Run, Barry, Run!

It started out simple, with a flash of light.

A yellow demon running like hell,

Running in the dark of night,

The night that Nora Allen fell.

 

It didn’t hesitate to take her life,

It didn’t stop or stare.

It simply stabbed her with a knife

And left her lying there.

 

Then the beast raced out, leaving chaos in its wake.

It left her husband to take the blame.

But the demon had made a horrible mistake,

And this wasn’t the end of the game.

 

Years went by, the demon hid,

And watched Nora Allen’s son.

Never regretting what it did,

Or what had yet to be done.

 

Fifteen years passed, when everything changed.

It started out simple, with a flash of light.

But ordinary people soon turned strange,

One fateful, stormy, December night.

 

Some men gained the power to control the wind,

The clouds, the rain, the sun,

Others found new ways to sin,

But Barry Allen found the power to run.

 

He harnessed lightning in every stride

Racing to save everyone he could,

But he didn’t know the demon was at his side,

Even as he strove to do good.

 

He needed him to get fast,

And forced him to keep running every day.

But Barry Allen wondered about the demon in his past,

Even as he locked new monsters away.

 

He didn’t know how close it was.

How could he? Barry was kind.

And sadly, this was a problem, because

Kindness often makes us blind.

 

But the demon faltered; he made a mistake.

He’d killed someone, and Barry knew.

He realized how much was at stake,

And what he had to do.

 

The demon promised a way to turn back time,

Provided he was allowed to go back to his own.

He swore that Barry could save his mother, undo the crime,

But the consequences weren’t all shown.

 

Barry considered the deal and almost agreed.

But in the end, he changed his mind,

And stopped the demon from being freed,

At the cost of leaving his mother behind.

 

Sometimes demons catch up to you

And sometimes it seems like they win,

But you can’t let them break through,

And you can never, ever give in.

 

Be like the boy who did what no one else could,

And even when it seemed the world would end in a crash,

He fought every demon and monster that came his way,

And saved his city— in a flash.

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