The Iron Shadow

A metal chair twirled above the ground, spinning in the hands of Laurence, and dropped it in front of Malachi Cooley, who was tied to another metal chair. Malachi had long dirty-blonde hair with light stubble spread around his face, which was bloodied and beaten; blood trickled off his eyebrow as droplets fell over his eye. They were in a dank warehouse where several armed men watched Laurence interrogate Malachi.

Laurence sat in the chair with the back against his stomach and rubbed his chin. “Here’s how this will work, Malachi,” Laurence said condescendingly; his voice was a salty, posh British accent. “You know who the Iron Shadow is.”

Malachi looked up under his bloodied eye and glared at Laurence.

“I know you know,” Laurence reminded him.

Malachi looked away from him and shook his head, chuckling lightly.

“You know where the Iron Shadow is. And—look at me,” Laurence snapped his fingers insultingly. Malachi wobbled his head to look back at Laurence. “You will tell me. There is no choice.”

“What if I just don’t feel like?” Malachi mumbled.

“I don’t care what you feel, Malachi,” Laurence extended his hand backwards and waited. An armed man approached and gave him a pair of pliers. He flaunted the pliers to Malachi. “I will hurt you. Badly. Even if you tell me this instant everything I want to know, I’m still going to hurt you. Do you know why?”

“Daddy issues?” Malachi quipped.

Laurence grabbed the chair he was sitting on by the top and flung it across the room in anger. Laurence bent down and looked face-to-face at Malachi. “Because I am extremely frustrated with the Iron Shadow. Every time I try to do anything, he breaks it apart. I’ve watched the ashes of millions of dollars sprinkle my lawn and have been chased by an entourage of policemen from the Iron Shadow’s intel.”

“Sounds like you’re playing hard to get,” Malachi smiled.

“Make no mistake about my intentions, Malachi. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill the Iron Shadow because I can’t even sleep anymore. I feel like a child because every shadow looks like it’s watching me.”

“Maybe you should get a nightlight. My three year old nephew might have a spare one—”

Laurence wound up and punched Malachi across the jaw. He grabbed Malachi by the tuft of his hair and yanked his head upright. “Who is the Iron Shadow?” Laurence raised his voice. “Tell me who he is!”

Malachi shook his head disappointedly under the grasp of Laurence’s fist. “I would but… ah, damnit.”

“What?” Laurence growled.

“It just… slipped my mind. It was right there, on the tip of my tongue. Can’t remember who they are. Oh well.”

Laurence threw Malachi’s head out his grasp and walked behind him. He pulled Malachi’s left ring finger and stretched it, sticking it between the pliers. He put Malachi’s wedding ring between the clamps.

“I will break this finger, permanently. And then, I will find your wife. Yes, I will find her. Her name is Eve. We will find her, Malachi, unless you tell me – which you will, in time – who the Iron Shadow is.”

Malachi laughed, which angered Laurence and he pressed the pliers, crushed the bone in his finger. Malachi groaned in pain, growing into a yell. Laurence let go of the pressure and looked at his subject with great disdain. Yet Malachi chuckled again.

“Laurence, Laurence, Laurence,” Malachi looked over his shoulder at his fuming torturer. “You know nothing.”

The light suddenly shut off, the sound of the power hummed to a silence. The armed guards tried looking around and calling out for each other. The laser sights turned out, shooting thin beams of red light across the warehouse.

“What’s going on?” Laurence demanded to know.

“Sir, someone shut the power off—ahh!” the guard suddenly zipped up towards the ceiling, his gun crashed onto the floor. There was a curdling gasp for air above them as they searched for him. Then from the darkness above the guard dropped and smacked against the floor, already dead. They stepped closer and saw a stab wound through his neck.

A small pellet shot down from above, in the middle of the circle of guards and exploded into a cloud of smoke, further obstructing their vision. The sounds of iron unsheathed as the guards desperately searched for their hunter.

Laurence watched from afar one by one the red laser sights shut off as cries of death echoed in the warehouse. Flashes of katana blades caught the lights as they thrust into each of the guards. The final guard was impaled on a katana and lifted above the ground. Laurence backed up in fear and stared aimlessly into the darkness.

“That’s it, kill me. Don’t explain yourself, don’t reason with me – no, be the coward you are and kill me like this!” Laurence passed through a flickering light above him as he continued to retreat. “This is a game, isn’t it? Cat and mouse? Tell me something. Are you being paid to hunt me, or is this your own personal vengeance? If someone has hired you, why don’t you and I talk a little business and discuss exactly how much they’re paying you.”

Two katana blades entered under the flickering light and pulled with it a figure. The Iron Shadow was covered head to toe in a ribbed armor like platelets. The helmet was an LCD screen that had two crescent-moon shapes as the eyes. The Iron Shadow stood perfectly still.

“But if this is personal, then remove the mask,” Laurence negotiated one last time. The Iron Shadow said nothing, staring directly at Laurence. The Iron Shadow flung a katana up into the flickering light and submerged Laurence in darkness. Laurence scrambled around on the floor and found a gun from one of the guards. He turned on the laser sight and spun around helplessly in search for the Iron Shadow.

Suddenly, all of the lights turned on. Laurence looked around quickly but couldn’t find anyone but Malachi strapped to the chair. He spun to his left slowly, checking over his right shoulder occasionally. As he circled in place trying to look for any movement at all, but there was nothing.

“C’mon, where are you?” he called out furiously. “Show yourself, you coward!”

A pellet of smoke suddenly crashed by his feet, enveloping Laurence in a cloud of smoke. Malachi watched from above The Iron Shadow drop into the cloud of smoke. Gun shots fired.

The smoke dissipated and the Iron Shadow stood over Laurence’s body. The Iron Shadow walked slowly towards Malachi. The Iron Shadow knelt down and tilted their head.

“Honey, you’ve gotta stop getting yourself in situations like this when I’m not around. The helmet rolled back automatically and shrunk itself into the armor. Brown flowing hair fell out of the helmet and revealed Malachi’s wife, Eve. She rubbed her thumb gently over the open wound above his eyebrow. “Look at that…” she winced as she examined it.

“I don’t ever get worried because I know you’re on your way to rescue me each time,” Malachi said coyly.

“You don’t do this on purpose, do you?”

Malachi smirked and shrugged his shoulders. Eve rolled her eyes.

“Thank you, I meant to say.”

“You’re very welcome,” she kisses him quick and cuts him loose with her katana.