Fall Sweeps

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

"You aren't real!" I say. "It doesn't matter!" but he is bleeding and the hole I wrote into his neck does not allow him to utter any clever last words he is gasping and sputtering and the blood is ink I spilled I scrawled on napkins and notebooks and the margins of drafts we needed to punch up the stakes for the final confrontation and someone had to die and I made the choice and he is dying and I've killed him I've killed him his eyes roll back and if the actor blinks we'll edit it out in post but this isn't the actor the actor will walk away will wash off the fake blood will change out of the ruined clothes will take off the putty skin flaps will roll his eyes back into focus will live and take another job and breathe and he's not breathing he won't be back I've done this it's my fault I've killed him he barely lived and now he's dead and I can't leave him here like this I can't leave it like this but the scene is moving on without him and he is left behind to be carried off by unseen morgue attendants in unwritten scenes and no one will see him ever again and he's not real but does that really matter?