Shadow Man; A Dark Story of Jude Rutherford

The Dark Giant

As I prepared myself to leave for Twillightoria Passersway to meet Han Eduardo in my mutant form, I heard my father speaking on his phone. I did not need to leave my room to hear his conversation. With the powers of Shadow Man, I was able to listen in on people's conversation from afar.

"Are you sure about this?" I heard him say to the voice on the other end.

"Yes. We found him." Someone said from the other side.

"Alright then. I will be there." He ended the call. I knew what that meant, he was about to disappear again as usual.

I was not surprised. He never stayed for longer than five days with us. And even though this was probably the fastest that he would ever leave after coming back from a long absence, I did not see the need to think it was odd.

"What is this about?" I heard Melissa say.

"Something has come up. Do not worry, dear. I will be back soon enough."

I was sure she did not believe him. Neither did I.

"Jude?" I heard him knock on my door. He probably wanted to say goodbye. I did not need to hear it, I had heard enough of it from him in my lifetime. It was the most frequent statement he ever said.

After knocking for a while, silence returned to my doorway. I knew what that meant too. He was gone.

I watched through my window. A strange car stopped at the foot of my house and my father jumped in it. They zoomed off with a blistering speed.

I did not have the time to trail the car with my eyes, I also had to be somewhere afterall.

Flying through the window, gravity had her taste on me. And just before I squashed against the hard floor, my shadowy wings held me up against her force. And I flew over the city of Twillightoria, heading for the new passersway which was still under construction by the federal government.

Twillightoria had always been a city where crime persisted. Even way before the occurance of the mutants, criminals had always thrived in my city.

Tonight, the streets were filled with dark mutants and evil dysmorphic entities who terrorised the common people. I could not even bear to reach my destination without having to drop in every now and then to save some innocent people.

Over there behind a tall building, a fat old woman was being robbed of her few dollars. The criminal was a petty muttany dude who had four arms and blade shooting fists.

"Let it go, grandma. Unless you think your time on earth is complete." He threatened with a hard frown.

"Do your worst!" She held onto to her bag without fear. Wait a minute! I knew this old madam... That was Christy's grandmother! Of all people to rob, he chose her?! What was he expecting?!

I had to take care of this anyway. I did not have time.

"Shadow boy!" Christy's grandmother was happy to see me fly down from nowhere to save her night.

"Point of correction, madam. It is Shadow Man!!"

The dude tried putting up a fight, but he was no match. I dealt with him in a matter of seconds.

"Bless you, Shadow boy!" She tried to come closer, but she should not have. I did not know the reason, but my shadow body was suddenly throwing around attacks on its own! I could no longer control it! Before I knew it, I had hit the old woman by mistake, sending her against the wall.

"Sorry!!!"

"You little rude thing!!"

My arms stretched and bent. My legs flew around. My shadow flair raised all around me, covering the entire street in darkness. It was as if I was turning into a shadow monster.

"What is this? What is happening to me?!!"

Both the old woman and the mutant criminal cowered away in fear as my body flair grew into a larger circumference around me.

"What?! The hell! Is! This!!"

I hit my face with a shadow punch, making use of my own power against myself and sending myself up into the sky and against a building wall in a great thud.

Then everything returned to normal.

My shadow body was back in accordance again. Rising up, I thought over what had just happened. Why did I suddenly lose control of myself?

I also remembered that I had gotten a weird feeling when I was trying to listen to father's conversation earlier. At a time, the voices suddenly became high pitched and too loud. This had never happened before as well.

Why did all these strange things suddenly begin to happen tonight? Did it have something to do with Han Eduardo and the suspicious reason he had called me out tonight?

Desperate to find an answer, I flew into the night, determined not to stop again until I reached my destination.

Yet the strange feelings kept coming every now and then, threatening to pull me down from my flight.

"Arghh!" I struggled to remain afloat. Twillightoria Passersway was just a few seconds away. There were many lights on the streets tonight, and unlike any other night, it affected me badly. It was as if my shadow powers faded away greatly the moment I encountered the tiniest rays of light. My powers soared greatest in the dark, but even during the day I could still do my thing. Just that tonight was different.

Finally, I reached my destination. The Passersway was one of the new innovations which was created to curb the influence of mutants on the Twillightoria roads. No one really knew how the fifty-five feet wide facility was supposed to do this, but everyone believed in the government's plans.

The facility was a wide open space surrounded by tall walls. It was the largest stretch of level ground in the entire city. I looked around and I could not see Han Eduardo.

"Imposter?!" I yelled, held back again by the strange feeling. It was getting worse and worse.

Then I heard a huge thud behind me. I turned around in shock. It was Han Eduardo. He was dropping down from the sky with great force. Someone was with him, and they were fighting each other as my eyes blurred.

"What the hell?"

I winked and looked again. I knew this person. He looked so familiar.

The person was flying above Han, whooping his ass. And as they both landed on the ground, causing a wave of dust to cover the night, he stood above Han's body. Then I saw him much clearer as the dusts faded away.

"No way!" I winked again, trying to rush forward. But I could not run, I could not fly. I dropped on my knees, struggling to shake off this poisonous feeling.

As I raised my head again, the giant dark figure raised its hand in the air, about to strike Han Eduardo to death. Just like he did to my mom.

"No... No..." My voice was not loud. It was as if I had been paralyzed again. Just like I was that day when he killed my mother.

I had waited all my life for this moment, but I could not even move when it came.

A sword emitting darkness was in the killer's hands and he stabbed Han Eduardo with it. I watched as my imposter's heart cut open and faded away very slowly.

Then the dark giant, not noticing my presence, flew away into the night. He escaped again, and I could not stop him.