The Writers Guild Presents: 11/29/13

I can’t remember BEFORE the pain.

Every memory is tinged with the constant dull ache. Every new experience comes with it automatically included.

It just hurts, all the time.

And now like some dark messiah, he offers to fix it all…for a price.

Now I personally don’t know if there’s a heaven or hell. I’ve seen things that would make a case for either but as for my personal belief in an afterlife, in this profession it’s almost just a nap! Superman, Hal, even Ollie have “gone” and come back. But he’s a bad guy, a demon!

But he’s offered something no one else has been able to since it happened…relief! He claims he doesn’t want much, just my soul and skills. And the offer is oh so tempting, most deals too good to be true are.

He sounds like the son of an televangelist and car insurance salesman dipped in honey. Every word dripped with endless treasure and no possible consequence. A smile that came right out of a cheesy commercial, complete with “ring of confidence” shine. The more he talks, its hypnotic!

He sweetens the deal. He wants to make me into Superman, beyond him. He replays my worst moment over and over and over again showing how it could’ve been different. The deal gets better and better for something that scientifically I know isn’t there but fundamentally is a part of a person! Is the price worth the promise?

Neron gives of a microsnarl and turns to me, his large frame standing over me in my chair, “So Barbara, do we have a deal?”

I grip the sides of my wheelchair as I exhale, “Sure”

And with that my career as a hero ended!

**