BECOMING…

"The Lessons we learn are the People we meet..."

COVER:  DR MAGUS IN MED CLOSE-UP

Stepping towards us out of the darkness is the story’s ‘antagonist’ – DR MAGUS (50’ish) – with a slender, hawkish face, receding hairline, and graying temples.  We see him from waist/lower-chest up, lit by a harsh and creepy spotlight from below.  He is wearing a tattered black suitcoat (or dark tweed) with rips and cuts in it, as if from a struggle.  The white dress shirt underneath is torn open, and stained with sweat and splotches of BLOOD.

Wrapped and hanging around his neck – where a tie would normally be – is a HEAVY CHAIN.  There is a fat PADLOCK where the tie’s ‘knot’ would sit.  His hands are raised and adjusting the ‘knot’; it’s as if he’s looking in a mirror and fixing his tie, preparing to go to work.  His hands are covered in fresh CUTS, like the work of animal’s claws or a woman’s fingernails.

Magus is wearing thin-rimmed GLASSES, whose reflection almost hides his piercing black eyes.  The lenses have small jagged CRACKS in them, and we can see the reflection of FIRE in the glass.  He is arching an eyebrow slightly with a COLD SMILE – it is a look of power and certainty and psychological danger; this is a man who has nothing left to lose…

…and he likes it that way.