I could not believe how fruitless my efforts had been, how dumb my actions had been. I had been wrong about Dylan, he did not have the bracelet. But what if he did not have it? Then who did?Out alone in the middle of nowhere, I hurdled through the night. I was still in my shadow form, unable to return to my normal self. Apparently, I had stayed in the form of Shadow Man without my bracelet for too long and now, I could not just get back to normal. That was the only explanation. Han Eduardo did say that the bracelet was left by mother just to protect me. How come I never realized this for three whole years?"I have been so ignorant..."Perhaps it would take a while before I can be Jude Rutherford again, so I decided to take a walk in the night, away from anyone's eyes until I am able to switch form again.Dylan would have returned home by now. If he told anyone about what happened tonight, about his encounter with Shadow Man, there was very little chance that anyone would ever believ
"I know your secret, Jude. I know all about it."My heart beat violently in forceful rhythm, I could hear it as loud as I could hear my breath. Ariana was staring straight into my eyes, expectant. If she knew about my secret, then it would be a disaster. I had always kept it from her, I had always kept it from everyone.How did she even know about it? Did she see me change from Shadow Man to Jude the other time? The time when I was standing in front of her house?A thousand thoughts were running through my mind, none of them telling me the answers."So you mean that you know I am sha...""You have a crush on me, don't you?"My words were nipped in the bud. So that was what it was about. Not about Shadow Man. But about my feelings for her."You figured that out...?""No." She shook her head. "Dylan told me."What? Dylan? I knew I should have left him in the hands of Rico. He never ceased to aggravate my problems, the bane of my soul in every ramifications.He not only teased me every
The past few days have been absolutely weird. I mean, even though the past three years was decorated in all shades of weirdness, coloured with the emergence of mutants and fragranced with their heinous crimes and horrifying actions, there was still some limit to how much shocked I would be.But ever since Han Eduardo showed up as another Shadow Man, wearing my outfit, everything collapsed.Since then, a lot of weird things began to occur, putting me at the edge of my seat every now and then. First, Shadow Man died. I died! Technically, Han Eduardo was the one who died but somehow... I died too.Then father decided to stay home with us. Like, who would have thought my father would one day decide miraculously that he needed more time with his family.Also, Ariana had a proper conversation with me for the first time... That was a win but still weird. Dylan ended up getting himself into trouble with dangerous mutants. Even fat Christy happened to be losing some calories!!To make matters
"What are you doing, Jude? Why are you still up?" Mrs Ricochet was standing right by the door. In her eyes was suspicion, a deep and fixated one. It was as though she knew what kinds of games I was up to."Nothing. I just could not sleep."The bracelet box was right behind me, hidden by a small emerging shadow of darkness which I created. She could not see it yet but I think she knew."I heard some footsteps outside. Did someone follow you to this place?" She was speaking in whispers. Something must really be going on."No one. Nobody..." I came here all alone. There was no way...Bang! Bang!! A noise came from the main door. Someone was knocking."Stay here!" She turned around in alert, walking slowly towards the door.I was not a kid who listened to instructions. Of course, I followed her in secret.Mrs Ricochet peeped through the security cameras, she gasped with happiness on her face. It felt like she just saw someone whom she had not seen in years."Honey..."I heard her even th
"Jude! Get your stupid legs off my school bag at once!!"That was Christine screaming at me. Or as everyone else called her, Fat Christy."Get! Your! Stupid! Legs! Away!!!" She kicked me so hard I could not hold it in anymore."Try and be nice, will you? It's not my fault that the train is about to crash!!" I yelled back. Our lives was at stake here but all she cared about was her twenty five dollar bag, or perhaps the steaming hotdogs she stuck in there.And you heard me right when I said the train was about to crash. More and more evil mutants had emerged in recent weeks, filling up the streets of Twillightoria. And for some unknown and ungodly, unreasonable reason, they had chosen to officially make going after high school students the top option on their crime priority list."Ahh!! We are gonna crash!!!" The scream of my school mates flooded my ear balls again. The rail had finished, or rather there was a hole seperating the two parts of the rail ahead. This was probably caused by
Getting to school today, my problems only grew worse. Everyone kept singing the praises of Shadow Man, the fake one obviously. And it felt as if they would never stop. In the class rooms. By the school kitchen. In the principal's office. In the rest rooms. At the basketball court. Even right beside my innocent two ears, I could hear people screaming."Shadow Man this! Shadow Man that!"They kept talking about the imposter while the real one was walking among them. But they never noticed, not even for once. They never noticed me."Today we were saved from the curling grasps of death by none other than our beloved hero of Twillightoria - Shadow Man." Ariana declared to the juniors who had gathered around her like listening sheep to listen to the marvelous tale of the miracle which we had endured today. Did I say that Ariana was a good story teller? A perfect one at that. She took her time to properly analyze the electrifying moves and the extremely cool methods which Shadow Man used t
"Jude Rutherford!"He just called my full name? I turned around in suprise, and right there before me stood a shadow with white eyes and a dark, almost invisible body."Or should I say... Shadow Man?""How do you know my full name?" I responded with a sharp glare, ready to step into a fight."My name is Han Eduardo. I know many things about you, bro. Even things that you do not know."Such a weird name, no wonder he wants to be Shadow Man. And Bro? He just called me bro! This guy must be some psycho. He stole my style, my identity, my shadow occupation, he even stole my signature stance. And he thought he could call me bro? Just like that?"Yeah? Well it is good to know that you know all that about me, that means I can go all out on you!" I registered, ready to fire into my combat mode."We don't have to do this." He uttered in cowardice, trying to avoid the fight. "I have just come here to talk. You need to know that we are on the same side..."That was just an excuse so I could not
As I walked back home on the lonely road, the saddening memories of my mother's death replayed in my mind. It was seven years ago, summer had just come and the sun shone beautifully through my little window. Mother was baking a cake for my tenth birthday when a dark cloud hovered above our house.I thought it was going to rain, and it rained chaos.A giant figure was standing by my door, peering at me. Terrified, I could barely move. I only shivered in horror, my heart doing its job like an overworker.My mother appeared behind the figure, she was shocked like I was. But she got over it quickly."Don't you ever touch him!" She threatened, ironically.As the intruder saw her, he focused his attention away from me."Where is it?" I heard him say."I have nothing to give to you."From my bed, I watched as he towered over her, edging closer with each step.I remember myself thinking in that moment, "If only father was here... if only father was here..."But he was not. He was never there