The Fire Keepers

A ripple appears before you shimmering in the moonlight illuminating the sidewalk in a cascade of unearthly colors. You're near the edge of town, the honks of horns and the shouts of children have long since faded. Staring into what you can feel is the precipice of something new, something uncharted, a sense of adventure washes over you almost forcing the next few steps through this tear in reality. As those fateful steps are taken the cold night air shifts into the warmth of a fire. Stepping carefully into this other world you observe your new surroundings seeing nothing but inky blackness occasionally broken by pinpricks of starlight scattered across the expanse around you. Locating the source of the heat you see a hearth floating in the nothingness with two simple recliners resting before it. Approaching this oasis of light you see a man staring into the fire as he lounges on his chair, apparently lost in thought. Soon enough he realizes he is no longer alone and glances up. His face seemingly lost in the spectrum of time appearing to be both twenty and two-hundred all at once looks up at you before nodding his head towards the other seat. As you sit in silence for a few minutes, bathing in the heat of the fire the deafening silence is finally shattered as the man speaks

“Well I assume you’ve wandered in here of your own fruition.”

His voice is melodic playing across every note in a single word while simultaneously resonating with the dull hum of the universe.

“You are the first to stumble upon my side of the veil, usually your kind end up on the other side.”

You stare blankly at this timeless figure resting before you, confused by his words.

“I guess I owe you an explanation before you face your fate.” he says, rising from his chair and strolling into the abyss outside the ring of safety emanating from the hearth. Hurriedly you arise and follow after this familiar being in a world of strangeness. Once outside the light of familiarity you're left alone stumbling forward through the unknown until you bump into the man. He stands, faintly outlined by the backglow of the stars with his arm outstretched revealing row after row of souls shimmering faintly in the darkness, millions of people left to aimlessly wander the fields of shadows.

“These are the people who have died throughout the past year” the man tells you “Every year on this night All Hallows’ Eve they are finally able to pass through this purgatory to the afterlife. But only during this night. It is my job to make sure the souls of these people stay civil, safe, and orderly throughout their wait, which in this world is quite the tall order” he chuckles to himself as if reminiscing on memories from long ago.

“Now as for me i've never been able to cross the border for I am not of your world nor the next, my purpose has been to safeguard the order of things for all eternity which as you may imagine gets rather tiresome after awhile, so your duty as the first ever to make there way onto my side of the veil is to allow me a short break. Take the reins for a bit and let me have some fun in your world. Sound good? Great, enjoy your peak into the life of a Fire Keeper. Bye.”

You spin to protest but as you turn reality bends and suddenly you're back in the armchair with the man nowhere to be found. Looking around, you notice something strange about the fire in the hearth. As you stare deeper into the inferno you begin to make out a faint outline of a circle. The obscuring flame clears revealing a circle made of individual dots of light each connected by a thin wisp of fire. Outside this ring you can see faint shadows moving across the background night sky, moving not like creatures but more like lightning, with sharp, erratic, bends, and shifts as they speed across the star scape. While observing these new beings dotting the landscape of nothingness, one begins to approach the wisp of light. The beings form snaps and whips closer and closer to the ring until it's right next to the light. A tentative limb stretches from the folds of shadows making up the creature and seems to cause the gleam of the light to dim as it moves closer. Seeing the one line of defense against these dark beings starting to falter, you look around frantically searching for something that could help in this time of crisis. Remembering how the man referenced a Fire Keeper before vanishing, you look towards the hearth next to which you notice a long metal prong with a hook on the end. Quickly snatching the hook you stoke the flames, causing a sudden rush of heat as the tendrils of fire flare up. Glancing back at the outline in the fire you see the thin wisp connecting the flames radiates a blinding light driving back the inky form. The being retreats erratically fleeing from the flash of light. Once the creature had completely melded back into the shadows outside the ring of light, you fall limply into your chair and realize the job you have been so unceremoniously selected for. To keep the fire burning. To defend the passage between your world and the next. You must keep this flame burning, otherwise the souls of all future generations will be left to wander and be preyed upon by these shadowy creatures prowling the expanse of the void. As your comprehension of this new world increases, the shadows retreat from your newfound knowledge. More stars appear across the sky driving back the darkness farther and farther until you notice a second hearth sitting further into the void and beyond that there's another pinprick of light, a third hearth. Looking over the back of your chair you see another hearth behind you and beyond that another. Surveying these newly revealed secrets you see pinprick after pinprick of light creating a circle leading all the way back to you. As you watch the nearest hearth you see another person walking away from their fire and reclining back down in their seat. You're not alone in this void, there are other Keepers here. Each with their own flame to attend. Reassured by the knowledge that you need not bear the burden of humanity's future alone, you recline upon your chair and stare deeply into the flames, ready to defend the light from any of those shadowy creatures that dare threaten humanity's safety.