Chapter 1

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories, only to find himself with a new case and a unknown assailant on him.

Chapter 1

 

            Rushing in the time of the dark is a man in grey. He is running in the dark, going through many directions, as if there is no tomorrow. His face is pale and sweating, but out of fear he turn his head back for a second. His feet is slowing down as he can’t see in the very dark in front of him. He tries hiding at different places in the alleyway, but he doesn’t see what he’s running away from. His body turn to different directions and he slides himself backwards slowly, while trying not to make a noise.

          A shadow emerges behind him looking below him. The horrified man fall down at the sight of the shadow. As he is running away, the shadow emerges and out comes the small man in black with an almost skinny to average build. His face is shown to be oval, almost non-tan white skin, and long black hair of shoulder length. He reach for his hood and wear it on his head to cover his face. There is no details specific to that man, he is nothing but a man dressing in black, blending in the night. He then starts running after his target.

          The target tries his best to evade his pursuer. He tosses garbage cans down towards his direction, only for him to leap over the can. He tries to attack with a pole from a hidden wall spot, only for the pursuer to block, counter, miss and get push by his target before he runs off again. While he is chasing him, an innocent man seemingly bumps into him. Nevertheless, the man slide him out of his way to get closer to the target.

          The more the grey man tries to distract, the more distractions the man in black manages to evade, the more the grey man’s stress and nervousness increases. He starts to sweat, and almost exhaust himself, but he needs to keep running, and so he does. He turns left, only to have ran into a dead end.

          He looks around, and quickly grabs a broken sharp-ended bottle, and points it at his pursuer. “Stay away from me. I’m armed, if you some any closer, I’ll stab you.” His pursuer looks like he’s scared. He just begins standing there, maybe because he doesn’t want to get stabbed, and now he’s scared of him because he has a weapon.

          Or that’s what the grey man thinks. The man in black, without a second of thought, lunges into him. His target swings the bottle many times at his direction. All the man in black does is dodge every attack. And on that one particular strike towards his face, he slides his chest away from the grey man’s hand, catches it, and twists his wrist to disarm the weapon. Jab! Cross! He lands with two punches before slamming and pinning him to the wall. He gets close to him.

          “Look, whatever you think I did, I didn’t do jack okay? You got the wrong guy. Just let me go, I’ll give you fifty bucks if you do this.” The grey man rambles on.

          “How much money do you think will make up for what you did? How much do you think will buy me peace?” The man in black’s voice sounded dark and rough.

          “What did I ever do to you man?”

          “You tell me. I know you escaped from prison, and then you hid somewhere in my old school. The police came rushing in looking for you. Do you know how many people almost died because of the stunt you pulled?”

          “Come on, you’re doing this to me because I almost got people killed? At least they’re alive so what’s the point of chasing after me?”

“Because not everyone made it out alive!”

“Woah woah woah! If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, that’s not who I am man. I would never, I wouldn’t.”

“Then who else am I supposed to think huh? I’ve investigated the school. There is nothing but signs of a dead body, a bunch of kids, and a torn piece of prison uniform. What would a convict be doing at a school dance?”

“Oh come one. Yes I was hiding inside the school, but ten of us escaped from prison, how would you know if any of them didn’t do it?”

“All of them didn’t see the school, nor did they even step foot in it. Reports had it that 10 people escaped, the police caught all of them except for one. None of them matched the b*****d I’m looking for, plus, you is the only one close to the body, and you had a weapon in your hand. What more does that tell?”

“Look man, I’m telling the truth, I didn’t kill anyone.”

The man struggles to break free from his grab, and the man in black push him to the side, eventually slicing his head by hitting the edge of a large garbage bin.

“Damn, looks like I killed him before I could get anything out of him. *sighs* Chances are he’s the one I’ve been chasing all along. If it comes out right, then I caught the right man.”

His room looks dirty. It doesn’t look like a regular house room. It looks like an abandoned office room, though everything in the room is cleared of office supplies and instead consists of taped fingerprints, piles of clothes, a portrait and a sleeping bag. The man, who’s revealed to have spiraling dragon tattoo on his right shoulder, a Christ necklace, and a white sleeveless shirt after taking his jacket off. “DAMN!” he yells and slams the taped fingerprints on the table. “They don’t match. I went after the wrong guy again. D****T!” He dropped himself on his sleeping bag. He is so frustrated he doesn’t know what to think anymore. All he could think about is where he went wrong, and wonders if the killer somehow got away without leaving any evidence behind.

He reaches his hand out to grab a portrait. The portrait isn’t shown of what it is, but flashbacks occurred in his head. It is vague to tell the two silhouettes, and it isn’t clear what the scenario is, but it is evident that whoever those silhouettes belong to, those people seemed to stick with each other. Sounds of laughter, sadness, and anger is heard. The flashbacks stop, showing the man who shed a tear, and his mood changed to anger and determination. Though he doesn’t say it, his facial expression speaks for itself. For now, he just puts the portrait back, covers himself in his sleeping bag, and calls it a day. The portrait then shows the boy and his baby brother.

Author's Note

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories. He shuns himself from having a normal social life for the sake of vengeance. Just when he thought he ran out of leads, he was involved in an incident which leads him to start a new case. This particular investigation changes him greatly while he is being hunted by an unknown assailant whose victims never got to see before they met their doom.

Note: This is my first book and I plan to write more. Criticism, praise, or any feedback of some sorts are welcome.
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