"I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me." –Joshua Graham
Leo stared. There was fire, fire everywhere. The red and orange flames engulfed the room, sending up thick clouds of gray dust. He couldn't stop blinking, or staring at the sea of fire around him. Everything was hot, burning hot, and everything was on fire.
Smoke filled his eyes and Leo coughed uncontrollably. The fire licked at his skin but he was immune to the burns. There was a reason–there had to be–or else why would Hazel call him here?
Then he saw it, in the center of the flames. There was a small piece of wood, in the middle of the burning fire. Sparks flashed in ten different places and it was already beginning to burn. Thin slivers of wood incinerated, the stick getting smaller and smaller as time wore on. Each second was another flare of light, another piece burnt off. Floating a few inches above it was what looked like a silvery aura of mist. It bobbed up and down, as if unsure of whether or not to disappear.
As the wood burned, the cinders that drifted upward seemed to spark a fire in the mist; it was simultaneously evaporation as the fire raged on.
Understanding flickered in Leo's dark eyes and he jogged through the flames, his eyes watering with the smoke and ash in the air. His breaths heaved in and out as the heat enveloped his lungs, squeezing tight with a burning fist. On the floor above him, Leo could hear a tortured cry and a desperate gasp for help. The voice was suffocating, suffocating in a cruel fate.
He hurried faster and grabbed the piece of wood, harsh splinters digging mercilessly into his skin. It was on fire already and the heat smashed into Leo with unusual force. The flames inside of him rose to the surface and a tendril of fire curled from his fingertips.
When his hands ran over the surface, the flash of light ignited with the sparks that already glinted on his knuckles. The whole thing burst into flames.
"No!" Leo cried, desperately trying to put out the fire. There was no extinguisher, no water, nothing that could undo what he had done. "NO!"
Above him, the scream became a cry, then stopped abruptly, as if the air had been pushed out in one sudden, sickening moment. He felt like time had come to a dead halt, yet the seconds still ticked by steadily. Leo looked down into his hands to see nothing but splinters of cinder and ash.