Shadow-Man

5

The second night of me trying to be a superhero went a lot better than the first night. I saw a boy, about fifteen, running down a sidewalk. He almost ran right past me, but I grabbed his arm to stop him. He looked behind him terrified, and I saw a woman beginning to catch up to us. I looked back to the boy.

"Is that woman trying to hurt you?" I asked. The boy nodded frantically, and seemed like he was going to ask me to help him, until he actually looked at me. He then began trying to fight me and get away. I assumed it was the mask, so I lifted it up to show him my face.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to help you ok?" I spoke gently. The boy looked over to his side, in the direction that he had come from, and I looked too. The woman had caught up to us, and looked angry. Very, very angry.

"Don't...please don't let her hurt me." The boy begged, clinging to me desperately.

"I won't." I assured him, pulling my mask back down. I told the woman to leave, but she didn't want to listen. Instead, she came at me, and so I used some things that I had learned in my self defense class, and beat her up, only getting hit a few times. I knocked the woman out, and looked around for a way to tie her up.

I soon found a hose laying in the yard of a nearby house. I didn't ask them permission before taking it, but I didn't really care about how they would feel anyway. I used the hose to tie the woman to a nearby light post, and I left a note sitting in front of her. In big, noticable letters, the note said I am a rapist, with 'rapist' underlined a bunch of times. I figured that was a good way to get the woman arrested, and in a prison where she belonged. At least, that's the kind of thing that superheroes did in the movies, and it worked out fine for them. Right?

After tying up the woman, I walked the boy home, talking to him on the way. I didn't wear my mask while walking him home, because I didn't want to scare him again. I asked him any questions I could thin of, just trying to keep his mind away from what had just happened. When we got to his house, I turned to him, and looked at him seriously.

"Will you be ok?" I asked him, giving him my full attention as I made eye contact with the boy, letting him know that I expected the truth.

"Yeah, I think so. I don't even want to begin to think about what that woman would have done to me if you didn't show up. So thank you." The boy told me.

"I'm glad I could help." I said softly with a smile.

"What's your name?" This question stumped me for a moment. I didn't want to give him my real name, because you're not supposed to do that when you're a superhero. However, I didn't exactly have another name for myself. I thought about it for a little bit, before answering the boy's question.

"Call me Shadow-Man." I said decidedly before telling the boy goodnight, and leaving.

I think 'Shadow-Man' was a good choice. I wore all black, like a shadow, and worked in the dark. Plus, being a superhero was the best chance I had to be whoever I wanted to be, without anyone telling my no. As I superhero, I didn't have to be Shadow-Woman, or Shadow-Girl. I was aloud  to be Shadow-Man, and I was aloud to bind my chest, and hid me hair. As a superhero, I could help who I wanted, how I wanted, and I could be myself while doing it. I had only been a superhero for two nights, but I loved it already.

I ran around the rest of that night, looking for someone to save, before heading back to my house at dawn. While at my house, I took an old black shirt, and made myself a new mask. This one left my mouth and nose exposed, but still covered my eyes and head. I figured that way, I could still tuck in my hair, but I would be less likely to scare people away. I didn't want people to be scared of me while I was trying to help them like the boys was, and I couldn't keep taking off my mask for everyone that I met.