There it was, a sonorous, a well-nigh symphonic -if one might say so- voice, if not for its menacing echo that thundered through the darkness.

It was an impalpable voice, a commanding roar drenched in madness, furry and ire. It tried to enthrall me, lure me with lies, lies of despair and weakness. It slumbered whenever it didn't command the fire, made it obey.

I tried my best against the voice, stretched out to the fire, I wanted to control it, but it lashed back. It eyed me with predatorial eyes, feral and fiery it stalked me. It preyed upon my mind, made the most peaceful of times disfigure into a rendition of agony. I struggled, fought back but it only screamed with its power and I cowered down.

The voice wanted me to cave in, to give up and let myself fall into the abyss that were the crimson flames. It coaxed me, then threatened and then commanded. But apart from the rending and riven, detached and cold bellow there was another much more soothing voice, it gave me a sliver of hope whenever the flames reached out with their whipping tongues of fire.

The second voice was crisp clear. Clear but rare and silent, like it was dying. Brisk and high-pitched its summerly voice made me remember images of lush green and wide, and slow, and peaceful plains that lulled you with... with... grass. Emerald blades, some soft some sharp, but all equally birthed from Nature's plenty womb. Fluting like strips of tender silk they danced in pairs with wind and light. It was so... beautiful. I loved it, I had loved it. But.... why did they descend. Why has it returned? It's slumber was broken, silence cried in its ears, the darkness had ears, ears and eyes. They stared back and listened to the shattering silence. No, please....

"NO! THiS it's mine Is nOt yOURs feel the pain! BURN!"

And I burned, I burned and squirmed, burned and cried, burned and sobbed. No solace to keep me on my legs, only the booming voice and my meek, soft cries. It hurt so much!

'Why? It was there again, the pain, the voice, the flames. I need to subdue it! NO NO NO NO! DON'T DO IT! M-my peace, my haven, my heaven, why, why do you destroy it?!'

"IT HURTS SO MUCH!"

Cackling the flames began to descend onto the scenery of tranquility. Mad, furious I pryed them from the patch of grass. Sobbing and screaming I ripped the flames apart but, but... THERE WAS NO END! They returned with numbers that could not be counted. A mass of rolling red, a mess of bursting crimson, a carpet of death.

Each flame bore another; twin flames turned to four, then eight, then sixteen. They continued to fracture my memory; my untainted plot of land, my home, my life! The flames consumed everything, they burped with fiery crackling, laughed with diabolic sizzles, they were unstoppable. My will was unpliable, the urge to survive the baptism of flames, but all I wanted was to fear away, huddle in the darkness while the fire ravaged whatever shreds of a self they could find. I was defenseless in front of the fire.

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"Why?", I asked the darkness, the evil that churned whatever I could come to love into unrecognizable chaos. "Why? What have I done?". I waited in the fire, in the darkness, in crushing pain.

Askew, broken, impervious a gutural rattle laughed back. "Hahaha...What have you done?", the question was cold and harried my broken mind with its simpleness; 'Was it rhetorical? Should I know the answer? So, what have I done?' I wanted to speak aloud, ask the thumping darkness and waving fire around me but what would I make of the answer? A tugging in my, in my, what was it called? There it was, a little tug at my innermost self -it was weak-. It gave me an answer, a vague answer that the voice could not provide. I hoped so. I hoped so, dearly. It just couldn't be true; the connection mustn't be made

I had a hunch, a feeling as if there was more to the voice, more than I wanted to acknowledge, more than I could endure. But the voice couldn't know that, it couldn't know my emotions, couldn't know the turmoil in my heart, could it? It had to be that way. There is no way... there is just no way... It can't be. I felt it, a grin sported my ego. The smile grinned all around me, flesh stripping fangs, blood-thristy breath, it smiled and snickered. 'That's right...'

Flames, flames surround me. But did they surround me... or...? It was so easy. The answer was so simple, but was it the answer I hoped for? No, far from it. I laughed, the fire cackled, the pain joined with a screech, that voice cried, this voice laughed. It was so simple, nay, simple wouldn't cut it. It was stupidly simple! It was hilarious even! My grin, I couldn't help but smile, delightful, gloatingly about the flaring idea.

All of it made sense, the voices, the pain, the fire, the darkness. It came so sudden, the realization, an abrupt epiphany of soul. It, it was right. Hahaha... HAHAHA.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SO SIMPLE!

The three voices, the commanding one, the fighting one, the supporting one. They were one, they were the same. Was it the voice that echoed or was it... or was it my heart? My heart that suffocated me, ensanguined was it, blood smeared and marked as the heart of sinning. Thump, thump; Die, die; Thump, thump; Kill, Kill!

Sins, fire, pain, darkness and yet the little hope; albeit there was only a flake of hope, it was and it will be, it sufficed. I was all of it. It was so plainly obvious. Purgatory, it was not a place, they had it all wrong, those morons! It was me!

I cried in pain, but in the end I was pain, I despaired, but in the end I was the despair that circled you all, I was hopeful and I was hope that guided the way, I was the abyss, I was the darkness, I... I...- 

I AM THE FIRE!