I Come Through Fire

You were all told as children not to play with fire. Satisfied with reasons like “You’ll burn yourself,” or “You’ll burn down the house.” But you were never told of me.

For centuries, foolish humans have thought that the flames would keep evil at bay. But every time you light a match a window to my world is opened. And it is through a lone candle-lit street lamp that I come. No longer can I contain myself, the hunger drives me out into this world, longing for the feel of mortal changing flesh, the smell of their hair; their blood.

Knowing their sins and smiling for prayer and salvation would save them from me but so willingly they refuse it. It is too laugh at such petty beings, so easily are they ticked with lustful thoughts and wants. All the while believing we do not exist or that they can control us. Oh, to laugh!

A young woman stands on the street corner, a lost soul. She has run from home simply to break the monotony of a small town. Her clothes are black, as is her hair and make-up. Stealthily, I sweep over her, touching her shoulders. She knows it’s me in an instant, at least she thinks she does, I draw her into the alley. No one save a scrawny alley cat, which flees at once, and I see her die. What ecstasy! The feel of her heart as it fails to pump blood that is no longer there. I take one of her earrings as a trinket, and head out once more into the world in search of a new victim.

I do not need to go far, for this city is full of hopeless souls. And here is one, crouched under a bridge. He is not but six. The reason of his solitude and fears are easy to find, an abusive father, predictable really. He need not worry longer for I will take him soon. I reach I embrace his small figure but a sudden light rebukes me and I withdraw. “Touch not the innocent and pure,” it commands me. I hiss and shield my eyes as the light reveals my hideousness and tribulations. It surrounds the child with wings like a dove. Such purity and virtue torments my very being. It is gone, as is the boy, as quickly as it came.

I rise once more into the young night, shaken yet undaunted by the encounter. For there are others damned to a fate at my hands. It’s a shame, really, that fire—the danger from childhood—like other mundane items is the only thing they learn to avoid, when there are worse things.