Short Story – House of Fire

So here’s a short story I wrote . It’s around three thousand words, so brace yourself, but I promise you will like it. Post comments about what you think:

I stood still in my room looking out the glass window at a man whose face held more mystery then it did curiosity. He had planted himself there for about ten minutes now under the willow tree as to not be fully revealed by the orange glare of the city streetlights. In fact he could have been at that tree much longer. I didn’t know. I had only recognized his presence when the wind caused a branch of tree to tap my window. Out of fear that it would break the glass pane, I had shut off the light to inspect its length and width and to make a judgment call on whether I should bring up my chainsaw and prevent a mishap I had no interest in dealing with later on.

But when I turned my light out, there he was standing there and staring up into my room, which was on the second floor of the townhouse I lived in. He seemed to stare at me with piercing eyes, intent on invading my soul and holding it hostage in an effort force me to scream out a crime that in his heart I had already committed. It was odd the way he looked, all worn down and defeated. From what I could see, deep lines had all but taken over his forehead, and he sported a cane that most likely held up his warped left leg. Yet as we stared into each other’s eyes, I myself could see the pain that blackened his heart and the dreadful thoughts that ravaged his mind on an endless basis. He had experienced a tragedy; one that held its tight grip and constricted the life out of you until all that would be left in the end would be a fleshy piece of meat. No loving heart, no inquiring mind, only a lifeless body doomed to walk the earth until it’s physical existence had finally succumb to death.

I closed the blinds for fear that his gripping stare would all but consume what happiness I had acquired over my short twenty-five years of life. I sat down in my chair, listened to the loud music I had going and began to read an article on a hurricane that was blowing through south Florida and taking everything with it. It was engaging really, but even with those blinds closed I could still feel his eyes upon me, looking me over and rummaging through the deepest parts of my mind. I couldn’t understand it. How could a single human being have such a hold on another without ever uttering one word between us? In fact I could barley even make out his body, save those stabbing eyes and his deformed leg. I couldn’t help it, I needed to open the blinds back up and see if he was still standing there, perfectly silent, staring back at me.

But as I leaned over the desk to roll them open, I smelt something odd, something potent, something burning. I walked over to the door and grabbed onto the handle to turn it. Ouch! It had become blistering hot along with the door itself. I walked over to my computer and muted the music from the speakers. All at once, I could hear it. I could hear the flames engulfing my house, eating at every piece of wood like it was candy. The weight of the sound threw me aback. It was as if an army was conquering all that lay outside the confines of this space, devouring any piece that stood in its way.

I looked back out at the window only to find a willow tree with emptiness beneath it. It was all clear now. He had preoccupied my attention, my thoughts, and my curiosities all the while he had already set my house in a blaze. His plan had been set in motion without me ever noticing a thing. Even worse, I had installed metal bar framing on my window, ironically, to save my life from anything that might harm me. I called out loudly to my roommate on the other side of the hallway, but instead was greeted only with a monster that lurked on the other side of door, anxious to break through its composition and take my room as its last victim with me inside.

I paced around the room for ten minutes after alerting the fire department of my impending doom. I searched for anyway or anything that I could use to free myself from this fire bound prison. But there was nothing to be done. I had no water source, no exit strategy and certainly no flame retardant clothing. It was useless. All I could do was sit and hope that the firefighters would win the race to by body. I screamed in an all out panic as I watched the door slowly start to give way to the flames will. The whole picture would of seemed so artistic if I hadn’t known that as soon as the door came down the fire would soon there after plague and engulf my room as quickly as the decomposition would allow.

My short life passed before my naïve eyes. I had barley experienced the human condition. I had never seen the exotic beauty of a foreign country, never participated in a triathlon, never met the girl of my dreams only to be wed a year later on the sands of Oahu. Sadly, I would also never have the chance to witness my child come into this world and watch his growth into a man, a husband and a father himself. Just as important, I had never had the chance to publish my book, record my songs, or even touch another person’s life. I was in my youth, fresh out of college and eager to make a name for myself. I had chosen the brazen path of charting my own course through the talents of the creativity I was so sure I possessed. But now it all seemed so small, so meaningless. I had still amounted to nothing in this world and at this very moment and there was no way I could rectify that. I would just be another fleeting shadow on the earth’s foundation and once the news of my untimely death had passed, I would only be remembered in the memories of my family. It had never occurred me to push every waking moment to leave a lasting imprint along the way. I had taken my sweet time, believing the world was my oyster only to find my lifespan reduced to around a quarter of its intended journey.

As the heat of fire began to seep through the crevices and envelope my room, I called my dad. I wanted at least one person to know that I had loved them and been grateful for there investment in my life. After his own personal panic attack and the subsequent haunting realization of his son’s impending passing, he brought up his recollections of my childhood and the memorable events we had shared together. I knew he was only babbling on to keep me from falling prey to the idea that my time in this room was short, but I digress, his words were mere mumblings in my ear as I continued to think about the inexplicable being that stood outside my house only minutes ago. What wrongdoing had I committed against him to prompt this act of evil upon me? Had I made an insensitive comment to a family member of his in one of my drunken stoopers? Had my words been the final straw in a failing life of one of his loved ones? Had they taken their own life as a result of reading the dark stories I posted on my blog? Did I fail to save someone whose demise was so clearly right in front of me? I didn’t know. Thoughts raced around in my head, searching for any feasible explanation. But each query lead to the same end result, nothing.

By now my father had surrendered to his emotions, crying almost silently as he sat on the other side of a phone so close to my voice and yet in no probable way could he save me as he always had in the clumsy times of my youth. It was odd to me that so much could happen in so little time. That so many causes and effects could transpire and run their course in only a matter of thirty minutes. That at one moment I could be listening to the loud nuances of my favorite band, talking to my friends and enjoying a cold one and so quickly be thrust into the corner of my bed, fighting for the hope that my survival would once again become a possible outcome. I had prayed to God in the hopes that his grace would spare me an eternity in hell just in case there was in fact an afterlife. In fact, it was my hope that my soul’s existence would not end here with so little accomplished, but rather move on to the next life achieving something more meaningful. Still, that hope could not keep my mind off what was about to occur.

As the door finally gave into the heat’s demand and the fire made its way into my room, a calmness came over my body and I resigned myself to the fact that my story had come to its end whether it had finished what it was trying to say or not. I knew my fear was still screaming out somewhere deep down inside of me. But the severe heat and the slow engulfing of the oxygen in my room had silenced its voice and it had left only an acceptance of my current situation in its place. In those last moments, as I gazed upon the magnificent beauty of the inferno, I had never been more peaceful. It was looking me straight in the face. Something meant to be so terrible and horrific in my eyes was profound and alleviating. There was only one more thing to do before it began to pillage my bed and make its way to me. “I love you dad,” I said in a still voice. It was only four small words that to many was merely a passing greeting at the holidays. But for me, in the place I sat, in the position I was, staring down the monster that was shaking the ground under me, love was very last thing I wanted myself to remember.

I braced for the pain that would occur in matter of minutes. That sudden feeling I would experience of pure agony before the sweet release of death. But then to my surprise and more importantly to my relief, the unbearable heat and the now dangerous level of oxygen or should I say lack there of, put me out of my inevitable misery. I was now unconscious, left limp for the fire to wreak havoc on. However, in a way I felt I had won the battle. The blaze would not torture my body without any regard to pain I would feel. Instead my flesh would pass peacefully just the same as my mind had already prepared to do. It was serenity in the face of chaos. What a wonderful way to move on….

What I saw next I’ll never forget. I was sitting on a beach staring out at sky whose colors never stayed the same for more then a couple seconds. My face was greeted by a calm wind that put a smile on my face each time it came up against me. On the clouds, chariots raced around headed towards a seemingly endless finish line and from the water souls rose to the heavens in the hopes that each would be permitted into the city of light. I looked around the beach and watched as other stood up and ran towards the water, plunging themselves into the deep blue abyss. After a while, a feeling came over me that seemed to instruct me to do the same. I stood up and followed suit, running towards the ocean and sinking into its embrace. I swam a ways out before coming back up to the surface. It was effortless. I didn’t have to hold my breathe in this water, nor did I need to close my eyes for fear that the salt would sting them. Instead I gaped at the clarity I was encountering. Before my eyes, I witnessed my father find love again, my sister’s wedding to man of her dreams, my best friend’s joy in welcoming his new son into the world and my girlfriend singing the song we had only written weeks ago with tears in her eyes and a bursting crowd in front of her. In those still waters, I got to see my loved ones find happiness again. They would all move on from this tragedy and live their lives the same they had always intended or maybe even better.

Still the biggest surprise was the overwhelming feeling that I would soon be in the arms of my Mom who had unfairly passed herself from the evils of cancer when I was eighteen. In my life, her beautiful face had begun to fade with the passing of time. But in this water, I could see it more clearly then ever. Her blond hair, blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and signature dimples. There she was, as perfect as she had always been in my eyes. It was then that my head tore out of the water into the warm, fresh air. I felt different at that moment. My body was weightless, free, and cleansed of the burden it had been carrying up until just a minute ago. I couldn’t feel sadness for the loss of my mother, shame for punching Mark Wright in the face when I was falsely convinced that had cheated on my good friend Lucy, guilt for lusting after a married woman who I had kissed the night before after taking seven shots of Jameson whiskey, or even curiosity as to why that man burned me alive without ever even flinching an eyebrow. All the hurt, all the pain, all remorse was no more. I was free of all the evils that had taken place in my short life, yet still privy to all the happy moments that made up the joy in it.

It was time though, to begin my own ascension into the sky, past the white clouds, and onto the heavens. I was overwhelmingly excited and tremendously terrified all at the same time. I had never been to any other place then the flawed planet of earth. If it was all true, I would be heading into a realm where none of the pitfalls of my existence in that universe would be present. Life would be lived as it was meant to be: flawless, unending, gratifying, soothing and for the first time ever, forever fulfilling. There was always an underlying belief deep inside me that such a place existed. Maybe that belief was instilled in all of us, only to be forgotten and buried when we decided to royally screw the world up. I don’t know. But as I ascended from that ocean, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was about to be in the presence of something greater then a human, greater then my father, and even greater then me. I started to walk down a path of clouds towards a gate that was shining brighter then the sun, yet my eyes felt no instinctual need to look away. Instead I felt a warmth in my body that is all but inexplicable. I came upon an entrance, a gate, where what could only be described as a body of radiance, looked me over and examined me. However this wasn’t your routine physical at the doctor’s office.  He pierced my eyes, just as that man had, scouring my soul for anything that might be deemed unforgivable. I confess I was a tad nervous to say the least. After a thorough investigation of all the evils of my life that I could no longer feel, he stepped aside and at last the gates open. It was finally time to experience God and this heaven he spoke so highly of. It was finally time to live a perfect life. It was finally time to exist in a place where wickedness had never found a way through the small crevices and where immorality had never had chance to reign over people. It was a place where the idea of evil had never even been created. My friends, it was finally time for me to experience the magnificence of——

…I awoke to a ceiling full of bright florescent lights and a room occupied by various machines measuring things such as heart rate, pain medication dosage, and brain activity. For a minute I didn’t move. I couldn’t understand what had just happened. I was on the cusp of entering a place of unspoken beauty and now I was laying in what was most likely the Intensive Care Unit on life support. That unfortunate question kept my mind busy for a minute until all at once an excruciating pain enveloped my body. It was as if someone was running a sharp, jagged blade across every single inch of my flesh simultaneously with no foreseeable ending to his cruel torture. I looked down only to find a brutal and merciless distortion of what was once a human body, my body. I screamed out as loud as I could knowing full well the vision of my journey towards heaven was merely a fantasy created by my clever mind to ease the harsh realization that I would in fact live on much longer in this distorted and hideous meet suit as a monster created by a monster. I swear to you on my pathetic life however, that I will find that malevolent creature that started my progression into hell and in time even HE will wish for the same fate he so effortlessly set in motion for me.