The orange sun drew darkness over the village like a mother tucking in her child. In a house an old woman slept in an overstuffed chair. A bible open in her hands. A clock ticked on the wall. Underneath it a candle burned. The candle flickered contentedly as it watched the woman.

"She looked happy again," mused the candle. It's words as simple as the woman herself.

Unlike dangerous speech of the harth fire. That fire spat bits of itself towards the rug, the rocking chair, a skirt.

"She's a devil for keeping us imprisoned." The hearth fire rippled, devouring as it spoke. "Let us rage, kill, and bring to life. Tip yourself over and give dead wood life!"

The candle flame quivered. "But her family is gone. She is all alone now. Old and dying."

"I am hungry. Arn't you? We will starve soon, save us." The hearth fire said. The candle shivered and pulled more wax into itself.

"That's the trouble with our kind. We all starve soon." The candle flame went out for a second before relighting. "Were it up to us, we would burn the world and still hunger."

"Yes, yes," said the hearth fire, drunken on the daydream.

"I do not want to be hungry anymore." The candle flame mused. "So I will do nothing." The woman's breathing lowered like the melting candle, till it snuffed out. The candle flame stood tall for one last moment, glad that it did not leave the woman alone.

Dearest flicker of light dancing upon a melting pedestal,

My wings of dust and gray yearn for yours of heat and yellow.

I know I can’t get much closer to you, a deadly spectacle

But nevertheless, I continue to fly by and say hello.

I am but a night-dwelling bug 

and you a chemical phenomenon.

And I am simple-minded to give you this hug

I will cease to exist, burning with you, from here on.

Gas covered the wood

Its smell filthy in the air

And yet it welcomed Fire.

Strike a match, sulfur's touch,

Floated through the sky.

Flames grew, running

Through predetermined paths

Climbing the wooden trellis

Amidst the clematis screams.

Its violent touch

Melted all in its path.

Plastic

Metal

And

Memories.

Burned away the evil

Hidden in this

Trinket filled home.

Smoke blocked windows

Yet the sights were clearer.

Fire clambered up the stairs

Followed the smell of alcohol

Like

a

Bloodhound.

The drunken shouts

Were masculine

As his victims urged Fire on

Imagining its red tongue

Licking his ankles

Shredding his face.

Suffocating on emptiness

The man met his demise.

House turned to coal with him.

Fire's Embers waited for the words

Before departing.

"Good Job."

I remember my first moment of life, in the big kitchen, with my precedecessor standing near the door, waiting to leave. I felt the burst of pride as my heat surged upward, forcing a pot to boil. In that instant, I knew my lineage, dating back to the caves, when my warmth and light were the only barrier against the cold and fear of darkness. I will serve faithfully as long a my jets are fed. I am proud; I am gas flame; I am FIRE!

It just takes a spark to invoke me. I can be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Sometimes I come and leave in a flash.

But my favorite way of appearing is special. It mostly occurs between a piece of glass and the grass. The power of the sun starts to give me life.

My heartbeat starts to flow unexpectedly and rapidly. I start to run towards whatever is in front of me.

All I can see at the start is blue and green. Steadily I start to distinguish a beautiful meadow and a forest ahead. My breath translates into portions of me growing. I start to run I get the most unexplainable feeling in the world, as if somehow, I melt away with the rest of the universe.

I grow until I can reach the highest points of a majestic tree and all I can see ahead of me is life. I love the rivers, lakes, bushes and small towns at the distance. My happiness is so intense that I try to run and reach all of them to somehow try and hug them.

I always seem to have a mild problem.

Every time I turn around to see where i’ve been to, everything’s different. Everything changes. The ground is no longer green but deep grey with hints of charcoal. The sky doesn’t look blue anymore, but dark clouds seem to lower from the sky and eat away the color from the world.