Seeing Stars

I wanted to burn down the darkness, alighting it like a black stage curtain. Beneath and behind, well lit by the blaze, mystery turned to beauty would dazzle me. The promises of the faint starlight kept me piling on kindling and soaking it in accelerants, while the lighter weighed ever more in my pocket, an anchor waiting to be lifted.

For tonight, I picked the tiny cottage at the edge of town, too small for the invading weekenders and not worth a damn to locals paying new taxes. The cottage needed purpose, so I made it the central piece of fuel to make sure the night caught, lighting up at the border between town and wilderness. Among the trees I could see shapes moving, squirming images that passed effortlessly between tricks of my eyes and actual disruptions of the stars' faint light.

I wondered how bright and terrible the stars would be once no night separated them from me.

Sweat covered me, making my fingers slick as I pulled the lighter out of my pocket. The burnished metal stayed put in my hand, knowing it belonged there, knowing I gave it purpose. Although so close it ached, I took a moment to look back at the town. Night rested heavy on it. Faint shapes poked through the surface, and a few pin points of light appeared from windows facing towards where the night came from. I turned and gazed straight into that black miasma emanating from untamed tracts of land. Indistinct forms filled it, merging into a single impression of potential sight before vanishing into the center of night. I hoped to char that heart, leaving only the thinest black ash beneath stars so close you could touch them.

My lighter lit well and it set up the first piece, which set up the second. Like dominoes, flames fell, lapping up everything around them. The night began to burn. Flames raced into the very heart of night. Hot winds blew black, as if beyond the night a storm waited. I felt sparks and soot settle on my skin, and heard panic from the town.

They were perhaps unready to see the orange and blue of the stars so close to the earth, unready to step back into the endless light whence we came.