Narrator’s Point Of View
From the moment she took her first breath, she held no more than pessimism on her thoughts. Even as a child death consumed her. Fallen was what she preferred to be called, but society frowns greatly on morbidity so she will be called “Flicker” for now. Beautiful though she was, her appearance mattered not until later on in her life. Most of this tale ,I should warn, pertains to Flicker’s favorite color… Black. No, not the racist type. Just the abyssal, endless, haunting, and terrifying type. Her life was average most of the time aside from the occasional outburst that would set a whole house on fire. Oh, did I not mention that Flicker could manipulate and create fire willingly? Well, she could…As I was saying, Flicker was normal except for the aspect of her fire manipulation. Like most children who are different, she was teased viciously, and received large amounts of physical pain. Though no outwardly pain could compare to the inward torture Flicker lived through, she attempted to remain strong. The darkness in her heart tended to overpower the light pushing weakly through her thoughts and one day, she could take it no longer. While sitting in her bedroom one night, she glanced longingly at a knife she had confiscated from the dinning table after dinner. She was prepared to leave all behind her and stood calmly and began to walk towards the knife. Flicker held the knife and recalled all the good in her life as well as the bad. Her name, she heard echoing in each memory like a screaming reminder of her exile. “Raven, Raven, Raven, Raven…” She loved her name but no one else did. It just added to the fact that she was Emo. Raven decided that if she was going to die, she would die by her own means. As she thought so, the knife caught fire and began to smoke almost angrily. The orange flames licked at the weapon and she could feel the intense heat. Just when she was about to plunge the flaming knife into her heart, she saw a tall formless figure looming in the corner of her room. Normally, she would have cowered in a corner fearfully, but the odd creature seemed to give her courage. Raven strode over to the strange entity to inspect it further. It was tall and white with tendril-like arms and was wearing a black suit. He snapped and the fire went out on the blade Raven was planning to use on herself. The figure bent over and rested his gnarled hand on the girl’s shoulder respectfully. Though it had no mouth, she could have sworn she heard it say “Welcome” in a scratchy voice. In that moment, the images returned but not the ones she had seen previously. Raven saw only pictures of her tormentors and each one had a look of horror on their face. She realized that she longed to see that painted in true life. Anger and the need for maniacal torture burned within her and her hands captured more flames. Instead of bright, beautiful red and orange, the fire was black and ominous. Raven smiled frighteningly at her recruiter and said “Thank you my friend” as she ran towards the window and jumped out just as the grass below her caught fire. Raven’s clothes were scorched an even darker black than they were formerly and her combat boots turned leathery and hard. Her lips were scorched black and so was her nails. Her hair, engulfed In flames, was now so dark that she was nearly unrecognizable like the rest of her body. “You are now Melanicorpa my dear” she heard again the voice that was now comforting and familiar. Laughter burst out of her blackened lips, as her eyes lost their pupils and changed to be entirely black. “I need to have fun for once… With their ashes!” Melanicorpa screamed, thirsty for revenge, as the last bit of Raven ran away with her sanity… Into the ever-beckoning darkness.
Melanicorpa’s Point Of View
After running through the woods setting random squirrels and other wildlife on fire, I decided that I needed to find a human target just for practice. I searched my mind for a possible victim as I dragged my hands through some deer ashes. I finally came upon the image of a short blonde girl named Payton. I began to drool at the thought of ending her once and for all, as she had been especially mean to me during middle school. I happened to know exactly where she lived because she was, in fact, my neighbor… And a bad one at that. A dead one. I wasn’t worried about anyone noticing me, it was around midnight and my appearance had changed enough that I was undefinable in the background of all the darkness. Not to mention that I could burn anyone on site whenever I wanted and however many people I wanted. I lumbered towards her house taking the time to jump in my fire again… It was so pretty! I noticed that I wasn’t burning anymore and looked down at the grass to make sure it was still flaming and it was. I was now entirely unable to be burnt which was very convenient because my arms had been starting to itch and I was contemplating cutting some of the skin off. My frolicking had taken too long so this time I ran to Payton’s house, laughing all the way. Her room was on the second floor so I began to contemplate ways for me to successfully sneak in. I then noticed a sturdy tree that lead to her bedroom window and had the initials P+C carved in a heart. I managed to climb the tree without falling, but the initials were still annoying me. I decided that I would burn it for good measure after I had murdered Payton. I hopped ungracefully onto the window ledge and sat down, preparing to burn the glue off the edges if need be when I saw the window was cracked open slightly. Instead of trying to squeeze through the way it was, I yanked it open and left it like that to startle her. Payton’s head shot up as she whispered “who’s there?” Into the seemingly empty darkness. I seized the opportunity and chuckled loudly as I slid in through the window unnoticed. “Chase, is that you?” She inquired fearfully. I was not aware that she was dating Chase, a boy that liked to spit on me… It only made me angrier. I got on all fours and growled as loudly and frighteningly as I could, hoping to startle her. It worked perfectly and Payton gasped in shock and fear. “Who are you? Please, don’t hurt me!” I laughed at the sound of her anxiousness and began to grow excited. I leaped across her bed and cartwheeled over to the other side of her room. Payton cradled her legs and whimpered softly unaware as to what I was doing and what was going on. I set her bedside lamp on fire and chortled hungrily. She screamed as her bed sheet caught as well, trying to squirm away. My emotions got the best of me and ended the little game as I nearly flew out of the shadows and landed on her stomach. Payton wheezed as I pushed on her diaphragm forcefully. “Raven, please! Stop hurting me I’ll do anything!” She cried helplessly. “I’m not Raven anymore. I don’t answer to your pleas either. Melanicorpa listens to no one but her leader and friend. He is not you… So, your life is about to flash before you. Flicker, if you must.” I answered menacingly as I lit my hand a-flame. Her eyes widened as she saw the flames were black and not the typical red and orange. Payton yelped as my hand grew steadily closer to her face. I waved my finger and her eyelashes caught on fire. She struggled but I just lit her legs and arms with flames as well. Payton’s eyes became bloodshot as her face and body melted away. While stepping back, I gleamed proudly at how well that worked and let out a slight giggle. Once she was all ashes, I gathered a handful and wrote on her wall out of sheer amusement “Follow the ashes”. It almost felt wrong to just leave them there after creating such a wild goose chase, so I collected her charred remains and laid them on the ground outside her house. With a burst of inspiration, I hand painted a mural of her final moments in vivid detail. After verifying that there was an adequate amount of ashes leading to my artwork I did what I promised and burnt that wretched tree that Chase and former Payton had carved their love into. It was a perfect symbol of how their relationship would end… It would go up in flames!
Perfectly content with my most recent killing, I began to skip towards Chase’s house. Then, I realized that the game would be more fun if i got them scared and then killed them when they felt safe. I turned around and trotted back to the woods, stifling a giggle. It was all coming together so magnificently! In my absolute joy, I failed to notice flashing lights and the sound of sirens behind me. I then heard a man scream, ” Don’t move! Take one more step, and I’ll send my dog after you!” The police had received a call that a rather pale, tall, and gothically dressed girl had been seen climbing into the upstairs window of a young girl’s room. They then received another call saying that loud screaming had been heard and that the only remains of the former girl were a pile of ashes and a mural of her death. I knew this… My dear friend alerted me of their thoughts and fears and among them was the previously mentioned situation. I spun around and smirked evilly, making the officers look quite taken-a-back. ” Remain where you are girl! Don’t you move… Unless you want to say hi to my friend “Spike”.” I purposefully stepped back about a foot, just to see their reactions and, sure enough, the police man released the dog leash and the canine came rushing forwards, snarling angrily. I merely stood and giggled for a brief moment before snapping and setting the dog on fire, but not the whole dog, just the eyes and paws. The large dog started convulsing and yelping, trying to put the fire out, but my fire doesn’t extinguish without me saying so. The dog continued to writhe in agony as the police men jumped backwards. One whispered something about the fact that I was still grinning. Then, almost on cue, the men leaped at me tasers aimed right at my face. I felt angry at how stupid they were so, with a swish of the hand, I let them burn. Each cop dropped his taser and fell on the street screaming. They were drawing too much attention so I walked over to each one and kicked him in the head saying, “Hush little boys… You don’t want the big bad lady to make your pain worse do you? No? Well shut your faces then, I’m thinking!” They immediately stopped squealing, but there would still be the occasional moan. Every second they lived was another second wasted so I calmly walked over and said, “Your pain will be over soon my little ones…” Just then, I lifted my hands and made the flames grow concentrated on their hearts,and drove the fire deep into their flesh. They yelled again, this time calling for help, but a mere ten seconds later they stopped breathing. FINALLY! Why are people so annoying?! Oh well, the trees were starting to look very comfortable, so I climbed one and fell asleep, anxiously awaiting the morning and another chance to kill.
Narrator’s Point Of View
And from that day on, the pattern repeated. She would murder some annoying humans, kill or avoid the police, and lastly, rest in a large tree in the deep forest which had become her home. She eventually adapted “Follow The Ashes” as her catchphrase and cut the words into her arm with the same flaming knife she had planned to take her life with, leaving the words imprinted inky black on her pale white skin. Melanicorpa became known in her town as “The Girl Of Shadows” because the only ones who knew what she truly looked like were killed after seeing her full appearance. Whether she still lurks in the shadows is truly unknown, but there are reasons to believe that she does. There will always be a strange disappearance, where the only remains of the person are ash. There will always be the fires that start mysteriously and the cause is never found.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, the darkness is beckoning…