I See Fire

Red. Beautiful, ruby red...floating through the air. Dancing on the breeze. Flames licking at the dry wood hungrily, the curtains burnt black. The living room consumed by the lovely red, like roses.

There was a loud thud of a fist hitting a metal table. The fair girl jumped with a small “eep!” of surprise at the sound, jerking from her thoughts. Wide, innocent crimson eyes glanced up at the owner of the angry fist, an equally irritable looking man in the faded blue of a police officer’s uniform.

“Are you even listening to a word I say? Do you understand how much trouble you’re in?” he rumbled like thunder, his bushy eyebrows digging furrows in his forehead. The girl said not a word, just continuing to stare. He was a hairy man, almost furry, she mused, with his dark brown hair sticking up in all directions as if he had just rolled out of bed and his thick beard disguising a good amount of his face like a bandit’s mask.

The angry man’s partner, another cop with the same tired looking uniform but fairer brown hair clean cut and a younger face, laid a hand on his shoulder. “No need to be so hard on the kid, Mike. I’m sure she’s been through a lot.” His voice was calm, soothing perhaps. The good cop to this Mike’s bad cop. Mike grumbled before pulling away from the metal table and the girl sitting opposite them and standing upright again. His folded arms and still furrowed brows continued to radiate annoyance, but the girl did not see as her big eyes were directed to the second cop who continued to speak. “Look, isn’t there anything you can tell us about what happened?” He coaxed. The girl remained silent as before.

“You’ve only asked that same question five times already, Luke. Each time she hasn’t said a thing,” Mike muttered, casting a poorly hid glare at the girl, “If I were facing charges of major arson, I’d have spoken up by now! I think her silence is damning enough.”

“Too bad it’s innocent until proven guilty, then,” Luke retorted, turning back to the older man. He cast a glance at the girl before turning round and lowering his voice, “Besides, we don’t have any evidence to pin her as the culprit.”

“But she was at the scene of the crime!” Mike argued back. As the two men bickered, the girl looked up at the only source of natural light in the tiny, ashy grey interrogation room. There was only one small window with iron bars on it on the far wall, the only other connection to the outside world being a slate grey door, bolted shut, and a one way glass covering the rest of the wall across from her.

The cool air of early spring could be felt through the window. All the flowers would be blooming soon. Her favorite were the cherry blossoms...and the roses, blood red. Blood in the breeze, scarlet light jumping higher. The carmine conflagration serenaded by a dozen screams. Everything burned. A warm, tender glow kissed her skin as she watched the flames. Hot and bright as the sun as it devoured the kitchen and the hall closet. There was a dull roar of delight over the ear-tickling crackles and pops of sparks flying.

“Tia Matthews!” Once again, the girl was jolted from her memories as one of the cops called out to her. Blinking, she saw they were both watching her with hard eyes now. They had asked more questions no doubt. Oh bother. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? About your family?” Luke, the one who had called her, asked. “You’ve said nothing but your name. Do you know how guilty you are looking right now?”

“How did that fire start? Who killed those people?!” Mike immediately followed up, unable to resist slamming his hands on the table and making Tia jump again. She tilted her head down to look at her thin hands, her skin ashy grey as the walls. Her sooty white hair fell from behind her shoulders to shroud her face like a ghostly veil.

“It was a dragon,” she said in a soft, airy voice. Her answer was met with a sarcastic guffaw of laughter from Mike.

“Dragons don’t exist. You’ll have to try better than that, you little criminal,” the hairy man belted out, his tone half amused and half irritated. As far as he was concerned, this interrogation, this whole investigation should have been over hours ago. He and his partner had responded to a call reporting thick, black smoke coming from a nearby cul de sac. One of the homes, belonging to a family of six, had been engulfed in flames. By the time they had arrived on the scene, the smoke from the fire hung over the entire block like a fog making it near impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them. When they reached the house...or what must have once been a house, there was only glowing embers, shining red in the haze, and coal black charred remains of the foundation of the building. All else was ash. They had little hope of finding survivors...until they heard a voice on the breeze, delicate and singing softly. Following it, they found a teenage girl rolling in the ashes, a childish delight in her ruby eyes as she sang.

“Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down!” Over and over again, she whispered the rhyme without ever noticing the police men. There was not a single burn or scratch marring her alabaster skin, not a single fair hair on her head the least bit singed. The blackened bones they unearthed from the ashes proved this girl was the only survivor. What they had first thought was a victim, they quickly began to suspect was a murderer. Yet, as the site of this terrible tragedy was shifted through, no evidence, no tool which could have started the fire could be found. No trail of gasoline or even matches. It was an impossible arson, a perfect crime.

“If you don’t want to end up in jail the rest of your life, you better give us something, some information explaining how this all happened.” Luke’s voice was still attempting at civility, but clearly with a very serious intent. Tia did not look away from her fingers, moving to play with the edge of her dusty shirt.

“It was a dragon,” she repeated in a whisper. Mike growled, adding even more to his beast like visage.

“Do you think we’re idiots?! There’s no such thing as dragons! You set that fire, didn’t you? Killed your entire family and danced on their graves,” Luke once again placed a hand on his partner’s shoulder to try and calm him down, but the older man angrily shrugged him off, “I don’t know how you did it, but I know you did! It’s only a matter of time before you slip up.”

Tia looked up to stare out the tiny window again. She could just barely see the trees through the bars. An emerald green with tiny pink buds, just waiting for the chance to bloom. Auburn blooms, flickering in the wind. Tongues of flame reaching eagerly towards the sapphire sky, climbing towards the sun like the vines of the garden. The garden looked better in sleek, chalky obsidian, anyway. Nothing compared to the beautiful, beautiful red, though. The garage, the last of the house, gave a wheeze and a groan before collapsing in a cloud of scarlet and ebony. 

“Fire, fire burning bright,” she murmured, “Nothing lovelier in mine sight...” Luke looked to Mike with a worried gaze.

“Do you think she’s mentally disturbed? Might explain all this nonsense about dragons,” he said lowly as he leaned in towards the other cop. Mike gave a grunt, pushing himself up from his leaning position over the metal table before folding his arms.

“Frankly, I don’t give two cents if she’s whacked out of her mind. As long as I can make the arrest and close this damn case, she can be completely looney.” He cast a scowl at the girl still staring at the tiny portal to the outside. “You heard what she said...I think that’s as good of a confession as we’re going to get.” Luke shook his head, his face scrunched up in clear discontent.

“Something’s still bothering me...” he gave a sigh, “I guess you’re right, though.” He took a step towards the girl, no more than a grey wraith in her chair. “All right, Tia Matthews, time to go.”

The girl did not move a muscle before slowly casting her eyes towards the table before her. Gazing at the shiny metallic surface, she studied her warped, grey visage. Pretty scarlet eyes...like the pretty scarlet flames. A ruby glow reflected off the metal, followed by a chorus of gasps. Screams swelled like a symphony with the heat as the flames burned brighter, eating at the grey walls and blue uniforms. Crackling embers and cries for help, for salvation tickled at her ears. With a little toothy grin, the girl traced out “Tia Matthews” in the collecting ash on the table. Slowly and deliberately, she smudged out several letters from the end of the second word. There was a thunderous roar, of the flames, of the one who brought flames. She glanced one last time at the remaining letters before giving a giggle. T-I-A-M-A-T. Fire flashing in her carmine eyes, she at last rose from her chair like a queen from her throne and gazed up at a pair of matching ruby eyes in the thick black smoke. She held up one ashy hand to meet the ridged obsidian scales of the beast’s nose, lovingly stroking her pet. The screams of terror and gasps of death were barely audible over the roar of the flames.

“Dragons don’t exist,” Tiamat whispered, reveling in her world of blood red beauty.