I accidentally set a hotel on fire. I was quite a firebug when I was little, and we were living in a hotel at the time. I was around 11 years old I guess. Anyway, while my mom was at work I got bored and started lighting pieces of paper on fire and dropping them out of the window (we were on the 7th floor of 8 total floors), then watching the burning paper waft down the street on air currents.

Well, somehow the curtains caught on fire. I ran to the kitchen to get a pot of water, but by the time I got back the curtains were blazing and the wall itself and the ceiling above had also caught fire. Not wanting to get busted for this, I decided I'd play possum, so I replaced the pot in the kitchen, laid on the couch and pretended to be semi-conscious when the firemen showed up, which didn't take long.

They carried me out and I was fine, and no one else got hurt either. The hotel itself, unfortunately, lost pretty much all of the 7th and 8th floors and was closed for a long time. The fire marshal did narrow down the origin of the fire to the room where my mom and I were living. He asked me where or how I thought it began, and I said it must've been the electrical system or something. Maybe they knew better, but there just wasn't enough evidence to support dragging an 11-year old kid into court. And even if they won, I'd have gotten juvie or something, so why bother. So nothing ever happened, except that we were told to find a new place to live.

I also threatened to kill my stepfather, after he hit me hard enough to break my collarbone. And I stabbed him when he beat my mother badly one night. I don't feel like those things were really 'bad' though, since I was basically just trying to keep myself and my mother alive.