I Want Fire

I want fire.

That was my insane friend named Nate. Those were his last words before he got taken away. My own friend got taken away. Gee, and I’m still wondering why the heck he even said that?
At first, I thought he was a good guy. But I guess I underestimated him too much. I have known him since 3rd grade. He was pretty much a jokester. But around 6th grade, he started to act peculiar. Crazy, for that matter. He started to attack a few classmates. He was so that even the teachers were terrified. I thought he was going to attack me.
He didn’t come to school for a year after that. His parents didn’t say a word to anyone. It was personal. Too personal. Then he came back around high school and he looked pretty normal. He looked like he forgot that he attacked our own classmates.
But this time, my friends and I were going on a campout. On the snowy mountains. We decided to invite Nate and his sister, Poppy. Unlike her brother, she was normal. Never crazy or anything.

I was the driver, while my very second friend named Rowan was in the seat next to me. Nate and Poppy were in the backseat with my other friend, Brooke. She was best friends with Poppy. I really went along with Rowan, but Nate was just quiet. “You doing okay there Nate?” I asked as I turned left. I think I heard Nate saying something but he was so quiet that you can hear a pin drop.
Poppy sighed and nudged Nate. He still didn’t say anything. “Must be quiet, eh?” Poppy laughed. “I understand bro.”
I kept on wondering if Nate was going to be insane and attack all of us in the car. But I shook that out of my head. All I needed to focus on was having a good vacation with my friends.
We finally arrived at our destination, Deserted Snow. There were actually no trees around here. That’s why it’s called “deserted”. “That’s fine driving Vic,” Rowan told me and gave me a punch on the shoulder. My name was actually Victor, but Vic was just for short.
Brooke helped me unload our backpacks and supplies. We started to head for the entrance and looked for a place to settle down. It was flooded with people clamoring.
We eventually found a spot and unpacked all of our things. We set up Rowan’s big 8 person tent. I unrolled my sleeping bag and fluffed my pillow. Suddenly, I noticed that Nate was shivering up real bad. I put my hand on his shoulder but he flinched.
“Look, everything is going to be okay,” I smiled. “We’re just going to make a fire so you can warm up.” It became silent. Rowan, Poppy, and Brooke starred in complete silence. That’s when I realized. “We forgot the wood!” I cried out. Rowan chuckled and told us that we were going to find something to burn.

It was already nighttime and we still can’t find anything flammable. The people near us could bear the cold without a fire, but we teenagers couldn’t. Rowan, Poppy, Brooke, and I were wrapped in blankets in the tent, shivering like leaves.
The tent door flapped open. It was just Nate. “I got fire,” he said and closed the flap. I looked at my friends. They all shrugged and then went outside.
There was Nate spreading his palms wide open near the fire. I couldn’t tell if it was the logs or something else that was making the fire burn but I simply ignored it. At least I got fire.
My friends and I happily ate sausages and marshmallows that we cooked over the campfire. Nate even prepared something delicious for us. Red soup with colorful noodles, which was kind of odd because the noodles tasted funny. We talked for a bit and went to the restroom, one by one before we slept.

Everyone was quiet in the tent. Poppy was hugging her favorite owl plushie, Rowan was sleeping in his sleeping blanket, Brooke was sleeping with a pink sleeping mask, and Nate was- wait, where is he?
I grabbed my flashlight and wore my coat. I looked around. He wasn’t here. “Nate?” I whispered. No answer. I gulped and went down the snowy plains. I still couldn’t find him. Suddenly, I saw something strange. Trees. I thought there were no trees around here?
I moved closer to it. It was like a whole forest of them. Suddenly, there was a muffled splash sound. I froze. “Nate...?” I whispered. I walked into the forest. There were so many clumps of bushes that I almost fell. The forest was covering the patchy sky and stars, so it wasn’t that light.
I suddenly came upon a pond that was a good place for fishing. “Nate?” I whispered. No answer. “NATE?” I yelled. I slapped my mouth with my cold hand. Stupid, why did I say that?
Suddenly, I stepped onto something. It felt swampy like I just stepped onto a mushy pumpkin. I pointed my flashlight at it. My eyes grew big. A burnt dead body. I felt my stomach heave and I felt sick. I turned my body swiftly while my head was filling with pictures of the corpse.
After a minute I turned around, and Nate was standing right in front of me. I screamed but started to laugh. “Oh gee, you scared me there Nate!” I caught my breath. Nate wasn’t laughing. I cleared my throat, wondering why he wasn’t joking around. He knelt down and pulled out a lighter. I slapped my mouth. “Oh no..” I mumbled. “You didn’t-”
Nate then scooped out some organs and dropped some in the pond. My face started to turn green when Nate took some blood out. I could almost feel my food coming right out of my stomach. I then realized that I drank blood and ate organs for dinner.
“Oh my-!” I couldn’t finish the sentence because I was choking. Nate started to eat the organs, but I swatted the bowl away from him when he was going to take his last bite. He looked at me. He was pale. “I want fire,” he said. Nate started to get up slowly. He was holding his dagger still. “I. Want. FIRE!” he screamed and tried to stab the dagger in my face. I dodged and then dropped my flashlight.

My feet were stomping in the snow. I could hear Nate screaming “I want fire” continuously but I covered my ears. I then was out of the forest, still running for my dear life. How did I not know Nate was still insane?!
I could see my friends in the distance. I think they were looking for me and Nate. I don’t think Nate was still chasing me but I was still paranoid of him trying to use my body for fire.
“Get in the car now!” I yelled to my friends. They all turned their heads. They looked at each other like I was crazy. “Why-” Poppy asked but I then grabbed her arm and started to make the run for it.

“Whoa, whoa!” she said as she took my hand off her arm. “I’m not leaving my brother here alone-”
“Trust me, he won’t be your brother anymore once you see him!” I said as I was trying to catch my breath.

I took out my car keys and unlocked my car. I then heard a piercing scream. A scream of severe pain, and agony. Poppy, Brooke, and Rowan ran right inside the car, slamming the doors shut. “Who was that?!” Brooke yelped. I turned on the car and then drove right for the exit.

After driving as far as I can, I slammed the brakes. The dead body was still in my head with the following of Nate holding his dagger. I was sweating so hard.
“So Victor,” Rowan spoke in a quiet voice. “May you please explain?”
The word “explain” almost made me choke. “I-It’s... complicated..” I said briefly. It was going to break Poppy’s heart of who Nate actually is. I gripped the steering wheel hard. The images of the dead body sickened me. The adrenalin in my body caused me to shake violently. Sweat was pouring down my face and my hands went cold.
“Nate,” I finally managed to choke out. “He tried to kill me.” It was silent. “Look,” I said. “If you need-”
“Proof?” Poppy stopped me. “Actually, Victor, you don’t have to give us proof. I knew that Nate goes insane. But killing someone? I can give you a brief explanation about that.”
We all stared at her in utter surprise. “You do?!” we all said in unison. Poppy sighed. “A few years ago,” Poppy started to say. “Our parents went on vacation while Nate and I were at grandma’s. Our parents decided to camp out in the snowy mountains, thinking it was a good idea. But around midnight, a huge avalanche came crashing down onto them. No one came to help, and my parents died in severe cold weather because they were buried in deep snow.”
“Okay,” I said. “But what does it have to do with anything?” Poppy glanced at the car window. “He probably did something to keep himself warm. Nate doesn’t want to die of cold either.”
“Like burning a body?” I asked. Poppy turned her head swiftly. “Nate did what?!” she cried out.
I explained everything, of how I saw Nate use a body to make us a campfire and how he fed us organs and blood. My friends then opened the car door and spit everything out.
“I’m calling the police!” Rowan exclaimed after he wiped his lips. He took out his phone but then Brooke then slapped the phone out of his hand. “We need evidence first!” Brooke exclaimed. The police aren’t going to believe us if we tell him that an insane person burned a body and fed us parts of a human body!” She was right. We need evidence. “So Victor?” Poppy asked. “You got any evidence?” I glanced at her.
“What evidence?” I asked.
Poppy, Brooke, and Rowan stared at me. “You didn’t get any evidence?!” they all yelled at me in unison. Oh right- I was the first person to see Nate with the body. How could I be so stupid?
Brooke started to chew her glossy nails. “I don’t wanna go back!” she cried. “This is outrageous!” Poppy gave a pat on Brooke’s shoulder. “But we have to,” Poppy spoke. It’s our only choice. We can make Victor be bait.”
I nearly jumped out of my seat. “Why me?!” I asked.
“You’re the one who saw Nate first!” Rowan replied. “You’re going to lure him to the police and that’s enough evidence for them!” Poppy and Brooke nodded their heads. I groaned. “Fine..” I said and started the car.

We parked near the entrance of the snowy plains. It was nightfall, around 9 pm. It would be harder for me to find where Nate was, so I turned on the flashlight that was located on my phone. Brooke, Poppy, and Rowan were going to call the police once they saw Nate chasing me to death.
I started to walk down the snowy hills. As I started to move closer to the forest, I could hear the leaves whispering, which really started to distract me. The air started to become stuffy, and there was fog slowly moving around the forest. It started to cover the forest, which made it even harder to see.
I remembered where the pond was, but there was so much fog I couldn’t see a thing. I was afraid I would step into a corpse or in the pond, so I had to be careful of my steps.

Rustle, rustle.

I turned around swiftly. What was that? I looked around. I gulped. I feel like something was going to pop out of nowhere and attack me, like some guy named Nate, obviously.
The noise kept on coming again. My phone is going to die soon which means I won’t have a flashlight anymore. I wanted to hide somewhere but I could only see fog- like it was like there weren’t any-

“Yo Victor!”

I screamed but then a cold hand covered my mouth. I looked. It was Poppy, holding her phone that had the flashlight turned on. I gasped after she took her handoff. I stared at her as I felt steam coming out of my ears.

“Why did you do that?!” I whispered loudly to her.
“I was trying to find you! You don’t have to be so rude…” Poppy replied.
“Okay,” I rolled my eyes. “Where’s Rowan and Brooke?”
“Back at the hills,” Poppy said. “They’re waiting to call the cops.”
“Alright,” I answered. “But why did you have to make rustling sounds?!”
“What rustling sounds?” Poppy asked with a puzzled face.

My face started to feel pale. Poppy didn’t make the rustling sounds. Which meant that...

Rustle, rustle.

I covered Poppy’s mouth with my hand as I held my breath. I think she knew what I was doing. I looked around. There was still fog floating around slowly. Suddenly, I started to hear running footsteps.
Please let that be Rowan or Brooke, please let that be Rowan or Brooke…

“I WANT FIRE!” I heard a scream. I quickly took off Poppy’s hand. I could see a shadow running. It was Nate. He was holding his dagger in his hand while blood was dripping down onto the snow. Nate was starting to come even closer. Poppy and I screamed and started to run for our lives.
I could hear Nate repeatedly screaming “I want fire!”. I turned around. He had a sinister smile with a bloody cut on his cheekbone, running to us like he was a maniac, which he already is.
Poppy and I came upon a snowy wall. It was our only way to survive before Nate could use our bodies for fire. I quickly helped Poppy climb up the wall as she yelled “CALL THE COPS!”.
I grabbed on a few damp vines to help myself climb up. I could hear Nate screaming “I want fire!” coming closer. Suddenly, my life flashed in my eyes. I felt something painful going through my leg. My hand slipped but I still kept my other hand grabbing the vine.
I looked down. The dagger was pierced into my leg. Hot blood leaked out of my leg. Nate was trying to pull me down. “I-I-I w-want f-f-fire..” he said in a trembling voice.
I could hear police sirens. I started to wince in pain. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t. Nate was clinging onto me like a magnet. I managed to kick Nate with my other foot and managed to get to the top. I could see red and blue lights flashing. I started to army crawl up the hill, but I was going so slow.
I still remembered the dagger still being in my leg. Suddenly, I could see the polices' faces starting to become blurry. I managed to cry out “help” until I stopped crawling.

I heard someone yelling for CPR. My eyes were starting to open, but everything was still blurry. I remembered myself crawling to the police but I fainted, I think. I felt a warm hand pumping onto my chest. My eyes shot open and I gasped out some air from my throat. “He’s awake!” I heard a woman’s voice say.
I looked around. I saw Brooke, Poppy, and Rowan crouching around me while two doctors were next to my shoulders. I lifted my head up. The dagger was taken out and was next to my leg.
I blinked. I saw a lot of police with flashlights. It looked like they were investigating the scene. I wondered where Nate was. He either was caught or was still in the forest.

“Uh…” I wheezed. “What happened…?”
“Your friend pointed at you laying on the snow,” a doctor responded gently. “You looked dead but your heart was still beating, thank goodness.”
I laid my head back on the snow. “W-where’s Nate?”
A doctor gave me a confused face. “Who’s that?”
I pointed where the dagger had stabbed me. I felt so weak.
“Oh,” the doctor replied. “We caught him. After we saw you lying on the snow, we saw Nate running towards you, carrying a lighter. He was yelling “I want fire”. But luckily, a few police came running and tackled Nate down.”
I groaned slightly. “I’m going to the hospital, right?”
“Yes,” the second doctor spoke. “Judging by the dagger, it looks like we gotta stitch it up.”

They both left as my friends were still there. “You okay?” Brooke asked. I gave a slight nod but I knew I wasn’t okay. I saw a policeman cuffing down Nate. He was still saying he wanted fire but the policeman told him to shut up or else he was going to get it.

I got my leg stitched up and returned to school. Everyone was asking about my leg, and of course, I had to tell them the whole story. It went on the news titled “BOY GETS PIERCED BY A PSYCHOTIC BOY WHO KEEPS ON WANTING FIRE”. The title wasn’t that shabby, to be honest.
I helped Poppy get her brother out of her mind for a few days. After school ended, we decided to sit at a park bench to talk. I think I got Nate out of Poppy’s mind, but I’m not sure about it yet.

A few weeks later I got my stitches off. My leg felt good as new. I then got a call from Poppy, asking that she wants to meet up. She said it was very important. I shrugged about it and decided to meet up with her.
A few hours passed and Poppy and I met up in a park. But once I met her, she looked pale. She was sweating also as something really bad happened to her. I’m guessing this was really important.

“So,” I said. “What is the important thing?”
“Well, Vic..” Poppy gulped. “When the police captured Nate, they found something incredibly strange on him..”
I started to feel a chill up my spine. “What’s the strange thing..?”
Poppy clenched her sweaty fists. “A disease that made him go psycho…”
I froze. I tried to speak, but I couldn’t find the words.
“A-And I wanted to tell b-before but..” Poppy turned even paler.
I didn’t want to hear anymore. But my brain kept on switching sides if I wanted to hear or not.
“When the doctors were stitching you up,” Poppy managed to spit out. “They noticed that the disease spread out to you-”

Poppy stopped talking. Deadly silence. You could only hear leaves rustling around us and the mumbling of people’s voices. Poppy looked like she was panicking silently. I stared in complete silence. The disease. It was with me right now. When Nate pierced the dagger in my leg, he carried the disease on the dagger because he touched it.
Poppy started to move back slowly. Her eyes started to widen. I was going to become psycho just like Nate. I was going to be a wanted person for the rest of my life, slaughtering and attacking people.
My head started to hurt. I started to feel a tight squeeze in my head. My lips were starting to feel dry and I felt like something was gushing out of my mouth. I fell down to my knees.
My body started to feel numb and I was barely breathing. I looked up and saw Poppy 10 feet away from me. I saw people staring at me and whispering at me. I tried to speak, but my lungs felt hoarse and empty.
I felt like I was sinking into the ground. I tried to stand up but then I spit out something that I never imagined. Hot blood. Everyone screamed while others took out their phones to record. More blood was dripping out of my mouth. I grasped my hair. I felt so sick. Did Nate feel like this when he got the disease? I then fell onto my face, holding my stomach tight.

Victor? Victor, are you awake?

I shot my eyes open. Where was I? The world was spinning around me. I looked around until I faced a giant glass window. There was a lady, wearing a lab coat. She was holding a clipboard like she was taking notes of me. Or is she really?
“W-Where am I?” I cried in a trembled voice. The lady wrote something on her clipboard. “You don’t remember? You stayed in here for like..”
She started to count her fingers. That made me shocked. How long did I stay in this place? “You have been here for 4 months,” she spoke.
I glanced at her. 4 months. That long?! Why… I only remembered myself holding my stomach and then I fainted. “How am I here..” I scooted closer to the glass window. The lady stepped back. I was scaring her. “Why?!” I cried as I pounded the window. The lady sighed.

“You’re a psycho.”