Vulcan’s mastery of the forge was renowned among the gods, and Vulcan crafted weapons, utensils and all things made of iron and steel.  When Vulcan was busy forging, he simply could not be interrupted.   Occasionally, a helper would ask a question and Vulcan would roar flames at the unfortunate soul who would dare to break his train of thought.  On this day, as luck would have it, Vulcan was sent a brand new helper.  The first thing the helper did was ask a silly question.  Vulcan hated stupid questions more than anything in the world!  He got so mad he literally turned bright red, his head exploded and he mis-struck the pair of scissors he was crafting.   The scissors, being imperfect, were cast into a “reject bin”.

It has never been told but Vulcan’s reject bin actually was secretly emptied into Pandora’s Jar.  For thousands of years Pandora’s Jar collected all the mistakes and deformities from Vulcan’s mishaps.  When Pandora opened her famous jar, out jumped the tarnished and deformed pair of scissors that Vulcan threw away eons ago.  The minute the tarnished scissors saw light and breathed air, his evil was activated.  On the very spot he became the much-feared Scissorman.  The Scissorman’s ultimate goal was to destroy the love and beauty in the world that Venus had created.  Whether Vulcan had intended this or not, through Scissorman, Vulcan had his revenge on Venus.

Over the centuries, the Scissorman was very stealthy as he did his evil deeds, camouflaging himself with various disguises so as not to be detected.  In the 1800’s he visited children who sucked their thumbs and the Scissorman would lop their thumbs off after they fell asleep, as punishment. The taste of blood and terror so fascinated the Scissorman to the point that in the early part of the twenty-first century, he became bolder about his evil deeds, eventually working his way across the world from the Mediterranean to the Hollywoodland Senior Home.

Scissorman knew he must have a way to mingle with humans and he appeared one day in his human form, the gardener Mr. Ever B. Sharp, at the Hollywoodland Home.   Although no one could recall ever hiring him, Mr. Sharp took over the gardening duties at the Home.

Mr. Sharp had dry, rough skin that resembled the complexion of fried chicken, huge, watery-blue eyes that pierced the soul and a lower lip that drooped and drooled at the corners.  He was quite hunched over and his gnarled fingers seemed permanently gripped around his shears.  Most of the residents shied away from Mr. Sharp, sensing something wasn’t right with him.  Perhaps it was the faint odor of sulfur?  The residents were correct in their suspicions, as Mr. Sharp’s ultimate goal was to prey on the vulnerable seniors as they were weaker, partially disabled, and generally slow to realize the precariousness of their situation.  However, after arriving at Hollywoodland, Mr. Sharp realized that terrorizing the seniors was not going to be as easy as he thought.  He knew that one the person who could thwart his plans was the mysterious Betty Byrd  who he sensed had an otherworldliness, much like himself.

Mr. Sharp had shown up several months after Betty Byrd started working at the Hollywoodland Home.  It was under Betty’s tutelage that the residents began to thrive and began expressing themselves through art.  Even Bill Woggon, who had been debilitated by a stroke, was once again drawing and creating Katy Keene Comics and paper dolls.  However, with the arrival of Mr. Sharp,  a troubling pall  was cast over the once blissful and cheerful senior home.  There were several acts of vandalism including the slashing of Bill Woggon Katy Keene creations.

 "Who would be that heartless and cruel?" thought Betty Byrd.  “Could the culprit be the odd Mr. Sharp?” she wondered.  Stay tuned for more.