I decided that the best thing for me to do was to leave town. I didn't plan to go far, but I didn't need the neighbors recognizing me. After I left the house burning to the ground, I walked into town and saw a parked pick-up truck. I climbed in the back and laid down flat on my back. The owner drove off without checking the back, and so I got a free ride out of the hellhole I'd once called home.

After a couple hours or so I got up and leapt out of the car while it was still going. It hurt, but in a good way. I was far enough away from home that the chances of getting caught were greatly reduced. I made my new home under someone's porch, and I stayed there for several days. I wasn't all that worried about food or water, all I cared about was creating as much chaos as possible.

One night, as I was lying on the ground but not sleeping, I heard a noise. I opened my eyes and saw a girl crawling under the porch.

"This spot's taken," I said, and she gasped.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," she said in a whisper. I noticed her accent was English, what was she doing here in Canada? "I've been looking for somewhere to sleep, I'll find somewhere else."

"Wait a minute," I said. I had been prepared to tell her to get lost, but something made me change my mind. "You can stay in here, just for tonight. It's freezing out there, it's slightly less freezing under here."

"Thank you." She came under the porch and sat down on the ground. "I'm Violet Rainey, what's your name?"

"I'm Ja-" I stopped myself. What was I supposed to call myself? I wasn't Jake, and I wasn't Mike. "I don't have a name."

"How can you not have a name?"

"I just don't."

"Okay then." She let the matter drop and went to sleep while I pondered what my new name should be.

The next morning, I woke up before Violet. Actually, I hadn't slept at all. It seemed I was incapable of sleep. The sun was rising, and in its light I could now see her face. She had white blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she had a lovely face, even with all the dirt smeared on it. She looked to be about my age, maybe a little younger.

I snuck out of my hiding place and went to a nearby restaurant and went through the trash cans. I found some stale bread and brought it back to the porch. I ducked down as the man who lived in this house left for work.

I took a few bites of bread, but I ate no more than that. I waited patiently for Violet to wake up. When she finally did half an hour later, I tossed her the remaining bread.

"I got breakfast," I told her.

"Thanks," she said as she ate the bread ravenously, as though it was the tastiest thing she had ever eaten.

"I take it you're homeless," I said to her after she had completely devoured the bread.

"I am." I looked into her eyes and saw that they were like emeralds. I also saw innocence there, but with a hint of anger. "My parents died a year ago in England and so I had to move here to live with my aunt and uncle. They're absolutely dreadful, so I ran away."

"My parents are dead to, that's why I'm here. Maybe we can help each other."

"I don't even know you. We just met."

"You don't have many options, unless you'd like to go back to your aunt and uncle."

"All right, you made your point. We'll be partners, but only for a little while."

"Just for a little while." I held out my hand, and she shook it.

We didn't talk to each other for the rest of the day. We left the porch and went our separate ways for a while. I don't know where she went, but I went to the playground. I sat down in a swing and just sat there for hours, thinking. I wasn't thinking about anything specific, just letting my mind wander. I could hear the others inside my head, begging to be let out. They were easily ignored.

I watched as the other children played. Some played catch, some played tag, some went down the slide, some climbed the monkey bars. I wondered how many of them had other people living inside their head. I wondered how many people in the world had more than one person in their brain. Perhaps none of them did, perhaps Mike was just a freak of nature. I would probably never know.

So this is what it's like to have a body all your own. It was the closest I would ever get to being on my own, anyway. None of the others could take over and make me do anything I didn't want to do. I got to make all the decisions, I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I had never before known such freedom.

I stayed until the sun went down, and then I went back to the porch. I knew we couldn't stay here much longer, we were bound to be caught soon. I went under the porch and found Violet already there. She held a sandwich in her hands.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked.

"I stole it from a boy at a school playground, I snuck it out of his lunchbox when a teacher called him. He looked like he could stand to skip a few meals."

She tore the sandwich in half and gave me a piece.

"Thanks," I said.

"Just paying you back for breakfast."

The sandwich was peanut butter and jelly, and it wasn't half bad. We finished the sandwich and then I said, "We need to leave tonight."

"I only just got here, what's the rush?"

"I've been here for a few days already, someone's bound to notice two kids hiding under their porch."

"Where will we go?"

"I'll find a place somewhere, but there's something I need to do first, and you're going to help me."

"What are you doing?"

"I need you to sneak into the house and turn the stove on. I checked out the house the day I came here, it's a gas stove. Turn it on, but don't light it."

"Are you saying you're going to blow the house up? What has this man done to us? Are you crazy?"

"Think of all the injustice done to you, Violet. You've not even lived a decade yet, and you've lost your parents and been made to stay with your wretched aunt and uncle. Worse yet, now you're on the run with a strange boy, with no guarantee of shelter or your next meal. You don't deserve all this, don't you want some revenge? Sure, this man didn't cause any of what happened to you, but don't you want others to know your pain? It's not fair that only you should suffer."

Violet was very hesitant, she took a long time to think, but I was patient. I didn't speak a word to her as she pondered it.

"The man who lives here, is he at home?"

"Look, his car isn't here, he's not home yet. If you do it now, he won't get hurt."

Finally, she said, "I'll do it."

She snuck in through a window, quieter than a mouse. I watched her turn on the stove, and we gave it several minutes for the gas to disperse. When I was sure there was enough, I took out a box of matches I'd taken from the house on my first day.

"Here, you do it," I said as I handed her the matches.

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. It'll be easy, and no one will get hurt. It's just a prank, you can do it."

She bit her lip and took the matches. She struck one and threw it into the house. We made a run for it as fire erupted throughout the house, out the windows. We were a bit singed, but none the worse for wear. Just like the first time, we watched it burn to the ground from a safe distance.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" I asked.

She laughed and said, "It really was! Let's do another!"

"Easy tiger, we have to pace ourselves," I said with a laugh. "If we do every house in one night there won't be any left for tomorrow night. Come on, we can sleep in the tunnels on the playground."

For many nights we stayed in those tunnels, and every night we burned a house down together, but Violet would only go along with it if the house was unoccupied. It was worth the compromise, it was the most fun I've ever had. Until then, my only connection had been with Mike, being his brother. But I came to think of Violet as the friend I never wanted. I could see the hidden rage behind her eyes, I could see the untapped potential. Just like in that man's house, where the gas could do nothing on its own and needed flame, I was the spark that set her off.

But I knew our partnership couldn't last forever. Even if it could have lasted, I wouldn't have wanted it to. I enjoyed Violet's company, but I didn't want to have her around forever. I was growing bored with her, I needed to be on my own again.

One day, we found a house that was empty. After a brief inspection, we discovered that the occupants were on vacation and would not be back for three weeks. Rather than torch it, we decided to take advantage of their hospitality, and then torch it.

"I've never been in such a big house!" I exclaimed as we went inside.

"Neither have I, it's practically a mansion!" said Violet.

It was hardly a mansion, but the owners were very well off, that was obvious. We ran through the house, looking at all the different rooms. I chose a room with a huge bed as mine to stay in. The whole house was nice and fancy, everything neat and tidy as though they were expecting the queen to arrive any minute.

The first thing I did was take a shower. I turned the heat on the water up until it was nearly scalding, and it was marvelous. It's too bad I had no clean clothes to put on afterwards, but I wasn't bothered.

Dripping wet, I went back downstairs and found Violet searching through the kitchen for food. She found a jar and pulled out a pack of candy and tossed it to me.

"Here's dinner," she said as she took out one for herself. It was a bag of peanut butter cups, I'd seen kids at school with them, but I'd never gotten to try them myself. I opened the bag and put one in my mouth. It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.

"This is so good," I said as I took the bag to the couch. "I could live on these."

"It's been so long since I've had anything sweet, it's like heaven," said Violet. She took the TV remote and turned on the television. She flipped through channels and finally settled on an animated movie about monsters. I was immediately enraptured, I had never seen anything animated before. I found myself laughing and really getting into it.

"Aren't you a little old to be enjoying the movie this much? It's just Monster's Inc."

"But it's so ridiculous! There are no such things as monsters, and if there were, they wouldn't be doing things like this."

"Anything is possible in cartoons and animation, don't you know that?"

"My mother and grandfather didn't allow cartoons back home, they thought it would rot my brain. Ironic, given that their brains were already rotten. I always had to watch news stations or other adult programs, this is the first time I've ever gotten to watch a cartoon, or anything meant for kids. I love it." This was one of the few truths I spoke.

"Well, now we can do anything we want. No more rules."

"No more rules. I could get used to that."

After the movie ended, we both went upstairs to go to sleep. But first, I followed her to her room and hit her with a pillow. She retaliated and hit be back, and we jumped on the bed and hit each other with pillows, filling the room with feathers and laughing like lunatics. We flopped down on the bed side by side, panting for breath. Once I'd caught my breath, I got up and went back to my bedroom, and she went to take a bath. There was no way I was going to get any sleep, so I climbed out the window onto the tree outside. I used it to climb onto the roof, and I laid there all night, watching the stars.

For the next few days, we stayed inside the house watching cartoons and eating whatever the kitchen had to offer. It was full of sweets, so we didn't go hungry. Violet got sick of sweets after the second day and went back to real food, but I never did. I didn't eat much, but when I did it was something loaded down with sugar.

We continued our arson spree, until one day I went out and saw a wanted poster with my face on it. Someone had seen me, they had connected me to the crimes, and they were after me. I realized that I didn't have long until they caught me. Well, it's not like this was unexpected. I wasn't exactly being overly-cautious. It was then that I realized that prison didn't sound unappealing to me. I was starting to get really bored, and just think of all the chaos I could cause in there.

I went back to the house and didn't tell Violet about the poster. We watched Alice in Wonderland while we ate dinner. Her dinner was a sandwich, mine was an ice cream bar.

"Violet, you know our partnership can't last forever, right?" I asked her as Alice went to the Mad Hatter's tea party.

"I believe I said that myself when we first made the agreement."

"But what are you going to do after we part ways?"

"It's none of your business."

"I'm just curious. You are the only friend I've ever had, you know. Probably the only one I ever will have."

"Why's that?"

"People aren't exactly my top priority. I don't go looking for people to befriend."

"And we met by accident."

"Exactly."

"I'm not sure what I'll do. Stay on the run, live by my own rules, that's really all I want to do."

"Will you keep setting things on fire?"

"Perhaps, though not as often as I do now. But what about you? What will you do?"

"Who knows."

"Is that all you have to say? You have no idea what you'll do?"

"I'll probably do the same as you, but I'm not really all that concerned about my future. I'm just a leaf on the wind."

"Do you think we'll ever see each other again?"

"It's a small world, I won't rule anything out."

Just then, we heard sirens coming from outside.

"They've caught us!" said Violet, panic in her eyes.

"Let's burn the house down and make a run for it."

"No! If we go out now, they won't know we've been the ones who've been setting all the fires. If we burn this one down it'll be like signing our own death warrants!"

"Don't be so dramatic, it wouldn't be that bad. They probably already know we're the culprits, so we might as well burn down one more, especially if it is our last."

"Let's go out in flames," she said with a grin to match my own.

"You read my mind."

I took out my lighter and set fire to the curtains. I tossed the lighter to Violet and she set fire to the bedsheets upstairs.

"That ought to do it, now let's get out of here," she said as smoke started filling the air.

I grabbed her and pushed her into the bathroom, but she struggled and fought back.

"What are you doing?"

"Ending our partnership." I almost regretted it, she had become my favorite toy. Sentiment, that's what it was. She had a taste for chaos just like I did, and I liked that. But I was done with her.

"You're going to kill me? I thought we were friends!"

"You have very bad taste in friends."

I forced her into the bathroom and stuck a chair under the knob to keep her from opening it.

"I'm going to get out of this, and when I do, I'm going to kill you!"

"I look forward to it!"

I ran out of the house and was almost immediately caught by a police officer.

"You're in big trouble, boy."

"I always am."

As he was handcuffing me, I watched as flames roared through the windows. In the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a streak of white blonde hair. I looked and caught just the slightest glimpse of her.

"She made it out after all. I'm so proud."

"Who made it out?" he asked.

"My partner in crime."

He loaded me in the back of his car as firetrucks started arriving. My arson spree was over.

When they took me to the police station, they demanded to know my name. I refused to give them my old one, but I knew that if I was to have permanent possession of this body I would need a name for myself.

"Now son," said one of the officers. "I know you probably didn't mean to hurt anyone when you set that fire, it was an accident, right?"

"No. Every move I make is calculated," I said disinterestedly. "I didn't accidentally start any of those fires by playing with matches."

This seemed to take the officer aback. No doubt he was used to kids starting trouble but not meaning to do any real harm. He just assumed that most kids just needed a wake up call and they'd go back to being good kids after the horror of being arrested. I showed no emotion on my face, other than a little sly grin and a wink every now and again to let them know that I wasn't one of those kids.

During my brief time at the station, I caught a glance at a criminal report of another boy.

…Did poorly in school, and his academic failures made him malevolent towards the other children. This resulted in violent outbursts in school…

Malevolent. I liked that word.

After that, I said nothing and ignored them completely. They put me in a juvenile detention center, and they deposited me in my cell with my new bunkmate. He looked to be about my age, maybe a little older, with jet black hair.

"I'm Duncan, what do they call you?"

"No one calls me anything. I call myself the Malevolent One."

"That's a weird nickname. I mean, we've got Spider, Cobra, and Barfbag, but no one with a nickname like that. I'll just call you Mal, how about that?"

"Hm, Mal. I like Malevolent One better, but Mal will do."

"Get ready to have your face smashed in, juvie initiation is not for the weak. I pity you, newbie," he said with a grin.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll have a grand old time."

Mike's POV:

As I sat there, my limbs heavy and my skin rubbed raw from the chains, I wondered how it had come to this.

How could Jake do all this? He murdered my parents, and as relieved as I was to be free of them, I still believed they didn't deserve to die like that. He talked about how I was free, all the while keeping me and the others in chains.

He hadn't let me see the outside world since he burned my house down. I had no idea how much time had passed or what was going on outside. It felt like it had only been a few days, but the others had told me that our sense of time in here is warped and that it could really have been a few days, or it could be just a few minutes, or it could even be a few years. There was no way of knowing.

The chains were wrapped around my arms and legs, and they were painful and heavy. I could tell the others were also weighed down by their chains, though they tried to pretend they weren't. They talked a little, but not much. Most talking was us pleading with Jake to let us go, but he ignored us.

"How long do you think he'll keep us in here?" I asked Svetlana.

"As long as he deems fit," she replied, her head hanging down. She turned to look at me with a little smile. "But Svetlana believes it vill not be forever. Either Jake vill see reason, or ve vill escape. Either vay, you vill be okay."

"If only I could just wake up, then everything would be all right."

"What are you going on about, young'un?"

"Well, I made all this up, and I must be dreaming it. I'm at home in my bed, and this is all really just a nightmare."

"Um, no it's not," said Vito.

"Of course it is, I can't really be trapped in my own head, and you guys can't actually talk, you're just imaginary friends I made up so I wouldn't be lonely. None of you are real, and neither is Jake."

"Think again, wallaby."

"If only I could wake up, but I don't know how. I've tried pinching myself and everything, nothing works."

"Zat is because you are not dreaming. All zis is really happening."

"No, that's impossible. I imagined all of you, but I didn't stop when my dad told me too and now I'm stuck in a nightmare. But what I'm wondering is, why did I imagine Jake this way, hurting people? Does that mean, if my brother were still alive, he would be this way?"

"No, no, no," said Svetlana. "Remember, zis zing is not your brother. He may be like him, but zey are being vastly different. Zis zing is evil and cruel, your brother vas sweet and kind and gentle, like you. Ven you look back on your time with Jake, do not be zinking of zis zing, zink of your little brother, and how much you loved him and how much he loved you."

"All I wanted was my little brother back. He was my best friend, he shouldn't have died. Why did they both have to die? Why can't they still be here with me? They never did anything wrong, Jake was just a little kid and Lizzie was just a baby, why did they have to go? I just wanted him back, I just wanted them both back. I never meant for any of this to happen."

I started sobbing, and Svetlana tried to put an arm around me to comfort me, but her chains were too heavy.

"I'm going to wake up somehow, and then I'll never use my imagination ever again."