Life Passed

A Transgender Paranormal Fantasy

From the Paranormal Visitor Universe

Chapter Seventeen: The Fire Spreads

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

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Copyright 2008, 2025 by Sasha Zarya Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

Elias's powers suddenly escalating beyond all previous levels just as we'd committed everything to our love-based intervention strategy had left our entire community reeling from the magnitude of what we now faced. As Laura and I sat together in my bedroom the morning after our emergency gathering, we could feel the supernatural disturbances rippling across Cedar Hollow with unprecedented intensity.

"Minuet," Laura said, her hand pressed to her Celtic Triquetra necklace as dark visions flowed through our telepathic connection, "he's not just internalizing the elemental anymore. He's becoming something else entirely."

Zibela, Jubilee, Michelle and Gladys came to us. They could sense it too. Through our enhanced magical perception, we could see the truth of what was happening. The fire elemental's presence, which had been growing steadily stronger over the past weeks, had suddenly merged completely with Elias's consciousness. Where once there had been a man possessed by an ancient spirit, now there was something far more dangerous—a hybrid entity that combined human intelligence with elemental power.

"The temperature's rising everywhere he goes," I observed, watching through our shared sight as Elias moved through Cedar Hollow like a walking furnace. "He's not even trying to hide it anymore."

The escalation was visible throughout our mountain community. Where Elias had once been able to manifest controlled flames for specific targets, now his very presence caused spontaneous combustion. Grass withered beneath his feet, wooden structures began to smolder when he passed, and the air around him shimmered with heat waves that had nothing to do with the weather.

"He burned down the Riverside Gathering's meeting place just by walking past it," Gladys reported when she arrived at our house that afternoon, her face pale with exhaustion and fear. "Not intentionally—he was just walking down the street, and the building caught fire."

Through our connection to the other circles, Laura and I could sense the growing panic among the practitioners. The careful defensive strategies they'd been developing were useless against an enemy who could destroy simply by existing in proximity to their sacred spaces.

"It's getting worse every hour," Tabitha added, consulting her notes from Ireland with increasing desperation. "According to the Celtic records, this is what happens when an elemental achieves complete merger with its host. The human consciousness becomes a focusing lens for the spirit's power, but without the wisdom to control it."

Helen's spiritual form materialized beside us, her energy more agitated than I'd ever seen it. "The merger is accelerating because of our intervention plans. The elemental senses the love-based strategy we're preparing, and it's trying to become too powerful for redemption to reach Ruth."

But perhaps the most disturbing development was how the broader community of Cedar Hollow was responding to Elias's transformation. Where once they had rallied behind his charismatic sermons, now many were beginning to fear the very man they had supported.

"Half his congregation didn't show up for Sunday service," Michelle reported after her own reconnaissance mission through town. "The ones who did come looked terrified. They're starting to realize that their preacher isn't entirely human anymore."

Through our enhanced perception, Laura and I could see the spiritual threads that had once connected Elias to his followers beginning to fray. The supernatural charisma that had bound them to his will was being overwhelmed by the raw elemental power that now flowed through him unchecked.

"But Crane is using their fear," Laura observed, her necklace pulsing as she accessed visions of the deacon's latest activities. "He's telling them that Elias's transformation is proof of divine power, that the fire is God's judgment on the wicked."

The community was fracturing along new lines—those who feared Elias's growing power, those who still believed in his divine mission, and a growing number who were beginning to suspect that the real threat to their peaceful mountain town came not from the Wiccan circles, but from the man who claimed to protect them.

"Mrs. Henderson from the grocery store asked me if we knew any way to 'calm the preacher down,'" Michelle said with dark humor. "She's lived here for forty years, and she's never seen anything like what's happening to the weather patterns around the church."

As Elias's control over his abilities deteriorated, the attacks on individual practitioners became more targeted and severe. No longer content with general harassment, Crane had begun organizing what he called "purification visits" to the homes of known circle members.

"They came to my house last night," Sarah from the Moonrise Circle reported during an emergency phone conference. "Not Elias himself, but six of his followers carrying iron weapons and some kind of protective charms. They demanded I 'renounce my demonic practices' or face the consequences."

The escalation was systematic and terrifying. Families were being visited in the dead of night, their children followed to school, their workplaces contacted with anonymous reports of "dangerous cult activities." But worse than the human persecution was the supernatural element that now accompanied it.

"Every place they visit catches fire within hours," Marcus from the Oakwood Coven added, his voice tight with exhaustion. "Not from arson—from residual elemental energy that Elias leaves behind. It's like he's marking territory, claiming our sacred spaces for destruction."

Laura and I could feel the fear spreading through our telepathic connections to the other young practitioners. Children who had grown up feeling safe in their spiritual traditions were now afraid to wear their sacred jewelry, afraid to practice their family's rituals, afraid to even speak about their beliefs.

"They're targeting the children specifically," Gladys said, her maternal instincts flaring with protective rage. "Crane's people are going to the schools, telling teachers and administrators that certain families are 'exposing their children to harmful influences.'"

But the most alarming development was how Elias's uncontrolled power was affecting the spiritual landscape of Cedar Hollow itself. The ancient altar where the fire elemental had first been awakened was now blazing with permanent flames, visible from miles away as a pillar of fire that reached toward the sky.

"The elemental is calling to its source," Helen explained as we watched the distant glow through my bedroom window. "Elias can't contain its power much longer. When he finally breaks, all that energy will return to the altar, and it will become a beacon for every destructive spirit within a hundred miles."

Through our enhanced sight, Laura and I could see other supernatural entities beginning to gather at the edges of our community—drawn by the elemental fire like moths to a flame. Shadow spirits, pain feeders, and worse things that had no names were circling Cedar Hollow, waiting for the barriers between worlds to weaken enough for them to enter.

"We're running out of time," I said, feeling the weight of our impossible situation settling around my shoulders. "Our love-based intervention was supposed to heal Elias before he reached this point. Now he's too far gone for anything but force."

"No," Helen said firmly, her spiritual energy blazing with determination. "Love is still the answer. But it will require a sacrifice that none of us anticipated."

As the day progressed and the supernatural pressure continued to mount, I began to notice something alarming about Helen's spiritual presence. Where once her energy had been vibrant and seemingly inexhaustible, now she appeared to flicker and fade at the edges, like a candle burning low.

"Helen," I said, my thirteen-year-old voice tight with concern, "you're getting weaker."

"Each time I manifest to protect the circles, each time I channel energy to maintain our defenses, I use a portion of my spiritual essence," Helen admitted, her form becoming more translucent as she spoke. "I've been drawing on reserves that were meant to sustain me until my final journey beyond the veil."

The implications hit me like a physical blow. "You're dying again. Really dying this time."

"I'm fading," Helen corrected gently. "There's a difference. When a spirit overextends itself in the physical realm, it begins to lose cohesion. Eventually, I'll have to choose between maintaining my presence here or preserving enough energy to complete my journey to the great beyond."

Laura grabbed my hand, our necklaces pulsing with shared fear. "How long do we have?"

"Days, maybe hours," Helen replied, her voice growing fainter. "The final confrontation with Elias is approaching, and I'll need to use everything I have left to give you and the circles a chance at redemption."

Through our telepathic connection, I felt Laura's terror mixing with my own. We had been counting on Helen's guidance to see us through the love-based intervention we'd planned. Without her spiritual anchor, how could we possibly reach the broken soul buried beneath Elias's elemental rage?

"There's something else," Helen continued, her form flickering like a dying flame. "The reason Elias's power escalated so suddenly—it wasn't random. The elemental sensed our plans for redemption, and it's trying to become too powerful for love to reach. It knows that if we succeed in healing Elias, it will lose its host and be forced back into containment."

"So it's fighting back," I said, understanding flooding through me. "Making itself stronger so that force becomes the only option."

"Exactly. And if we resort to force, if we try to destroy rather than heal, we'll prove that love isn't stronger than hate. The elemental will have won, even if we manage to defeat Elias."

Zibela, Jubilee, Michelle and Gladys arrived and Zibela spoke for them all. "Be at ease Helen and our daughters. Our two circles together will take up the slack."

As evening approached and Helen's spiritual energy continued to fade, she made an announcement that would change everything about our approaching confrontation.

"Girls," she said, her voice barely audible now, "I need to tell you something about the final battle that's coming. Something I've been keeping from you because I hoped there might be another way."

Laura and I leaned forward, our necklaces glowing with urgent light as we sensed the gravity of what Helen was about to reveal.

"The love-based intervention we've planned—it will work. But it will require a sacrifice that goes beyond anything we've discussed. To reach Ruth, to heal the elemental, to save both Elias and our community..." Helen's form flickered one final time before stabilizing. "Someone will have to take the elemental's place. Someone will have to become its new host, but channel love instead of hate."

The weight of her words settled over us like a shroud. "You're talking about possession," Laura whispered. "Voluntary possession by a fire elemental."

"I'm talking about redemption," Helen corrected. "The elemental isn't evil—it's broken. Twisted by centuries of imprisonment into something destructive. But if someone with enough love and wisdom could become its host, could show it what it was meant to be..."

"It could be healed," I finished, understanding the full scope of what she was suggesting. "But whoever volunteers would have to be strong enough to contain elemental fire without being consumed by it."

Helen's smile was both proud and heartbreaking. "Now you understand why I've been preparing you, sprite. Why your transformation had to happen exactly as it did, why your powers have been awakening so rapidly. You're not just Minuet anymore—you're the only one with the spiritual strength and purity of purpose to become the elemental's redeemed host."

This hit me like lightning. Helen's spiritual energy was fading from overuse, Elias's destructive abilities were spiraling beyond all control, and our community was tearing itself apart between fear of magic and fear of the man who claimed to protect them from it.

But the most terrifying revelation was that our love-based intervention would require me to voluntarily accept possession by the same fire elemental that had driven Elias to madness—trusting that my love would be strong enough to heal centuries of twisted rage and transform destruction into redemption.

The war for Cedar Hollow's soul was about to enter its final phase, and I, Minuet—the girl who had been passed a life of authentic possibility—would have to risk everything to prove that love really could triumph over even the most ancient and broken hatred.

The fire on the horizon pulsed like a heartbeat, calling to me with elemental hunger. But this time, I would answer not as a victim, but as a willing vessel for the most powerful force in any universe: love that refuses to give up, even when faced with the impossible choice between salvation and destruction.

Zibela, Jubilee, Michelle and Gladys looked on in awe with full devotion to their part in this plan.