This post was originally published through Patreon on December 18, 2018.
Happily ever after.
The cliché mocked Samuel in the moldering darkness of his one-bedroom apartment. A fairy tale ending, saccharin sweet, and so unlike the reality of human life.
Happily ever after.
It was a lie told to little children to shield them from the dark, sinister truths of the world, and perhaps also a lie told to adults too weak to face their problems head-on. In either case, it was a con man’s ruse, as plastic and artificial as a G.I. Joe action figure.
Happily ever after.
Once upon a time, Samuel had tried his own luck at “Happily ever after.” And what had it gotten him? A low paying job and a lonely, miserable life. No family, no friends, no wife or children.
But that was about to change.
Happily ever after.
The accursed phrase had been the object of Samuel’s obsession for almost thirty years. Every day, as he fought rush hour traffic, as he toiled at a job he couldn’t care less about, as he stopped at the groceries to buy his microwave dinners, he mulled over those perverse words, a slow, acid churn that never stopped until he turned out the light and allowed his bitterness to assault him in his dreams.
That was when the demon had visited and made Sammuel an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Happily ever after.
That was the wicked creature’s proposal, and Samuel hadn’t paid a moment’s notice to the price.
“A wish granted,” the demon snarled, “in exchange for a kind thought turned sour. A harmless enough cost, I should think, and a chance to live—”
Happily ever after.
And Samuel had wished, and Samuel had watched each one of his desires spring to life.
What an extraordinary power, he thought, and in the heat of his excitement, he didn’t see the change that took place inside of him.
A harmless enough cost, the demon had said, and it had seemed at the time that he was right. In Samuel’s elation, how was he to notice his desires turning dark, his wishes turning vindictive, his own definition of “Happily ever after” turning more and more twisted by the day?
Now, Samuel had conceived of the ultimate wish, and all he had to do was summon the demon one last time.
Just one more wish, and in the ashes of a smoldering post-apocalyptic world, Samuel could, at last, live—
Happily ever after.
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