Good News, Bad News
Okay, so the bad news first: I won't be posting any more of that story I was writing, No Straight Lines. I was really struggling with it and I wasn't going where I wanted, so I sort of gave up on it. Sorry, stuff like that happens when you're a writer.
Good news: I started a new story, using the same basic characters, but a completely different storyline. Here, I'll post the Prologue:
Prologue
She walked down the road, along downtown, only the yellowed streetlights keeping her from tripping in her heels. It wasn’t a very pretty downtown. Then again, when was there ever a pretty downtown? He sat in the shadows, waiting, waiting. This should be it… The woman turned into the alleyway, just as he had expected her to. Perfect. This was going just as planned.
She dialed a number on her phone, glancing around, her red-orange hair catching the light. He breathed out, slowly. Keeping his patience. He’d have to wait. Having someone on the other end hearing her screaming for help – or, at least, a muffled “oomph,” would raise suspicions. She’d have to go quickly and silently. Without anyone knowing. At least, not knowing what really happened to her. She’d just be another missing face. There were an awful lot of those these days. Besides, he might be able to get information regarding… Him. His worst enemy. Nameless, but known to everyone.
Maybe. He waited. The phone on the other end rang four times before a voice answered. A deep voice. A computer-altered voice. A voice that was not meant to be recognized.
“What,” it said, not so much of a question as it was a statement.
“I need your help,” the woman said. Now that he heard her voice, she sounded very much like a teenager. Maybe she was, indeed, young. She just didn’t look like it. “He’s following me. I can tell. And he may be here right now…”
His fists clenched in frustration, trying to keep the rest of him silent. So they had figured him out! What now? Should he attack now, or at the scheduled time, or not at all?
The voice on the other end said something, but he couldn’t quite make it out. It must have been, “Where are you?” because she said, “Off of College. In an alleyway. Hurry.”
That was it. That drew the line. He decided to attack, now. “GRRRRRAAHH!!” he bellowed, as he flung himself towards her. She whipped her head around, startled by the sound, looking as if she were a deer caught in headlights. But then her face changed, warped into the determination of making a decision. It was, undoubtedly, foolish. No one escaped his clutches.
But she wasn’t as foolish as he made her out to be. She threw the phone away, crouched down, and then rolled to her right, moving out of the way of his attack. Neither were hurt, but he had lost the valuable advantage of surprise.
And now, it was his turn to be surprised, as something swooped down, landing on his back and bringing him down to the ground. But he seemed to fall in slow-motion, falling, falling, falling…
He finally hit the ground, lying on his back as if he were, in fact, the deer in this turnabout and he had just been hit by the car. Because standing before him, in all of the people of the entire world, of the entire universe, in the whole of existence, of all choices of human beings, past or present, there was one man standing before him. One man, dark and mysterious, known not only by the people of the city but also by the people of the country. One man who was loved by the police and hated by the criminals. This was the man that he hated, despised, and loathed. This was why he did what he did.
“Why, hello there,” the man said. He grinned as if greeting a friend, as if he hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere and knocked him to the ground. “What are you doing out this late? You know it’s past Super-villain curfew, right? Well, don’t worry. I’ll get you home.” Then the man brought up his fist and shoved it in his face. Darkness swarmed him as he asked himself, “Am I really a ‘Super-villain’?” Such a title seemed barbaric to him, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on it. The world finished its being engulfed in darkness. He saw nothing.
He awoke in a jail cell.
So, that's the prologue. I think I like this version of the story a lot better. Tell me what you think in the comments! :) Thanks!
