Cortez, The Shadow Man, and The Little Black Book

6:00 P.M.

The detective wiped the crumbs off her jeans from her lunch. Her gazed went up to a young man sitting on the other side of the table.

Eyes darken, his mocha skin once handsome was now bruised.

"Mr. Cortez, just tell me what I need to know and you will be able to leave.

Cortez spit out blood and tried to come to his senses.

"Yo... man I tried to tell y'all. I was on the L heading from work."

Aching over from the pain caused to his torso, Cortez' voice showed weakness.

"You were a bright young pupil. The star of the Windy City boxing world. Why did you do it? Did you work along?"

Cortez was taken back and angered by that statement.

"Work what! Yo, you trippin or sum!"

Cortez lowered his voice when he the detective attempt to reach for a button to call for assistance.

"Alright look, I was on the L right. All of a sudden the lights went off. When they came on, this figure appeared. Everybody else ran off, but I was frozen. Did not see his face, but I heard his voice. It sounded like thunder."

Taking notes, the detective glanced up, not truly buying into the story.

"So thunder man is what we're talking about? Now the 20k was him too?"

Cortez shook off the laughter and tried to continue.

"Y'all got jokes huh. What you think? That I can just find 20k like that? He gave me an ultimatum."

The detective leaned in closer, eager to here the rest of the story.

7:00 P.M.

"So, what did he say?"

Cortex smirked as she asked that and she wore a concern expression.

Taking out an object, Cortex placed something on the table.

"You see this little black book here."

The detective's eyes watered and as she attempted to get up, Cortex lifted his right hand and the doors locked. The police pounded on the door as the detective held her shaky pistol.

"W-h... Who are you!"

"Whoa wow Char, don't shoot me yet. You see the figure, gave me something. A chance, for me to save my family. All I had to do was get caught by the cops. 20k to my bank and my family is saved."

The detective looked sick to her stomach.

"Oh so, you know who he is huh. The man you thought was a criminal right, a low down druggie, hipster. That's how you said it. But you know he was innocent, and you raided his house and killed his baby girl. Not only that, but the docs that tried to kill him, turned him into a shadow like monster. But here's the good part."

The detective let out a shot and the bullet froze dead in the air.

"Wow wow now, let's turn that bullet around. I won't kill you let cause this is the court room here and I'm the judge. Now in this book, it says that the only way to heal the shadow is to take the life of the person who lives in the light of the innocent. So... yah that's you.

Bang!!

6:30 PM

The bulleted pierced the detective's forehead as if she was Goliath himself. The doors opened and the police stormed in to their dead comrade and there was no Mr. Cortez in sight to arrest.

As the week prolong, the police held a funeral procession with the media covering.

Tears and anger swept around the city except for in small pockets.

At the porch at a young alderman's house on 63rd, stood a larger than life figure holding his daughter.

There was a gentleman he talked to and they exchanged something.

The alderman gave the man, 20k and in return he got this black little book.

"Thank big bro for doing this for me. If the police won't stand up, we have to do it ourselves."

Mr. Cortez smiled and nodded.

Opening up the book, Mr. Cortez showed his niece something.

On the front inside cover it read, "My little Amelia, bring power to your imagination. Use your powers, to bring us brown folk and our black brothers and sisters. Just like Fred Hampton echoed, I am a revolutionary!"