From Fire to Pyre, Odin V ~ Merit Options

[Guest_Cathy_*]

From Fire To Pyre

Everyone has gone, party over. Trash still litters the yard. I should pick it up but here I sit, alone at the pinnacle of night. At this hour the party should just be reaching its peak; everyone here, paired off, music the epitome of eerieness but I've been deserted for a hayride of all things! This was supposed to be the biggest blowout the senior class had ever seen, now it's over.

I notice that the very edge of the bonfire is alive with shadows; big, little, quiet, whispering. I know in my mind that no one is there, but ... I can see them, drifting around on the fringes of darkness, reaching out to the glowing warmth, then retreating. I jump at a light touch on my shoulder, spin around to empty space. My arm hairs stand on end as though touched by magnetic force. A heated rush washes over me like a warm ocean wave, shivers race along my spine; my imagination ... isn't it?

Crimsons, yellows, and blues dance among the flames as they devour sacrificial logs, spitting and sputtering as if possessed. I'm mesmerized by the graceful, though jerky movements. Sparks fly unrestrained, gripped by an eternal hunger for destruction; showering over grass, garden, a patch of dessicated leaves, and me. The leaves flare for mere seconds, feeding, but not sating the hunger; then expire in dense fog.

Odor from the garden is overwhelming as fruits and vegetables have been left to succumb to black-rot, still clinging to their vines. Gourds seem to be gasping their last seconds as they vibrate eerily upon shriveled life-lines. Deep mournful moans, slowly rising in pitch, come from deep within their core penetrating their skins to grate on my senses. My feet grow roots that cling to the ground, body so tense it might have been carved from granite. My brain has thrown up the red flag, telling me to run ... yet here I sit.

Smoke from the angry fire rises to the heavens, higher and higher still, in a tangled maze of silvery ribbons weaving chimera*. Whispering winds gain strength and shift uneasily from east to west, rocking me in their grip as they dissipate the smoky mist.

A goblin appears, pulsing with strange light, his screams piercing my ears ... but I can't drown out the sound. The blood in my veins turns to sludge as he begins to beat fiercely upon his bones. The flames gather fury, their heated tongues licking at the darkness, threatening to destroy everything in their path.

The smoky haze has been exiled and all that remains is the goblin suspended over the pyre, his stygian eyes burning blood-red as he closes the distance between the two of us. I feel like I've been sacked by a couple of tight-ends at the crucial point of a football game as I hit the ground. Picking myself up gingerly, I try to sit back down ... but my seat has gone.

Below me are dancing flames, even more mesmerizing from this height. I glance eagerly around me and see everything through a blood-red haze. Screeching loudly I beat viciously on my bones. Suddenly my stygian eyes are glaring into ... my eyes! I close the distance ... yet there I sit!

Cathy Bollhoefer

*chimera - a grotesque product of the imagination

[Guest_Cathy_*]

Thank you Lori and Sylvia!