There are those who will say it couldn’t have happened. But I know it happened, because I was there and witnessed it with my own eyes. Seeing is not to believe, but it goes a long way toward believing when the view is so close and personal. The incident began as an innocent prank; to see how big it could become for everyone’s enjoyment, but the person suggesting it and igniting its small beginning didn’t cconsider the alcohol and substance effect on those who indulge, and usually become aggressive and mean.
The twenty or so of us collected broken rotting limbs and tree portions, adding them to a fire that became a conflagration, somehow growing hotter and wider with flames more searing after every armload of easy-to-burn wood. The monster roared its command of the pyre and its worshippers, while no one realized the measure of the inferno’s intensity as it affected good judgment, beckoning us nearer the licking flames as friend and god; sustained only by the dreadful crescendo of uncontrolled emotions spiraling upward; a flying caldron of spiritual confessions demanding creature surrender.
Singularly, a few accepted the new world of hell as a benevolent master offering warmth, enlightenment, a special rhapsody, and whose assured protection would be a part of their becoming one with an omnipotent seducer. The unimaginable began; frenzied human beings welcomed the energy transfer by walking to its edge with one more helping of flame-feeding wood, then one by one began offering themselves to a consuming idol in a self-sacrificing ritual, bringing other, previously rational, beings to shuffle into tree-high flames engulfing clothes and flesh in split-second ghastly evaporation.
Through piercing screams at such horror, a few, not into a sacrificial trance, were in instant shock, and as despair became real, their high emotions melted into human tears and sobbing. Before us was an immense cold pile of ashes; a tragic lnsignificant memorial to friends of substance, meeting death through the folly of group fun.
Jennifer finally ends up in Apalachia after barely escaping an attack. She soon learns about her destiny and how her actions will 'put a friend in grave danger'. With everyone refusing to tell her more Jennifer must find answers for herself.
