Writing Prompt — The Tragedy of Shade London
Here’s the prompt that I was writing with this time, taken from r/writing prompts: You’re twelve years old. You grow up to be Earth’s greatest villain. You know this because they keep trying to assassinate you in your childhood.
With writing prompts like this I try and do it under 30 minutes or so, and I do no editing beyond a basic copy-edit pass. It is sort of stream of consciousness and aiming to be a short segment of a story or a short story all together.
I’ll include some commentary at the end about how I think it turned out
I spun left, as the fireball blew past my head and I jumped over, pulling out a small knife as I saw a follow up shot bloom where a moment ago I had been standing. Palming the knife I whispered a small spell, drawing energy from the heat that had just been expended, to walk between shadows, from here, to the other side of the room.
Emerging in the back, I threw the blade at the man’s calf and rolled forward, pulling out a longer blade in my off hand, this one ritually cleansed earlier in the day. Holding it ahead of me I drew a small circle in the air, marking it with the symbol of banishing, and linked it to the knife I had lodged in the attacker’s leg and shouted “Begone!”, my voice breaking in frustration much to my embarrassment.
It was Tuesday, and this was already the second attempt to kill me this week. Looking up, I confirmed the attacker was gone, meaning I likely had some time without an attack if I moved quickly. I pulled up my ritual blade, and slammed it into one of the metal poles that were around the warehouse I had been hiding in, breaking the blade, and the potential for them to track the connection back to me from the dagger link I had used.
I sighed and went to the corner in the room where I had put my things, starting to gather them into a bag, as it was time to move on or else this place would be flooded soon. I stopped, as I picked up a broach, a gift from my parents I had been told. I opened it, and I saw them, their kind faces that I never knew… Helen and Ryan they were called and they died days after this picture was taken, hiding me from my enemies.
If only…. If only they had lived, or their death had done more than stop the attacks for 8 years, I thought to myself, tearing up. If they had lived, they could have convinced these so-called heroes that I was no villain, that I would never destroy the world or that I wished no harm on anyone… other than perhaps those who had killed my parents or harmed Renna.
The name of my old mentor, who had been like a parent to me stopped me in my tracks for a moment, as I recalled some of the lessons she had taught me. And how four years ago she had nearly been killed in the first of the attacks against me. She barely managed to avoid an energy blast, and fought the so-called hero Mars to a draw before he scored a lucky blow on her. Only his taunting gave me a chance and on that day I had used my abilities for the first time in earnest. It remained the only time I had ever been ready to kill, and I remember still, him standing over Renna, with searing energy against the quick shadow magic she used as I then grabbed him with the shades and pulled him down… the blade in my hand then seemed to move on its own. Without conscious thought I recalled what I said, “You cannot have her,” my voice sounding unlike my own as the knife came down, with only Renna’s strangled cry staying my hand from killing the monster who had tried to kill her.
Renna’s look of disgust stuck with me as she spoke after, tempering the anger I felt. We left the area, but others came attacking us at times, though we managed to avoid them as I learnt about surviving on the run. It was after a year of this that Mars returned, firing energy beams from the sky at Renna, who hid me in shadows, and escaped baffling Mars who talked with another one of the heroes and I heard for the first time that they thought me the destroyer of the world, the greatest villain that ever will be. Only the shadows that I was hid in, and that bound my mouth for the moment, stopped me from making noise and a few hours later they had faded… while the travellers were gone.
The only thing left there was a note from Renna who said she would try to take their attention and I was to hide and ignore what they said.
For the last three years I had followed her advice. I have travelled the world, a lone kid, with my abilities helping me hide, escape or get away but lately the attacks were coming more and more common. I worried… could Renna be dead? Is that why they are finding me now?
Shaking my head, I grabbed my knapsack and turned to leave when the warehouse owner stopped me and spoke, his voice trembling in fear, “The… someone left this for you.” He passed a tablet, one unlike any I had ever seen, and saw on it, that it said iPad 17 which….
Which meant it could only have been given by the travellers. Who knew I was here still and alive. “Bees and Barnacles!” I swore, drawing an odd look from the frightened warehouse owner “They know I’m here still and think its safe to leave this here.” I pressed the button on it to play, and it popped up in a 3d image, with Mars holding Renna captive.
“Come to where we first met Shade or I will remove her from your time.” One of the others standing there moved forward as if to object but Mars spoke over him “We must be strong to stop Shade from rising. Whatever it takes.” The others nodded as I looked there at the projection in horror.
“No…” I dropped it, tears running down my face, as I fell to my knees, “Renna…” I sobbed grabbing a small bear she had made me years ago that I kept despite outgrowing it. “Why? WHY?” I shouted in anger, voice full of tears as well, and the warehouse owner ran away, as I didn’t notice that all the shadows had come to me.
The room, was full of dark and light, as the dark gathered around me, the light filled the room elsewhere, as all the shadows came to me. “I cannot let this …” I spoke, my voice cracking some …
“Where we first met… I don’t know…”I stopped mumbling for a moment and snapped my head up, and grabbed the shadows, absorbing the darkness, the shadows to use later, with power pulsing down my arms.
“I must fight. The time for running is over. If they want war, then let there be war.”
Commentary
With this one, I’m not entirely happy how it turned out. I feel there might be a story here with Shade that could be told, but I think to explore it that I would need to use flashbacks some and more in-depth. I think it also got away from me at times a bit and the age of 12 doesn’t fit the story quite.
What I was thinking here originally was the idea where the heroes, trying to stop something horrible, had accidentally created a stable timeloop of making their own villain — a young man who is driven to villainy. I went with a bit of a magicy system here that I don’t think quite works with how it’s described as I wander on how it is. It needs to be more formal, but there are some nice moments of imagery with it. I like the image of Shade having teleported, throw the blade, and then use a symbol magic type to teleport the person back with a clensed blade. I can kinda see that in my minds eye. I also like the end image of the shadows being absorbed by him, and the idea of the room becoming this place full of light while the darkness enters him.
Poor Shade, if they hadn’t killed his parents, or kept going after him he would have been fine. I did want to show that he did have some darker tendencies — as he nearly killed Mars there and without Renna definitely would have.
