Before there was…

Sometimes I write things without knowing what they have the potential of becoming. Then, I let them sit there and hope that those ideas will evolve into something else. Some ideas develop into something coherent, and others just sit there, stagnant. No matter how intriguing the idea is to me, and no matter how much I want to turn it into something else, sometimes the muse just isn’t there. But because that original idea is so interesting to me, it disappoints me that I can’t share it with everyone else. So, here I am, posting one of those ideas. At the very least, I can just post it here and call it a “writing sample”.

This is a concept that was created for a company that was going to focus on distributing online educational video content for the business sector. Very quickly, the company’s focus changed and they decided to distribute more than just educational content for business. So, this concept was never presented to them.

What was this going to be exactly? I don’t know. It could have become a script. A print ad. A radio spot. Anything really. I just wrote the below prose to try to find a voice or a tone for this idea. Although the seed for it was planted during a brainstorming session with another writer, the below text is what sprouted out of my mind. For a long time, I thought I would turn it into something else. Maybe into a short film script. Or maybe a satirical novel. But to be honest, I’m not entirely sure where this idea goes from here. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Before (company name) there was…

A boardroom of chaos. Curtains drawn shut; nary a sliver of sunlight penetrates the room. Overhead, the few remaining fluorescent bulbs flicker with disorienting irregularity. The chairs surrounding the conference table are either toppled or broken. The table’s centrepiece is a garbage can with flames and smoke billowing out of it. At the end of the table, several savage men surround their leader. These used to be rational men. Men of intelligence and nobility. Wealthy men. Proud men, reduced to a primitive, primal state. Covered in sweat, dirt and blood. Stomping; grunting; chanting.

The leader throws a handful of dried rat bones onto the table.

The primitive men speak over each other’s voices, “Oooooo… Awwww… What do they say? Yes! What does it mean?”

“It is unclear – something is missing,” their leader says.

“Yes. He’s right. Something is missing,” the primitive men bark all at once.

The primitive men pass a live chicken to each other, hand to hand, until it reaches their leader. The leader cuts the chicken’s throat and pours its blood onto the rat bones.

The leader shouts to his followers, “I see now. It all makes sense. Everything. Can you see it?”

The primitive men scream, “Yes! Yes! We can see!”

The men grunt and stomp and beat their fists on the table.

Before (company name) there was this… whatever this is.

***

Before (company name) there was…

A dark office building. Several primitive men in ratty, torn, blood stained suits run down the hallway illuminating the path with torches. They pass several offices where inside other primitive men mimic the actions of a life that once was.

A primitive man speaks into a severed phone receiver, “Sally, please pick up my dry cleaning.”

Another types at a computer without electricity. “L-O-L. T-T-Y-L”, he chuckles over the clicking keys.

Yet another stands at a broken photocopier attempting to create handmade copies on a crumpled piece of paper with a dried-out pen.

Two other primitive men stand by an empty water cooler repeating the same fragment of conversation over and over again. “They’re going back to the island, can you believe that?” the man says mechanically. “Ah, the show’s been a mess since the second season,” the other responds.

The men with torches continue down the hallway. “The shaft knows all!” the men chant as they near the end of the hall. Another group of men follow quickly behind them, laboriously carrying their leader in their up stretched arms.

Their leader screams, “My sacrifice will reveal all!”

Two primitive men pull open a set of elevator doors. Smoke, steam and flames rise up through the shaft. The primitive men throw their leader into the fiery pit; he screams as he falls to his sacrificial doom.

The primitive men cheer, “All reveal!”

Before (company name) there was this… whatever this is.

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