Burn

It was peaceful again. The woods held a stiff silence, but at the same time cradled the sounds of its life. The birds humming their tune bounced between the trees. The breeze blew and rustled the grass. I could hear the brook nearby, the water rolling off of the rocks and then colliding with itself.

"It's beautiful," the one in Red stated, walking out from behind a tree, "isn't it?"

"No!—." I tried to shout, but it was gone. The serenity and the peace was gone. The forest was still there, but the color had been drained, the noises muted.

"It's a bit too beautiful if you ask me."

"Why?" I asked him. "Why do you always have to show up and ruin all of this?!"

"It's my job." He replied simply. "You see, Good and I are like Ying and Yang. He brings the beauty, and I silence it; it's the love hate relationship that you love so much."

"No thanks to you two assholes."

"So come on," he said with a wide grin, walking behind me, "why're ya out here?"

"Just leave me alone."

"C'mon sport, what's on your mind?"

"Leave me alone!" I turned around and pushed him away. He fell to the ground, and looked at me with an astonished glare.

"That's not what you're supposed to do." He growled. He was back on his feet within a moment, and he tackled me onto my back. He straddled my chest, grasping his hands onto my throat. "You're the mediator..."

"What are you doing?" I gasped, trying to throw him off, but his knees where pinning down my arms.

"Showing you who you really are." The harder he grasped onto my neck, I could smell smoke. The faint remnants of the bleached forest began to burn. It turned red, and began to bleed around us. I could see the inferno in his eyes.

"Why?!" I hissed. It was agonizing to breathe now. Any breath that I could take was poisoned by the embers.

"You need to realize that all of this," he barked, motioning to the fire, "is because of you."

*   *   *   *   *

My neck ached when I woke up. The seamless forest was back, but it was smoking, and scorched black. My head throbbed as I tried to sit up. I saw Good in front of me, examining the damage.

"Where did he go?" I mumbled. He turned around quickly, and then sighed. He seemed disappointed to see me.

"Home." He uttered, turning back towards the forest.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I questioned.

"You were already angry before he showed up," he inquired, "weren't you?"

"Angry?"

"That's why you came out here in the first place," he continued, holding his hands out the smoke plumes, "you needed to calm down."

"Yeah," I mumbled, "so?"

"What have I told you about doing this?"

"It's not my fault, okay?!" I yelled. "If you want me to be angry less, you should show up more!"

"That's not how this works..."

"Yes it does! None of this is real! I control this!"

"You don't control your own dreams. You just wish you could."

"Then why don't you show up more then?! I'd do less bad shit if you were here more often!"

"Whichever fire you feed will be bigger."

"Please," I begged him, sighing, "don't be poetic, just tell me why."

"I just told you." He replied simply, beginning to pace in front of me. "If you act good more often, I'll show up more."

"But I'm an asshole of a person..."

"Correct;" he said, holding up his finger, "so guess who shows up more?"

"Look," I told him, "I'm only acting this way because I know it’s the right thing to do. If I had the slightest feeling that it wasn't the right thing to do, I'd be better."

"I know," I replied, sitting down and crossing his legs in front of me, "I never said I disagreed."

"Wait, what?!"

"Well," he sputtered, "I mean to say that I think that your objective, and overall mood is justified. While I do think that there are adjustments that could be made, I know that you're right."

"I'm doing it for him. Not Bad, forget him. For someone I actually care about."

"I'm fully aware."

"He must think I'm a total asshole."

"I would hope he does."

"Gee," I laughed, "thanks."

"Put yourself in his shoes and then look at what you've been doing; aren't you the bad guy?"

"Yeah," I replied, "I never disagreed either. It's just, sometimes the bad guys are actually right, right?"

"On occasion."

There was another silence that drove itself between us. He fiddled with the dirt that had just appeared between his feet. I am the bad guy declared a voice in my head. Those words kept echoing in my skull. I am the bad guy. It became louder with every reverberation I am the bad guy.

"I've noticed something." I declared, desperate to get the words out of my head.

"What's that?" He said without looking up at me.

"Whenever Bad talks, he keeps saying 'us,' and 'we.' Every time you talk, you usually just talk about 'me.'"

"Strange," he said, looking up at me with a grin, "isn't it?"

"I just want to say I'm sorry to him." I spoke aloud. "But I can't."

"To Bad?"

"No," I exasperated, "to him. I both do and don't want to apologize to him. What do you think I should do?"

"You shouldn't have to apologize for the fire in your eyes." He answered. "We all have it, we can't help it."

"Then should I at least wrangle the fire a little better next time?"

"You know," he began, picking up his hand to let the sand fall, "one would think that you should. You, me, maybe even Bad. But if we actually think about it for a second, I think you know how to wield your own fire. It may seem like too much during the act, and immediately thereafter, but you know that you didn't really burn anyone..."

"It's just that the fire is too dangerous to play with, so why do we even bother?"

"It's just like with love."

"Oh please don't get sappy..."

"Let me put it into a metaphor that you'll understand."

"Thank you."

"Life is this giant labyrinth. At the very beginning, you get a fire, and you can find torches throughout the maze. You don't have a choice in whether or not you have the fire. It will be there until you reach the end. But what you do have a choice in is whether or not to light the torches. Sure, you can go around this maze without a torch, but it'll be pretty dark. And yes, you're going to end up burning a few hedges if you do light them. But really, which would you rather choose?"

The wind was coming, it blew the smoke in the other direction. I motioned over towards one of the ember piles. He turned to see, and looked back at me, smiling.