Hero
The hero was supposed to die. Louis saved him with his mind, sitting at the back of the cinema where no one might notice the concentration on his face. His hand jerked as he shoved the man safely away from his gory end in a wood chipper. The audience broke into laughter. Repeat viewers gaped in shock.
"That was so much less gross than Conor said it would be," a teenager remarked to her friend as the credits rolled.
No one paid attention to the tired boy filing out with the rest of the audience.
"Thanks," the hero whispered as Louis passed his movie poster.
Louis shrugged. One down, he thought. Half a million more to go. He slipped into another cinema hall.
Enjoying this story? Don't miss the next one!
SUBSCRIBE TO DSF
News media ran hot with cries of censorship, sabotage, the ever-present confusion of how the movies were being changed: not just in the cinemas but on DVDs, downloads, and--most mysteriously--book adaptations. Unlikely rescues popped up everywhere. Promised bloodbaths came to naught, cathartic mass slaughters nimbly averted by plot tweaks.
"I mean," one reviewer said, "I guess it's very peaceful and all, but no one wants to watch two hours of Keanu Reeves playing fetch with a puppy and teaching it to sit."
Louis looked down as his feet as his friends complained about their favorite movies being ruined. He wished it didn't have to be this way. He hated destroying people's work. He wished he'd never heard the fictional voices crying out to him for help.
But the weight of all those unsaved lives hung heavy in his heart, and nobody ever said that being a hero was easy.
The End
This story was first published on Tuesday, June 6th, 2017
We hope you enjoyed
Hero by
Davian Aw.
Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.
Daily Science Fiction does not have a paywall, but we do have expenses—more than 95% of which are direct payments to authors for their stories. With your $15 membership, less than 6 cents per story, we can continue to provide genre fiction every weekday by email and on the website to thousands of readers for many years to come.
Support Daily Science Fiction
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):
Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.
5.2 Rocket Dragons Average
Please join our mailing list and
receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept
100% private):
