Epidode Five - J Randell’s Schadenfreude

J Randell and Felix Metric were both successful authors of the dark and disturbing, but they developed a rivalry which was to lead to the demise of one and the imprisonment of the other. Their titles always topped the best seller lists, with sales at the high end and sometimes stratospheric. For their agents and publishers there was nothing not to like, especially when a little competition created positive publicity.

It was only when Felix Metric tweeted that much of his life was spent staring at a blank screen, that their rivalry moved up a level.  J Randell could not resist the opportunity to respond with some mischievous mockery. Incensed, Metric set a challenge that he knew his fellow author would eventually struggle to complete.

They had a year, he said, to see who could successfully publish more stories in the short form, either published or submission approved for publication. The forfeit for the loser would be a substantial financial donation to a charity of the winning author’s choice. Moderated by their agents, on the first day of the New Year, the starting gun for their write-off began.

At the first quarter, J Randell was able to prove he had taken a lead of four stories to one. Metric, well known for his sanguine demeanour, knew time was on his side, predicting J Randell (notorious for his mood fluctuations), would struggle to compete come the mid-way stage.

Six months in, they were neck and neck, but J Randell faced a dilemma all authors fear: 

Creative block.

Now normally this crisis could be overcome, given time, reflection and therapy. But the one thing J Randell did not have was time. He needed stories, fast and furious, and took a dangerous step from imagination to reality, to fill the creative hole.

His agent noticed the marked change in J Randell’s writing. There was a harshness, a coarse realism which punctuated each new story he produced. It was as if, his agent remarked: ‘the stories were true.’ But J Randell was on one, locked in creative mode, in the zone and not to be disturbed on any account.

However, come the third quarter it seemed Felix Metric had taken an unassailable lead, and by the final quarter nothing was heard from J Randell until a few days before New Year’s Eve. It appeared he was seeking a magnanimous ending, when he arranged with Metric and their agents, to attend dinner at his home on the top of the hill.

Unfortunately, this is where J Randell was to demonstrate how far he had departed from sanity, how far he had become absorbed in his own distorted reality. After Metric was crowned the undisputed winner, J Randell announced he had a great story to read, to round off a year of literary achievement. As they listened to his tale, he laid bare how he had committed the crimes in the stories he had told. Then, to their horror, the final scene revealed the poisoning of the food and wine at their celebratory dinner, to complete J Randell’s schadenfreude.