Ring of Ash

Ring of Ash

By: Erik Rodriguez

Start

"YOU'VE BEEN WALKING IN THE FOREST FOR YEARS NOW TOGETHER, RUNNING IS ALL YOU KNOW."

“Come on!” you excitedly look over your shoulder at a lanky figure running after you, breathless. It catches up with you and both hands clasp its knees, frame heaving. “Ugh, what’s the point in running?” the figure pants, “the fire will catch up to us eventually…”. I laugh, “Not if we keep running, man! Come on, we are barely outpacing it!” I take a couple more crunching steps in dead leaves that had given up their hold on their respective trees long ago. I expected him to follow, like he always had just a few steps behind me, but over time the distance grew; steps turned to meters, and meters turned into yards.

Next

Do you go back to him, or hope he catches up?

Go back.

Leave him behind.

"Soon, that breathless figure grew so far away that I had to turn back to check on him."

I took a hesitant step towards him, each one felt heavier than the last.I was within distance of putting a supportive hand on his shoulder, but I felt like I was also in within distance of an impending doom. My ears perked up at a crackling just out of view, my nose twitched at the faint scent of smoke. My eyes grew itchy and my throat scratchy. “Hey? Hey dude!! I’m not fucking around anymore we have to go, you have to keep going!” My eyes had worry in them, but he didn’t even have the strength to meet them. “I already told you. What’s the point?” he says to the ground. A dull light illuminated the grey fog that surrounded the forest.

Next

An orange glow begins to fill the forest, it's do or die.

Grab his wrist and run.

Beg for mercy.

Leave him.

"You don't think, you grab his wrist and run away from the lighT."

The panting of your breaths are narrowly drowned out by the crunching of dead leaves undertow. They were lucky, they didn't have to run, they were just fodder to be kicked up in an adrenaline rush, or ambiance in an otherwise lifeless forest. The longer we ran the more I felt the sweat bead on his wrist and it slipped from my grasp. I heard his heavy arm thump against his side like deadweight. I lunge for his other wrist and keep going. I sighed a breath of relief once the orange tint of the forest had settled into the grey we knew. The grey that we had called our home for years now. We made a promise that we wouldn't let the fire consume each other. What type of asshole turns back on a promise?

Next

You are both tired. Stop for a rest?

Leave him behind.

Take a rest.

"You gather twigs and branches while he sits against a nearby tree."

His eyes were lifeless, the only light in them reflected off of the embers from a make-shift campfire you set up. It wasn't cold outside. But the fire felt ironically comforting in its controlled stasis. "We can't go on like this." I tell him, fully aware that he is the one holding us back at this point. "It's been two years, do you think it's been long enough?" He turns his glassy eyes towards me and opens his mouth, no words come out. We both sit and fall asleep to the crackling of the fire. Soon, only charred sticks and ashes remain; the ghost of kinship.

Next

"You both awaken rested, but an orange glow now fills the forest."

My eyes flutter open to the irritation of ashes dancing in the breeze. They grow wider at the immediately radiating feeling of fire surrounding me. I run to the remains of the campfire and hurriedly stamp it out sending vengeful smoke into my lungs. I pivot my head and look for a slumped figure against a tree, no such luck. My heartbeat accelerates at the sudden realization that I am alone. I make circles around the perimeter of the campfire until finally my eyes catch a swaying figure, walking towards the fire.

Next

He is trudging towards the fire now, I can see the air quivering in the distance, or maybe it's just his fatigued figure.

Try to pull him away again.

Beg.

Leave him behind.

"yOU HURRY TOWARDS HIM AND OUTSTRETCH YOUR HAND. IT'S TOO HOT."

Nothing can filter out the screams of trees and hot air howling and tousling your hair now. You reach out towards him and feel your fingertips burn, then your fingernails, then your skin. You pull your hand back instinctively as if you just touched a hot doorknob. You see him ahead of you, his white clothes slowly turning black from char. You don't dare look at his flesh, which is now boiling as if he walked towards the sun.

It's too hot.

Your options are dwindling. He shuffles closer to the crucible.

Beg.

Leave him behind.

"Your throat opens as you invite the hot air inside."

"PLEASE!"

, you beg. Screaming

past him and into the fire.

"He is all I have left!"

The fire doesn't care.

What's left?

Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.

"You left him behind."

W-what?

"hOW COULD YOU?"

I-...didn't have a choice...

"You monster"

I...

"He's dead, now he's just a ring of ashes in the grass"

...

"yOU TURN AND YELL AT THE ORANGE GLOW THAT SURROUNDS YOU."

"Haven't you tormented us enough? LEAVE US ALONE!" I yell at the fire. It doesn't seem much for conversation.

Now what?

The orange glow didn't care for your paltry pleas. You can hear it roaring in protest far in the distance.

Grab his wrist and run.

Leave him.

"Your throat opens as you invite the hot air inside."

"PLEASE!"

, you beg. Screaming

past him and into the fire.

"He is all I have left!"

The fire doesn't care.

That didn't work.

Your options are dwindling. He shuffles closer to the crucible.

Leave him behind.

Try to pull him away again.

"yOU HURRY TOWARDS HIM AND OUTSTRETCH YOUR HAND. IT'S TOO HOT."

Nothing can filter out the screams of trees and hot air howling and touseling your hair now. You reach out towards him and feel your fingertips burn, then your fingernails, then your skin. You pull your hand back instinctivly as if you just touched a hot doorknob. You see him ahead of you, his white clothes slowly turning black from char. You don't dare look at his flesh, which is now boiling as if he walked towards the sun.

It's too hot.

Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind. Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.

Leave him behind.