Marina Flores

Marina Flores is a feminist writer and scholar born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She holds a Master of Arts in Literature, Creative Writing and Social Justice from Our Lady of the Lake University. Her work has appeared in The Pecan Grove Review and Dream Noir Literary Magazine. In her spare time, Marina can be found reading, curled up with her doxie, Simba, or sipping on a cup of iced coffee. She tweets her thoughts daily from @marinathelibra.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE by Marina Flores

Firefighters in reflective neon suits stormed into the blazing Texas Thrift Store as helicopters circled the building in surveillance. The flames that escaped from the structure’s openings whipped and stirred together like vermilion lovers beneath a glassy black sky. A generator on the roof of the thrift store flickered—once, twice, like the first few seconds after lighting a sparkler on the Fourth of July—seconds before an atomic cobalt and orange explosion. Fire swallowed the structure in one gulp, almost offended by the attempt to save the remains of the building with hose water. That night, not much light was needed…

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