Dragged Through The Inferno

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm Kate and I'm here to leave a quick review!!

First Impression

Well this is quite the deal with the devil there as it would appear. One that seems to have gone the way that most of these tend to go I would think and therefore predictably ends quite badly.

Anyway let's get right to: Kate's Line by Line Reactions;

A man stands alone in some woods that are being engulfed in ravaging wildfires—fires that are licking at the leaves of every great, brown tree and devouring it without a second thought.

“Now you’ve seen the darkest corners of Hell,” the man muttered to a spot on the ground, looking down at the ashes where a tree had once been, a tree he planted in his childhood to cover the body of his late father—a man who only got into trouble and forced his son to watch.

“Why’d you make me do it?” the man said, choking on each word. “I don’t care that you're dead, but why’d you make me watch?” he hissed, tears flooding his eyes. “All I wanted was to help you!” His grief had turned to hysterical anger. “You danced with the devil, and then you fell! And I was sitting right there! I watched you die! All so you could chase some high!”

The fire around him had grown nearer and began to lash out at him, kissing at his cheeks and smothering his face.

“Now all I can feel is death’s grip, and man, is it tight!” the man screamed, no longer hiding his anguish. “All I want is to see the end of time! So, this is how I’ll die! Right here with you! It’s what you always wanted, right?”

His anger faded, and all that was left were weeps and sobs. And finally, through gasps and chokes, he said one last thing: “You make me sick.”

Greetings! I'm here to give you a short and sweet review today!

Now first things first I love how you immediately grasped me into the story with the wildfires, it added an interesting sense of confusion and anticipation- that's a great thing cause readers will want to learn more! The descriptions of the fire was chilling.

And as I read on I was finally able to connect the dots on what was happening. How I see this story is a depiction of breaking off connections to an abusive and manipulative loved one, I think you took that theme on well!

Awesome story! I wish there was continuation of it. Have a lovely day!

- Cozmo

Hello! Leya here with a review!

I'm honestly awed by how captivating this short piece is. I loved the fact that you drew me in with the wildfire, and the imagery really helped me paint a picture in my head of the scene.

A man, devastated, angry with his late father. And now here he is, about to die, in the same place is father did-- or where he's buried?

The last line was a great closing line,

His anger faded, and all that was left were weeps and sobs. And finally, through gasps and chokes, he said one last thing: “You make me sick.”

It's amazing how you managed to draw out so many emotions with not that many words! I felt the familial pain in this story. The protagonist is someone I can relate to. Naturally, we are always reminded of a person through an object that's very close to them, and in this story was the tree. The destruction Of the tree planted in memory of the father gives the essence of trying to destroy the memories but the protagonist also attempts to memorialize his troubled relationship. He is not just feeling anger, frustration, and resentment but he is also desperate for the desire to understand. From what I think, it's giving off a dysfunctional family with your protagonist yearning for a different outcome, he is not a fun of witnessing a loved one's destructive choices. The emotional trauma the father gave him is too deep, the fires are the inescapable nature of his emotional struggles.

Hello, just going to leave my general thoughts! You didn't have a lot of text to work with given the brevity of this story, but you made it work regardless. What we got was a son looming over the remains of a tree that stood over his father's remains. We get an interesting dilemma as it's obvious the relationship these two shared was not a positive one, yet the son apparently did something considerate like giving his father a burial and a commemorative tree. Maybe it speaks to how difficult it is to let people go or relinquish your care of them, even if they're not a good part of your life, because their relation to you is just too much to cast aside so easily. Now, not only is the fire going to consume the tree, severing the son's final connection with his father, but consume the son as well.

As far as I can tell, we don't actually get told what started the fire. He says,

“All I want is to see the end of time! So, this is how I’ll die!"

It almost sounds like this is something he planned for? Wanted? At the same time, he's confessing his frustrations of the father "dancing with the Devil" all to "Chase some high". Perhaps the father sacrificed his morals and relationship with his son, to pursue some vice of his? And now, realizing the weight of this is becoming unbearable, the son has given up on his father completely, even giving up on the last remnant of him in the living world, and now plans to consume both himself and the final resting place of his dad to sever their connection entirely?

That's just how I took it, I could be totally off base. But that's a strength of something like this. Short, sweet, and highly interpretive. Thank you for writing it.