Truth Seer Prophesy

David looked at his watch again and for the second time that morning he realised he was running late.  He had to get a move on if he was to finish his chores and not be late for school.  He normally allowed himself plenty of time to complete his paper round, finish his chores and get breakfast before getting ready for school, but not today for some reason.  He quickly walked into the living room and set about preparing the fire.  He began by cleaning out the grate, putting most of yesterday’s ashes into a bucket and sweeping the remainder back into the fireplace. A bit of excess ash wouldn’t cause too many problems and he thought he could dedicate more time to the task tomorrow morning, but for now, time was ticking by.  He folded sheets of yesterday’s newspaper into knots; this allowed the paper to burn longer, and then placed the sticks of firewood on top.  He sprang to his feet and walked from the living room through the kitchen to the coal shed, where he filled a bucket full to the brim with bricks of coal.  Taking it back through the kitchen and into the living room, he placed the bucket next to the hearth and carefully placed a few pieces of coal on top of the wood.  He was just adding a few more to finish off before lighting the now complete fire when the grate moved slightly toward him of its own volition, toppling the couple of pieces of coal he had just laid onto the hearth.  He looked at the grate in astonishment and watched in amazement as it moved again.  He moved away from the fireplace involuntary; more from surprise than anything else.  As the grate moved, more coal fell from the top and landed on the hearth, and he couldn’t do anything but stare in shock.  He eventually gathered enough courage to investigate and knelt closer to the fireplace, looking under the grate to see if there was something pushing it forward, although he couldn’t think what that something could be.  As he stared at the back of the fireplace he noticed a brick had become dislodged somehow from the back.  He wondered how that could have happened and thought maybe something had become stuck there, it sounded absurd but he didn’t know how the grate could move forward like that without being pushed or pulled, and there didn’t seem to be anything doing either.  On closer inspection he noticed that the brick had actually come away from the back of the fireplace now by a couple of inches.

David reached his hand under the grate to try and feel if there was anything behind it; or at least push the brick back, but as he touched the brick, he was astounded to feel a strange sensation and then shocked to see his finger tips fade to transparency.

“What the..!” He exclaimed, snatching his hand back from the brick, scraping the top of his hand on the underneath of the grate.  His fingers had returned to normal as soon as he moved them away from the brick, but now he had a nasty red scratch on the top of his hand.  He held the now injured hand in his good one and brought it up to his face to have a good look.  He wiggled his fingers and then gently touched them with his other hand, almost expecting them to disappear. 

Realising that he still had his hand; and intact, he used his other hand to reach out and touch the protruding brick once more.  He felt the same strange sensation once more when his fingers touched the brick and watched in wonder as they began to fade.  He pulled his hand back; carefully this time and his fingers returned to normal, as before.  He sat there a few moments watching the brick with suspicion, trying to determine why and how the brick acted this way and what he was going to do about it.  He couldn’t decide if he was dreaming or having hallucinations, but he couldn’t have this sort of thing happening in his fireplace. 

“This is just too weird,” he said out loud, “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I don’t like it.”

Composing himself, David decided to see how far his hand could go and how much would fade.  Reaching for the brick, and preparing himself for the worse, he said. “Ok, let’s see what you do now?” And closed his eyes, as if by doing