{"id":670,"date":"2020-12-08T09:27:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T09:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=670"},"modified":"2020-12-08T09:27:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T09:27:07","slug":"for-whom-the-flames-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/for-whom-the-flames-burn\/670\/","title":{"rendered":"For Whom the Flames Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first time I saw it, I was thirteen. I thought maybe I was about to have a migraine. Mum always said she saw flashing lights before they came on. It was a ring of fire, whirling like a vortex above my Grandad\u2019s hospital bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I said, as Mum tearfully held his mottled hand. His breathing rattled like Darth Vader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you talking about, Jake?\u201d she sniffed, distracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat circle over Grandad\u2019s head?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just wires. Medical equipment, that\u2019s all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo! That ring of fire.\u201d I said. It blazed larger and brighter by the second, the heat melting me, though everyone else shivered with cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the machines started beeping and the doctors came running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

They say that death\u2019s image is the grim reaper, but I can tell you that\u2019s just a myth. The band of flames looms closer as death approaches. Sometimes it creeps up over weeks and months, like the time Ellen, my wife, had breast cancer. I literally saw it coming, and sure enough they caught it in time. The ring faded away, and I knew before the tests proved it, that the cancer was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other times, it takes me by surprise and there\u2019s no time to intervene. That\u2019s the way it was for my best friend, Ben. The other car came out of nowhere. I swerved, the car spinning uncontrollably as the ring of fire engulfed Ben. There was nothing I could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you can see death, Jake. Why didn\u2019t you save him?\u201d screamed his brother. \u201cFunny how you manage to rescue your own family but not anyone else\u2019s!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a heavy burden to bear. If only I could put out the flames every time. I could be a hero instead of a helpless onlooker. Ben\u2019s brother has never forgiven me, and who can blame him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs it there?\u201d whispers Ellen every time we visit her elderly parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, darling,\u201d I say, but my eyes give it away. Still, she nods and chooses to believe my words. It\u2019s like the flashing neon elephant in the room, and we dance around it, pretending that we can\u2019t feel the heat or smell the smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m grateful for the quiet times like today, when it\u2019s just me and my beloved dog, Ember. On moments like this, with the wind in my hair and the roar of the sea beside me, I can forget all about my fiery curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ember\u2019s acting strangely today. She hasn\u2019t left my side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel it before I see it. My face burns. Then flames encircle us. Oh no. It must be Ember\u2019s time. With tears stinging my eyes, I bend down to kiss her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBye, old girl.\u201d I bury my face in her fur, grateful that she\u2019ll die in her favourite spot on the beach. As I look up, I glimpse a figure crouched behind the sand dunes. I stand to get a better look. Ben\u2019s brother?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gunshot. I\u2019m sucked away to the sound of fading barks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I saw it, I was thirteen. I thought maybe I was about to have a migraine. Mum always said she saw flashing lights before they came on. It was a ring of fire, whirling like a vortex above my Grandad\u2019s hospital bed. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I said, as Mum tearfully held his mottled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A brilliant new story from SWANSEA WRITERS. \"For Whom the Flames Burn\"\n#flashfiction","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[121,363],"tags":[369,99,368],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-121","category-dec-2020-ring-of-death","tag-burn","tag-flames","tag-whom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-aO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}