Page 6 of The Guru: Shadow

“I have no hope for the future. Tried to kill myself last year, and nothing seems to work out.”

Admitting it so fast, so easy.

“Thank you for sharing this with us. You are so strong.”

The fuck you are. You are weak and I will have you for breakfast.

“I wanna show you something.” And he asked the room, “Who else has had thoughts of killing themselves? Lift your hands.”

The hands of about one-third of the people in the room went up.

“You see that, Liam? You are not alone. It is time for you, for you all, to step out of the shadow. It is time for you to let go of that excuse of a life and claim your spot. And when you come home from this weekend, you’ll do exactly that. Understood?”

Yes.”

“I can’t hear you!”

“YES!” Liam shouted into the mic.

“That’s what I want to hear. Now, tell me, when was the last time someone hugged you?”

“I can’t tell–”

“Do you have friends or a girlfriend?”

“No,” Liam said with a pitiful pain in his voice.

Even more perfect.

He pulled Liam into a hug, a tight one.

“You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be seen, Liam. I see you. With all of my heart. And everyone else here sees you too.”

“Thank you,” Liam whispered, tears running down his cheeks as he cried against his chest.

Oh, I am so going to eat you.

“Now, let us all celebrate the first day of your new life.”

“It was phenomenal, Deis,”shouted Mark on Sunday afternoon.

“How many sales?”

“4.95 million.”

Definitely a record. Fear-mongering and promises of healing and change absolutely did their magic. Desperate people would grasp every last straw. It was all just a matter of exploiting what a person desired most, finding out their deepest pain points, and then striking. People don’t want to change; they want to buy a comfortable magical solution because humans, by nature, are lazy.

“How many were there in the end?”

“Over three thousand people.”

“And how many are there going to be in Canada?”

“Half, but Vegas is already at four thousand.”

Good. Very, very good.

“Mark, make the marketing for New York next year even more specific. I want more Liam’s. They make the best.”

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