Pretty Girls Die Last

by Lisa Mancini

  Anya laughed aloud. Professional arsonist? She liked that. Feeling buoyed by the news report she decided to celebrate with a movie. But, which one? She scrolled through her catalog. She had over 5oo movies on her lap top. Now, which one fit the mood of the evening? And then she saw it. It was perfect. FIRESTARTER.

  The 1984 Stephen King story about a little girl with pyrokinesis. Charlie McGee was her name and was played by the actress Drew Barrymore. Anya settled back on her Ralph Lauren pillows and watched for over an hour. But just before the climatic ending, she jumped out of bed, ran over to her desk, and pulled something from the bottom drawer. It was her poppet.

  She looked at it for a long time before she suddenly tore the thing to pieces and threw them into her cauldron. She lit a match and tossed it in. She watched the little doll burn and when it was nothing more than a pile of ashes, she flushed them down the toilet. Returning the cauldron to its hiding place, she jumped up and down on her bed like a trampoline for a few seconds. Then she turned her attention back to her movie. It was the end - the best part.

  Anya watched as Charlie concentrated all her energy on destroying her enemy. But for Anya, the enemy was not the George C. Scott character; it was Logan, Mike, and Brandon. And any other boy who had harassed her and her friends for the past school year. She watched as Charlie caused a conflagration that incinerated her enemies and their government building, known in the story as the ‘Shop.’ She laughed aloud and cheered when the building burst into flames.

  For just a second she felt sad and a little bit lonely. Arielle, her best friend wasn’t speaking to her anymore. When she found out that Anya had tipped off Freya Barrett about Logan, that was it. Their friendship was over. But, Anya believed that once everything had calmed down the girl would come back to her. She hoped anyway.

  A tear formed in her left eye. She forced herself not to feel sad and certainly not to cry. She hadn’t cried when her parents died. She hadn’t cried for Sydney and she refused to cry now. Instead, she imagined herself as the Charlie McGee character and fantasized about incinerating Logan, Mike, and Brandon.

  To herself she chanted - burn baby burn.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I hope everyone enjoyed Pretty Girls as much as I did writing it. It’s my favorite of the three books. It’s not easy writing and self-publishing three books within two years but that’s exactly what I did!

  I want to thank Lynn Williams from Divine Designs on her fantastic cover. It’s exactly how I imagined Sydney would look.

  A big thank you to my sister Patty Mancini Heleba for reading all three stories. Her gentle advice and encouragement made all the difference. Thank you Patty.

  Thanks to my dad, Don Mancini for your continual love and support.

  Thank you Lorna Chapleau Davis for your friendship.

  Thank you Aunt Charlotte for your wisdom.

  Thanks to all the people who purchased the Freya Barrett series.

  Read Agatha Falls, Murder on Main Street and Pretty Girls Die Last, all sold at Amazon.com.

  Cheers,

  Lisa