joeislove's 100-word story for July 4, 2025

joeislove wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on July 4, 2025. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

Having decided to sacrifice himself to the volcano, hoping to change his people's fortune, Antonio hiked all the way to the lip of the caldera and readied himself. But then, looking down at the surging lava flow below him (and possibly out of his mind from inhaling whatever was in that smoke he kept inhaling), he decided that this wasn't the way. He wasn't the one who should be sacrificed. He decided then and there that the only way to redeem his people was to purify them all in fire. Instead of himself, he would sacrifice them. All of them.

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