1st Person PoV

The torch touched the wood at the base of the tinder beneath me. My heart was beating wildly, and my senses were blurred by the yelling, cheering crowd. I had long given up looking for someone to save me, and now my eyes were glued to the flames quickly licking their way through the wood. The smell of smoke reached me and my eyes watered. I struggled helplessly against the rope that wound its way painfully around my wrists and the wooden stake I was tied to.

The flame worked its way closer, eating faster and faster through the dry branches stacked up. I could feel the heat on my face, making my lips dry. My breath was coming quickly, and I choked in lungfuls of smoke. I wrenched at my wrists, and cried out as the rope cut into them. I could feel something slippery around my wrists, and I assumed I was bleeding. The noise of the crowd had become one constant rumble that made my ears hurt.

The flames were so close I could feel them. They flickered and sparked towards me, and I tried to edge away but I was surrounded by it. I breathed in again and promptly spluttered against the smoke, making my heart beat double as I lost my breath.

The flame caught me.

It lit my trousers and I screamed, writhing and trying to push my leg against the stake and smother the flames. I stamped on them and squashed them but no luck. There was too many flames. I had no hope.

The pain was unbearable.

Yelling myself hoarse, I felt my tears dry and crack on my face. I kicked out but I couldn't stop the pain. The fire was a fierce enemy. It bit and tore at me, eating my flesh. It reached my hands and my coherent thoughts were long since gone. The pain was too much.

During the haze of agony and yelling over what felt like hours, but could have only been minutes, I crumpled to the ashes of the fire.

I didn't have enough thought to process that the flames had eaten through the ropes and dropped me to the ground.

I could only curl into a ball and let the intense pain wash over me and eat me to death.