Inferno

FIRE

There is a point when fire becomes almost like water. Where it moves like a liquid does, molding itself to fit any place, folding in on itself to settle within the confines of any space. There is a point when fire becomes almost like water, when it covers whole fields, an entire building, flooding over everything in great churning waves. I'm not talking about magma, no, that's fire and rock together. I'm talking about fire. Just fire. And the thing you need to know, the one thing I need to tell you most of all, is that fire is more than just heat, and light, and devastation. Sometimes people forget.

There is a point when fire becomes like water. When it falls down from the sky like rain to catch onto everything it touches and pool there, the ripples and splashes reaching back up into the sky as though trying to climb back, only to jump down again.

I have been there. I have seen it. I know what fire can do.

All fires reach out to try and touch anything that they can grab. But some are different. Some fires are...not truly fire in the way we all think of fire.

There is a point when fire becomes like air, seeping through smoke and sky and doors. Passing around bodies, and down throats and noses. There is a point when fire becomes almost like air, swirling and coiling and moving without restraint. It doesn't need to be confined, because it can confine anything it wants to. There is a point when fire becomes like air, and it burns the lungs, tickles tongues, makes throats close. There is a point when fire becomes like air, and it cannot be confined because nothing can contain it.

There is a point when fire becomes air, and air no longer exists except to be swallowed by the fire.

There is always fire. Sometimes, the fire is small and friendly. Sometimes it is huge and deadly.

People don't always know it, or somehow they forgot, but the fire is always there. People may not believe it, but all fires are alive. They breathe, they grow, they give birth to smaller fires. Some are friendly. Some are intelligent, in their own ways. Some tell stories. Some are easy to control, and others are controlling. Some are inspiring, some give or preserve life, yet there are many that take all life into themselves.

Fire is everywhere though. Most have nothing to hide, but others, the strongest ones, they have everything to hide. They pretend they don't exist, or that they are other kinds of fire. But they're there. Waiting.

These are the ones that everyone learns to fear. Or die.

What they are waiting for, all anyone can do is guess.