"Joey!" I huffed, "Ricky! Wait for us!"

I heard them laughing and they kept on running, disappearing over the top of the hill.

Lulu tugged at my hand. "What're you doing?"

"I ain't letting the boys have all the fun again!"

"But you heard what teacher said! We're not supposed to play in the church!"

"Well, then, teacher won't know. So you better not tell."

She bit her lip, looking over her shoulder. "Oh, but… I don't…"

"You don't haveta come if you don't wanna. Just don't tell, okay?" I hiked up my skirts and darted after the boys, silently counting down.

3...2...1...

"Oh! Wait for me!"

I grinned. Lulu and I had been best friends for years, and she had always been predictable. I dashed on ahead.

It was cold this morning, the air biting my face and arms, and I half wished I didn't leave my jacket at the picnic. The other half was just happy to be away from the picnic. See, I don't do well in crowds. Makes me feel all squished up inside myself. I'd rather explore.

I made it to the top of the hill, and when I looked around, my breath caught. You could see everything. The trees and prairies and winding roads, and way out in the distance, the city. It was beautiful.

Lulu came panting up beside me. "I told you to wait."

"I'm waiting now, ain't I?"

She rolled her eyes, then saw what I saw. "Wow," she breathed. "It's like standing on top of the world!"

"Yeah." I sighed. "C'mon, let's go find the boys."

We turned to stare at the church for a minute. It was small, and even from back here you could see what bad shape it was in. The paint was faded and chipping, the steps splintered, and there was a broken window.

Now I should let you know: for a girl, I'm pretty brave. In fact, I'm braver than most boys in the neighborhood. But something about this place gave me the heebie jeebies.

"Y-you gonna go in?" Lulu asked.

I nodded. "That's where Ricky and Joey went."

She glanced over her shoulder again. "You sure? 'Cause maybe they just --"

I cut her off. "They're in the church." I started forward, soon followed by a grumbling Lulu. As we got closer, you could see the spider webs draped across the windows like curtains and the footprints on the dusty floor.

And most of them were too big to be Ricky or Joey's.

Lulu whimpered. I turned and gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile, then we both ducked inside.

The first thing I noticed was this place smelled bad. Like dirt, sweaty feet, and baloney. And cigarette smoke.

The second thing I noticed was someone was living here. There were crates filled with food, a deck of cards spread out in a solitaire game on one of the pews, piles and piles of used cigarettes, candy wrappers, and a copy of Gone With The Wind.

Huh.

"Aw, man!" Ricky appeared from behind one of the pews, which he immediately kicked angrily. "What're you doing here?"

"We don't need no sissy girls here." Joey called from the front.

"I'm no sissy." I said, hands on my hips.

"Oh yeah?" Ricky walked up in front of me, pulling a gun from behind him. Lulu shrieked and hid behind me.

"Put that away, Ricky."

"I'll shoot ya if you don't git outta here."

"No you won't."

"Won't I?"

"I know you, and you ain't that stupid."

He laughed, dropping the gun back on the pew. "I don't even why they'd have a gun in the church for anyway."

"They haven't had a service here in years. There's someone living here."

"Where do you think they went?" Joey came up the center isle to join us. "They left all their stuff."

"Maybe they went out to lunch." Lulu suggested, peeking around my elbow.

"Lunch?!" The boys roared with laughter. "Lulu, you're a riot."

"What?" she came around to my side, sounding offended. "It's possible."

"Whatever." Ricky wandered over to the crates and picked up the book. "Gone With The Wind? What's this dumb book doing here?"

"It's not a dumb book." I protested.

"Yeah? How would you know?"

I shrugged. "Why would someone tough enough to carry around a gun be bringing that book with them? There's probably a lot of fighting and stuff in it."

Ricky grunted something unintelligible, throwing it aside. He continued to snoop around the crates for something more interesting.

The truth was my momma read that book to me every night to help me get to sleep, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I'd never hear the end of it.

"Why d'you think they're here?" Joey asked.

"Maybe they didn't have anywhere else to go." Lulu said.

"Yeah, but why? Were they running away from home? From the cops?"

"How am I supposed to know?!"

"Well don't get your panties up in a bunch. I'm just thinking out loud."

"Hey, look at this!" Ricky shouted. He held up a little brown metal tube. He flicked a switch and a little flame shot up. "I found a lighter!"

"Oh, be careful!" Lulu pleaded, hiding behind me again. "You'll burn yourself!" When Lulu was little she'd had a whole pot of hot coffee spilled on her, so she was afraid of anything hot.

The boys just ignored her. "Cool!" Joey shouted, walking over to him. "Lemme see!"

"No!" Ricky jerked the flame out of the way.

"Lemme see!" Joey said again, reaching for it.

I could feel a wrestling match coming on. "Guys, don't, you'll --"

I watched, horrified, as the flame fell out of Ricky's hand and onto the floor. We all stared at it for a second, waiting for it to go out.

It didn't. The flames just sort of spread around the lighter.

Ricky wheeled on Joey. "You idiot! You made me drop it!"

"So?" Joey shoved him back. "Pick it up!"

"No, you pick it up, you little --"

I groaned. "Somebody pick it up!"

Joey sighed, reaching down. He grabbed the lighter, then threw it as he was standing up, wincing. "OW! Dang it, that's hot!"

"Duh, it's medal." Ricky shook his head. "Stupid."

"Hey, if you hadn't dropped it --"

"Well, if you hadn't tried to grab it --"

"Guys --" I tried.

"Oh, so this is my fault? You're the one playing with the lighter in the first place!"

"I wasn't playing! I was looking!"

"Guys --"

"Really? 'Cause it sure looked like playing to me."

"Well maybe you should get your eyes checked."

"Guys!" I shouted. They looked up at me, a little surprised. "It doesn't matter!"

Ricky shrugged. "Eh. It ain't worth my time anyway."

Joey plopped down on a pew. "Wasn't my fault," he mumbled. He sniffed. "Wait… do you smell smoke?"

Ricky sniffed too, nodding. "Yeah. And it's getting a little warm in here.

Lulu squeaked quietly, tugging at my sleeve. I turned to her, and she pointed toward the door, where the lighter had landed.

Fire had completely consumed the doorframe, creeping along the ceiling and walls faster than I ever thought possible. In just seconds the entire wall was on fire.

"Oh my gosh," I breathed.

Joey swore. "Run!"

Our whole group dashed toward the front, looking for another way out. The fire crackled and popped, sending embers flying. As we ran I watched the wood blacken and buckle beneath the flames, then collapse in piles of ash. I felt the heat coming from all around us. I never thought fire could spread so fast, especially in a holy place.

Yet here we were, running through the house of God, consumed by Hell's fire.

Ricky stopped short, and we all ran into him. "The altar!" He shouted.

That's when I realized: this may be an old church, but it was still a church, and there were probably a lot of oils and incense still here. And was right, because right then the wooden altar exploded with a loud bang! sending shards of flaming wood everywhere, and sweet smelling flames belched out.

Lulu screamed.

Without really saying anything we all turned and ran toward the back. We looked for another door, but not very hard because we were trying to avoid the flames. Something told me we wouldn't get out of here, and that… didn't scare me. I don't really know why, but I just felt… nothing. I didn't feel anything except hot and itchy, and I was coughing from all the smoke, but golly, I should be terrified.

The fire had reached the floor now, burning up the pews. Suddenly we weren't only surrounded by it, but were trapped in a maze of it. I stumbled away, trying to put out the flames that charred my skirt and lead our group through a door that I thought was an exit, but turned out to be a very tiny back room. Oh well. At least it wasn't on fire yet. We all huddled together, coughing and trying to get our breath back.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man!" Ricky was rocking back and forth, eyes wild. "Oh man, we'll never get out of here! We're gonna die!"

"Calm down, Ricky. We'll be fine." I lied between coughs, but I don't think anyone heard me over the roar of the flames outside.

"We're trapped! Trapped like rats!"

Lulu was in hysterics, sobbing into my shoulder. I was angry at myself for not making her turn around. I knew she didn't want to come anyway, but she trailed me like a puppy unless I directly told her to go back. And now she was trapped in this burning red hell like the rest of us.

I heard a loud crash, like glass shattering, but I didn't dwell on it. The fire had probably just burned down the whole wall and broke the window…

I held Lulu close to me, trying to calm her down, mostly because I didn't know what else to do. My eyes stung from the smoke. Ricky went on babbling about something or other, and Joey was just staring, like he was trying to comprehend what just happened.

Then the door swung open, and two black shapes entered. I couldn't make out their faces, since their backs were to the flames, let me tell you: right then they looked pretty freaky. Like devils come to drag us to our deaths.

Ricky lost it then. He started screaming unintelligibly, waking Joey out of his trance and making Lulu bury her face deeper into my sleeve.

"Shut up!" one of them yelled, "We're goin' to get you out!"

Ricky froze, a little surprised. I was too.

The fire was following them in, reaching toward us eagerly. The first dark shape turned and broke the window on the side wall, then bent down, scooped up Ricky, and tossed him out. When he turned back, I could see his face. He was dark skinned and dark haired, His face streaked with sweat and burns. He had huge back eyes that flashed like embers. He shot a grin at the other boy, and I knew he wasn't scared, either.

The second boy, still in shadows, reached for and startled Joey, who still wasn't paying much attention. He bit his hands, but he just lifted him up and tossed him after Ricky, a little more gently than the other had. The first came back over and took Lulu, who whimpered quietly at being pulled away from me.

I heard someone hollering from out side, something about the roof caving in. And, as if on cue, chunks of the ceiling started raining down on us.

The second boy, a blonde with pretty green eyes, picked me up and took me to the window. I took a breath to tell him his back was on fire, but all I ended up doing was coughing. He was coughing, too, so hard he shook me. He threw me out the window, and hit the grass hard, knocking the rest of my breath away. I heard hard footsteps, and managed to roll out of the way before a huge towheaded guy stomped on me. I watched him run up to the window as the blonde leapt out, gasping and coughing. The roof sagged and fell in on itself, and there was a blood curdling scream.

All I could think was, oh God, no. Please don't let that boy be hurt. That should have been me in there, me and Ricky and Joey and Lulu. Please don't let him be hurt.

The blonde turned to go back, a streak of orange light. The towhead swore at him and slapped at the fire, and I guess he hit him pretty hard because that boy dropped like a rock.

The towhead looked a little stunned, then he ran to the window, screaming, "Dammit, Johnny!" He reached his arm in, wincing, searching for the other boy. It took him a few seconds, but soon enough he was dragging him through the fire and the glass. He was burned real bad, and he looked like he was in a ton of pain. Then he paled and passed out in the bigger boy's arms.

The next thing I knew, I was being scooped up into teacher's arms. "Oh, thank God, you're alright!" she sobbed, "I told you not to play in the church… I told you…"

I pulled away from her to look back. The boys were getting carried off on stretchers, and I said a little prayer for them to be okay.

But, watching the house of God fall under fire like that, it was a little hard to believe anyone was listening.