She Writes and Pages Catch Flame

Part 1, untitled

There is a man who lives in the woods, whose smoke from his fire billows out past the tallest trees, whose laugh rattles the leaves. When this man cries, the skies pour rain. In his angriest moments the forest booms with thunder and lightening shatters the stark dark night sky. He can grant wishes and forgive sins. He does not call these sins or wishes, but situations, circumstances, and the future. Some call this man the devil, other call him God.

You are not to find this man unless you are meant to find this man. People have wandered the woods for weeks on end searching and searching, but they always find only the edges of the forest and return starving and hysterical. The trees whisper secrets about their neighbors at night.

Paul believes it is his turn to find this man. He climbs out of the window to the bedroom of his mistress, and slowly eases his way back home. His wife is already fast asleep. Only the eldest child had noticed Paul didn’t return home on time that night. Paul had begun to come home later and later. Work was busy…

Work wasn’t busy, in fact it was the opposite. Paul was allowed to leave early most days, they hadn’t a need for his services for the hours that were previously required. He wasn’t about to loose his job, there was just a lull in the economy. He spent half his days pushing numbers and the other half of his day keeping secrets. Paul met someone.

This fair skinned dame had bright blue eyes that Paul just melted over. He couldn’t look away, he couldn’t stop thinking of her. Her name was Rose, how appropriate.