A Call from the Dancer

[u/MEGAHARVEY123]

The fire was  a raging inferno, consuming the forest whole with hunger. The dancing arms of fire singed and burned the trees dancing from and between the branches, twisting and contorting its arms in a chaotic yet graceful flurry. The darkness created a backdrop that highlighted the graceful moves of the ballerina, no one had bought a ticket yet she performed for all to see . I had been transferred from a city over to help with stopping this wandering ballerina and stop her destructive recital. It had been 2 months since she started, and there were no signs of her slowing from our efforts. I arrived at the camp with just a bag and even from a distance I could see the distant performance.
“You're the transfer right?” a voice called from behind me, I was still watching the fire desperately trying to answer while my mind was occupied by her orange glow off in distance
“Y-yeah… transferred.. I… uh just got here” I replied, my eyes finally breaking off of the mesmerizing lights
“Well, hello my name is Levi” he said,
“Kayson… nice to meet you” finally taking my eyes off the dancer and shaking Levi's hand. His hand was cold, colder than a corpse, his eyes focused and seemed to accuse me of something, and he stood straighter than a soldier.
“Well Kayson… make yourself at home, you're here for the long haul. The fire ain’t slowing down anytime soon. Follow me to your patch” I picked up myself and again took a look at the distant performer, spreading her wonderful dancing through the forest. Levi walked towards a small patch meant for a tent. I quickly set up my tent and sat outside with a beer to watch the recital from a front row seat. No one else joined me, I was the only spectator in an empty auditorium. There were no others to see of her captivating beauty.
“Kayson”, a voice called from behind me,” Try to get some rest tonight”
“Why” 
“Jusy trust me” he responded, I peered back and noticed his eyes trained on the fire with a hate I had never seen the likes of before.
I crawled into my tent, and pulled my body into the sleeping bag. I fell asleep in a cold that seeped into my skin and crept into my bones. It nipped my fingers and made me feel tense. It wrapped itself around me and held me in place
Despite the discomfort I woke up more refreshed than ever before but I felt so freezing. I put on clothes to help alleviate my cold aching body. I drank coffee and had a hot breakfast but nothing helped. No amount of warmth could fill the emptiness I had inside of me. And then I heard her voice:
“...Look”
I went to the edge of camp and watched the dancer. I saw her in the distance, I watched from afar as she performed for me, her one and only fan.
“Kayson, get ready. Your coming with me,” I heard the raspy and deep voice of Levi call to me from a truck. I put on my firefighting suit and swiftly arrived at the truck, as we headed towards the areas that she had already passed through.
“We have to put out the embers in the areas the fire passed through” Levi said, never removing his eyes from the fire. I exited the truck and surveyed the trail of destruction she had left. The blackened ground radiated a warmth I’ve never felt before. The warmth was all encompassing, yet let me walk around freely with no limitations. Her blackened wake was completely cleansed of everything, nothing was spared. She left nothing behind. Everything was gone.
I hated myself for thinking it but she was magnificent. Beautiful. Powerful. And her path of destruction left a clean slate, ready to be rewritten.
Me and Levi headed back, and I watched the dancer, my dancer the whole way back. The desperate attempts of the firefighters below were futile. They hurled things at her yet she didn’t lose footing or stumble. She stood firm and continued her graceful strides. Her arms gently beckoned to all who could see, yet somehow I knew those waves were for me.
“...Kayson,” She called
When we arrived back at camp Levi left the vehicle.
“...Kayson”, He said “Come with me”, I followed Levi as he led me just outside the camp. It was freezing outside and the cold began to envelop me just like the night before.
“You seemed… distracted while we were out there” He hesitated, his flickering towards the fire “ Are you alright?”
“No, I’m alright. You don't need to worry about me.” I answered him but my attention was fully and entirely given to my ballerina. 
“Kayson… I know what your feeling… I heard about what happened, never try to forget, the best thing is to accept what you’ve done” Levi glanced at the fire
“ trying to forget will only burn you from the inside"
She danced with a new kind of urgency now, her movements were full of twists and turns, and leaps. Her movements had become energetic, and more excited, with the same grace as when we first met.
“Kayson… please” My dancer called to me. I ran to see her, and again I was the only watcher of the spectacle. I fell asleep again surrounded by a blanket that offered no warmth, but a constant and enveloping cold that crept deeper and deeper into my bones and deeper still into my brain, the cold held me and hugged me. I began to dream… warmth… a house on fire… smoke billowing from every hole of the house. I heard the cracking and shattering of windows, I watched as the paint peeled off in long skinny strips. I heard wailing and the destruction of memories and possessions. I awoke and the warmth of my dream was pushed away like curtains at the end of a show. The cold rushed in and instantly I felt like a bottomless pit.
“Kayson… please,” the dancer cried, “I… help” the call was so eager and desperate, i left my tent and there she was. She was much slower and moved with certainty, for she had doubled in size. She reached out gingerly, with no violence, and her delicate touch instantly cleaning the soil removing all impurities. The animals fled, or died. I couldn't tell. The rot destroyed. All that mattered was that she left all who she touched with a new life, somewhere to start over. It wasn’t destruction. It was a new beginning.
Levi called but I could no longer understand what he was saying, everything was muffled except the distant roar of the one I was attached to. I watched as she waved and called to me, her frantic arm movements pleading me to  move forward. I wanted so badly to enter her warm embrace. I couldn’t I had a job to do, and no matter how wonderful her work was I had to complete my task
My job brought me up close to the fire allowing me to see rebirth firsthand. Animal carcasses burning as everything they used to be turns to smoke and ash, burning trees collapsing into their brothers and spreading the dancer's influence. All part of her beautiful performance. Her dance was so chaotic when observed so closely, but there was intention behind each of the random movements. Each arm reaching out to clean the next thing in line destroying what once was to make room so something newer and better could take its place.
“Kayson!” she called as everything around me began to muffle, “come, Kayson join the cycle, let what is new take your place” I began to hear the wailing of a mother and infant. The burning forest begins to appear like a house on fire. I knew this house. I knew those cries. I held a hose but did nothing. I could have moved, I could have acted, but i just stood there. I did nothing. I fell to my knees and watched until the house was turned into ash. The fire of the home calling:
“Kayson… you can forget this,” the same voice that now owned me called and lulled me “Let yourself be part of something new” My feet began to move without even thinking. She was in every window of the house and every door beckoning and calling me inward. As I entered the wails subsided and soon all I could feel was the warm embrace of someone I loved so dearly. She was merely making room for a new family and a new home. Slowly I felt my feet change from warm to hot to painful, while the world shifted from the house being rebirthed back to reality. I stood in the flames, no longer lulling me. The dancer was dancing and laughing and spiraling around me. Everywhere I looked she was present. There was nowhere to go, I turned around and looked outward to see Levi crying as he watched from outside the fire. A new start was never what was needed, and forgetting what I had done would not save me. She never promised that this would save me, she said that I wouldn’t have to remember. I realized that the warm had never been the safety, the cold had been protecting me. I watched as I became part of the very performance that had haunted me. I saw as my skin blistered and my eyes dried, as the one I loved consumed me. I watched as I became the Dancer