Spark

I haven’t seen her in so long. It had been years since we’ve spoken with one another. She was beautiful. She stood in the forest and looked around quietly, taking in the landscape around her. Her smile reached from ear to ear, and it brightened the space around her. Her soft eyes bounced back and forth at the flora surrounding her. She was beautiful, in every way.

“You’re feeding the fire.” Said a voice from behind me.

I looked back, and she was gone. The bright green forest had vanished, and lead way to the white hall. This time, it was a train station. The one in red sat on a bench and looked at me. I could hear train horns and screeching brakes off in the distance; a departure from the normal void of sound.

“What are you talking about?” I asked him. Good was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re feeding the fire.” He taunted once more, sitting up and straightening his posture. “I told you already.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated, pacing in a line in front of him, “what fire?”

“Story time?” He said with a grin. I rolled my eyes and turned me eyes and turned my head away. “You know how when you meet someone for the first time, people say that there’s a ‘spark’ between the two of you?”

“Of course.”

“We romanticize the idea of a spark. Everyone is useless. A spark in a romantic sense? A spark can start a fire. A fire leads to an inferno. And inferno leads to pain, and suffering.”

“I think you’re just being pessimistic.” I scolded him.

“Wow,” he sighed, “you’re a quick one, aren’t you?”

“Why do you have to keep doing this to me?” I pleaded him, finally turning back to face him. “I was having a good time just then. And of course you had to show up and ruin it! You always do this...”

He took a sharp breath, but then stopped when the squealing of brakes came from the far end of the hall.

“Why must we feed these sparks that reside within us?" He said mystically, looking out into the void before turning slowly to me. "Sparks are an element of fire, the element of purification, and pain. We let these sparks light inside of us. And what do we do? We let them fall and settle. We let them spread. We let them grow until they consume every constituent of our beings. They lead us to ruin. They are ruin. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?”

“Because fire is the symbol of life.” Said a voice. We both looked, and Good was strolling from the direction that the sound of brakes came from. His hands were held behind his back, and he walked up to us with a firm smile on his face.

“Without fire, we, as a species,” Good continued, “never would have been able to get to where we are today. Fire brings life. Fire nurtures, and cares for our very concept of life. And you can’t have a fire without a spark.”

“You always have to ruin everything, don’t you?” Bad hissed, looking down at the floor in front of him. “I was just about done here-.”

“You will say no more.” Good cut him off. “Yes, fires can be destructive. But they can save us. The fire is a tool worth being afraid of. But it is the same tool worth bringing with you, at all times.”

“Until you burn yourself.” Bad interjected, holding up his finger in a ‘matter-of-fact’ matter.

“The same rule applies for love.” Good continued, ignoring Bad’s comment. “There is nothing more powerful than the power of love. Love is the single most important feeling that a human can experience. Yes, it's dangerous, just like any other emotion. But why would you continue to venture forth through life without the most potent of emotions?"

I sat there, staring at him. I can't. I said to myself. I can't do this to myself again. Bad is right. I'm letting this consume me. I'll just sit here, dreaming about the impossible while I ignore the real world.

"He's learning..." Bad grumbled, lighting a cigarette. Good looked between him and I. He sighed and started to walk back into the void.

"I give up with you." He shouted back at us. A train was coming. It rumbled and shook the hallway. The sound of the engine was deafening. Bad sat there, and glared at me with a grin, the cigarette hanging loosely out of his mouth. Everything began to go white. It was almost over.

"I win again." He mumbled one last time.