Into The Shadows

The Power of the Mind

6 a.m. Matthias "Matt" Cranston stirred and opened his eyes. he looked around the room at the bunk beds that lined the wall. This was his world. The orphanage he had grown up in since he was three when his parents had been killed in that car accident.

He rubbed his eyes and pulled himself up out of the bed. He figured he better get up and get around. There were two women in charge of this Orphanage, Hillman hall. One was Miss Jamie Henson she was the younger of the two women and the associate Director, she was also the only one of the two that Matt, or any of the other kids, in this dump, liked.

The other Woman was Velda Morton she was a slightly older woman and the Director of the hall. That is when she was sober enough to do her job.

Matt could swear that woman was related to Miss Hannigan from Annie that Broadway play! Matt got up grabbed his towel of the foot board of his bed and headed off to get a shower before Miss Morton had a snit and shut the hot water off.

He had long since sworn that somehow, someway, he was going to make good and then he would come back here and make sure that lush never ran another orphanage ever again. She was the man reason the place was barely up to code. Most of the money that was donated or raised at the fundraiser or allotted to her from the state capital wound up in her liquor cabinet!"

Matt finished his shower and dressed just as he heard footsteps on the stairs below the boy's room where he was.

"Uh Oh," said Cal on of the other boys, as he crawled out of bed "the lady Barracuda is up!"

Matt nodded. The kids could tell who was on the stairs just by the sound of the footsteps. Heavier footsteps meant it was Velda Morton, Lighter footsteps meant it was Jamie Henson.

Miss Morton came half stumbling into the room, clearly hungover.

"Rise and shine," she snapped holding her head, "we've got Cookies to make and package! And if you don't finish that shipment by 9am there will be no breakfast!"

The orphanage had one business that kept at least some money coming in that that was Aunt Katy's cookies. The cookies themselves were really very good, and they sold well, but the problem was Morton used most of the money on herself. She also had a cohort in the local precinct and on the child welfare board!

So, every time there was an inspection Miss Morton got tipped off and slapped on a bunch of window dressing to make the place look better than it was. The Kids were afraid to say anything out of fear of what she might do to them. The real mystery was why Jamie Henson never said anything either?!"

This had to stop. Matt knew this even as he headed downstairs with the others.

He walked into the Bakery and took his station at one of the giant mixing vats. They were doing sugar cookies today. As he started dumping the Sugar eggs and other ingredients in the Mixer he had no Idea that today his life would begin to change in ways he never would have imagined! He started the mixer and began adding the Vanilla as the Mixer blade spun.

He scanned the room watching the other kids as they worked. The oldest kid in the room was Marco Peterson he was 17 just a few years older than the 14-year-old Matt. The youngest was Eleven. As soon as you were tall enough to reach the controls on the machines your days of playing on the playground equipment were over. You went to work in the cookie factory. Unless there was going to be an inspection that day and then only the teenagers would be working.

Suddenly a picture appeared in Matt's mind of one of the main anchor bolts in the jungle gym outside about to sheer off!

"No!" he Cried, getting some funny looks from the other kids. Ignoring them he ran to the window and looked out. The jungle gym was still standing but he kids were piling off of it! Just as they got clear Matt was startled by a shout from one of the goons Miss Morton employed to run the place while she was probably off drinking herself into a stupor.

"Cranston!!" he thundered, "What do you think you're doing?! Get back to work!!!"

Matt Jumped and suddenly the jungle gym outside collapsed. The noise was loud enough to attract everyone's attention.

Everybody rushed out side to find the little kids looking at the rubble of what had been the jungle gym. Velda Came stumbling out behind Jamie. She was wearing a pair of thick sunglasses and groaned a little with every step.

"What's all the noise," she snapped, as quietly as she could and still sound like she was in charge.

"The jungle gym collapsed, Miss Morton," said Jamie

"Humph," she snorted, "That's what the kids get for playing to hard with the equipment."

That did it. Matt lost his temper!

"It's not their fault," he snapped, "it's yours!"

Velda looked stunned, Matt kept going.

"You drink up most of the money and then use whatever's left to buy this low-quality junk!" he growled, "and then you have the audacity to blame the kids when something breaks!!"

##########

Matthias sat on the floor of the Attic looking around. his tirade got him locked in the attic. He knew it would, but it was worth it to finally tell off that chore of a woman. In the attic with him were shelves and shelves of boxes. Each of the kids here had a box in this box were personal effects that belong to the kids that Miss Morton had confiscated for one reason or another.

Matt was more concerned though about what has happened with the jungle gym and his mind. How did he know that it was about to collapse before it did? Why did it seem like the jungle gym started to collapse then froze and held until after the little kid he was startled by that shout?

"nah," he thought, "Psycho-Kinesis doesn't exist!"

He stood up and began walking around the attic to stretch his legs. Knowing Miss Morton, he would probably be stuck in here all night. As he walked down the rows of shelves he found a box with his name on it Matthias L. Cranston curious he pulled the box down from the shelf and opened it.

Inside he found a fancy leather-bound book with a gold clasp on it! He pulled the book out and saw the name L. Cranston engraved on the front cover.

He looked at the clasp and wished that it was open. Suddenly a faint, click, sounded, and the clasp came loose.

"I am Psycho-Kinetic!!" he gasped to himself, "I willed the lock to open and it did!" still reeling from this revelation he opened the book and found it to be a journal. The family tree revealed to him that he was the great-grandson of a man named Lamont Cranston and a woman named Margot Lane! It said that they were both highly gifted telepaths and that Lamont was also telekinetic. Matt was really blown away when the journal revealed that Lamont could use his telepathy to cloud men's minds so that they couldn't see him!

He used this ability to become and unseen force feared by the underworld, and man known only as The Shadow!