Light In The Shadows

Muggers

The phone went off with its insistent ring. James glanced at it and picked it up without hesitation. “Hello, how can I help you” he asked with a professional tone, one of which sounded with practiced ease and expertise.

“James, my favourite employee, could you order me two more televisions”, a male voice sounded through the phone, “and put it on my tab”

“No worries, Mr Jackson, it’ll be done and sent to you shortly”

“Thank you James! Got to go, talk to you later” Mr Jackson says with obvious appreciation in his voice before hanging up.

James gently puts the phone back and returned to his work at hand. He decided to order the televisions soon, after he finished working on paperwork at hand. However, he continued working until it was late at night. He leaned back and stretched his arms over his head to free up some tension in his upper back.

“James, you need a ride?” a familiar voice asked.

James looked to see his colleague, Brent. They had been working together for years and were on friendly terms. “No thanks Brent” he declined with a polite smile.

“Always like to walk home don't ya!” Brent laughed. “Well, be careful on your way back, I've heard of some muggers around the street going to your place” Brent warns with a serious tone.

“I know Brent, don’t worry and take care” James replies as Brent leaves the office.

James takes off his glasses and tries to wipe the fatigue off his eyes. He turned back to the glaring screen and decided that he should follow Brent’s example and go home. “I think this should be enough for today”, he tells himself as he starts to pack up. Grabbing his briefcase, he made his way down the stairs and left the building.

He was walking down the dark street, taking the usual route to home which involved taking a shortcut through an alley. However, someone started to follow him from behind. James noticed this and felt worried. He picked up the pace but then two men came into view, one approaching from his side and one blocking his path. James turned around and saw three men blocking the alley as another came from behind.

A gruff voice broke the uncomfortable silence. “We’ll make this quick and easy for you, four eyes, hand over your wallet and that briefcase”

James turned to the one who spoke. “Please don't hurt me, I'm just a worker at a small company” he cried.

“We don’t care four eyes, just hand us your things” one of the men says as he flashed a knife in James’s direction.

James knew he could not lose his briefcase as he had something important stashed inside it. “Please, I need my stuff” he begged whilst looking for an opportunity to escape.

“I guess we gotta do it the hard way” the one with knife says with a grim smile. He quickly leapt forward and attempted to stab James, expecting to draw blood. However, he was surprised feel a dull thud instead. James had moved his briefcase to catch the knife.

The man looked at James in shock and saw that James’s demeanour has changed – he had a smile on his face. James stepped forward and successfully elbowed the attacker’s nose, knocking him back.

“Ahhhh! Get him!” the man screamed as he clutched his nose in pain. Two of the men rushed forward and quickly grabbed Jame’s arms while the other one started throwing wild punches at James. One of the punches connected and knocked James’s glasses off. He continued throwing punches, but to no avail, as James showed no reaction to the barrage. The man’s fists ached in protest and briefly paused. He looked at James and saw that he was unscathed, confusing him. He was certain he had punched him.

James took this moment of confusion as an opportunity to retaliate. He smiled and casually pulled one of the men holding his arm and threw him to other one. The other man was shocked at this display of strength, but James continued his attack. He easily broke the man’s grip and grabbed the man’s collar before lifting the man up with no effort and slamming him against the wall. The man struggled to escape the iron-like grip and panicked. “What the hell are you!”

The other man tried to tackle James. James noticed this and released the man against the wall. He moved his hand out and stopped the man’s tackle. The man was completely stopped in his tracks. James grabbed the collar and threw the man against the wall. Bam! The man hit the wall and crumpled to the ground, completely unconscious.

Not wanting to ruin his work clothes, James decided to unbutton his shirt. As he took it off, the other men saw the muscular body filled with scars. It was obvious that James had a physique that was intensely trained, one of which made James out to be like a predator.

James also took off his hair tie, revealing his mid length hair which dropped to his shoulders. He looked at the remaining attackers as though they were the prey.

The men shook in fear and realised that the person they tried to mug was a super-powered individual. One of them recognised James’s ability. “Y-yo-you’re that vigilante I heard about, Instincts!”

The other man’s eyes widened with shock and looked to the other two and warned them. “We were told to avoid Insticts at all cost, run!”. He took off running, stumbling as he was panicking. However, the other two did not follow him. They stood on the spot, frozen in fear.

The man who chose to run saw the end of the alley. However, before he could reach that end, a dark figure in the corner of his eye moved past him with impossible speed. Before he even realised it, Instincts was there, standing in his way.

The man panicked even further. “No way…..impossible” he says with a shaky voice.

Instincts grabbed him by the head, clutching it in a vice-like grip as he casually walked back to the other men. He looked and quickly noted that the men had found weapons from the dumpster – a plank of wood and a metal rod.

Instincts threw the man he was holding towards the wall on his left. The man hit the wall with a resounding thud and fell unconscious. The other one moved forward and swung his metal rod, but Instincts grabs it and follows up with a heavy blow to the attacker’s nose. There was loud crunch as the man’s nose caved in and he flew back, hitting the wall.

The last one saw an opening and immediately swung the piece of wood at the side of Instincts’s head. The wood broke upon impact as Instincts stood his ground, clearly unaffected by the blow.

“You're not human!” the man cried out of fear.

Instincts looked at him with an intense gaze before whispering “I'm the predator”. Voom! The man only saw a glimpse of that dark force before falling unconscious.

TIME SKIP

The muggers were taken to a hospital three hours later. They woke up handcuffed to the bed as the police questioned them. The police officer asked them who inflicted the injuries.

One of them responded “He was a supe-“ but was immediately interrupted by the other man, “No! Not a ‘he’, he is not human – it’s a predator!”

The men recounted their story of what happened, but the officer concluded they were delusional.

“We’re telling the truth officer!” one of them shouted.

“What makes me believe you muggers are telling the truth?” the officer countered.

The muggers went silent. One however, simply said “Wait till you see it for yourself”

“I look forward to that” the officer replies before walking out.