The familiar feeling of the medicated air floods my mouth and lungs, making me feel at ease. I close my eyes and lean my head back, breathing in the air slowly. I open my eyes and look at my gorgeous view of the forest. I look through my watch tower’s glass and squint my eyes, only to see a dark cloud of smoke lingering over the trees. 

I furrow my eyebrows and stand up slowly. The smoke reaches up towards the sky and my mouth drops in shock. I snatch up my satchel from my chair and swing open the door to the small balcony outside of the small quarters located in my tower. I turn my head to catch a glimpse of the dark smoke. 

The cloud of smoke is growing, yet I see no fire. My inhaler falls from my pouch as I make my way down, panic settling over me. I hop off the ladder and crouch down to gather my things. That is until a sound rattles my tower. It sounded unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It is so completely terrifying. A screech that could make people for miles drop to their knees in pain. I fall to my knees, covering my ears to make the ringing and pain in them stop.

 I look up slowly, terrified of what I would see. My gaze falls between the thin trees to spot the strong orange flames curling up the wood, licking at the dry foliage on the ground, the flames spreading like butter. It’s like I’m frozen in time. I’m shaking, everything hurts, and I’m stuck looking at this roaring fire that could kill hundreds. And I’m not doing anything. The screech roars out again and I quiver in fear and tighten my hands around my ears again.

 I gather myself as the fire starts to inch towards me faster, only a couple hundred feet from me now. I turn around and take a puff of my inhaler, taking off to the clearing where I usually park my car. I pull my bag over me in a panic and keep my hands over my ears. I’m running for my life. I don’t think. I just run. The heat is killing me, biting at me, burning off my skin. I can’t do anything about it. I just run. I’m going so fast that my breath can’t catch up to me. I’m ahead of myself.  There is no looking back. Only forwards. Beside me, a patch of large trees crumbles to the ground.

 At first, I think that it’s the fire that causes them to collapse, but as I turn to my left, I see no ordinary fire. I see something only imaginable in someone’s worst nightmares. A creature the height of what I could only assume around 200 feet, was towering over me. It is as wide as at least seven of me and its skin is the color of molten lava, glowing a mix of bright red and orange. Flames claw from its skin, brushing the leaves of the trees it stands next to, causing the fire to grow among the tops of the trees. I strain my neck to look up at the creature’s face.

 The eyes are a deathly shade of black. A sharp contrast against the bright glowing red and oranges of its body. It prys open its jaws and that’s when I realize where the screech was coming from. Steam flows from its mouth along with that god-awful noise. It’s so high-pitched that I instantly get a migraine. I look down to the leaves and press my palms to my ears, screaming in pain myself. But even as I scream, the monster turns to where I was originally running and stomps away. I am left in shock, but there is not enough time. The fire is engulfing even more of the forest, and I have no other option but to keep running. I turn to my left and run opposite the monster, assuming that the fire had not reached that part of the forest yet since I could see no smoke or flames. 

I take another puff of the medicated air, letting the feel of it entering my lungs soothe me in my dangerously scary predicament. My park ranger uniform clings to my body with sweat. I’m drenched. But I just keep pushing. I trip over a fallen tree and fly over it, sending all of my stuff flying from me. My inhaler slips from my grasp and my knee bends oddly. I’m sprawled out on the dry leaves as a stray trail of fire comes straight towards me. There isn’t enough time to run and get up before the fire snips at me, causing my calves to be scorched along with my pants. I start running once again, trying my hardest to make it to safety with my hurt legs. I wheeze in pain, cursing myself for tripping over that tree. Relief washes over me as I see the fire die out and a small clearing come into view. 

I limp into the public campsite I’ve memorized all too well. I collapse to my knees feet away from a small fire and fall to my stomach. I watch the flames whip and crack around the already blistering air. I could see the air wobble with heat around the fire. I stare in awe at the flames, but a part of me hates what I am looking at. I feel dizzy and confused, and every ounce of focus in my body is on that fire. I hear the screech once again and I don’t even bother to cover my ears. I’ve accepted my fate as I lay on the burnt leaves. I’m already suffering burns all across my body. My clothes are almost completely scorched off of me. I don’t feel the pain anymore at all. I flick my eyes to my feet and I see that ungodly creature only a few yards away.

 The ground rattles beneath me as the monster makes its way to me. I feel my lungs closing up and instinctively start to reach for my inhaler, only to remember that I wasn’t moving for a reason. I shut my eyes and open them again, turning my gaze away from the beast and back to the fire. But as I stare at what was once a small patch of fire, it grows bigger before my eyes. The monster was right in front of it, and the fire was growing to unimaginable heights. Like the beast was possessing it in a way. Another scream leaves the body of the monster and before I can even think, the beast is gone and so is the fire. 

I look in the direction of where the monster came from and see a trail of scorched leaves and twigs, but no more fire. I look back at where the monster had vanished from and shut up my eyes, feeling my breath start to slow even more.

 As I lay there, the pain driving relentlessly into my body, I think to myself, maybe I did complete my duty as a park ranger. I tried my best to save these people, and I don’t think this raging fire has hurt anyone but me. I wonder if I hallucinated that monster in the first place. If I put it in place of someone real, someone human. Because maybe if I think an awful beast started that raging fire, I won’t feel so bad. Something this big, this deadly, couldn’t have happened from a human’s doing. Right? Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I close my eyes for the last time.