Excerpt: Fatal Hilarity

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” I said, and the audience fell into a hush so complete that I could hear the dust settling around them. “Boys and girls! Friends and freaks of all sizes, shapes, and ages! I present to you—true human nature, in a display! In a moment, I have severed this man’s life, I have left him for dead, and I have presented to you all the very core of humanity that lurks in all of us! Within each and every one of you is the ability to do what I have done! I encourage you—no, no, I beg you—let it out! Show us all who you really are! There is someone nearby—stranger, friend, foe, someone—who you can and will kill if given the proper provocation, and people, I ask of you—what better time than now? You have seen it done! You want more! You want blood! And I trust you all to do it—for within the hearts of men lurk beasts, great and terrible, and within all of us lies the ability and even the desire to rip one another apart!”

And oh, how they did. Blood spilled, blood flowed, blood ran in rivers through the dust and dung streets of the city that night, and they proved my point, to me and to themselves: we are all the same. Just as I am only human—well, not in the strictest sense, you understand, but you do get my drift—just as I was once human, you all are human. Just as I have fulfilled my potential to be something more, something greater, something both man like and godlike, you each have that potential.

You are only human, but never forget, so was I.

I became the ringmaster that night. I am still a ringmaster—a ringmaster of human desires, guiding the freak show that is emotion and reaction. I am in charge of the Cirque du Entropy. I am the master of chaos, I am the arbiter of the insane. Where I walk, humans tremble, madmen follow, and monsters fall to their knees in worship. I am great and powerful, inhuman and terrible, and I am a man, nothing more, just like you.