Burn.

Embers in the heart.

Burning. Suffocating, smoke filling the chest. Heat swelling in the head. Sparks stinging every inch of the body.

The crackling of burning wood thunders, echoing through the mind.

Will I burn until I am nothing but ash?

No.

I need water.

But it's dark here.

How can I find water?

What was that sound?

Is it water?

I listen closer, more carefully.

Oh, no.

It sounds more like, "Look at me — I can do this and that, I have this and that. You?"

Huh. That would only burn me faster.

No.

Right now, I cannot rely on my hearing.

My mind is too crowded with the crackling of flames.

Everything can sound wrong.

This place is pitch black.

I need light.

But how? Where?

How could there be light in a place this dark, right now?

It feels like I’m trapped inside a shrinking box, growing tighter with every passing second.

Suffocating. Crushing.

Isn’t time supposed to heal?

No, no.

How can time heal when I'm still burning?

Time could kill me instead.

I need light.

Help me.

Heat, dizziness, suffocation.

Help me.

Where are you, Light?

Help.

Is this the end?

I’m burning down to nothing.

Only ashes left, drifting with the wind.

Or melting, merging with the earth.

Or flowing away, carried by the water?

Light, where are you?

I must endure this pain.

Until light appears in my life.

Until it comes. Stays. Seeks water with me.

I must endure all of this.

My journey is far from over.

SILENCE, EMBERS!!!

Your crackling will not scare me!!!

Your heat will not break me!!!

I will endure it all — the pain, the suffocation, the fire!!!

Until water extinguishes you!!!

I believe — light will soon break through all this darkness.

At least before I am gone. Before I become dust.

I place my hope in you, Light.

Shine upon me.