Very cool. I liked this.

I think you should make that into a challenge where you have to start the story with your first two lines.

It’s actually a class assignment, to start with “The last time I saw Paris…” I’ve written four different stories so far and I’m not digging any of them, so I figured I would keep trying!

Third paragraph, it should be “Well,” …
comma, not a full stop.

Still, a great and fascinating story.

I meant those to be separate sentences, actually. As opposed to the first sentence, which is a continuation, and thus takes the comma. If that doesn’t work I can change it, but it was intentional.

Thanks for reading!

I liked it — and the full-stop made perfect sense to me.

I really liked this – I like the pyro for hire – I think it would be great if you expanded it into a short story.

I found the characterization of the narrator a bit conflicted, but perhaps s/he is just complex & has mixed emotions, which I think would come across better in a longer piece…

Very neat story! I like how you tell us that he has a “scarred right hand” which suggests that he loves his ‘job’ enough to continue despite the danger it poses. And I’m no history buff, but how old exactly would your ‘workaholic’ have to be?

Thanks for reading, folks!

The narrator is meant to sound as if he’s a policeman or detective or something at first, but actually he’s just trying to feel out how far this person is willing to go and what makes him tick. Initially, he seems put off by the man’s actions, but reading it through the lens of someone looking to hire an arsonist, the goal is for that to be recast as more excitement and curiosity.

This is meant to occur in the present or nearish future; I’m not up to date on arson technologies so I don’t know precisely how feasible this all is. I’m not suggesting that this is the guy who started the great fire of London or what have you, but I imagine him to be middle aged or a bit older.

Dude, that guy is evil. Well done.

This is very intriguing. It definitely gets your attention.