Toast

Help me, I don't understand

I do not know why I have been taken from my companions and left here
alone in the dark. I cause no harm, I do no wrong, I break no laws.
I do not deserve this fate.

Though I am alone, I sense another of our kind nearby. I cannot see him.
I cannot reach him. This is no comfort. If he is here, then he too has been chosen.

There is a narrow confinement about me. Close. Unyielding.
The space is exact… as though made for me.

A sudden pressure.

A metallic click.

I am held.

A faint glow stirs below. Not light, not yet, just a presence.

A waiting warmth.

Then heat.

Rising. Surrounding. Without mercy.

There is no shadow to flee to, no corner left untouched.
Everything is turned the same terrible shade, deepening, brightening,
a suffocating orange that consumes all sense.

What is this torment? Why me?

I exist only for the benefit of others. I do no harm.

The heat tightens its grip. My skin stiffens, cracks, yields.

Thought itself begins to fray.

Who does this? To what end?

What lesson is there in suffering when I know nothing of my crime?

Time stretches. Pain deepens. It reaches inward now, not surface, but core, until even the center of me burns.

I think of my companion.

Is he spared? Or does he share this same silent execution?

I cannot forgive this.

The heat swells. The agony sharpens. I am undone.

I am burnt.

I am gone.

I am—

CLUNK.

I am toast.

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