Wisps

The Gummy Bear

A huge bottle of white powder lay above a bonfire enclosed by a ring of police tape and barbed wire. A large crowd of gummy bears stood around the edges of the area, eyes fixed upon one lone green gummy bear, perched precariously on the lip of the bottle neck. The green gummy bear calmly watched the powder liquefy in the heat of the roaring flames.

All at once, the throng realized what was going to happen.

"No! Don't jump!"

"Why are you doing this?"

"You have so much to live for!"

"Do a backflip!" shouted one particularly brash gummy bear, who was quickly silenced by a neighboring bystander.

The liquid in the bottle was almost boiling now. The green gummy bear turned to the throng, and called out, "Do not fear for me!" He took a deep breath, his last, and jumped off the edge into the steaming bottle. For a fraction of a second, he felt the wind whistling past his face, saw the world through air, through glass, through the clear fluid in the bottle. His body was smothered by the fluid. It burned. He felt himself begin to dissolve. Good bye, the green gummy bear thought as hard as he could through the intense pain. Then he was gone.

From outside the enclosure, the bears gathered around to see what would become of the green gummy bear. They saw him fall into the bottle with a barely audible splash and begin to dissolve. The clear liquid became cloudy. Suddenly, the world erupted into storm and chaos. A purple and orange fireball materialized in the exact spot where the green bear was moments earlier. Tongues of flame sprouted up from it, and smoke poured out from the neck of the bottle, almost obscuring it. Worst of all was the noise, a shrill scream that came from the bottle, a scream so loud and piercing that it seemed that the bottle itself, and all the world, was screaming.

After a short while, the tempest abated. The fireball faded, the flames retreated, the horrible scream died, leaving only the crackling of the embers of the bonfire. The smoke cleared, revealing that the clear liquid in the bottle had disappeared, along with the body of the green gummy bear. Only gray dust coating the bottom of the bottle remained.