Jacob
I watch Fionna trudge up the stair dejectedly. I pull my feet off the coffee table to follow her, but the doctors come running onto the field so I forget her and watch the treatment. Yet the game goes on. “And Shank is sprinting at top speed to Smithers and... Oof! He collides with him! And blood is streaming out of Smither’s shirt. Smithers is dead.” For now. “Yes!!” I scream. “Another one dead! Yay!! Shank! Shank! Shank! Shank!” I chant.
“Why is Smithers always dying?” I casually ask my mom once the play is over.
“Well, first off, he’s weak and puny. Second...” I let my mom ramble about all the reasons pretending that I care. I don’t care why he’s down. I only care that he’s down.

Fionna
"Hedgie!" I call frantically. "Where are you? Do you want a treat?" Still no response. "Mom! Have you seen Hedgie?"
"No, sorry! Oh!" Sounds blast from the television.
"Ugh! Do you really have to watch that? You watched it yesterday!" I hear the sound of two heads colliding and I turn towards the television.
"And Johnson crashes with Santiago! They are both down! Here come the doctors running on to revive them. And...they’re up!” announces the sportscaster.
“Gross,” I mutter under my breath.
“Heeeeeeyy Fiona,” my brother calls.
“Wha’s up?”
“Come look outside.”
“Kay.” Expecting nothing, I skip over to the flowery curtain and open them. I look out and see a dark chocolate figure in the road. Blood oozes out of its gut and bullets are lodged in its head. I sprint to the alley blacktop and... It’s Hedgie, wincing and sniffling.
“No, Hedgie!” I pick him up as if he’s a baby, tears already collecting in my eyes. I carefully open the door, observing his breathing pattern. I run to the living room and unlatch his cage. I run the speed of light to the kitchen and open a cabinet. I scavenge for a bandage. After a while, my hands become clammy and drenched with sweat. My mind begins to race. What if he dies? What if I'm too late? What if... My hand finally finds the polyester ace bandage just as tears begin to well up. Sighing with relief, I sprint back to Hedgie and wrap him up like a baby. "Rest Hedgie. Tomorrow will be a better day.”

After I calmed down, I asked to no one in particular, “Who did this?”

Jacob
As if I went and traveled back in time, I remembered the events of last night.
I check the clock. Midnight. I tiptoe like a robber down to Hedgie’s cage and open it. I sprint outside and see Mark, Alex and Mike. “Hey! Jake!” Alex calls.
“What’s up bros?” I respond.
“You got da goods?” Mike asks.
“Yeah. You got da device?” I ask Mark.
“Yup.” I grab Hedgie and stroke his belly like how Fionna would. Chuckling, I place him on the street. Mark, Alex and Mike are laughing like mad men. As soon as Hedgie’s quills touch the blacktop, Alex whips out his gun and fires one single bullet out into the silent night. The loud bang resounds and all is quiet. We do this every night. Alex loves guns, so he pays me to let him rent out Hedgie’s body. I see the blood oozing out of Hedgie. A light clicks on in my parent’s bedroom. I grab Hedgie and sprint to Mark’s car. He tries to start it but he can’t. I feel like I’m in one of those cartoons where the villain is trying to escape in his car but he’s out of gas. “Go!” I whisper-scream to the guys.
“See ya later bro.” They all say. They carefully escape into the night and I watch their shadows slowly disappearing. It’s too late to call the doctor. I throw Hedgie onto the blacktop and streak into the house.
My mom trudges down the stairs and I act as if I’m getting a midnight snack. “Again?” my mom questions. I ignorantly nod. “Jacob. You can’t be doing this every night! Or you’ll end up like...” She checks over her shoulder and whispers, “Your father.”

Fionna
Clank, clank, clank. The cage moans as I open it up. "Wake up, Hedgie!" I say in a sing song voice. I slide the door open and slide his limp body onto my hand. I pull him up to my face and his eyes flicker like a candle in a windstorm, and then it stops. Without warning. Without a question or doubt, his walnut size heart beats one last time. And then he's gone.
"Mom! Take me to the vet! Hedgie is...DEAD!" I scream, tears in my eyes.
"Whatever," she says in a bored tone. I slam open the door and sprint to the car, strap myself in and stroke Hedgie’s fallen belly.
“Mom! We only have 57 minutes!”
“I’m coming. I’m coming. She says exhaustedly. I can hear a clock in my head, ticking. Ticking. Mocking me. Mocking me. I hyperventilate as my mom trudges into the car and starts the engine. “Drive!” I scream. The car roars to life and I anxiously check my watch. “50 minutes!”
“Calm down. We'll be there in 3.” Sighing, I stroke Hedgie’s belly. “You'll be back soon.” I bury my face in his belly and finger his lifeless quills. As we approach the vets office, I see road kill everywhere. Strewn out on the street like litter way back when. Dogs, cats and bunnies slowly crumbling. When something dies, they begin to fade. Glancing at Hedgie, I see him slowly disappearing and I feel sand in my fingertips. His toes are gone. “We’re here!”
Before the car reaches a complete stop, I slam open the door and bound to the entrance. As the automatic door opens, a bored looking receptionist says, “What's the matter?” Her breath reeks of garlic and alcohol. She pops her gum like a sassy teenage girl.
“My hedgehog is dead and disappearing.” I say my voice shaking. Smacking her lips, she points.
“Room 5 ma’a- “ She doesn't finish her sentence and I'm off. I speed to room 5 and anxiously wait for a doctor. He enters the room within 30 seconds.
“Look away,” he instructs.
“Why?”
“Look away!” he says with more force. Scared, I turn around a glance at the posters strewn on the wall. Behind me the doctor mutters. “Come on. Why... working... cursed...” After a moment of absolute silence, he takes off his glasses and places a hand lightly on my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“You're what?” I say hoping I heard him wrong.
“I’m sorry. He couldn't be revived.” At that instant, a volcano erupted in my head sending my thoughts flying like molten rock in my brain.
“YOU WHAT?” I shriek like a banshee.
“I couldn't revive him.”
Keeping my voice down and my temper controlled, I say my voice shaking, ”Why not? You can revive humans, but not hedgehogs? In your ad, you say, ‘We can revive everyone and everything!’”
“I'm sorry. This case was special. It happened too late at night. You ran out of time. But his body stayed there. We don’t know why, but he didn’t disintegrate until now. There is no explanation as to why. I’m sorry. ”
“Are you pulling some kind of scam?”
“No.” He says. “I'm going to have to ask you to leave.” With tears in my eyes, I scoop up the remains of my pet and blow them away. The wind picks up the dust and they float away. Little grains floating in the room. A truly beautiful moment. But then they disappear. Vanish. Gone.
As I stand in the empty room, my mind begins to wander. “Hey doctor.” I call out as he’s about to leave. “Did we ever have strict laws about banning guns?” I ask. He snorts and looks at me like I’m five.
“I think you need to see a real doctor. A doctor for the mind.” He says tapping his head.
“But-” I protest.
“Here's his contact information. He'll get you sorted out.”
“But I don’t-”

“Hush. You do. People are going to think you're mental. heck, I already do. Have a nice day and be sure to see him.” He says slipping the business card in my hands. Now go on.” He says gesturing out the door.
“Thanks.” As he walks out, I drop to my knees and sob. I wail and my big black eyes fill with pools of salty tears. I put my hands on my face and my red hair falls, curtaining me.
“Fiona? Where are - Oh honey!” She puts her arm around me. “I'm so sorry.” Big wet raindrops fall from my eyes.
“Shh. Sshh. Everything’s going to be all right.”



I hear a loud pounding on the door. I reluctantly leave the couch to see who it is. A huge silhouette of an obese man, standing outside carrying a briefcase, with his hair slicked back, looking very professional stands before me.

“Mom! It’s dad!”

“Honey?” He asks.

“Yes dear?” my mom asks not peeling her eyes off the TV.

“Help me through the door,” he demands in his mysterious voice.

“Of course deary,” my mom says wearily as she lifts her little body off of the couch.

“Grab my arm and pull,” my dad instructs my mom.

“Ok honey,” my mom says in a constipated voice. “You have to work with me, though.”

CRASH!

“Mom! Mom! What was that?” I yell running into the kitchen. To my surprise, my dad is face first on the floor. “Where’s mom?” I ask with a worried tone to my voice.

“Uh...underneath me,” my dad says as he turns his face towards me. He tries to sit up but after every attempt, he fails, falling back down to the floor.

“Well, get up!”

“Don’t you talk to me like that missy!” my dad yells in an agitated voice. “You know I can’t stand up without help.”

“Fine,” I bend over and grab my dad’s blubbery hand.

“Pull.”

I yank my dad’s hand, but I’m not strong enough to even lift his arm off of the floor.

“Jacob!” I yell upstairs.

“What?”

“Come help me lift dad off of the floor.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s killing mom.”

“Just call someone to come and revive her!”

"What if they can’t revive her, like Hedgie?” A silence.

“Just get down here Jacob!” my dad screams. I hear footsteps coming from his bedroom and then Jacob’s head appears at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hurry!”

“Ok sis, calm down.” We both lean over and grab one of my dad’s hands.

“1,2,3, pull!” My brother and I have just enough strength to lift my dad off of my mom and slide her body out from underneath my dad.

We finally lift his body high enough in the air to grab my mom. I slowly slide the weight of my dad that is on my towards my brother and then I slide my mom out from under my dad. I grab the weight of my dad again.

He stands up. My dad has on a midnight blue suit and his black hair is smoothed back. He looks like a business man in the past. The new fashion is 2010. Although his big blue eyes would attract any lady, they have changed to a more sullen blue. He has ten chins. Not a mutation. Extra skin.

My brother and I finally help him to stand up.

“Call the doctor, Fionna! I think I killed your mom!” my dad whispers as he bites his fingernails.

911

“Hello, what is the emergency?” the telephone operator asks.

“My mom is dead.”

“Thank you. We will send a doctor over immediately to revive her. Good bye,” the monotonous lady says.

I drop to my knees with tears in my eyes, remembering what had happened earlier today. I move over to my mom and place my head on her stomach.

“You’ll be with me soon mom,” I say into her football jersey.

After ten minutes of silence the phone rings.

Ring, ring, ring.

I quickly jump up and grab the phone.

“Hello?”

“We are very sorry but we don’t have enough doctors on duty right now to send to your house. Have a nice night. Goodbye.”

I drop the phone on the ground and turn to my mom’s disintegrating body.

“Who was that Fionna?” Kevin asks me.

“We are never going to see mom again,” I whine.

“What do you mean?”

“There aren’t enough doctors on duty to revive her.”

“Well, why don’t you get the pills from upstairs?” he says.

“What? We have reviving pills upstairs? I didn’t know that!”

“Yeah, who doesn’t?” he asks obnoxiously.

“And you didn’t tell me when Hedgie was dead?” I ask furiously.
“Well I didn’t think to until now!”

“Go get them!”

“Fine,” my brother says as he runs up the stairs. I watch him until he disappears. I turn my attention to my mom. Seven minutes and 13 seconds. Seven minutes and 12 seconds. Seven minutes and 11 seconds.....

“Hurry!” I scream.

“Here they are,” my brother says as he hands me the pills. I yank the cap off and shove 12 pills into my mom’s mouth. I grab the top of my mom’s head and her chin and push them together and force her to swallow it. I look in her mouth and all I can see is chewed up powder. 3 minutes and 7 seconds... 3 minutes and 6 seconds.... 3 minute and 5 seconds. I throw her head on the ground and I quickly make a glass of water and pour it down her throat.

“Come on, Mom! SWALLOW!” I scream filled with anxiety.

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.....

“Hunn,” my mom breaths.

“Mommy!”

“Mom!”
“Jessica! I am so very sorry. I didn’t mean to kill you,” my dad says expressionless.

“That doesn’t matter anymore because we are all still together,” my mom says. No reaction from anyone. Except me. Tears well up in my eyes and a small pool of water forms under my eyes.

Jacob and I walk over to the couch and start to talk about what will happen if one my parents die again and we can’t revive them.

I look over at the clock. 12:59. “I really should go to bed. It’s almost one in the morning,”
“Good night Fionna,” my mom says as she kisses me on the forehead. I walk upstairs remembering what had happened to Hedgie earlier today. I open the door to Hedgie’s room and look at his old cage. I slide the lid off of it just like I used to do and I run my fingers through the paper where he used to take his naps. I lay down on the floor and think of all the wonderful memories I have of Hedgie.

It was two years ago. I was sad about not having a date to the first school dance. I had money in pocket just in case. For anything. I fished it out and counted $10. Sighing, I walked to the pet store. Animals made me happy. I swung open the door and heard a barely audible ding. I walked around the store but nothing appealed to me. I walked in the corner where a new display case was. I saw Hedgie for the first time. I loved him. He was perfect. His black button nose. His cute eyes. And the distinctively sharp quills. I ran up to the counter, my heart beating 100 miles per hour. “How much for the hedgehog?” I asked.
“That thing? $5 bro,” the guy said. I fished out the money and threw it on the counter.
“Keep the change!” I yelled and grabbed Hedgie and sprinted home with him.
My brother’s taunts shoot me back to reality.
“Where’s Hedgie?”
“He died.” I say, tears collecting in my eyes.
“He died?”
“Kevin! Don't repeat it!” I shriek.
“Soooorrry. Gosh.” He says rolling his eyes like a middle school girl.
“Keep rolling your eyes like that and they'll get stuck.” I say and do a diva walk to my room.

Jacob
I’m lying on the couch, doing absolutely, positively nothing. Ding, ding! I grab my Communication and scroll through messages. Sweet! A party at Zach’s! I jump off the couch and sprint out the door.
As I walk in, madness greets me. Outside, everyone is shooting. Zach tosses me a gun and I dive beneath a bush. I cautiously peer over and load my gun. It makes a clicking noise. I army crawl to another hedge and shoot a guy on the forehead. The people surrounding him look around to see who it is, but I duck. Soon, I raise my head and shoot like a crazy man. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Everyone drops down dead. I laugh and Zach gives me a high five.
“You stupid little boy,” he says. He holds up his gun and pulls the trigger.
I revive a few minutes later. “Got to go, see you later!” I call out to Zach.
“Later bro!”

Fionna
“Hey twerp!” My brother yells up to my room.
“What?”
“Party invitation!”
“I don't care. I am not in the mood to party!”
“It’s from Zach! I'll just toss it. But it’s a sick party over there.”
“Never mind! I'll go! What time?”
“Now!” I scramble around my room, my mind blanking about what to wear. “Should I wear this? No too fancy. No, too ugly, noo..” I mutter. After trying on every possible outfit combination, I end up with a plain purple t-shirt and blue skinny jeans. I grab my phone and ask my communication watch, “Where’s Zach’s house?” Bing! A message shoots backs instantly. “4581 W. 60th Ave.”
“I'm leaving!” I shout down.
“Bye!” As I jog downstairs, I grab the invite sitting on the table and sprint out the door. I walk casually until I hear a gunshot. Bang! I jump and sprint to Zach’s house. I try to avert my eyes from the car crashes and the disintegrating bodies in the streets. As I reach 60th Avenue, I scrutinize the house numbers. “4578... 4579... 4580...4581!” I knock on the door. The camera moves and points directly at me, scanning my body. “Hello Fiona Williams. What are you doing here at Zach's house?” I open the card. It reads, “Say studying.” I look directly at the camera and say as confidently as I can muster up, “Studying.” The door opens.
“Enter.” I walk into a room filled with party streamers and loud music. The music is so loud I can barely hear myself think. Leftover cake litters the floor and crumbs are quickly scooped up by electrical cleaning bugs. It reminds me of... I can’t remember. I strain my brain but it seems like there a wall blocking all thoughts. I hear shrieks and shouts so I walk outside. To my utter horror, I am welcomed with kids playing a game of war. Not with cards, with guns. Zach runs behind a bush and points a gun at a little girl. He locks eyes with her and pulls the trigger. She falls down instantly, her head hitting the green grass and blood pouring out of her skull. Her eyes roll back into her head and blood leaks out of her chest. After Zach wipes out everyone, he calls outs to the house and demands, “Call the doctor.”
“Okay birthday boy.” The house monotonously replies. I walk in front of Zack and he asks flabbergasted, “When did you get here?”
“Not too long ago.” I say.
“That’s good.” A long awkward silence follows. “Well...” Ding, dong! The doorbell broke the silence and saved any small talk, which I hate.
“Birthday boy. Doctors here.’’ Zack opens up the door and leads the line of doctors to the backyard. I follow and watch as they drape the cloth as black as the night onto the victim and somehow revive them. I begin to feel queasy. The next minute, the kids are up and smiling and breathing. No more blood stains. No evidence they just died. My gut lurches. “I-I-I” I stammer. “I have to go.”
“Drat! Alright.” He says.
“Yeah. Sorry. Just remembered.” I walk out the door and sprint to my house, not pausing for a breath. If I did, my life would be taken away from me. I don’t want to die. I shake as I run. I’m scared.
I began to think about our world. I had so many questions! Without Hedgie to distract me and spring break, I had so much time on my hands. My mind wanders every day, and I thought about everything. I decide to find out.
“Why do I do this to myself?” I whisper, crying. “Why couldn’t they revive Hedgie? What even makes doctors able to revive things?” I sit up and look out the window. Why can doctors revive people? Thirty minutes later, I grab my phone out of my pocket and dial my friend Lane.
“Hello?”
“Hey Lane, it’s me.”
“Oh hey Fionna. Why are you calling me?”
“It’s really important.”
“Somebody better be dying.”
I laugh to myself thinking that this is way more important than death.
“Oh God, who died?” Lane asks me as he yawns.
“No one died. I just need you to spend the night tonight so I can tell you everything.”
“Fine, I’ll be over in twenty minutes,” he sighs.
I hang up the phone and yell down to my mom. “Lane’s spending the night.” I walk into my room and set up where Lane always sleeps when he comes to my house.
“Knock, knock, knock.” The door says in a bored tone. “Fionna. Do your parents know?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I lie. I run downstairs and to open the door. I grasp the handle and yank. A young boy with beautiful blue eyes and perfectly brown curly hair stands in the doorway.
“Lane.”
“Fionna.”
“Come in.”
“What do you need to talk to me about?”
“Come up to my room and I’ll tell you.” Lane walks past me and I shut the door. We walk up the stairs; butterflies flying in my stomach. Thoughts race through my head. What if I get caught? What if I get killed? What if they won’t help me? Worst of all, what if I don’t find anything?
I open the door to my bedroom, greeting him in.
“I want to know everything.” I state.
“Okay. Be more specific.”
“I want to know what the world used to be like and what it is becoming.”
Lane’s jaw drops. “Why do you even care about that?”
“I want to know.”
“Okay... well, how can I help you?”
“Help me break into the government’s Hall of Records,” I blurt.
“I can’t do that.”
“You have to! You’re my best friend!”
“I would love to help you but I can’t. I can’t.”
“What about your dad? He works in the history department of the government, right?”
“Yeah, he does but I don’t want him to get in trouble!”
“Come on, please. No one will find out.”
There is an awkward pause before Lane says anything.
“Fine but we have to keep my dad out of it. I can’t be responsible for my dad losing his job.”
“Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you! I promise that I will leave your dad out of it.”
“You’re welcome. I need to go to bed because we have to break into the library government tomorrow.”
“Yay! Okay, goodnight Lane!”
“Good night Fionna.”
I put down my head on the pillow and look up at the bland ceiling in my bedroom. I turn my head towards the clock on my dresser. 2:47 am.
“Hey Lane.”
“Yeah?”
I start to cry. “He died and the doctors couldn’t revive him.”
“Revive who?”
“Hedgie!”
“Oh Fionna, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, no, you’re okay. I probably should talk about it; but not right now. I didn’t tell you because I couldn't manage it myself. I wanted someone else to tell. I’m exhausted. Can we talk in the morning?”
“Deal.”
I close my eyes and wipe the tears out of my eyes trying to erase the pain Lane inflicted on me.

Lane
I feel a fist pounding on my chest, making me open my eyes. I look over at Fionna’s bed and see an exhausted body. I quickly stand up and I pull my clothes on then run downstairs, crashing into Fionna’s mom.
“Hey Jessica! Sorry about that. If Fionna wakes up while I am gone, can you tell her I will be back after I go to my dad’s?”
“I got it Lane, thanks for letting me know,” Jessica says as I run out the door.
“I have to make it to the government soon so I can tell them about what Fionna is doing,” I say to myself.
I look down the street and see the government’s front doors. I pick up my pace and grab dad’s ID card from my pocket, allowing access. I get to the door and scan the card.
The door opens and I see an extremely long hallway and hundreds of doors. Fionna and I used to break in here all the time so luckily I know where I am going. I run to the 7th door on the right and open it really fast and run inside.
“I need to report someone who is violating code of conduct number 142.” I say quickly, regretting what I am going to do as I went.
Everyone turns their head in my direction.
“Okay and who is that?” The leader of the meeting asks. He sits at the head of the table. His eyes are black and his voice would make anyone shiver.
“Fionna Williams.”
“Okay, thank you sir. Have a nice day.”
“Thanks,” I say, finding myself being pushed out the door. The conversation went further than I allow it to in my head. I told them everything, including how we would break in tonight. They said they couldn’t post anyone tonight, but I assured them Fionna would be back. Demanding justice.
I run as fast as I can back to Fionna’s house. I was in the government building for half an hour. I sit down with Fionna’s family and eat dinner like always but this time no one talks. No one looks up from their plates except for occasional glances.
After dinner, Fionna and I go straight up to her room where she has everything prepared. We go over the mission one last time and then sneak out her window. We redo the exact trail that I previously did without Fionna. It takes us much longer, staying hidden to any awake neighbors.
We come to the doors and I scan my dad’s card so we can get in. The doors pop open and we race to the last door in the hallway.

Fionna
Lane grabs the door handle and I run inside. Books scatter the shelves. I luckily come prepared. I grab my list from my bag and run to three different areas, grabbing three books.
Beginning
Middle
End
“I got em, let’s go.”
We race through the hallway and zip through the door.
“Phew, we made it!” Lane says wiping a bead of sweat off of his forehead.
“Yes, Lane, we did.”
I held the book like a baby and blew off the dust. The cloud invaded my eyes and swam up my nose. I coughed until my throat felt hoarse. I look at the title: Before. Luckily, I also grabbed Middle and End. These books had all the answers. I’m prepared. My hands tremble as I flip open the first page of Before.
“Honey! Dinner!”
“Where is that...” my dad grumbles. “I need help through the … door!”
“I don’t know dear. And don’t call you daughter that!” my mom scolds. The house hectic and everyone yelling didn’t bother me as I unlocked the secrets of the community. I’m immune to all the ruckus as I devour Before. Halfway to 2012, I hear a bump, bump, bump. “Huff, puff.” Preparing for the worst, I dive under my bed and find the hidden flashlight. “Fionna!” Shoot! I crawl out from under my bed like a bear and grab an abundance of pillows. I stuff them under the blankets, arranging them to look like my body. Foolproof.
“Fionna!” My dad yells. I dive under my bed and hold my breath. The door slams open. “Fionn-” my dad pauses. The door to my bedroom is ajar and he looks inside my room. I manage to sneak a glance through the side of my bed. Sweat glistens on his rosy cheeks and his large beady eyes pierce through my blankets. “Oh. You’re asleep.” He says in a gruff voice. “My apologies.” He slams the door shut with a bang. I sigh and my lungs grasp for the beautiful oxygen. I crawl out from under my bed once more and continue.


I approach the big wooden door. The Room Of Meetings. They have to know. It’s my job as a citizen of this community to let everyone live peacefully. The government won't let us not know. We have to inform them. I slam open the door. But they're already waiting for me. They grab me by shoulder and lead me to a room.
I scramble for my life, my feet slipping on the newly waxed floors. My face sparkles with sweat. I run around the room, casting glances behind me. My mind is vacant. I begin the pick up speed. Faster and faster when I get slapped in the face by a brick wall. I quickly recover and spin on my heels. They’ve cornered me. “Wh-wh-why are you doing this?” I stammer.
“You know too much.” He held up his gun, its tip staring back at me like a hawk. A lump forms in my throat. He wouldn't. His forefinger stroked the trigger as if contemplating what to do next. The suspense built up like a tower. His cold black eyes lock with my frightened eyes and he pulls.

Jacob
I dried my wet cheeks. Stupid Fionna! Why would you drown yourself? I look around her room. Her once cave of solitude. I flop on her bed. She starved herself, grieving over Hedgie’s death. And then she couldn't take it. A lump forms in my throat and I struggle to hold back tears. I crawl like a wounded tiger under her covers and find three books. Should I keep her privacy? The curiosity got the best of me and I yanked out the books. Before, Middle and End. I felt guilty. I remember...
“Jacob! I’m not crazy!”
“Get away from me you mental girl!”
“Jacob! There really was a time when there were laws against guns. Believe me! We didn’t live like this in 2013! We were safe, not running for our lives! Believe me.” She pleaded.
“No!” I ran away and left her crying in the dirt.


It was all true. I finger the hard leather cover. Flipping open the book, I discover a diary. It reads, “Property of Fionna. Keep out Jacob!” I ignore the warning and read on. She wrote about Hedgie's death , and Zach’s birthday party. Wait. “She went to the government?” I say barely audible. She didn’t throw herself off a bridge... the dots were connecting... the government killed her? I pause, finding myself panting like a dog. Big blobs of salty tears form in my eyes. I read the final page again, and a little note slips out. I read it.
Dear Jacob,
Thanks for not ignoring my note. But I need you to read Before, Middle and End. Inform the community.
Love you!
Fiona
P.S. Curiosity did kill the cat. And always will.
Tears plummet faster and faster into my lap. I stroke the first page as if it was Fionna’s shimmery red hair. I flip to page two, remembering our times together. I killed her hedgehog. She will never know. I will never be forgiven. She will never forgive.
Shaking like an earthquake, I push aside the thoughts and begin the mission. For justice. For Hedgie. For Fionna.