June 10--Inferno

Belinda had to see them again, she just had to. Thye would surely come again if she gave them what they wanted.

She inhaled deeply then promptly coughed as the smoke and ash filled her lungs. Swirling oranges and reds and yellows swirled around her, a merry-go-round of roaring color. Black shapes fell around her and blazed in places where things, and they were only things, stood.

Belinda shut her eyes tight and opened them wide, trying to see them.

Surely they would be drawn to this place. This was the best and biggest yet. This one outdid even the one at the Old Soda Shoppe. Surely they would be pleased and happy with her, would take her with them this time.

She had chased them since she was thirteen. Always dancing just out of sight yet she saw them in the flames. Always in the flames. Little ones in candle light, bigger ones in a campfire. Salmanders, they were called, fire elementals. Flame lizards she called them.

A large timber, probably a support landed with a thud just feet from where she stood in the center of the inferno of her making. Sparks littered the rug setting new, baby fires where they fell. Flames spread and crawled up her leg. Pain did not register as just then she saw them. Hundreds, no thousands of them, the fire lizards. Wriggling, swirling in the flames.

Belinda screamed in delight, an eerie sound, wailing crashing against the roar of fire. They had come and this time she would join them.