Joseph carried her burnt body out of the house. She was limp in his strong arms. He knew she was gone, knew she wasn’t coming back, but he wouldn’t admit that to himself, not yet, anyway. He slowly set her body down and looked into her smoky eyes that were staring unseeingly at the dark sky above them. His eyes trailed down her body and saw that her clothes were covered in her own blood. She had the worst burns he had ever seen. He had been too late.


At first, a numb sensation came over him as he processed the truth, which was that his honest to goodness love was . . . dead. He stroked her scorched cheek. He stood up and just stared at her scalded, but still beautiful face. There was something unknown lapping at his heart. After a moment of quick, almost unnoticeable, stabs of anguish in his chest, the pain drew him in, and it hit like a hurricane.


He fell to his knees, clutching his chest. Tears rolled down his face steadily, and before he knew it, he was sobbing uncontrollably. He heard the pounding of footsteps, and he looked up to see the guy who had set the house on fire. He sprang up and raced to the guy, who was now laughing like a maniac. Joseph grabbed the guy’s shoulder and found it was Elaina’s boyfriend, Skylar. The anger turned to fury and pure hatred.


Joseph thought he must be on some kind of drug from the way he was acting, but Joseph didn’t care. He yanked his fist back and threw it at Skylar. He heard a satisfying crunch when his fist connected with Skylar ’s nose. Skylar stumbled back, clutching his nose, cuss words spilling out of his mouth in a steady stream. This made Joseph even more angry. He punched him again, this time in the gut. Then kicked him in the groin, hard. Skylar fell over with a cry of agony.


Joseph was about to continue when he saw her face in his mind. He remembered how tormented she was when her friends, Maddy and Cameron, had gotten into a fight. He slowly backed away from Skylar, who was still writhing on the ground. He turned and ran without looking back. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he had to get away.


Suddenly, a shiny red BMW pulled up beside him. “You want a ride?” Bella asked in a seductive voice that didn’t phase him the least bit. He kept running, not even sparing her a glance. She followed him in her car, trying to convince him to get in the car. Finally, he got so tired of her, he turned and said, “Why don’t you just get lost, b*-^h?!”


Her mouth hung open for a second. Then she flipped her thin platinum blonde hair and speeded away. The minute the offensive word was out of his mouth, he regretted it. Thinking of Kristen, he kept running. The second he thought her name, the pain overtook him. He once again fell to his knees, clutching his chest in agony. Who can cure this unbearable pain? He thought to himself.


Suddenly, it hit him. Only one Person, of He was a person, could. Him, the Man that Kristen always used to talk about, the reason that she was killed, pretty much. Then he prayed right there, in the middle of the sidewalk, thinking of Kristen and all of their friends that had disappeared. He turned his life over to God, asking Him to forgive him of everything he had been doing, everything he had done.


When it was over and done, he knew that Kristen was up there, sitting in her usual position, knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, smiling down at him while she was sitting on a street of gold, with her friends and family. He smiled up at the sky, which had all of a sudden gotten lighter, and he knew in his heart that the angels were rejoicing because after all this time, one of God’s sons had finally come home. The pain was gone from his chest and tears of joy were streaming down his cheeks. As the sun finally sank below the horizon, Joseph let out a joyous yell and began to jog toward his apartment, ready to start the new day that was coming.