Forest on Fire

Opal Mishra posted under Devil in Disguise Flash Fiction on 2020-11-13



A bright light surrounded me while spinning quickly and I couldn't see anything beyond it. I was excited, scared, and curious all at the same time. Yesterday, I had found a white box in the park while digging in the sand. I opened it to see what was inside and found a white rectangular machine.There was also a piece of paper inside the box. There was a picture of a witch and a wizard on it. They were both holding gold wands that were glowing brightly. It was then that I got curious and I decided to try out the machine. I hadn't told anyone in my family about it. They already thought it was strange enough that I was a witch with superpowers. They would never believe me. So here I was. I wasn't regretting my decision one bit. I was so fascinated by the light and everything else around me.  Suddenly, the bright light disappeared and I saw the same witch and wizard from the picture, standing right in front of me. They looked at me with bright smiles on their faces. The witch had blond hair and her skin was a peach color. Her eyes were brown. She looked so pretty with her witch’s robe and a gold wand in her hand. The wizard looked similar to her, except his hair was jet black instead of blond.      “Welcome to Wandworld, land of magic. We are one of the many people who live here. What brings you here? What is your name?”  I noticed that they were looking at my machine too. It was almost as if they knew what it was. They glanced at each other. But that couldn’t be right. How could they know about it? They lived in a different world. I decided to just answer their question. After all, they were so friendly and they were obviously trying to make me feel welcome. They couldn’t know about my machine. “I don’t really know how I got here,” I said. “I just pressed a button on this thing.” I held up the machine. I figured I could tell them the truth because they looked so nice and friendly. They would surely keep my secret.  “What an interesting machine. Do you mind if I take it to my house and have a look? I love studying strange things. And that machine you have there, looks so fascinating.” The woman looked at me.  It wouldn’t hurt to lend the machine to this kind woman. “Alright, as long as you give it back when you are done. I need it to get back home to my world.” Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure how the machine worked or how I would get home with it. But I figured I would find a way. The woman smiled at me. “Thank you so much. I promise I will give it back when I am done. It should only take me one hour.”  “Okay, I guess that’s fine.”  “Well me and my husband will be going now. My name is Gina, by the way.” Her husband, the wizard, gave me a wave. He seemed shy. Both of them turned and left, hand in hand. Just then, I realized that I hadn’t stopped to look around at all. I spun around and I saw more snow than I had ever seen before. I shivered. I hadn’t noticed how cold it was. Back home, it was still summer, so I hadn’t been wearing any warm clothes at all. I looked at all the people (and creatures!) around me. I saw witches, wizards, dwarves, dragons, and I could even see some mermaids floating in the pool beside me. Their tails were a bright pink color. They were laughing and chatting with each other and they looked very happy. I turned and saw some of the dwarves staring at me. I went to a bench and sat down. One hour passed quickly, and soon the time came for Gina to give me back my machine. I was still sitting on the same bench and I could see her walking towards me. I had come to like her very much. She was always smiling and she had been very welcoming to me. “Hello, Rose,” she said. I have your machine right here.” She pulled it out of her beautiful handbag. She was obviously a very rich woman. “Your machine is quite extraordinary. Thank you for lending it to me and for letting me study it.”  “You're welcome, Gina,” I said. Then Gina walked off without another word. Suddenly, I heard panicked screams for help. Looking out in the distance, I could see flames pouring out of a tall building. It was a fire! I couldn’t believe it. I set down my machine on a gray bench, and ran towards the building to see what was happening. I could see people running out of the building with terrified looks on their faces. A few of them had burn marks on their faces and arms.  “Help!” “Run!” I also saw that the flames had spread to the forest too. I was about to go and try to save the people there and at least help them get out of the area. But then I remembered my precious machine. I suddenly didn’t feel safe leaving it on that bench. Because I was a witch and I had superpowers, I could feel when something was wrong. It was kind of like an instinct. And right then I knew that something was wrong. I started to run in the direction of the bench. But then I saw Gina running in the same direction away from the burning building. I noticed that she was holding a match in her hand. She looked like she had her sights set on the machine. I was only a little bit behind her. The forest was on my left. She turned to look around. And then she saw me. I was only a few feet away from the trees. She saw that I was looking at the machine too. But then she did something that surprised me. She turned and ran towards me and pushed me into the forest. Then she turned back around and kept running towards my machine. It was like she didn’t care about anything else. She grabbed it and ran towards her house. She had been after the machine the whole time. She had just been a devil in disguise. I couldn’t believe it. And now I was all alone in the burning forest. 

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