After the Draw

Intro – 8s, quiet war room hum]

President (measured):

The sky split in two… and neither side fell.

Isaiah:

That wasn’t a loss.

It was a warning.

⸻

I felt his grip in the clouds tonight,

Dark that learns, dark that fights,

He’s not reckless, he’s patient now,

Moves the city without a sound.

He won’t rush, he’ll starve the light,

Turn small fears into bigger nights,

I can meet him force for force—

But that just feeds his course.

President (spoken):

So we don’t fight him where he’s strong.

⸻

Isaiah:

He owns the shadows and the flow.

President:

Then we cut the routes he needs to grow.

Isaiah:

He bends people with quiet deals.

President:

Then we bring daylight to what’s concealed.

⸻

Isaiah:

We don’t win by matching his rage.

President:

We win by closing the cage.

Both:

Truth over fear, law over lies,

Make the city his enemy, not his prize,

If he thrives when we divide—

Then we stand side by side.

⸻

We freeze the money, trace the lines,

Break the myth he’s built with time,

No secret courts, no backroom peace,

Transparency becomes the leash.

We protect the streets he preys upon,

So his leverage comes undone,

He can’t rule what he can’t hide—

That’s how shadows die.

Isaiah (nods):

I’ll be the signal when it’s time.

⸻

(Door opens.)

Former Mayor:

You’re both missing the hardest truth.

⸻

Marco didn’t rise on fear alone,

He rose where trust was overthrown,

I taught the city to accept the dark,

Called it calm, called it smart.

You want to beat him? Don’t just expose—

Replace the silence that I chose.

Give people something real to keep,

Or they’ll crawl back to what lets them sleep.

Isaiah (firm):

You helped build this mess.

Former Mayor:

Then let me help tear it down.

⸻

Isaiah:

We win by lifting, not by rule.

President:

By steady hands and sharper tools.

Former Mayor:

By owning wrong and paying dues.

All:

No more deals that dim the light,

No more fear dressed up as right,

If Marco feeds on what we hide—

We starve him in the open wide.

⸻

President:

Isaiah, can you hold the line?

Isaiah:

As long as you hold yours.

Former Mayor:

And if he comes for me?

Isaiah:

Then you face it—

Clean.

⸻

I’ll meet him where the people stand,

Not above them—hand in hand,

No crown, no myth, no borrowed flame,

Just truth that calls him by his name.

If darkness learned to fight tonight,

Then tomorrow learns the light,

This ends not with a single blow—

But a city saying no.

⸻

President:

We move at dawn.

Former Mayor:

I’ll testify—everything.

Isaiah (quiet, sure):

Then this time…

He won’t slip away.