The Dancer in the Flame
A short story written for a fiction writers competition.
Strange emotions welled inside me as I ran through the forest, my white shift dress ripped where they had cut me, my blood leaving spattered lines on the green ground mottled in sunlight. I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker as my vision turned double.
The mottled green ground became the canopy above me as I fell, too dizzy to get up again. My eyes, so tired, felt heavy. I closed them. A moment's peace, I would open them again soon. The quiet was blissful. I could feel the angel watching me as I walked through my long forgotten dreams I called him softly, each note of my voice sounding peaceful and lonely.
"Angel" I called soft white wings filled the sky above me "oh there you are."
"Hush" my angel said "you cannot stay here, it will come for you." And my angel disappeared. I dreamt of him every night and wrote of him, ever wishing him to come back for me, to forgive me. His words replayed in my head as I finally realized what they meant.
"It will come" I whispered to myself, for the first time that night I dreamt of others and fire and blood. I woke and rose with the thought of the ones I loved dying, being eaten by the fire that never goes out. A poem lay by my writing desk:
The darkness swallows,
The sun will burn out,
The fire will come,
The blood spills about.
Your angel does come,
He cries as you suffer,
Confronting the fire,
The flames getting rougher.
The fire recedes,
Your angel is gone,
His life for yours,
He agreed, now you won.
I gasped as I read it crystal tears clouding my vision as I realized there was only one person that was going to be hurt, me or my angel. He couldn't leave me here not alone, but where was he now? When I needed him. I could feel fire coming my way as the darkness came ever closer. I can think of one way to get him back so I set out to the forest, the final resting place of my beloved angel, calling, singing his name as fire erupts around me eating away at the beautiful old oak forest. I fell. My white shift dress slicing open in diagonal slits across my abdomen. Showing my delicate figure and white skin flawlessly mottled in moonlight ...
Moonlight, it had been daytime when I had set off.
I watched as the fire got closer and closer eating everything in its path, mixing with the blood that ran along the ground like terrible rivers of fear and death. I watched as my white winged angel, looks of longing and love crossing his face, was shot from the sky and tortured to near death before they finally put him out of his misery. I listened as two last words escaped his cold lips. "Forgive me" he said. I cried, not noisy loud crying with sniffles and snotty noses but silent clear tears of lost love. Now he was gone, no-one would watch over me, I longed for him even more now that I couldn't have him. From my lips came a soft song, a lament of longing, seeing but never touching. I didn't even notice warmth spreading along my body as his final wish was fulfilled, he had done his job, he had made sure I wouldn't be hurt, and now when I wanted to feel pain the most I couldn't. The fire backed off slightly as a bubble of light surrounded me, a new angel.
He introduced himself but I did not listen, he wasn't my angel, I hated him. I hurt him on purpose. I hurt him so bad he left me alone and the fire came back, it took me I was glad my life was closing but it wasn't my angel who had stopped me from ever getting hurt. A black rose bloomed at the base of my neck spiraling down my body, down my left arm and hand to the tip of my middle finger and down my right leg and my foot to the end of my big toe. Prickling me as it sunk into my skin, marking me with an everlasting reminder of my angel's bravery and the sacrifice he made to save me.
The fire never gives up not even now, as I dance in every flame that is lit, it still tries to murder me but my flower protects me now. I sometimes think I can hear my angel cry as he realizes that he never saved me, that he trapped me and the only way of saving me was to never protect me. I dance for him, I know he watches, you can see me. Just light a flame and watch, I'm always there, you have to look hard enough to see me though.
I am the dancer in the flame.
The mottled green ground became the canopy above me as I fell, too dizzy to get up again. My eyes, so tired, felt heavy. I closed them. A moment's peace, I would open them again soon. The quiet was blissful. I could feel the angel watching me as I walked through my long forgotten dreams I called him softly, each note of my voice sounding peaceful and lonely.
"Angel" I called soft white wings filled the sky above me "oh there you are."
"Hush" my angel said "you cannot stay here, it will come for you." And my angel disappeared. I dreamt of him every night and wrote of him, ever wishing him to come back for me, to forgive me. His words replayed in my head as I finally realized what they meant.
"It will come" I whispered to myself, for the first time that night I dreamt of others and fire and blood. I woke and rose with the thought of the ones I loved dying, being eaten by the fire that never goes out. A poem lay by my writing desk:
The darkness swallows,
The sun will burn out,
The fire will come,
The blood spills about.
Your angel does come,
He cries as you suffer,
Confronting the fire,
The flames getting rougher.
The fire recedes,
Your angel is gone,
His life for yours,
He agreed, now you won.
I gasped as I read it crystal tears clouding my vision as I realized there was only one person that was going to be hurt, me or my angel. He couldn't leave me here not alone, but where was he now? When I needed him. I could feel fire coming my way as the darkness came ever closer. I can think of one way to get him back so I set out to the forest, the final resting place of my beloved angel, calling, singing his name as fire erupts around me eating away at the beautiful old oak forest. I fell. My white shift dress slicing open in diagonal slits across my abdomen. Showing my delicate figure and white skin flawlessly mottled in moonlight ...
Moonlight, it had been daytime when I had set off.
I watched as the fire got closer and closer eating everything in its path, mixing with the blood that ran along the ground like terrible rivers of fear and death. I watched as my white winged angel, looks of longing and love crossing his face, was shot from the sky and tortured to near death before they finally put him out of his misery. I listened as two last words escaped his cold lips. "Forgive me" he said. I cried, not noisy loud crying with sniffles and snotty noses but silent clear tears of lost love. Now he was gone, no-one would watch over me, I longed for him even more now that I couldn't have him. From my lips came a soft song, a lament of longing, seeing but never touching. I didn't even notice warmth spreading along my body as his final wish was fulfilled, he had done his job, he had made sure I wouldn't be hurt, and now when I wanted to feel pain the most I couldn't. The fire backed off slightly as a bubble of light surrounded me, a new angel.
He introduced himself but I did not listen, he wasn't my angel, I hated him. I hurt him on purpose. I hurt him so bad he left me alone and the fire came back, it took me I was glad my life was closing but it wasn't my angel who had stopped me from ever getting hurt. A black rose bloomed at the base of my neck spiraling down my body, down my left arm and hand to the tip of my middle finger and down my right leg and my foot to the end of my big toe. Prickling me as it sunk into my skin, marking me with an everlasting reminder of my angel's bravery and the sacrifice he made to save me.
The fire never gives up not even now, as I dance in every flame that is lit, it still tries to murder me but my flower protects me now. I sometimes think I can hear my angel cry as he realizes that he never saved me, that he trapped me and the only way of saving me was to never protect me. I dance for him, I know he watches, you can see me. Just light a flame and watch, I'm always there, you have to look hard enough to see me though.
I am the dancer in the flame.
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