Tongues of fire

Darkness pushed against her lids.

Or was it a caress?

She put herself last, pushed up against a corner.

She felt suffocated and burning rashes

She scratched and scratched

But the itch wouldn’t flinch

“Out, out, out!”

Her thoughts were all out.

While she reached down her leg for another bout of relief

Her ragged fingernails paused.

She stared into the dark and out of it a shape loomed.

A man with no particular features

Nothing to make him stand out in a crowd.

But a wide mouth

Craven and cavernous

He stood there stock still, wide eyed, and wide mouthed.

She shivered and stared as he raised a hand to his mouth.

He was staring into the air, into nothing.

What was in his hand?

She would find out in a split second as his mouth went ablaze.

He lit his tongue on fire like a flame.

He didn’t wince or yelp or recoil.

His mouth a beacon in the room.

A warning?

A way?

A farce?

A light in the dark?

At least she had forgotten her itch in the absurdity of these pyrotechnics.