BLACK FLAMES

impending DOOM

The void was his best friend, his worst enemy. It surrounded him like a predator circling its prey, yet it protected him in its blank depths. It kept him company when he was alone, and gave him advice when the paranormal events started over and over again. Jimmy lie in bed, unable to sleep, not wanting to think. Because if he thought, he would sleep, and if he slept, he would dream. And the dreams of the living were worse than the reality of the wake. So he sat there, staring blankly at the ceiling, staring at nothing. He felt the flames tickling at his heart. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but he liked it. He thought of it as a blessing, instead of a curse in the star-crossed kingdom his mind fled to in times of melancholy and matrimony.  He thought of it as something that kept his mind off the world he lived, something that comforted him in times of remorse and pain, and that was almost always.

He seldom felt happy; or pleasure or mirth like the normal humans that walked this excuse for a planet did. At times he wanted to end it, to enter the void for eternity, floating in midair between two cataclysmic worlds that seemed to be in conflict with each other. Yet the worlds were on a deal; a deal that sealed the fate of the earth and all its surrounding companions. While one sent the other its dead, the other sent its enemy the living. It was a pact that kept the world at peace, preventing war between the galaxies, preventing what would be known as the impending doom; the apocalypse. How he knew this, he didn’t know. He just knew it; felt it in his bones, within his very essence, within his soul. It’s like god created him for a purpose, a purpose that weighed down on his shoulders like the weight of the sky rested on his body.

That’s why he didn’t end it all. He wanted to, to relief his brain of all the thoughts and vivid concoctions that his brain seemed to conjure up at will. He wanted to know what was going to happen, what was the outcome of this peace they call the living. He felt like the silence had a meaning, like the earth was waiting, waiting for something big to happen, something that would break the sky and crack our planet like an egg. Something that if known by the simple human brain it would overfill it with the knowledge of evil and destruction, causing the brain to explode in a shower of blood, bones, and pieces of the mind.

The silence was broken by the shattering of glass, and the drops of water.

Drop...Drop...Drop...

Jimmy knew it couldn’t be from his bathroom or kitchen, because it was coming from a different direction. HE got up from bed, and switched on the light. He expected another power out this time but light filled the room and he covered his eyes, waiting for his pupils do adjust. He carefully opened his bedroom door, and there it was... the shattered remains of a bowl, covered in a pool of blood. IT was the bowl of the corridor light, and the blood was coming from above. He slowly glanced upward, but there was nothing there except the exposed light bulb where the bowl should have been.

There was a loud BANG from downstairs and the ground shook. Then the world went upside-down and he fell the eight meters to the ceiling, which was now the floor. He tried to scream, but his voice cut off and all that came out was a bark. He realized his body had white hair on it and yelped in surprise.

“What the hell is going on?” came out as Grrr...ROW! He had transformed into a dog! HE really was going crazy, he thought. The world turned right-side-up again and he fell back to the floor, landing on the shattered glass. He whined in agony as he felt the pieces of glass dig into his hindquarters,

Suddenly the door banged open and his parents walked out looking worried; they both wore bathrobes.

Jimmy looked up at them, reading their expressions.

“Why are you lying on the floor and screaming. If you had a bad dream, you could’ve at least had it in your bed.” His dad said.

Suddenly the pain disappeared as quickly as it came, and he looked down at his body – he was human again.