I'm alone. I'm scared. I feel sick. My head is burning, like a fever of 102º. I sit up in a pile of ashes, like a phoenix reborn. Maybe that's what I am. I touch my own skin, as if I never have before. This world is foreign to me. This world is too quiet. Empty. The skies are unnaturally cloudy, like gray dust. I cough, and the ash swirls around me in a frenzy. I lean up, examining my surroundings. I'm resting in what appears to be the remnants of a home, the charred wooden skeleton of a house. Everything around here is a skeleton. Smoke rises from the neighboring buildings, or at least what's left of them. Hair falls in front of my eyes. Strawberry blond. It's long, longer than I would like, draped around me and trailing on the ground. I stand shakily, it feels like I've never walked. I hold out my hands for balance and steady myself. I'm wearing singed burlap rags that reach my knees, nothing distinguishing. It looks like I'm wearing a potato sack. I'm fairly tanned, chocolate freckles sparsely dotting my arms and what I can see of my legs. I rotate my hand inquisitively, as if it is not my own. I trace my fingers over my facial features. Small nose, almond eyes, sharp cheekbones. It's evening, but the moon, milky and glowing, sits quietly in the flicking rays of the sun. Something lies buried in the remains, luminescent. I stumble through the remains. I dig through the soft ash and uncover a glowing coal; probably leftover from the fire. Surprisingly, it's pleasantly warm. I blow on it, to enhance the flames even more.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." I whip around. The voice is comforting, but nowhere to be found. Ubiquitous.
"And-" My voice cracks, dry from disuse, "And why would that be?" I manage to choke out. My voice… scratchier than I expected. Hopefully from dehydration… or something like that.
"It's your heart. It goes out, you go out, Ember Hallow."
Ember? I'm not Ember.
"What happened to me!?" I call out wildly, turning, searching for the origin of the voice. Wait… out of the corner of my eye, I see lights. Fire. Where did it come from? There's nothing left to burn. There's no source… except for me. I breath unbelievingly, grinning. I am… flaming. I spin in circles like a dog and its tail, trying to catch a glimpse of the blaze that trails behind me. It's source is my spine, oddly. I look like a dragon. Straining myself, I reach my backbone to feel- nothing. I should be scalded by now. I relax my arms and realize; the fire has clung to my hand. I'm fascinated and surprised and-and terrified. I'm literally playing with fire. I concentrate, and the flames burst, brighter and brighter. My eyes widen with awareness. The town.
I think I burned it down.