Shadow Man; A Dark Story of Jude Rutherford

An Imposter

"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 some giant female mutant who just felt like showcasing her new found strength on the trainways. Or what else was a hole this big finding in the middle of the railway?

We approached closer to the hole. In no time, we were going to drop down into its far depth to explode into ashes. As I closed my eyes shut, waiting for the right time to save all our lives, I heard other children declaring their last words.

"We are all gonna die!"

"This is why I hate to go to school!"

"I never got to tell my dad that I love him!"

"If only shadow man was here!!!" Said my crush, Ariana. The most beautiful girl in the multiverse.

Shadow man. That was the newest addition to the good mutants that we had in Twillightoria. He was first seen in the streets not more than six months ago, saving a defenseless baby from the grasps of a baby monster.

Since then, he had only done better and better, saving the day when nobody else could. He was now the most popular mutant anyone knew. The best mutant of Twillightoria. The mutany crush of every high school girl. The celebrity who shone hope in the darkness that has wrapped around us. Our hero.

"Shadow man! Come save us!!" The girls called in unison. They really believed he would come save them.

Listening to their screams, I believed it too. It was full of passion and confidence, they had good faith in Shadow Man.

But maybe our train did not, because it did not stop running towards the hole. It was almost in the wreck already. We had only about five seconds left.

The ones who doubted in Shadow Man's ability to always sniff danger from afar and always be on time to save the day had already started to make their last wishes as the seconds came floating.

"I wish the lord washes away my sins, welcomes me in paradise, and keeps my family safe in this era of darkness, where the devil and his demons has seized control of our universe..." One person prayed.

"I want to be a king in my next life. Powerful and rich, I want to control the world." Another person wished, sincerely.

"I wish I can have just one last meal... One last meal..." Christy hanged onto the school bag of hotdogs like her life depended on it. It did not.

"Let us just get this over with. What's the point of living anyway?" Said a guy who had his hair shaved like a monk. He was not a monk.

The seconds came floating.

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two....

One...

Time stopped, and so did the atoms of matter. Everything floated as though gravity did not exist. Every thing, every object, every hotdog and schoolbags, every person... Every girl.

Even our troubled train came swimming in the air as it transcended safely over the large hole and landed on the other side, unscathed and unharmed.

A dark figure crept around the body of the train. It stuck to the window and peered at me with its white eyes. The rest of its body was dark and almost not there, just like a shadow. The figure turned away and disappeared.

And then time started to work again.

"We are alive?!" Someone realized.

"We are safe!!" Another echoed.

Even Fat Christy found her way to her feet, to my suprise. She had remained seated all through the turmoil. "I can have another meal!!"

Of course she can...

"Shadow Man saved us!" My crush declared, filled with obvious joy.

"Shadow Man saved us!" Her fellowship of girls echoed, screaming in high pitched tones to express their boundless joy.

Everyone in the train was excited that their lives have been spared. Every single person except the punk who thought he was a monk... And me.

Yes... Me. There was no way I could accept what had just happened. Shadow Man did not save us, someone else did. Something else did.

How did I know? Well it is simple - Because I am Shadow Man. I was just waiting for the right time to stop the train, I enjoyed listening to my crush singing my praises. She never notices me, the real me but she is in love with the other me so I got a little carried away. But I am the real Shadow Man.

And whoever and whatever had just stopped the train from crashing today? That thing... That person... Was an imposter!

He had exactly my powers, he had exactly my moves. He stole everything obviously, and most annoyingly, he just stole my fans.

Looking at this entire train sing the praises of this fake Shadow Man, I vowed in my heart that I will find him. And I will make him pay.

And for that I needed answers. Why was there another Shadow Man suddenly out of the blue? Who was this person? And what did he want from me?