Dec 08 2008
Burn Journals- by Brent Runyon
In my junior year of high school I was given an assignment. My assignment was to continue where the first chapter of a novel entitled The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon left off. The book is about a teen who sets himself on fire in an attempt at suicide. I did not make up the original story, but the following is all my original work. None of it was copied in any way. I continued the story on my own. Hope you enjoy. I will post one page at a time for the next five days.
Craig was sitting in the waiting room looking down at the temporary cast on his hand. His mom was to his left with her head in her hands. She had been like that all day. His dad was on a plane, somewhere, returning from his business trip. What a great welcome home present this would be. He looked down at his hand, it was throbbing from where he punched the wall in his house. Why would Brent do that? Brent was cool, Brent was awesome, Brent was his older brother; big brothers aren’t supposed to do things like that. Craig felt himself slipping back to what had happened earlier that day. He had seen Brent come home from school, dressed in black like always. He walked wordlessly past Craig. Craig had tried to get Brent’s attention to hang out, he always did, but to no avail. Minutes later he heard Brent screaming his name. What happened next made Craig cringe, even as he mentally recalled it. He walked slowly up the stairs, then started running as he saw smoke. What was that smell? It smelled worse than when their dad tried to barbecue burgers for the 4th of July. He opened the bathroom door, expecting to see that his brother had lit a piece of paper on fire or something, like he always did. Instead, what he saw would forever be branded into his mind. His brother, his idol, his hero (though he never admitted it), was on the ground, rolling back and forth as if he was having an epileptic seizure. He was wearing his robe, the one he loved so much, and it was literally on fire. The fire was engulfing his body and to Craig he seemed frozen in time. Brent was screaming his name but Craig didn’t know what to do. It was as if he was stuck. He kept hearing Brent calling his name “Craig! Craig!”
