By Annabelle Kennedy, TIWP Student 

Everything is not as it seems, in the end. The mask is torn off, the true nature is revealed, and the curtains close. The hero is arrogant and half crazy with a want for revenge. The hero is misguided. The hero is tempted by the dark. The hero is dead. The villain is broken, the villain is angry, the villain is helpless, the villain is misunderstood, the villain has happiness snatched from their grasp as they fall to the ground and leave the hero standing in the ruins of what could be. Later, the hero will be celebrated and crowned, and in the midst of their hopes they will think, that didn’t feel much like a victory. 

The cozy old cottage is dangerous, tooth fairies are half-mad, the werewolf is tortured, the little boy is crying, and we refuse to see a different perspective. The world is rebuilding, the dragon is the princess, night is day and the stars are missiles ready to turn the world to a pile of ash. The drowning man is standing on another person’s shoulders, the tyrant is lonely, the earth is human and begs you to save her, while she lies in an overpriced hospital bed on life support with a heartbeat monitor with lines the color of the sky lies beside her. The blind lead the seeing, the deaf lead the hearing, and the flag turns from red and white and blue to just red. 

Perhaps everything is not as it seems.