I am King of the World (WWE, 12/26/12 Soul Searching and CW)

For Wednesday Writing Essentials:

The challenge or prompt: Write a story or poem about a person that says they'd sell their soul for ...... Who shows up to buy that person's soul and how does it turn out when it's time to pay up?

My submission ….. enjoy.

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I am King of the World!

The bombs were falling, the country side was in ruins and the piles of rubble that were once cities were impassable.  Masses and masses of people were being killed, bodies lay decaying where they fell and those who were still alive were starving.  Food and fresh water was almost nonexistent.  Henry was still alive, unharmed and he was not hungry.

It was the middle of a bright moon lit night and Henry stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the carnage below.  He had not cried since he was a child and now he was sobbing in gut wrenching, breath taking sobs as he fell to his knees and raised his hands to heaven and shouted “What went wrong?  It was not supposed to happen this way.  I would give my soul if I could change it!”

A tall skinny man quietly walked out of the shadows and put a comforting hand on Henry’s shoulder and said “Your soul is not yours to give anymore Henry.  You gave it to me many years ago in trade for being king of the world and all its possessions and wealth.”  He stepped forward and gestured at the destruction below and said “Behold, it’s all yours Henry.  You own it all and you are King of it all.”

The tall skinny man stepped back and patted Henry’s shoulder again as he continued, “I think you forgot that people have to eat in order to survive.  When you took away their jobs and made them your slaves you forgot about their needs.  They began to steal from one another to feed their children and themselves.  Even your army soon grew hungry and started shooting anyone and anything that got in their way.  The citizens’ guns were all confiscated and destroyed shortly after you became king and they couldn’t fight back, conquering them was easy.  The armies of the world are firing every weapon they have at each other just to protect or steal what little food and water is left.”

“Don’t worry Henry”, he said in his reassuring voice, “you are still king, they will not destroy you. They will take care of you.  You are their King.  I don’t know how long it will take before they are all gone but it shouldn’t take much longer, maybe another four years or so.  We made a deal, your soul is mine and I won’t give it back.  One day I’ll collect,” he said with a smile. “After all, you are human.”

“Now just settle down and rule your kingdom.  I’ll see you soon,” and as he walked away another explosion was so close that it shook the cliff that Henry was kneeling on.  Henry was not harmed neither was he hungry.

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The picture is drawn and painted on my computer MS Paint program.  The moon in the background is actually a photo I took about a year ago.  I liked the shading and coloring that the photo produced so I decided to use it as a background for this illustration and I drew and painted the destructive bomb scene on the bottom of it.  I love my MS paint program and I'm learning how to do more things on it than I thought I could do.  I have another computer paint program that is done in layers that gives a more professional look but I love this simple MS Paint program.  Manipulating those little dots into a picture is fun.