The Adventures of Stanley Simmons

Monday morning April 8th 2021 Interrogation room 1B

“Ok stanley, we’re just waiting for the green light, then we can go ahead and start the interview process.”

A dim ominous green light in the upper right hand corner of the room flickers on just above a sign that reads, recording.

“For the record, can you state your name, and date of birth please.”

“Stanley Simmons, Born November 20th 1986.”

“Ok good Stanley, thank you. So I assume you know the reason you're here, but I have to reinstate them for legal purposes of course.”

“You are hereby commissioned by the state of Chicago to provide your retellings of the incident of March 5th 2021. In accordance with your plea deal you are to provide us with information on your background. Do you understand Mr.Simmons?

“Yep! Where would you like me to start?”

“I suppose Stanley.. Start from the beginning”

“Alright then chief, if you say so.”

“I didn't have any parents. From what they told me my mom left me in a dumpster.”

“I landed at St.Marians orphanage on the west side. The orphanage was conveniently placed in the first ring of hell. For whatever reason I was relentlessly tormented, and beaten every time the nuns decided to take a look in the other direction.”

“One good thing happened there oddly enough, I met my one and only friend Mikey G.”

“After years of tears, torutre, and hidden bruises, that fateful day came when I got adopted. Micheal and Shelby Simmons where to be my new guardians.”

“Truly beautiful people, they voluntarily decided to live in the Evergreens. They believed in the good of people, and all the criminals around them we're just misguided.”

Stanley dipped his head towards the cold metal table staring at the ground trying to quell the tears from welling up in his eyes.

“They helped...They taught me I had a special connection with the world and people around me… they said I cared like nobody else, but because of that I would be hurt like nobody else.”

Detective Umbridge knew what was coming next, he read all the files. He was very familiar with this particular incident, but still, he wasn't sure he was ready to hear it for the man or child who witnessed it.

“May 15th 1996. I came home one day from a baseball game. I was slightly worried because they would always come watch me, so I hurried back. Just a few feet from my house there was yellow tape, cruisers, and policemen standing around chatting. Totally distracted, I was able to dash by and jet into my house.”

“The Simmons, my family, lay in a pool of their own blood in the living room just by the mangled and broken glass coffee table. My knees gave way and I collapsed to the ground.”

“They said a burglary went wrong.”

“You can always recall the moment that broke you.”

“The best way to confirm the existence of the unknown. Is to recognize it’s absence. That day I believed in the human soul because I had lost mine, and in its place was numbness.”

Monday morning April 8th 2021 Interrogation room 2D

“Ok Mr.Genaro, could you state your name, date of birth, and relation to the convict at the center of the case.”

“Yeah ok sure. My Name is Michael Jacob Genaro. I was born on September 5th 1986. And I am a long time friend of Stanley Simmons”

“Perfect, thank you Mr. Genaro. Now we can begin. As a long time friend of Mr. Simmions and only know contact, have you ever noticed anything out of the ordinary behavior wise? Quick to anger?

“Of course he was quick to anger, you know that you've seen the guy. You've arrested him for such behavior.”

Instead of allowing Michael to finish his thought the detective pressed on like a man possessed.

“So you are in fact aware of Mr.Simmons vigilante work?”

“I am yes.”

“Ok Mr.Genaro, just for the record you understand that statement may be incriminating as you are revealing to me that you aided and embedded a known criminal?”

“Yes I am aware, but it's important I do this, for the both of us.”

Interrogation room 1B

“I was yanked away from my house without being able to say goodbye. Being that I had nowhere to go they bounced me around from orphanage to orphanage. From there on it was pure survival mode. That numbness that took residence in my being that day had settled in. Then I was able to fend for myself and live on my own, and I found a way to shake it.”

“Ok Mr.Simmons, just for reference, this was about the time you took up the monacor the Night Warrior and began your unlawful trope doing vigalty work.”

“That's right, that’s when I started doing YOUR job. As for the name I didn't give it to myself, the city did.”

“They liked what I was doing. I took care of them when nobody else would. I was tired of the forgotten getting shit on, so I took the matter into my own hands. I took out drug kings, Gangs, and the filth that would mean to take a loving couple away from its child. That's what, I do I PUT MONSTERS AWAY”

Detective Umbridge could do nothing but stare emotionless at the wall just behind Stanley, hoping he would cool down.

“Ok Stanley can you tell me about the person called The Shadow? How'd he fit into all this? And how did he lead to the incident of march the 5th of this year?”

“He was...he is my nemesis. believed in the restoration of the Evergreens. But his means were unconventional. He would destroy and take life as he saw fit. He always remained elusive. I was always a step too slow, or too far behind, and he loved it.”

“He left cryptic notes and voice messages right under my nose. Sometimes leaving them right in my apartment.”

Interrogation room 2D

“So... Mr. Genaro can you please walk me through how and when you found out Stanley SImmons, was The Shadow”

“I had to go back to the parts of Stanley's life I knew least about. It turns out a lot of the orphanages Stanley claimed to reside in after the incident with his adopted parents were actually psych wards.

“I took all the notes he had organized on the shadow. I scanned them over and over looking for anything. That's when I noticed the hand writing matched. I had to keep going. I swiped one of his burner phones from the shoebox under his bed and went through the text messages. The problem was there were none. None that were incoming anyway. Every voice message was self recorded, and each text was saved in the phone's notebook. Listening to the recording is when I knew. The voice was unmistakable. That wasn't the Shadow talking. That was my friend Stanley.”

Interrogation room 1B

.

“Stanley, can you walk me through the events of March 5th of this year.”

Stanley's position was unwavered. A statue of cold blooded disposition

“I had received a note a few days prior from the shadow. Right in my mailbox, This note was different though, it wasn't cryptic. It had a direct message”

Big Day Coming Up Old Buddy

9th Street Is Going Down

Hope To See You There

March 5th Let's Say Around 2

TRULY YOURS -

THE SHADOW

“It could have been a trick, but I wasn't gonna take my chances. 9th street was a block of crack houses. He was looking to purify the city, this time on a bigger scale.”

“ I staked out the position as soon as I got the note. I'm not sure how he did it, he must have snuck by, because the next thing I saw Was the first row of buildings facing the street erupt in a plume of rubble and dust. Debris bursted out the windows on top of the street below.”

“Still I ran headstrong into the wreckage. I had to stop the shadow before he set off another explosive.”

Stanley began to stir in his head. He couldn't rightly retell the next portion of the story because he wasn't sure how it happened.

“So Stanley How did you stop the second set of bombs from going off?”

Re emerging from his small mental Crisis. He snapped his head forward and looked Umbridge in his eyes and said.

“That's when Mikey showed up”

Interrogation room 2D

“March 5th 2021. Mr. Genaro How'd you know, how'd you know where, and what Stanley was doing.”

Micheal reached deep in the inner left pocket of his trench coat an unfolded a note, placed it on the table and slid it to the detective which he read promptly

“Came across this while doing my research in Stanleys abandoned apartment. The note read March 5th. Of course it had to be the same day didn't it. I didn't waste any time. I grabbed the notes and all the probable evidence I could.”

“When I got to 9th street the first explosion had already gone off.”

“As fate would have it the dust settled and I saw Stanley. He wasn't moving though he was perfectly still frighteningly so.In his right hand held out far in front of him was the detonator.”

“Close enough now I placed my hand on his back and brought my face into his field of vision. `Buddy, it's me, Mikey, what's going on.’ I said”

Mikey started sniffling fighting back tears anyway he could

‘Help me Mikey I'm scared’ is all he said to me. This once enormous threat to evil, and self proclaimed brute of the night was asking me for help. His eyes were bloodshot not from the debris, but from crying. At that moment I Didn't see Stanley the Night Warrior. I saw Stanley, that lonely frightened kid I met at the orphanage.”

“I took out my notes and explained everything to him… the best way I could. I'm not really sure how to explain to somebody that they have a split personality, and they're their own worst enemy at the same time.”

‘You're a good friend Mikey you always were.’ After he said that he took off like a bat out of hell. Dropping the detonator at my feet. I chased him as far as i could screaming for him to stop but he didn't listen. That's when I called the authorities.”

Interrogation room 1B

“Mr.Simmons given what we now know I have to do over your initial introduction for court proceedings of course. So can you both state your name and date of birth for me.”

“Stanley Simmons. born November 20th 1986. The Shadow born May 15th 1996”

“Are both of you here with us today?”

“Yes...yes we are”

“So one finally question while I have you both here, if you both believed in what you were doing why turn yourself in.”

Stanley closed his eyes for a moment allowing himself to revisit the annals of his life, and the events that lead him to become the man he was today. His cold heartless attitude was just a mirror of the world he knew. It became so heavy the mirror shattered and split in two, creating a parallel existence that traveled the thin line of morality and injustice. Attempting to quell the spoiled part of his existence, his memory came back to Mr. and Mrs. Simmons. The people that loved him most, and cared for him when nobody else would. Fortifying the reason he became a vigilante and fought for the voiceless just like they had for him. That distant and powerful memory allowed Stanley to re-emerge as himself and extinguish The Shadow. Standing there before the detective and unregretful man he answered him with confidence and said.

“because that’s what I do, I put monsters away.”