tree trunks. Then, I step over the boundary I've created, and take a lighter out of the bag.

"Hopefully this will give you a taste of your own medicine." I mutter as I bend over and light the sticks on fire.

I stand back and watch the flames grow higher and higher, trapping him inside the ring of fire.

He's still laying there on the ground when I leave. I'd like to stay and watch him try to escape, but my trail will soon be covered up, and with my luck I'd get lost in the woods.

As I make my way back, I can hear his screams.

It must suck to be him right now.

~

With a heavy heart I return to Easy Street, not knowing what my future holds.

Amy is gone.

It hurts like hell to think that the only woman who cared about and loved me was Amy. Now she's gone, and I have to deal with it.

Where will I sleep? How will I eat? Who will comfort me when Im feeling down?

My neighbours are too kooky for me to consider living with them, and God only knows what Harold is thinking about everything right now!

I guess that makes me homeless.

I could go down the 'official' adoption road, but I don't want to go there yet.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm terrified. I don't have the security and comfort of going back to a home like everyone else does.

Everyone that has loved me is gone, and it's all my fault.