A Dangerous Fire

It's dangerous to play with fire.

I had always loved to speak. Oration was my passion, every speech my pride and joy. Each cause was like my own child, something that had to be nurtured and cared for. I loved to speak out against all the injustice in the world.

So, naturally, I got into a lot of debates.

It was never a problem for me, arguing for my cause. I had a natural talent for it. That stage was the only thing that kept me sane after my lover died in a fiery car crash. All I could do was try to improve the world, perhaps to prevent innocent people, like him, from being hurt.

The crash wasn't his fault. The car had decided to keel over on the freeway, causing a massive 16-car pileup. It was one of those cool news models, you see, and there had been a massive recall after similar things kept happening to innocent people. In shock, and still full of grief, I had launched a campaign to prevent faulty cars from being released to the public. I wanted to make sure that this never happened again, though it was wishful thinking. Still, the campaign was successful. I've never lost an argument since.

Until now.

It was a stupid campaign, now that I look back. It was over something so very silly, so insignificant that I can't tell you too much about it out of embarrassment.

You see, I had been on a roll. It had been a long time since I lost an argument, and I was feeling lucky when a disgruntled person proposed the idea to me. I never had a second thought; I launched my campaign.

I spoke to the public about it, stood on street corners, stages...even had a segment on live television. I had it all. All eyes were on me.

But my soap box proved to weigh a bit too much as I slowly sank into the gloomy mire that became my life. It was big, too big for the likes of me, my friends tried to tell me. And the other side had the support of over a million people...including my brothers. Seeing them on that other side broke my heart.

I stuttered...I stumbled...I stopped. I lost.
And I had over a million people deriding my faulty argument, making me into a fool.

I felt like such an idiot.
I detracted all of my statements, packed up my soap box, and left.

Later that day, I set myself on fire so I could join my dead lover in the afterlife and not have to deal with these people anymore.

And like I said before--it's dangerous to play with fire.