A trip to the supermarket, like a lot of things we do, can take a long time.

She lights candles and whispers softly into the fire’s open ear. ‘Work for me,’ she tells it, seducing it to life with her marvellous tongue. She is a deputy of fire, a keeper of the flame. I want her to burn me. I want her to hurt me and for me to do the same to her.

An excerpt from the beautiful story "Gun-metal day" by LOUISE McCLEMMAN. Read on MSLexia.