Deity In Flames
An unnamed anthropomorphic animal tells a tale from a place that's deemed him insane. What he saw has made not just his family concerned but all of those who know him. Then again, in a place like where he's at, can it be believed? For in all seriousness, would you if you were to talk to him about the Deity In Flames?
Deity In Flames
I
This isn’t how things began. My home wasn’t a padded cell with a, well, decked out white straightjacket. For goodness sakes I had class and stature. It’s not until that day, that miserable, unforgettable day, the one…Forgive me, my mouth is running and making me sound like a nut. Trust me, this soul isn’t insane, the world respected me, but it was that day, everyone turned around and took a big dump on me. When everyone comes to see me they have concerned faces, but the reality in their heads is this: laugh, laugh at the crazy insane shell who’s lost truth.
My field specializes in photography. My heart has always yearned to create through the world we already have, but to not repaint, or sculpt it from view. No, that is not my goal. My vision has always been to show, with the help of my camera, that our world is great. Many artists have done it before, but when this young aspiring, photographer captured the world in a unique way, the calling rang within the heart. My fame grew little by little. I did many gigs: nature, models, and more. Yes, my life shot up high into the sky and my world felt it’d never die…
Then, on that cold winter’s night, on my way home to my spouse and young for Christmas, coming back from a shoot outside in the freezing cold, my car died. I swore. Adding insult to injury, laughable to some, my phone had run out of battery. I had to get home. My family was expecting me, but how could I? It was too far to walk, but my eyes caught something, smoke rising from within the forest out of my town. My curiosity made me hope for help, and a good answer came around. There, in front of my two tired and freezing eyes, was a log cabin.
II
With a quick knock the door opened and a young human male revealed himself. “May I help you?” one quick look over this young human male revealed him to be around the age of late teen, possible early twenties. “I said, ‘May I help you?’”
I cleared my throat and bowed apologetically. “I beg your pardon, but, do you have a phone? I need to call for a tow truck to get back into town.”
The young man turned his head inside the log cabin. “Pa! Someone wants to use our telephone!”
“Bring them in! We’ve been taught better than to let strangers freeze to death!” The next voice was wheezy, sounding bad with asthma. “Hurry! It’s rather cold!”
The young man stepped aside and I entered. Once the door was closed my eyes caught a beautiful nude woman with amber iris. She was breastfeeding a baby in her arms. The woman shifted her attention to me for a moment, smiled, and then went over to the child’s crib. She then dressed up and took a seat next to a middle aged man that was hooked up to an oxygen tank.
“Get two more chairs from the kitchen table,” the middle aged man said. “Levi…”
The young man grabbed two chairs and we both sat in them. An uncomfortable silence wafted through the air. I looked around seeing little decor. In the corner behind the middle aged man was something rectangular, but what it was, I couldn’t tell for a cloth covered it. Then I captured an uneasy sight behind me. Why I hadn’t seen it before was beyond me, but there it was in the right corner next to a roaring fireplace, a charcoal shaded, dead tree. This tree made me ill.
“So you want to use our telephone, huh?” My gaze snapped to the middle aged man who had a smile on his face. “Well, I’m afraid we don’t have one. We’re not…technologically based.”
III
“You’re not technologically based?” A grin spread across my face. “Come on, really?”
“You disagree?”
“Sir, you have an oxygen tank.”
“Which we found in the forest.”
“You found an oxygen tank in the forest?”
“Oh yes, you see, life has a funny way of helping out those who choose to live a life of harshness.”
One of my eyebrows went up. “I don’t understand.”
“Tell me, do you believe in God?”
“Of course I do! I mean, you’ve got a…” My head turned to the tree. “A Christmas tree after all.”
The middle aged man laughed. The woman giggled while blushing. The young man let out a yawn and sighed. The whole room just felt hot, but not in terms of temperature. It was as if someone had set me on fire and now my brain was screaming to flee, get to the snow, and put myself out. My brain couldn’t possibly foresee what’d happen next, or even fairly soon, but it would happen whether this figure was ready, or not.
“This is not a house of Catholicism, or Christianity.” my body hadn’t budged an inch. “I do say though that miracles can happen on any of the holidays. Especially, personal ones.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Back in ancient times, during, ‘The Birth,’ my family was able to flee via an early visitation from a wolf made of fire. It took them to safety so Herod wouldn’t kill them, but…”
IV
The middle aged man snapped his fingers. The woman got up and pulled off the cloth to reveal a burnt skeleton in a wooden coffin. My senses sharpened. I wanted to scream, but the sound wouldn’t leave me. My eyes shot from the corpse to each family member individually. I saw the woman pick up her baby and walk over to the tree. She leaned the tree back against the wall and laid her young on it as if it were its cradle. The child’s crying was loud because it knew what was coming next. I didn’t until it actually happened. The young man went behind the middle aged man’s chair, picked up a gas can, walked over to the baby, and poured gasoline not just on the tree, but on this infant as well. The young man took a stick from the fireplace lastly.
“The wolf is waiting,” the middle aged sighed. “Tonight, we’ll go to him to repay his kindness, by sacrifice of our oldest to freshest bones,” the middle aged man grinned. “You should come with us, join our family, leave yours behind. You can be reborn a Demigod, hun.”
I sat up fast. “Do you honestly believe that what you’re going to do is mentally sound?”
“Absolutely, for I, this family’s deity, have told you and them the key to immortality.”
The young man took the flaming stick and tossed it. In a matter of minutes the baby’s crying turned into screams so high pitched that all my little heart wanted was to run. In no way did I want to die in fire, see suffering, and lose my own family. No, out with all my strength my body ran, being shot into the snow as the oxygen tank blew. My ears caught a loud sound that made me cry out louder than even if the young was still here. My head turned to catch it in fire.
“Honey!” with a slow turn my head caught her, my love. “Why are you way out here?”
“Hey!” My offspring were dressed warmly. “Hey, can you hear us?”
I smiled, nodded, and blacked out. The sound of the world was dying. What I saw didn’t.
V
I went to a normal hospital before being sent to an asylum. The doctor at the hospital had me rest, relax, and sadly my Christmas was spent with my little ones in the hospital. It was sad and pathetic, but from what had been said, my whole self had been discovered by my family on account of blackout in the cold. When my brain brought up what had happened, stares grabbed hold of me. They told me no fire, log cabin, or bodies had been seen by my family. All that had been captured on their brain pictures was me acting goofy in the snow. My stupidity had to go and push me to have someone go and look. However, all I got was there’s nothing there.
For the sake of my young and spouse this one chilled out. However, sleep would not come to me in the hospital. My head became loopy with visions that were black and white photos showing off those in the cabin including what my eyes had caught in the fire. It got so bad that my wife did then have me committed. Never can this other lover go home until there’s a firm acceptance what had happened never did. Only, how can the fire winds that blasted through me and set me ablaze disappear? If those went, then yes, there’d be a strong happiness once more.
But I must say the opposite. My mind is cursed and now my new location is not at home, but within a padded cell. My lover blames herself while my little ones blame themselves. Really, it’s my fault for my mouth couldn’t stop its stuck belief. But they won’t stop popping up in both my dreams and my head when there’s awareness in the morning. This family, killing everyone inside with fire, it’s haunting. The baby’s crying turning into screams as it’s turning into a color of dark wood. It makes me sick, want to vomit, but if liquid leaves my stomach, the staff here medicates me more. They give me pills to make me drowsy, barely aware, become a machine that desires food though I don’t need it. Why? I see the images now, even the wolf fire deity.