A Willing Soul

I turned the small nub of candle over in my hands. The wax felt slippery against my fingers. It looked like a regular soy candle, cream colored and only about the width of two fingers. It had obviously been used may times before with its blackened wick and ridges of melted wax down its sides. Only about an inch of it remained.

Although it seemed ordinary, I knew it was anything but that. I had been promised that this candle could change anything in the world. But the price was steep. It needed one willing human soul.

I was sitting on the tiles of the bathroom floor with the door bolted closed. My legs started to go numb, the cold of the ground seeping into me. It matched how my heart had grown to feel over the last year.

Kayla was dead.

I had known my girlfriend had issues, but I didn’t know how bad it was. She had told me she was finding it hard to cope, being expected to keep up with sports and her grades. Her parents were both doctors, and if she didn’t get into medical school, she said they’d freak out.

They found her body in the park early one morning. She used to go running there. Not anymore.

I pulled a cigarette lighter out of my pocket. The instructions had been clear – light the candle, hold your hand over it, make a wish. I held the candle in my left hand, lighting it with the cigarette lighter in my right. Stowing this back into my pocket, I then lowered by right hand over the flame. Pain shot up my hand, and I grimaced. It hurt like hell. But I told myself it couldn’t be nearly as bad as hanging myself from a tree. That’s what she had done.

‘Bring her back.’ I whispered.

Suddenly the lights went out. The flame of the candle shone more brightly, and started to grow longer and longer. I heard a high, cackling laugh. It reminded me of the sound of the crackling of logs in a fire pit. Wind rushed around me, the hair from the front of my face whipping into my eyes and stinging them.

I dropped the candle, but it continued to burn. The flame spread upwards, forming a vaguely humanoid shape. It grew until it towered over me. A head was at the top, with two black indents where eyes should have been, and smoke for hair. It had thin, ghostly arms. Its body flickered, like the edges of a bonfire. In the center of its belly was a blue core, and colors changed to red and orange on his extremities. It had had no legs. Where those should have been was a tail connected to the candle lying on the ground.

‘Your desire shall be granted.’ It said. ‘If you swear your soul to me.’

I took a deep breath to steady myself.

‘I accept.’

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