(1 of 1. Originally posted on November 10, 2023 for the prompt “Pride and Puppets.”)
Where am I? Why is it so dark? Are my eyes even open? I can’t tell. Why won’t my arms move?
Light flares. I hear voices, but I’m too distracted by the light to pay attention to what they’re saying. The brightness hurts. My eyes feel as dry and grainy as blocks of wood, but I can’t blink. They gradually adjust, and I make out rows of giant benches hung from the wall like shelves. People sit along the benches, unmoving. Are they dead? Wait… is that David? Have we been kidnapped?
“… my newest additions, the CFO and CEO of that big tech company. Heart attack and stroke, both just last week. I can show you my contracts for them. Exclusive rights to use their likenesses after their passing.” The words finally catch my attention, spoken in a voice that sounds like my chain-smoking grandmother come back from the grave to scold me for playing with her garden gnomes.
Big tech company? There’s only one big tech company around here, and I’m… Memories flood back in. My company. The old witch. A contract. The promise of immortality. I’m right here. Why is she talking like I’m gone? Why can’t I say anything?
“This one’s my favorite. Silly little boy, thought he was so clever. Never had an original idea. Just used daddy’s money to buy other people’s success, then had the hubris to call himself a ‘self-made man.’” A giant steps into view. She looks like the witch, but enormous. “He thought he pulled one over on me, with his immortality clause. ‘Can’t use my likeness after I die, if I never die.’ But there’s more than one way to be made immortal.”
How… Something buzzes past my ear. A drone? No, it’s a fly the size of my fist. What on earth…?
“He’ll star in my new satire, opening tonight,” The witch picks me up by the head, dangling me like a kitten. She turns me around. I see a doorway, with a man in a suit standing in it. Both in the same gigantic proportions as the witch. “It can never quite make up for everything he’s done, but at least people will get some good laughs out of him. He’ll be immortalized in my new play, an object lesson for generations to come.”
