The Kingmaker (part 1)

Jake glanced at the door. It was only a couple of metres away.

Perhaps he could heave himself over to it. But this thought seemed to pass through the back of his skull straight to the man behind.

“No no Jake. I don’t think you’ll be leaving me quite so soon. And we won’t be disturbed, I’ve made sure of it. Just you and me from here on in.”

Emotions were whirling, parting, ebbing and flowing. The fear was mixing with anger- a haemorrhage of rage. He was beginning to despise being toyed with so. He wanted to wriggle away and attack.

He wanted to spin his body around and melee the source of these words. But he could not; stripped of more than the power of movement.

“Come now really. This is precisely why I have taken time to visit you: such skill, such wonderful skill- to read, to know. Even now, your supple brain is pitted against mine. Were I ordinary... there would be only one victor. But fortunately for us, I am far from it. But let’s not get too bogged down with me. We’re here to discuss you.

Such ability in someone so young. Your talents, they’re wasted, wasted on such small things. You know of what I speak. You’ve always known. Yet you cannot embrace it. You even fight it. I’m here to tell you to respect yourself, love yourself.

“I mentioned that I was not the devil. This is true, but I’m not going to pretend to be some guardian angel. I presume also that it is the nature of my motives that you most urgently question. What am I after? Put simply, thrills. There is an eternity of nothing reserved exclusively for every one of us. But that’s not to say that we must accept our sentence all at once. Most people die, fearing death, when that is precisely the state in which they have been residing for much of their lives. Friends, family, lovers, sport, money- all of these make us live. But like it or not, all enjoyment fades. We keep on pressing at the pleasure button, the morphine drip keeps coming, but we all develop resistance eventually. It is inevitable, and I can offer you no way out; what I may provide you with is an extended holiday from the unfolding tedium; a brief respite from this death state into which you’re daily sliding. ‘Thrills’ you hear me say. Kicks.

We view them as small and meaningless. But they themselves are