11 - Candle in the Dark - MM
Lylah took the present from Zac's hand. Zac smiled, for he knew she'd love his present. Due to a radio interview in NYC, Zac didn't have a chance to give her his present until the day after her birthday. She eagerly ripped open the shiny silver wrapping paper to see a white box. "Oooooh a box! Just what I wanted!"
Zac laughed. "Yeah, I went to the box store all the way in New York for you."
Lylah smiled. "Awww just for me?"
Zac nodded yes.
Lylah opened the box to find a medium-sized neon purple candle. Lylah loved candles. In her room, you couldn't find a place without a candle.
Lylah turned it over, finding a small piece of paper attached to the candle's plastic bag packaging. She read the small, black print aloud.
"Someone must love you! If the one who gives this to you truly loves you, this candle shall burn for all eternity, just like the bearer's true love for the receiver. The light shall burn day and night every day in light and in darkness. But be careful, my friend! All things have a dark side!"
Lylah gave Zac a huge hug. She ignored the warning. She just took the eternal love part into her mind and let it sit. Zac loves me. Zac Loves Me. Zac Loves ME.
Zac smiled. He pulled away. "You get it all right? I mean there's more to it than just the eternal love part..."
"Yes, Zac, The candle will burn forever...just like our love..." She smiled. Zac looked at the floor. She didn't get it. Just like the man in the store said, "Love overpowers all." She would just have to learn the hard way...
* * * *
The next morning Zac woke up with a start. A dream had come to him in the night. Lylah. Fire. The candle.
"Love is blind as far as the eye can see..." The loud music drifted into the brothers' room.
"Jess, turn off the Spice Girls!" Tay screamed through the open door.
"Well at least it's not the Backstreet Boys, Tay!" Tay shrugged and continued to read his magazine.
Zac took those words-Love Is Blind-As another warning. She was blinded by love. Lylah was in trouble. Zac ran out of the house. He smelled smoke.
* * * *
All the lights were out in Lylah's room. She lit the candle. The flame was unlike any of her other candles that surrounded her room. The single flame in the dark lit up the room like a bright light. She sat on her bed, thinking of the events of the day before. "Zac loves me...he will love me eternally...this is the best present I've ever gotten!"
A thought popped into her head. All things have a dark side. She shrugged it off and continued to think of a future with Zac.
"There can't be a dark side of this! It's just too...amazing!" Lylah reached for her cd player, which was on the table next to the candle. While putting in a cd, she knocked over the candle. She screamed as it fell to her wooden floor.
She tried a fire extingusher, but nothing worked. The candle would burn eternally, and there was nothing she could do to help it. She stood there, trying aimlessly to stop the fire. Nothing could help. The dark side had flared up full-force. There was nothing she could do.
* * * *
Zac stood outside of the flaming ruins, crying into Tay's shoulder.
" I tried, I did. I really did." As the firefighters pulled up, they couldn't get the flames to die down. Nothing could. It was an eternal flame. As night fell, the flames still engulfed the house's ruins. It was going to be an eternal reminder-an eternal candle in the dark.
Next
Previous
Archives