The fire in the forest

The firewood burned and cracked springing with energy and life as Ignis threw a pile of leaves and branches into the red and orange sunset flames. 

The flames were magnificent at night with the darkness all around far from the eye can see, the flame is very vibrant that human eye can pick up much more red and orange shades. If you do not have a flame, being surrounded in a remote forest at night normally leads many people's imagination to go wild making the forest have many legends and rumours about ghosts and beasts. One popular tale is called the ghost of the bridesmaid. The legend goes that after a wedding in a church only 50 kilometers from the forest, a little girl who was a bridesmaid was confronted by a man who took her away and lead her to the forest. The girl cried and screamed but no one can hear her. The man grabbed her by the hair and tied it to a branch, after that he got four very long and sharp nails and and began to hammer the nails into each of her hands and feet making her go unconscious by the pain while the blood poured out of her hands and feet, as a result if the girl managed to get out of the forest alive the doctors and nurse would have to amputate her hands and feet leaving her to be handicapped for the rest of her life. 

After stroking her hair he left her, when the girl woke up the pain was unimaginable, being crucified she began to have a long painful death. The insects and flies from the forest eventually came out and feast on her hands and feet. 

Her last thoughts were the wedding she just attended to only hours before. Now there is are rumors of a little bridesmaid ghost that stands by every tree showing you her handless arms with a nice cute smile.

Being spooked by the tales, the fire was a comfort to Ignis. Having her favorite moments of childhood sleeping by the fireplace on cold winter night, she has grown to a very deep passion and joy for fire.

 In fact she found so much joy that every night she would light a candle to contribute to those fine memories. When she runs out of candles she would use anything around her even thing such as tissues, paper or even her own hair.

 Tonight however, is a very special night to Ignis. It was in fact so special that she had dress up in her favorite dress and even delayed her candle rituals for this event. With the magical colors dancing in the moonlight, Ignis stared deeply into the flames,beginning to lose thought of reality and began to hum her lullaby song. 

Taking no notice that the blood patch from the past injury slowly becoming bigger the blood began to spread and absorb the majority of her shirt. 

Still she took no notice, after all she was the girl who loved fire. She was the girl who spent days locked inside her house lighting candle after candle and watching them all melt away into a puddle of wax and she was the girl who watched a city burn to ash without helping anyone around her, instead she just admired the beauty of burning.

 After a many hours of admiration, a shout emerged from the dark depths of the forest. 

Distracted, Ignis snapped back to reality and whined at the pain that developed in her stomach, noticing a dim light growing brighter in the distance she slowly hopped away from the flames. The flames that burned a crucified corpse of her victim.

A man in a long black raincoat approached the burning fire which Ignis had previously been standing, he growled in frustration."The b***h got away again." Twenty meters behind him his assistant was tumbling towards him out of breath . 

"W-e did hurt her pretty bad, maybe she left a trail," the assistant shouted in the distance "there could still be a trail-" he hushed himself as the man gave him a evil glare from his narrow thin eyes. 

The man was not the type of person you would want to annoy, he is the type that when people see him for the first time you would shiver and immediately know that he is going to be the arrogant jerk who will do things his way or the highway.

 His appearance was not that welcoming, he had a skeleton like figure and was hunched over. His arms were long and hung loosely, attached to those arms was five long bony fingers.

 His face was no better, he had a big nose and a wide wrinkled face that did not go with the rest of his body. It was like his mother gave birth to twins and combined them into one person.

 At last the assistant caught up and began to warm his hands over the fire. He exhaled mist, "gettin' cold boss, reckon we should call it a day? She won't go far with the-" he hushed himself again with the cold glances the man gave him. The assistant was different to the man. 

He worked like any other common person does and have the same purpose - come for the money, don't try too hard and go home to relax. His appearance was different is well, the assistance was short and fat with a beer belly. His face consists of two big fat cheeks with greedy small brown mouse eyes scavenging for anything that can be used to his advantage. 

The man ran his stick-like hand through his brown greasy hair " I was so close, the b***h still have her fire lite.." kicking the dead debris in anger he turned towards the fire and watched the red and orange flames. 

"We can still catch her, just keep following the trial," said the assistant in an annoyed voice " She probably unconscious somewhere, lying on a bunch of muddy leaves." Suspicious the man turned towards the assistant "What's in it for you? It's a cold night and you aren't the kind of man who does any extra work." 

The assistant gave a dirty smirk "I'm quite a lonely man and extra pay for some overtime would be," the assistant thought of the right word finally he replied "pleasurable." The man became disguised of the animal he saw in front of him "Your pleasurement can be stuck right up your fat little a*s and anyway there will be no point in following the trail, the b***h would be more alert and could sneak up on us at any minute it's too dangerous." 

The clouds began to cover the half moon in the sky, the man looked up "come on," he spat "going to rain, lets leave this man here to burn in peace." The assistance noticed the burning corpse and laughed clapping his hands "In that's what I call a big roast," he then squatted down and began to take a deeper inspection of the burnt body.

"Who do ya reckon it is? Looks like a man, one of our men?" The man took out a cigarette and lit it "I don't know and I don't care, now are you going to get off you fat a*s or are you gonna turn into our little friend over here?" 

Noticing the anger and impatience of the man's voice the assistance quickly stood up "Sorry boss," he muttered. Sighing, the man chucked the cigarette into the fire and walked away from the warmth into the damp coldness of the forest.

Ignis stumbled on a dead eroded log that laid on the ground, Screaming in pain she clenched her fists. She would not give up, she can't give up, trembling she used all of her strength and push herself up. 

Her eyesight became blurred and the forest was now just a mushed color of green and black. If she dies now she will never see the candles lit tomorrow, no one would light them. 

She dreaded the thought, she took a small slow step. The forest exit is at least 6 kilometers away, Ignis was numb and soaked through to the bone. With the amount of blood loss it is still surprising that she is still conscious, If blood loss doesn't kill her hypothermia will. 

However Ignis was still confident that she is going to make it out there alive. Falling multiple times on the ground she became too tired and weak to pull herself up, she looked up to the sky.

 The trees covered the majority of her vision but she could still see the stars burning brightly. Breathing heavily she smiled, millions of candles in the sky lighting the dark with a brilliant white shine. 

She looked at her stomach, The blood covered all of the clothes she was wearing and has seem to of crept all over her legs,arms and hands. Slowly she watched as the darkness of her eyes began to increase until she lose consciousness.


Simon woke suddenly at the sound of a gunshot that echoed in the distance. He lay there in shock, there are never people that go into the forest especially in the middle of the night. 

Simon reached for his circular glasses that lay on his bedside table only to result in dropping them on the wooden floorboards. Swearing Simon removed this duvet cover exposing him to the crisp cold air of the night and slowly pushed himself away from the comfort of the warm mattress and his soft pillow.

"Why did I even bother try putting on my glasses?" he thought "I suppose I wanted to see if anyone was hurt." Going on his hands and knees Simon began to start the long slow process of finding his glasses in the mist of brown colors. 

"Why would there be be a gunshot at night?" he asked himself while he was doing the search "hunting maybe? Or maybe.." Simon stopped the search "maybe it's a person hunting another person?" He thought about the possibility, "It could be possible," Shaking off the thought he resumed to his search. 

After approximately of ten minutes of searching Simon finally found his round circular glasses and let  out a sigh of relief that the lens have not been shattered. He carefully applied the glasses on to his face "Might as well check outside then wonder about it the whole night" he approached his bedroom window and looked outside.

 The forest gloomed him with a spooky look, in the distance he noticed a faint orange light from a fire. Slightly surprised Simon  reached towards his wardrobe and grab his big thick wooly jumper and his hunting boots. 

After getting dressed he walked towards the front door and collected his rifle that was resting in the corner "better be safe than sorry." With a final sigh he walked into the open air and began to approach the dimly orange glow in the distance. 

Simon cautiously glanced around, even though he lived in the forest for as long as he can remember he would never go outside in the middle of the night. He remembered the time when his sister dared him to sleep outside for the night, being bold and foolish Simon agreed to the offer, that night he stood by the canopy preparing his campsite when his mother caught him red handed. His mother was so furious she screamed "NEVER GO TO THE FOREST AT NIGHT SIMON, MONSTERS WILL GET YOU," she then seized his arm she dragged him to the punishment room and locked him there for three days straight. Simon dreaded the punishment room , the room was entirely made out concrete down in the cellar of the house. It was only wide enough for Simon to fit in, the length of a wardrobe and you couldn't even jump without hitting your head on the ceiling. 

Simon begged and pleaded his mother to let him go, that he swore that he would never do it again but his mother ignored him. She closed the iron doors on him and listened to her son bang his fists on the steel door, the punishment room is always pitch black and every night Simon would feel insects and rats sprinting towards his body and trying to eat his fingers and flesh.

 In the morning he would hear his sister jeer at him and call him names like "rat boy" and "Simon ratface" however she always sneak a loaf of bread or a few lollies down for him and place them through the key hole in little pieces. When he was finally released he would always be covered in rat bite marks and almost on the verge of unconsciousness due to dehydration. Sometimes they would find him unconscious in the middle of the cell because of the heat trapped inside during summer. 

Coming back to reality, Simon was getting closer to the fire, it was a lot further than he thought. He then heard faint footsteps in the distance, He glanced behind him, his house was out of site that must mean if he gets into trouble he has a very slim chance of contacting any civilisation for help."Oi, Anyone out there?" He called out, the footstep suddenly stopped and he heard a reply in a heavy scottish accent "Yeah me and my boss we are looking for a missing person, Seen a woman by any chance?" Relieved that it wasn't a serial killer wandering about Simon replied "No I haven't but I'm local I can help you try and find her if you would like."

 He then faintly saw a small fat figure in the distance, As he approached the fat man he realized he wasn't as friendly as he thought."Thanks mate, we need all the help we can get, my boss has an empty head and is useless as hell," giving a polite smile Simon reached out his hand "I'm Simon, I probably can't stay too long but I could keep you boys on the right track." The fat block looked at his hand and pulled a face "follow me mate, my boss is just around the corner." Simon followed him through the forest until they came to a small clearing, in the middle of the clearing there was an old anorexic man smoking what looks to be a damp worn out cigarette.

"When I said you go and have you business in private I didn't mean to invite a bloody search party," The man gave a hateful glare at him as if he barged into his house like a burglar. The fat man spat at the ground "He's a local, i thought you would be grateful for the first time in your life and finally realize that you feel emotions like a human being." 

The bony man deeply inhaled the cigarette for the last time and threw it on the ground before giving the fat man the most hateful angry look Simon has seen anyone do in his life. 

The man grabbed the fat man by the neck and shoved him by the tree, and slowly applied pressure to the man's windpipe. He replied in a calm almost sociopathic tone "Sometimes I wonder whether I am human but I know one thing..." The fat mans face has now extremely red and was fighting to breath, the man tried to get  the skeletons hands off his neck but only to realize that it was impossible by the amount of pressure that the hand had.

 Simon was shocked, these men were the type of men he feared he would come across, he slowly tried to back away only to result in the skinny man attention. The man turned his head towards him and took out his gun from his belt that was hidden in his jacket, "You are going nowhere, You locals are all dickhead wanting to go into other people's business because you think you own the place. All I have here is a deadboat and a yokel, this job is great isn't it?"

 Simon glanced at the fat man who was now unconscious due to the lack of oxygen in his brain, if he didn't get help soon he could have brain damage or even death. Simon looked back at the man who was still making eye contact with him, trying to stay calm Simon blurted out " He's unconscious, let go of him or he will die!"

 The man released the pressure and let fat man collapses to the ground, Simon sighed with relief and grasped his hands through his hair "Thank you." The skinny man gave a small smile and after a moment of staring he turned the gun toward the fat man and shot a bullet to his head. 

Simon vomited, the fat man lay there face down on the forest floor with his hair slowly getting soaked in his own blood. The skinny man gave a cheerful smile "I always found him a sick b*****d, always wanting more then he has."

 He glanced at the motionless corpse "He was just a nuisance." Simon head was spinning, "what did the fat man say earlier?" His eyes widened "A missing girl, could she be dead too?" Simon looked at the man who was still smiling with joy and looking at this employer like a first prize trophy ornament. 

"You know what? Because I'm in a good mood, I'll let you go but if you tell anyone I will hunt you down and torture you for days, Get out of my face." Simon hesitated still in shock he started to tremble "GET OUT," The man shouted, Simon sunk in the message and ran. He ran like he never have ran in his life, after hunting for the majority of his life he never thought he would become a prey. 

 

  

Reviews

[StefanC]

Looks like you've got a potentially good story here. I'd like to know more about the main character, what she looks like, more of how she feels and thinks etc. Good, rich characters will always improve your story telling
There's some spelling/grammatical errors but that's normal for a first draft. Keep going with it, I'd like to see where the story goes.

[fingerprints79]

Thanks for the review, you were helpful

[Author Rucha Joshi]

This literally got goosebumps on my skin.
Marvelous and spine tingling description.
Hoping to read more from you.
keep it up!