I am the storm

Chapter 4 | The stranger

My heart thudded like a drum as the mysterious voice rang out from behind me.

Thud.

Thud.

The time between my heart beats slowed as if time was dilated or moving slower giving me time to think thing through.

Thud.

Thud.

Who was this person?
They had a deep voice maybe it was a man? Not a voice I recognised so I could rule out my Dad or anyone else I knew! The hand that was on my shoulder was heavy this could mean it was a man's heavy handed touch or it could be an exertion of force to keep me sat down? So it could be a woman wanting to intimidate me? Also due to the PTD not beeping I knew this person wasn't a participant!

Thud.

Thud.

What the person said 'I saw what you did in the alley tonight' so that means that this person saw me but how? When the PTD in the street beeped I looked around and only saw the man that had attacked me! So was this person in the alley then? No because the man who attacked me wouldn't have tried to kill me in front of this stranger! And in a back alley there would be no windows so this person couldn't have been inside one of the buildings plus the police would have questioned the stranger and the police wouldn't have needed the CCTV footage from across the street! So where could have someone seen the entire incident with out me or the attacker seeing them, also they would had to be able to leave the crime scene without being seen?

Thud.

Thud.

The rooftop? Yes a place the police wouldn't check for witnesses also they wouldn't check the roof if the crime had taken place on the ground!

Thud.

Thud.

The person's hand was heavily laying on my right shoulder meaning I could not stand straight up so I would have to find another way out of this man's grasp.

Thud.

Thud.

What if I turned left backwards on a pivot that could work. maybe? It was a small chance of success but it was my only chance.

Thud.

Thud.

It was now or never time was still moving I had to act!

Thud.

Now-- in an instant I spun left out of the person's grip and tried to kick the person left foot but they dodged as they grabbed me without warning. They twisted my hand behind my back placing a pair of handcuffs on me! I was trapped once again in handcuffs for the second time!

Now with the figure looming in front of me I could see who it was on my roof and who had seen me in the alley. It was a muscular man by the shape of his body, he was wearing a black skin tight armoured suit that covered his entire body apart from his jaw line up to the tip of his nose allowing him to speak freely and his eyes were covered by light grey lenses.

Who was this?

Well I wouldn't learn unless I asked.

So I asked him in a nervous voice "who are you and what do you want with me?"

The man responded with "I am Shadow and I just want to ask you what happened in that alley tonight!"

"What a crazy man attacked me so I turned the tables and killed him!" I said in a nervous tone.

"No. Either I saw that you have had intense self defence training or you're just really lucky and the second option is to rare to be possible!" The man snapped back angrily.

I was stunned into silence unsure what to say I managed to whisper quietly "it was l-luck"

The man crouched next to me and said "look I know you're lying so you have one chance to tell me the truth because something isn't quite right here!"

In a fleeting moment of weakness tears fell from my eyes and I let slip the words "I've been forced into The end of days"

"What is the end of days?" Replied the man and the for the next twenty minutes I explained the killing game I had been put into at first he was sceptical, but all scepticism was erased after he found the e-mail still on my computer and the PTD I left on my bed.

After these discoveries the man took off the handcuffs and said "tomorrow I want you to meet me at eight p.m. at the edge of the woods behind your house. I will have something sorted out to protect yourself and hopefully a non-lethal method of disposing of participants."

I looked up at the man and asked in a timid voice "is that even possible the killing game relies on luck if you don't accidentally kill someone you'd have to hope that they would somehow fall into a coma but even then you may still deprive a person of their life."

"I promise you Alexis I will find way to help you and somehow we will find this button and deactivate that horrible thing in your neck! You will live a normal life again! And if we have to do that by putting some people into a coma, well it's the lesser of two great evils." Replied the man in a sympathetic tone.

"Wait how will I contact you in the future if you don't show up tomorrow what if something horrible happens to you!" I replied worriedly.

"Can you get me a piece of paper please," the man asked so I quickly reached through my window and grabbed a notepad and a pencil and handed them to the man.

He scrawled a sequence of numbers down and handed them back to me and said "call this number if you ever want to contact me but only contact me in case of an emergency." I nodded in response and with that the man jumped off my roof and ran somewhere into the woods behind my house.

I sat in silence staring out at the woods before climbing back into my window and sitting on my bed. Had I found an ally in this mad world of killing games and psychopaths.

But one thing still bothered me who was this man he called himself 'Shadow' so I decided to Internet search for 'Shadow' and 'vigilante' all my search came up with a vigilante that would fight criminals and many gangs as if he were a superhero!

Some newspapers had started calling him 'Shadow' out of respect for hardly ever being seen by eyewitnesses and most security cameras he was like some kind of back street vigilante in search for justice but everything was just ignored and called a urban legend just some story people told to entertain people or as some general conversation.

When I went to sleep my previous thoughts of fear for my life had now been replaced with and new type of hope that I could survive this killing game and maybe live a normal life without people wanting to kill me or having an implant in the back of my neck that would electrocute me if I broke a set of rules that now controlled my life!

Maybe someday that could be the truth maybe someday I could live a normal life but for now all I could do was hope for a brighter future in this survival game!