Path of Shadow

Chapter 1: Uprising

I can hear it.

          People scream loudly. Children cry. Parents try to calm them down.

          A terrorist attack is going on in the small town of Keriski. I lurk in the shadows as gunshots go off. I look at the streetlamp some distance to my left. It explodes with sparks, caused by my presence. I throw the hood of my cloak over my head and rush into the light. It burns. It burns ever so much. I shut off all the lamps with my mind, and feel my skin heal with bliss in the darkness. I grab Uranium's handle and pull the sword out. I know I should just let the attack take its course, but I don't care. I run towards a gang of terrorists surrounding a family. What looks like the father is being beaten and bloodied. The mother is being raped, and the child is on the ground, unconscious or dead. I break into the group, and even though I'm not supposed to do this, I shut the terrorists into the void. Their bodies crumple to the ground. I turn to the family.

          "Run," I say, "Get out of here. Now." They scramble off, the father scooping up the unconscious son and swinging him over his shoulder. I turn to the next group of terrorists, and shut their minds down as well. I watch the reaction on the victims' face as the terrorists fall over, dead.

          "Run! Go!" I shout, and they panic, running in circles, then running into the safety of their homes. I destroy group after group of terrorists, and finally I get to the guy who led the attack. I pick him up with one hand by the collar of his shirt, and drag him into the shadows, where we warp back to the moonlit grassy fields of home. I put the guy down and push him to his knees, then using my power of telekinesis to hold him in place. I raise my katana and rest the blade sideways on his shoulder, so if I flick the sword to the right, it would decapitate him.

          "What drove you to attack that village, terrorist vermin?" I fiercely interrogate the man.

          He doesn't answer.

          "Greed? Power?!" I continue. "It doesn't matter. You were brought here to die." I grab his shirt with my right hand and release my telekinetic hold on him. I throw him face-first into the grass. I take my katana and cut a pentagram into the back of his neck, showing he was a victim of Tankra, the Spirit of Darkness. Then, I shut his mind down, and he stops breathing. I pick up his body and warp back to Keriski, in front of everyone, in the middle of a nighttime meeting, a result of the terrorist attack. I drop the man, and he falls on his face, revealing the pentagram on his neck, and everyone gasps. I step back into the shadows and return home. I clean my katana of the blood, and put it away. Then I lay on the silver grass and stare and the moon.

          I can stay here forever if I wanted to, I think, but I know that soon enough I would be punished for straying off my path. Oh well. I lay there for I-don't-know-how-long, and I drift off to sleep.