Very bizarre.

I feel like this story should have started at the searing pain because the narrator wouldn’t have known what came before. You might have been able to get around that by changing the story’s tense to present and definitely so if it was written in third person instead of first. It’s just a little bit of a continuity problem.

Aside from that, it’s an intriguing vignette that begs for more backstory and exposition. :)

A journey that can never be finished. It’s an interesting idea, but it probably would fair better in a longer format with room for exposition.

reminds me of a movie that played backwards, each day the MC waking up remembering a little more of what had happened, but still piecing things together backwards. This is a bizarre story, with no hope of escape for the poor MC.

Was Christopher Nolan’s Memento an inspiration for this? It feels very similar to that film, right down to the tattoo.

bingo on the memento reference i was thinking about the skin challenge and it just hit me so i couldnt help it lol i dont get inspired very often i gotta take it as it comes