So Light 'Em Up

Sometimes, she thinks, she can see the embers sparking under her nails as she drags them across soft skin, or cold stone.

If you catch her eyes in the right light, you might see more than the reflection of the flames. You’ll see them start to become the flames themselves. You might notice that there's no fire at all for them to reflect, but it's there anyway. 

Sometimes, she wonders if anyone else notices the flames licking at her skin, crawling up her spine; feels the heat around her, radiating from her, like she does. If they can feel the primal, consuming fire that’s always hovering just under her skin.

And she can always tell the exact instant that she sets someone else on fire, for better or worse. She can see the flames transfer, watch them begin to burn, and wonder if they know it, too. Some of them can handle it. Learn to adapt, can handle the heat, the ones that are already burning themselves. Some quench it. Some are set ablaze and burned up like a long extinct sun.

But at least she can say she’s never afraid of getting burned.
She’s already burning.