Insanity

How did I end up on an episode of Jerry Springer. One that has gone on for a couple years and probably will end with one of the parties involved killing themselves? Did I just pick the wrong friends or something? This is not normal, folks. Storytime.

The Prince and the Pearl
by: Joe Gagliardi

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Prince. Prince had a good life, going through most days without a worry, spending them enveloped in magic, jokes, or whatever else fancied him at the time. One day, the urge to hunt for some treasure overcame him. So he began to look for the greatest gems, gold pieces, and valuables that he could find in the modest kingdom of Ohio. Granted, they weren't the best, and many of them were misshapen, dull, or otherwise flawed, but overall they satisfied him reasonably well.

One day, another adventurer told Prince of a treasure he had encountered years previous. A legendary cursed Pearl that has the power to grant it's owner anything he so chooses, but at a terrible price. Prince, undaunted by such tales, goes on a journey to recover the Pearl. He finds the Pearl, strangely unguarded for a treasure of such supposed power and value. He takes the Pearl back to his kingdom and all is well. Prince is happier than he has ever been, but due to his elation, he doesn't see the corruption seeping from the Pearl. He becomes gradually more and more controlled and corrupted by the Pearl's poison. His misery causes him to point fingers at everyone and everything around him as the cause, but not the Pearl, which he sees as the only true thing in his life. Gone is the happy-go-lucky Prince, replaced by a bitter man consumed by his desire to keep the Pearl no matter the cost.

One day, the Pearl is stolen from the kingdom by the Prince's adviser, who himself had been gradually corrupted by its power. Prince goes insane at this news, and finds himself in a deep depression. He tries to sate his desire for treasure with various easy hunts, netting himself some rather large, cracked, and misshapen gems, but nothing that can compare (in his mind) to the Pearl. Meanwhile, in another part of the world, the advisor, mad with the power the Pearl has brought him, accidentally drops the pearl while carrying it to a high mountain. The Pearl falls, is cracked, and lands in a stream, which carries it directly back into the waiting arms of Prince. Despite being worse for wear, Prince wants nothing more than to have the Pearl back, and despite a flaw that materialized during its time with the advisor, his dream of having the mighty Pearl back had come true. He sits alone in his castle, the Pearl safely at his side, but not knowing just what or when the Pearl could be lost again....

THE END

Song of the Second:
Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home