Long Live the King of Mercy

Showtime

He waited in the wings, listening to the crowd cheering his name in anticipation - a sound more intoxicating, more euphoric than any of the drugs the good doctor had given him.
And then the footsteps, slow and heavy - he turned around and saw him, the tin man, the president of show business. "And so, again we meet. You've changed."

A sudden flare of anger at the other man's smug face. "I haven't changed -"

"You have changed!"

"I have not changed!"

Teeth grit in a snarl, fury coursing through him as Charlie continued to gloat. "The Idol, the great Crimson King! You can't even see what you've become."

"Become what? I have not fallen yet."

Words spoken with such certainty, such conviction. And still the other man's tone was cruel and mocking, challenge on his face. "Oh, really? You're dead, and don't even know it yet. You just haven't stopped breathing."

The words hit like a sledgehammer, and he though he was able to stop the fear and shock from showing on his face, he felt it in his stomach, in his soul. The tin man checked his watch almost lazily, an exaggerated smile spreading over his lips. "It's eight fifty-nine, Jonathan. Showtime."

And Charlie turned around, slipping into the darkness backstage until there was no trace of him ever being there at all.
Had he ever been there at all?
Or had it been the mirror he was now staring into, his reflection morphed into the other man by his drug-addled brain?

But the mirror hadn't talked to him since he'd met the doctor.

He felt numb, a brief moment of sobriety cutting through the haze from the drugs and alcohol.

The crowd cheering his name suddenly seemed less like they were there for a concert; seemed more like they were crying out for his execution.
Swallowing resolutely, he stepped out of the wings and onto the stage.

That had been two shows ago.

(A/N: Dialogue was taken directly from the album's track "Showtime." I'm aware that it technically happens right before the final song, but the idea of Jonathan proving Chainsaw Charlie right directly after this conversation didn't sit well with me at all.)