One Person's Dream, Another Person's Nightmare
~Part IX - Phantom Flames~
By: JoAnna Martin

The chill along my spine
made it seem like each vertebrae
was set in a cast of ice
while Jonah shoved me inside the tower.
I take a quick glimpse at my bloodstained hand
before entering the tower
and I know that before this day is over,
I am going to forever regret
smoking that cigarette by the willow tree.
Once inside, we did not go up stairs as I expected.
We took a steep dirt path downward
in which I battled with gravity to keep my balance.
Jonah seemed to have no trouble at all.
He walked with the poise and grace 
of an ice skater.
He didn’t even flinch when
the fire leapt out towards me.
I jumped back in a panic and then there was another...
and another... and another.
The tunnel was engulfed in flames!
The flames were the color of wet blood
and they had glowing silvery edges.
They were leaping out of every shadow,
every pocket of gloom,
every corner of deep darkness.
Oddly enough,
there was no heat extricating from the flames
nor did they produce light or smoke.
I looked for shadows dancing on the walls
but there were none.
I inhaled deeply expecting to choke on smoke
but that didn’t happen either. 
Maybe they were a figment of my imagination,
an illusion of my mind.
Suddenly, I feared them a lot less.
I lean over to touch one 
and feel its substance.
Under closer inspection,
I noticed strange, black, shadowy forms
writhing, twisting, suffering,
and begging me to enter the flames
and discover what evils lay behind them.
Then to carry this knowledge forth forever
so that no harm will come 
to anyone else in the future.
Protect myself and the future from evil?
Like I really had the power to ward off evil.
Fortunately, I’m not stupid enough
to go up against evil.
Evil always wins.
Why me anyway?
Surely there’s someone else here to help them.
I’ve got enough problems of my own.
I turned to walk away
and just as fast as they appeared,
they disappeared.
Unlike ordinary extinguished fires,
these left no trace of existence.
Nothing to show that they once were.
No ashes.
No scorch marks.
No sulfur smell.
They confused me.
Where did they come from?
How did they burn?
There was no fuel in which to feed them.
The fact that this place could contain something
that defied the Law of Science
did not surprise me though.
I don’t think anything could surprise me anymore.


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