Short Story- Fire Personified 🔥

Writing Prompts found on Pinterest. Wrote a short story inspired by the first three prompts.

Fire personified

Once there was a woman with red hair done in messy braids. Sometimes her hair appeared to be an actual fire. The red color seemed kind of fitting as it would come to define her life.

She was like… fire personified. Warm and comforting when needed. A guide to help others find their path like the smoke of fire. However she wasn’t just cozy for she could be just as scorching as fire out to burn those who had hurt her.

She made life better for those close to her. For she reminded them of childhood and innocence. Sometimes her red hair made her loved ones think of the leaves changing color as the season changed to autumn. The thoughts would take them back to a time where they were children playing and laughing as the autumn leaves fell. For them she was a breath of fresh air in what had once been a dull life. They wished they could protect her forever however they knew she wasn’t defenceless.

Red for love and red for hatred.

Nobody could deny that she loved fully and fiercely. That is what made it all the more terrifying. For they knew how hurt she would be if she had found unrequited love. More horrifying than that was imagining what would happen if she lost a loved one.

That is exactly how she breaks. Everything she ever loved is ripped from her and torn into pieces. She tries her hardest to protect each and everyone but in the end she just isn’t strong enough.

It’s as she loses her last loved one that she falls to her knees and screams. She screams even as she cries. She screams till all the corners of the world know and echo her immense pain.
When she’s screamed herself hoarse she slowly rises with determination burning in her eyes. A gentle wind blows her hair and makes it seem like a gentle,comforting fire.

It’s as the wind picks up speed that she sets everything in her path aflame. She becomes a blazing inferno as she lets her anger out. Soon smoke rise above the trees. Perhaps feebly she hoped the smoke would be a signal.

As the fires burn even higher than the trees and only the smell of ashes and smoke remain, the determined fire in her eyes dies. As the enemy finally falls and the world burns, her eyes become dull.

She is so much more than just a woman with red hair done in messy braids. She is fire. But as the world continues to burn she once more falls to her knees. She is no longer a blazing inferno or a comforting warm fire. She is now a dying fire and the only one left to bare witness to it was a grey fox with silver eyes.

Red is no longer just the color that defines her life,it’s now also the color that defines the end of the world.

But as the grey fox tilts its head,the woman and the fires vanish. A moment later the fox is gone as well. The world once more looks untouched as if nothing happened in the first place. That’s a problem because as it turns out there’s a girl standing there astonished. The girl is astonished because this girl could have sworn she saw it all happen.

That’s how the stories of fire personified starts. However everybody wondered what the fox was if the woman was fire personified. Whenever the story is told however a strange silvery grey mist or smoke fills the air…

M.S.Wepener