The Song of Burning Souls (COMPLETE)

1 - Fornax

The vents in Andrew's building were mouths, and they sang nightly.

He listened to the tune as he lay tucked under three layers of thin sheets. Never warm enough. Never cozy. The air around him was a wall of winter freeze. Too cold to stand in for long. Sometimes, his breath would fog in front of his face.

The vent fogged too. First, there would be a sound, a clinking on, then a puff of warmth. Using the light from the lamp post outside, Andrew watched as the fog tumbled around the cold room like fingers searching for a body.

It never reached him, though. As he hugged the wall, watching with joyful terror, the fog would fade, the room would begin to warm, and he was saved.

But the song reached him every time.

It was an empty, homeless song. He could not understand the words. Notes that paused on the rim, circling but never diving. And it was the voice of a girl. Of that, he had no doubt.

"Where does it go?" he had asked his mother one morning as he peered down past the grate and into the vent pipes.

In answer, she brought him to the basement.

The monster.

The basement furnace was giant, with a Medusa head of pipes that stabbed into the ceiling. Its eyes were bright with flame.

Its mouth, bent to a growl, caged fire of almost every color. Andrew stared at the blue, red, green flames—how they danced to some creaky symphony as the furnace junked out heat with sputtering coughs.

Momentarily fascinated, Andrew had stepped closer. Then, a great clanking belched smoke from the mouth of the giant. The metal snakes shook. His mother stepped back, pulling Andrew up the stairs. He had only just a second to read the monster's name, which was stamped firmly to its abdomen.

FORNAX.

--------------------------------------------------------

Please be so kind to comment and vote!

Please follow me! I have 1,000s of stories to publish!

I will update this story every Friday!