“The world will burn, Nicholas Schneider! I tell you! This world will burn! Just see! That’s why I will become a firefighter! And save the world!”

Annabeth Kidman ran around the playground, wearing her father’s firefighter hat. The hat was far too big and fell on her eyes. It didn’t phase her.

Nicholas watched as she often scared the kids. She jumped up to them and asked if they were in any need of saving.

“DO YOU NEED ANY SAVING? I’M A FIREFIGHTER!” she more or less screamed to the scared boy.

But Nicholas watched in amazement as the brown haired girl went around asking if people were in need of saving.

She was amazing to him. She was the girl who stood up to his bullies. The girl who gave him a cookie that her dad bought. She was the girl who pushed him in the swings.

She was the girl Nicholas Schneider could say he loved, at 8 years of age.

And he could at he loved her too, at 13, when she asked him if he would be her partner for the science project. At 15, when they went out for a date. At 18, when she was his prom date.

At 21, Nicholas Schneider could say he loved Annabeth Kidman, as he was at her funeral.

ANNABETH KIDMAN

1980-2001

BELOVED WIFE, DAUGHTER, FRIEND

AN AMERICAN FIREFIGHTER

Rain and tears dropped down his face. The girl’s parents were quietly sobbing in a corner.

Close friends and family, all dressed in white.

He watched as they closed the casket, as her body went underground. Cold fury burned in his veins.

The girl he loved. She was now beneath his feet.

Soon Nicholas was the only one left in the cemetery. He stayed there for some time.

His head was empty, and he wasn’t thinking of much.

He took put a match. He took out a lighter.

He lit the match. He covered the match from the rain with his free hand. He watched as the flames ate the piece of wood.

He watched the yellow fire.

It was yellow. Yellow like the day she got murdered. She was wearing a yellow dress.

He hated yellow.

The fire ate the wooden match. The fire left it charred, it left it broken. The fire eventually burned his fingers. And with his free hand, he turned off the small flame.

“This world shall know pain,” whispered Nicholas Schneider.

“This world will burn.”