The Burning Place

Dyaln has been told stories since he was little of Him and His magical kingdom and the mystical doorway that would take you there. This doorway resides in an old barn called the burning place.

“Will you tell me the burning place story again?” six year old Dylan asked as his mother tucked him into bed.

            “No, it is time for bed,” Dylan’s mother, Hillary, reminded as she tapped her son on the nose.

            “Please? I’m not even tired,” Dylan protested.

            “Oh alright,” Hillary surrendered, “but you have to go straight to sleep when I’m finished, okay?”

            “I swear!” Dylan promised crossing his heart with his index finger.

            “Okay, where to start?” Hillary began as she sat down in the rocking chair next to Dylan’s racecar bed. “The burning place is an old barn that looks like it’s about to fall to the ground. There is a big pit in the center of the barn with things that burn easily and a lot of firewood. This is because you need fire to open the doorway that takes you to Him,” Hillary explained.

            “But who is Him?” Dylan asked this question every time his mother told the burning place story, and he always received the exact same answer.

            “I don’t know, “Hillary admitted. “Only people who have walked through the doorway can learn more about him, but what I do know is that he was kicked out of his home because he wasn’t just like everyone else there. People think that He is a bad man because of that, but He isn’t. He is just misunderstood. Only people like me and you who understand Him can walk through the doorway. Most people think that the man who kicked him out is the good guy, but he is a horrible person. Now, back to the story, when you light the fire in the pit, the doorway is opened, then you are pushed into the pit and fall into the doorway, and-”

            “Wait,” Dylan interrupted.

            “What?” Hillary questioned a little exasperated from the sudden interruption.

            “People walk through doors, not fall into them. Wouldn’t this be like a hole, like in Alice and Wonderland?” Dylan wondered with excitement at the thought of his second favorite story. Hillary was getting tire of her son asking the same questions every time he heard the story.

            “You’ve asked me that before. You have to go down to get to Him and His kingdom. Anyone can fall down a hole, but only special people can walk through the doorway,” Hillary sighed.

            “Oh, yeah,” Dylan remembered.

            “No more questions that you’ve already asked before. You get the same answers. Now, when you fall through the doorway, it hurts a bit because you have to get judged, but if you really want to be with Him, He will let you through. Not everyone who wants to be with him can go through the doorway, though. You can only be a certain age. You have to be seven, just like your sister,” Hillary explained using Dylan’s sister Callie, who was only one year older than him, as an example.

            “I turn seven in a week,” Dylan recalled.

            “You do, but you may not be ready. Callie isn’t ready, but she will be soon,” Hillary said.

            “Can I come too when Callie gets to leave?” Dylan questioned with hope in his big brown eyes.

            “Of course you can,” Hillary assured her son, “You will have to know how the process works when it’s your time.”

            “Yay!” Dylan exclaimed, “I can’t wait!”

            “Well let’s hope that you’ll be ready as soon as you turn seven,” Hillary wished.

            “Yeah,” Dylan agreed. He let out a loud and slightly exaggerated yawn. “I’m gonna get to bed right away so I can be closer to my birthday.” He flopped down onto his pillow and buried himself under the covers.

            “Alright then,” Hillary laughed and patted where she thought Dylan’s head should be. Dylan was so excited about turning seven and getting to meet Him that he hardly slept a wink that night. The mystery that shrouded Him to near invisibility is what fascinated Dylan the most. He just had to meet him as soon as possible even if it meant finding the burning place himself and falling through the doorway without his parents’ permission. Eventually, though, Dylan discovered a blissful and dreamless sleep.

***

            The following days were quite normal for Dylan, and that is what made them so slow. He woke up, he ate breakfast, he did his lessons with his mother, after that he read and slept. On the fifth morning of waiting, something was different. Callie, Dylan’s sister, was standing in the kitchen as Hillary brushed the lint of the flowing black dress that Callie was wearing. “Today is the day,” cried Hillary happily.

            “The day for what?” Dylan was very confused. He didn’t know what his mother was talking about.

            “Callie can walk through the door today,” smiled Dylan’s father, William as he walked into the kitchen.

            “She . . . Callie’s leaving?” Dylan could feel the tears starting to form in his baby blue eyes.   

            “Yes, baby. She gets to be with Him.” Hillary’s eyes were streaming tears of pure joy.

            “Dylan, this is a very good thing. Your sister gets to be free.” William bent down and stroked Callie’s honey blond hair that the whole family was known to bear, though not many people even knew of the McLean family. They kept to themselves as much was humanly possible, but of course there were incidences when human contact was required such as going to the doctors’ office. The person that was most familiar with the private family was most likely the Cynthiana, Kentucky’s librarian, due to Dylan unquenchable thirst for new stories.

            “But, I don’t want Callie to leave. I won’t see her again.” Dylan was weeping now. He couldn’t hold back the sadness that was eating him inside.

            “But, you will, Dilly. You’ll see her again in just two days when you walk through the doorway. We know you’ll be ready. Now go get dressed. Callie needs to eat some breakfast,” said Hillary as she started pouring cereal into a bowl. Dylan looked upon his sister’s face. Callie had a look of fear. She did not know what was to become of her and was terrified. Dylan ran and embraced his sister tightly.

            “I love you,” she whispered into his ear. Dylan ran into his room with tears still flooding his eyes. He was feeling so many emotions at once. He was sad, angry, scared, and a tad jealous. Why should Callie get to meet Him before Dylan just because she was a year older than he was? It wasn’t fair to Dylan in the slightest. He sat there for a few minutes before his mother came in. He was so occupied with sorting out his many feelings that he didn’t even attempt to dress himself for the sanctified event that would transport Callie into His magical realm.

            “It’s time to go, baby. Come on.” His mother reached down and picked up her child. He was getting heavier, but Hillary could manage at least carrying him to the car. The two of them piled in the vehicle as William shut the trunk. Callie crawled into the backseat with her brother and leaned on him. The car ride was silent and uncomfortable for Dylan. The only sound that Dylan could hear was Callie’s shaky and nervous breaths. The trip was over in about an hour and a half. They had to drive down a long and bumpy country road to reach the burning place. The barn was indeed old and wooden, seemingly unstable and definitely terrifying. Hillary and William wordlessly stepped out of the car. Hillary gently pulled the two children out of the evergreen car as William pulled two red plastic jugs with nozzles that Dylan had no word or definition for. Callie and Dylan followed Hillary obediently up an unreliable ladder to the hayloft of the barn. William walked over to a deep ditch dug out in the ground of the barn. It had to be at least twelve feet deep and it was filled with logs and sticks. He began to pour the liquid that resided in the red jugs into the ditch. The odor wafted up into the hay loft and forced Callie and Dylan to cover their noses. Their mother only breathed in deeply and smiled.

            Callie was gripping her teddy bear that she received from her father on the day of her birth. It was old and torn in places, but Callie had refused to part with it over the years. William swiftly climbed up the ladder grinning excitedly. The silence was beginning to kill Dylan. “What’s gonna happen now?” he questioned.

            “We are going to open the doorway and Callie will walk through it. You know that,” smiled Hillary.

            “Will it hurt, Mommy?” Callie was looking even more nervous, and tears were beginning to drip onto her cheeks.

            “No, honey. Not at all. He will not let you burn. The fire that you’ll see will only be the doorway. You have to trust Him.” Hillary nodded at her husband and he produced a lighter from his back pocket. He walked to the edge of the hayloft and lit it. The flame was petite and harmless, casting small, dancing shadows across the walls of the burning place. He dropped the lighter off the edge. Dylan couldn’t resist peeking down. The moment the flame from the lighter touched the uppermost log in the bottom of the ditch, it became alive with fire. So much so that Dylan could feel the heat from atop the hayloft. “Are you ready, Callie?” Dylan’s sister responded with a shaky nod, and Hillary walked her to the edge of the hayloft. Callie had her teddy bear in a choke hold and was crying out with sobs of terror.

            “We have to leave, son. Only those departing or conducting the ceremony may watch. Let’s go to the car.” The two boys climbed down from the hayloft, but when Dylan hit the ground, he stumbled and fell. He began sobbing. Dylan was picked up and carried for the second time that day. He lost track of how long he was out there. He felt his mother’s hand on his back.

            “He accepted her happily.” Dylan was gently placed in the car. At some point in between sobs, Dylan fell asleep.

***

            The following two days were empty and numb for Dylan. His parents went on as if the events that happened earlier that week were the best thing that could have happened to the eight year old girl and not an awful occurrence as Dylan saw it. As if their daughter hadn’t left them. Dylan hated his sister for doing that to him. How could he leave her like she did? He had no one else but his parents to be with. Without his sister, Dylan was dead inside.

             He perked up only when his mother said the words he had been waiting for. “You are ready, baby.” He soon found himself wearing the same dress as Callie.

            “Why am I in a dress?” he asked his mother.

            “It’s not a dress, Dilly. It’s a robe. Everyone wears them in His kingdom.” Hillary was crying again, nervously patting away nonexistent wrinkles in the black garb.

            “Will I see Callie again?” The little boy was practically jumping at the thought of being with his sister again.

            “Of course you will. Now eat some cereal. We’ll be leaving soon.” Dylan’s mother handed him a bowl of Fruit Loops. Dylan was scarfing down his breakfast as William walked in the room carrying another set of red jugs. Dylan could hear the liquid sloshing around inside. He ate faster at the sight of his father. He wanted to be with Callie as soon as possible.

            “Slow down, honey. You’ll make yourself sick,” Hillary cooed.

            “I wanna see Callie!” Dylan barked and ate even faster.

            “You will, but making yourself sick won’t get you to her any faster.” Dylan could hear an angry twinge in his mother’s voice, and he slowed down his pace. It took about another five minutes, but Dylan finished his breakfast and was climbing into the family vehicle. The drive seemed twice as long the second time through. Dylan was biting his finger nails out of anticipation. When the car pulled to the end of the dusty road, all of Dylan’s fingernails were down to the nail beds.

            “Let’s go son.” William smiled as he pulled the red jugs out of the truck and nodded at the old barn. Dylan leapt out of the car and raced for the entrance of the wooden building. He flew up the ladder to the hayloft and saw his mother standing on the edge. Dylan peeked down to the ground below and saw his father emptying the foul smelling liquid into the ditch, but this time, Hillary flicked a different lighter to life and dropped it down into the ditch. Fire danced everywhere inside the hole, and Dylan had to cover his eyes from the sudden light of the flame.

            “Where’s Daddy?” Dylan asked nervously.

            “Outside. He’s not allowed to watch, baby. It’s time to start the ritual.” Hillary brought her hands up above her head and started shouting. “Oh, Great One! The Sacred Flame! The Horned God! Accept my son into your holy kingdom! Allow him to work as your humble servant! Let him learn your true name and speak it graciously! Treat him like a son! Use him like a warrior! Take this offering!” Dylan felt a hard shove and he fell from the hayloft. The flames became hotter and hotter as Dylan fell closer. He was scared but smiling at the thought of meeting his sister and Him, but when Dylan reached the bottom of the flaming pit, he didn’t meet his sister or the Great One. He met the hard ground of a burning ditch.