Destructive Fiction

Destructive Fiction is a collection of serials, or webserials, that are guided by one core concept: As bad as life gets, it can always get worse.

Hi, my name is Daniel Beadle. I wrote the stories featured on this site over the course of several years, blatantly spilling out my deepest thoughts into narratives that fit no established structure. What you'll find here are the rough cuts, raw and unfiltered, filled with typos and plot holes. If you're looking for a cohesive story, you won't find it here. The chapters are just snapshots of the larger story of life.

It begins with Running on Empty, a light-hearted comedy that fleshes out the comic strip of the same name. In this story, Dan has lost his girlfriend, his job, and his life purpose, looking for some sense of direction in the destructive activities of his close friends.

Following from this, The Jake Alberts Show takes a supporting character from Running on Empty and puts him center stage. Here, Jake embraces his darkest impulses, and vents his frustration through random acts of violence. Of course, being the host of his own late-night talk show gives him a wider audience to infect with his depravity.

The next story, The Stalker Imperative, is my personal favorite. I wrote this one to deal with a break-up, and my angst is palpable in every chapter. The story is that of an amnesiac searching for his own identity, as well as for a girl that haunts his memories. Ultimately, it's a tale of love gone wrong, exploring all the emotions that accompany a broken heart, albeit in an exaggerated fashion.

The final story is about a man-made apocalypse. Dominion describes several characters who are all profoundly misanthropic. The most powerful of these characters, Dylan Thorne, is a man who has secretly taken over the world, and is overwhelmed by how meaningless his life has become. In deciding to kill himself, he rationalizes that no man deserves to live. As such, he manipulates the lives of key people to expedite human extinction. In the end, it all comes down to who controls mankind's fate, as the enigmatic Mr. Dark arrives to shut the door on humanity.

The serials presented here can be interpreted in any number of ways. Perhaps the characters are all delusional, some imagining fame as others fantasize about violence. Maybe Dylan Thorne is an eccentric businessman who suffers from apophenia. Another interpretation is that the main character in all four stories is the same person, a person who sheds each persona when it has outlived its usefulness. Maybe Dan grows into Dylan Thorne. Maybe the Stalker is a young Mr. Dark. Who knows. And who is Mr. Dark? He appears in each story, and could easily be any of the characters in disguise. But he could also be the personification of some elemental force... like Death. Or God.

As I said, these stories can be interpreted however you want. In truth, it's just the cataloguing of my thoughts. Destructive? Yes. Fiction? Mostly.