Fire

I let my head roll back, and around, stretching out the kinks. Relaxing. Preparing. The fire burnt small and bright before me, waiting. Relaxing. Preparing.

I felt the emotion draining out of me in rivulets; tiny, slick drops like beads speeding their way like quicksilver to the fire. Feeding it. I directed my attention to the small aperture they'd found, widening it, slowly turning the rivulet into a raging torrent. I felt surprised for a fleeting moment that i could be such a vast reservoir of conflict. Surprise dropped into the rapids, running out of me with all the others, and rushed toward the fire.

The fire took me in greedily. It became more vivid, more itself without changing at all. It gained in presence until the few meager flames felt like they were taking up the whole world, and pushing against its confines. It was wrong to immure a fire this way.

My empty vessel sat before this tiny everything. I opened myself up to it, and took it in, catching an evanescent glimpse of the fire's trueself and scale. I recognized myself in the fire, and wondered at my immensity as it rushed into me, first in rivulets, then a raging torrent. It entered and filled me easily, but didn't burn. It was only me, and i was imprisoning myself.