text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  Elliot decided it would be best to build a fire. That way, he could stay warm, be able to have a source of light, and not have to worry about bears in caves. He started by gathering kindling: twigs, sticks, and logs. Then he gathered rocks and organized them to make a homemade fire pit. Once he built a perfect tipi shape out of twigs, he lit one of his matches and began building his fire with larger and larger kindling. Before the sun set, a large fire was cackling away while the man tended it.
  
  He was tired and made the decision to throw in the rest of the firewood he gathered and go to sleep. He would've tried to wake up every once in a while go keep the fire going, but Elliot was known for being able to sleep through almost anything. He figured if he went to bed by the fire, it would last long enough for him to fall into a deep sleep and would fizzle out sometime in the night.
  
  He closed his eyes and prepared for a long night of rest, but before sleep took him away, a noise that most certainly was not from a fire caught his attention. It sounded...human. The man snapped his eyes open, and what he saw before him made his stomach fall to his feet. Next to Elliot was Old Man Doug tending the fire. Old Man Doug had died fifteen years prior. The way Elliot saw it, he had two choices: push Doug into the fire and kill him again or ignore him and go back to sleep.
  
  > ignore him
  Elliot figured the best way to ensure a ghost won't kill you is to ignore them completely. He closed his eyes again, and tried to fall asleep. Despite his efforts, he couldn't relax, let alone sleep. He kept opening his eyes to see if Old Man Doug had disappeared yet, but the ghost never seemed to leave. He just kept tending the fire, never even stealing a glance behind him to see if Elliot was aware of his presence. Tense hours passed, neither of them moving except for Doug occasionally adding more wood to the fire.
  
  Elliot kept having flashbacks to the night Old Man Doug died. It was the worst day of his life. His father's continuous abuse led the 10 year old Elliot to rebel whenever possible. That fateful night, he had snuck out once his father and sister were asleep. The boy then snuck over to his next door neighbor, Old Man Doug's yard and began playing with matches. He'd light one and let it burn as long as he could without burning himself then, just as the flame began to reach his hand, he'd drop the match on the ground. What Elliot didn't know was that the grass was as dry as a desert that summer, and one of the lighted matches lit a blade on fire. The fire spread quickly as the boy watched in horror. It wasn't long until the fire reached Doug's house and quickly lit the little wood building on fire. Elliot could still hear the screams of the dying man as he tried to escape the flames. Nobody ever found out how the fire started. He never told a soul.
  
  But now, fifteen years later, there was Old Man Doug, the man he killed with flames, tending his campfire. Elliot didn't get a wink of sleep, he just kept thinking back to that night and wave after wave of guilt passed over him. He watched the ghost for many parts of the night, but never spoke a word to him out of fear. Finally, the first rays of dawn pushed their way through the canopy of trees and onto the the makeshift camp.
  
  Old Man Doug, for the first time all night, turned to face Elliot, whose eyes were wide open. The ghost cracked a smirk as he said, "well, if it isn't the little arsonist. Have you murdered anyone else in their own home? Or was I just the special chosen one?"
  
  > apologize profusely
  "I'm...I'm so sorry." Elliot started tearing up as he spoke.
  
  "Huh?" Doug seemed confused by the apology.
  
  "That night, that horrible night, it wasn't supposed to turn out like that. When the fire started, I tried so hard to put it out. I stomped on it, blew on it, body slammed on it. But...it grew too quickly."
  
  "Oh please, you never liked me enough to do anything like that! I was just the town grump."
  
  Elliot silently pulled up his shirt, revealing the scars all up and down his midsection. The grotesque skin acted as a reminder for the man for fifteen years, reminding him of what he did, reminding him of who he killed.
  
  Elliot continued, "I want you to know that the fire was entirely an accident, but it has haunted me every day of my life. I'm-I-I-I...I'm so sorry. Words can't even describe how guilty I feel."
  
  Doug was silent a long time, thinking over what Elliot said. Then finally, he said simply, "if you're truly sorry, do to yourself what you did to me." The ghost pointed to the fire, gesturing for the man to do the unthinkable.
  
  > walk into the fire
  Elliot didn't have a choice, he had to do as the ghost said. The man made a small prayer and walked into the flames. At first, he felt a burning pain worse than he had ever felt in his life. It felt as though his skin was melting off and his blood was evaporating. Just when he was sure he was dead, the fire stopped. He looked down at his body, expecting to see charred remains of himself, but rather, he didn't have a burn on him. Even his clothes survived unscathed.
  
  "Wha-wha-what? How am I not dead?"
  
  Doug replied, "I didn't want to kill you, just make you feel the same pain I did. I spared your life; you better be grateful. Goodbye forever, Elliot."
  
  The ghost disappeared into thin air and a confused man continued his trek across the forest. It was still early morning and despite the ordeal he had to go through, Elliot was glad he had an early start on the hike so he could get farther faster. The man hiked all day, using a compass to always head North, towards Gregory Village, where Aunt Rosy lived.
  
  When light was beginning to fall, Elliot knew he had to stop for the night. He also knew there was no way he was going to sleep on the forest floor again and risk meeting another ghost. But where else could he sleep?
  
  > sleep in a tree
  Elliot knew there was no way he was going to sleep on the forest ground. Especially not after his encounter with Old Man Doug, he feared meeting another ghost in the forest. He felt slightly childish, but he climbed a nearby oak tree with low branches. He sat on a thick tree limb and rested his back against the tree trunk, suddenly realizing how uncomfortable it was. Despite discomfort, the man felt safe from ghosts, and that was all that mattered. With a final smile of triumph, he fell into a light sleep.
  
  He suddenly found himself in his childhood home, eating breakfast with his father and little sister, Jessie. He looked down at his bowl; it was porridge topped with berries in the shape of a smiley face. Elliot's father pushed back his dirty blonde hair while laughing at one of Jessie's jokes. Then a woman he didn't recognize walked into the room. She smiled, "Elliot? What are you doing here?"
  
  > say "I'm dreaming"
  Elliot knew this was little more than a dream. His family all together, please, everyone in that room besides him was already dead. Even the strange woman was recognizable from photographs, she was his mother who died when he was two years old. "I suppose I'm just dreaming." He said to his long dead mother.
  
  Jessie looked up from her porridge and frowned. She was only eleven when she died. "I'll see you again someday." He told her. Even though he knew it was just a lucid dream, everything felt so real.
  
  His mother spoke again, "Goodbye, Elliot."
  
  Within the instant, the man opened his eyes. Looking around, he found himself laying on his back at the base of a tree. Judging from the blistering headache he was forming, he guessed he had fallen out while asleep. The location of the sun confirmed that it was early morning, the first rays of light were just beginning to shine. The man stood up, stretched his aching arms, and grabbed his compass out of his pocket, ready to start a new day hiking through the woods. He hiked all day, always heading North. When it was almost dusk, he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks.
  
  "Where have you been?" It was the voice of a young girl.
  
  When Elliot turned around, he was greeted by the site of a little girl with blonde pigtails tied up with bows. A simple green dress covered all the way to her ankles and forearms. There stood his little sister, Jessie, who had been dead for twelve years.
  
  > freak out
  "AARHGIEJWHHWHSJWOAKDJDJ" screamed the frightened Elliot.
  
  Jessie stood in absolute shock. "What's wrong?"
  
  "Of course I'm dead. I'm just a ghost, silly." She chuckled.
  
  "A g-g-g-g-ghost?" All color left his cheeks.
  
  "Yes"
  
  It wasn't until Elliot started praying that his sister got visibly annoyed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just here to ask you why you haven't visited my grave in so long. It's been six years since you've come."
  
  The man was shocked. Had it really been that long? And more importantly, was this ghost going to kill him?
  
  "Are you going to kill me?" He asked.
  
  The ghost looked as if she was ready to slap Elliot if he didn't give it up. "Calm down. I just wanted to...don't you miss me? I sure missed you every day. Every day for the last six years, I've been waiting for you to come. Why don't you?"
  
  He didn't have words. He supposed after moving away, he never went back to see his sister. Truthfully, he never went back to see anyone. Elliot hadn't been home in six years. A pang of guilt passed through him, but he was still too afraid to feel its full effect.
  
  "A-a-are you h-h-here to k-k-kill me because y-you're mad that I-I-I haven't v-visited?"
  
  Jessie was so frustrated by her stupid brother that she let out a very loud, "AAAARRRRGGGGG!" She had never been patient while alive, and death didn't give her any extra virtues.
  
  The little girl's growl convinced Elliot that the ghost was going to kill him. He had two choices in order to escape death: run into the nearby cave or use the matches he had to try to set her on fire.
  
  > burn everything
  Elliot quickly emptied his pockets, emptying everything on the ground, while his sister watched in pure confusion. Once everything was out of his jacket pockets, he took off the jacket and grabbed his flask, currently full of rum. He poured the contents onto his jacket and quickly snatched up his matches. Once a match had a fiery head, he connected the flame to the jacket and watched the cloth ignite. To Jessie's horror, the jacket was thrown directly at her.
  
  She disappeared into thin air without a sound, aware that she obviously wasn't wanted by Elliot. Sometimes your prior protector throws his burning clothes at you. Sometimes fate is ridiculous.
  
  The man watched the jacket burn, consuming the grass around it. But the fire didn't stop there, in moments it reached the trees. Then, it worked its way around the forest. Before long there was an all out forest fire and Elliot had already perished in the flames. The forest of past voices was on fire, and most of it perished in the flames.