Helloween

by Duncan Ralston

"It's a weakness shared by many rich and powerful men, I suspect. Maybe even most. Sure, they might act like they're above critique from us little people, like it doesn't matter to em, they might even believe it, but those words chip away at em a notch at a time, until it's about all they can think of. And men like that, they don't have a change of heart when that happens, at least not toward kindness. No, it's at that point they reveal their true nature. See, when a man of great stature suffers the indignities of the little people, salt of the earth types like you and me, their focus whittles away to a fine point. Revenge is what they want then. As cold and pure as a blizzard in February." "Revenge," Earl said.

"You see, Charles, it's the lies we tell ourselves that hurt the most. When those lies are exposed…" Nance clucked his tongue, shaking his head gravely. "Dan Crook told himself he was a great man, but in reality he was just a man like any other, who happened to be in the right place at the right time, using all the right patter to sway the right people's goals toward his own. We've had quite a few charlatans swing their dicks through these parts over the years, some of them claiming to be able to make people rich, a few of them even purporting to be the Second Coming, the new Messiah. But sooner or later, they come to realize they've messed with the wrong town. Live Free or Die, that's our state motto. It says so over the town council chamber, right there above where our disgraced former mayor and town founder Dan Crook sat for three terms."