Sudden Fiction # 3

Roxanne Coleman

12/8/11

Cole, the Lightning Thief

            My name is Cole Shogun and I was a regular citizen like most people before the explosion occurred.  It was just another day in New York City suburbs, a 16 year old boy like myself leaving school and heading home and somehow I ended up strapped down in an eerie place. Till this day my memory is vague and I don’t understand how I got there. All I know it was a challenge that I somehow overcame and proud of it. My story starts off like this.

I was surrounded by technology and high tech tools around me I assumed I was in some creepy laboratory. “Where am I?” I thought to myself, not realizing I said this thought out loud, someone answered in the shadows. “This is my lab, do you like?” Scared to death, yet somehow I had the courage to respond back, “who are you and I understand this is a lab, but where exactly is this lab?” The man took some time to think, I assumed he was debating on whether to respond to me or not.  Finally, the man spoke as he stepped out of the shadows and said “don’t worry about how you got here or where you are, the importance is that you are here and you shall fulfill my dream.” “But,” and before I could finish the man cut me off and stated his name. “My name is Dr. Lee and you will be my new guinea pig.” Within a matter of minutes I felt excruciating pain and realized the mad man was electrocuting my body.

The electricity soared through my veins, my fingertips, my brain, and lastly my heart. I didn’t think I would survive; I felt like giving up and wanted to die right then and there. I knew my body wanted to and yet for some reason I couldn’t give in. Many people would call this feeling many things, such as adrenaline or courage; instead I call this feeling being foolish. Since I felt like I was fighting the inevitable, but then seeing Dr. Lee face made me lose it. Smiling, delighted to see my pain, filled me with anger and hate; I just knew I couldn’t die here, not now, not ever. “So I see you like seeing my pain, you like seeing people suffer, well two can play at that game.” I screamed so loud and used all the strength within me to break the straps that were binding me down.

I could see it in the doctor’s face, my actions was truly upsetting him. “Stop it I command you to stop!” he shouted. “Don’t you realize what you are doing, he added, you are causing my babies to malfunction.” He went on to say, “now listen here boy, let’s work something out, how about you work for me? Surely you don’t think society will accept you now that you’re becoming a monster with the abilities to control electricity?” He shouldn’t have told me that because I really lost it and was giving everything I had to be set free. Yes, I will admit, he made some valid points there, but I knew he wasn’t the man I wanted to serve and I knew he wasn’t a man of justice like I am. So to show him my refusal, I did whatever it took to break free from his grasp. Somehow I finally broke the straps and when I did the lab exploded. Till this day I don’t know how I survived that chaos or the experimenting part. I guess it just wasn’t my time to leave this earth without doing some good first because when I woke up and shook the debris off of me, I felt strange and realized that I obtained electrical powers.

Before the cops came I quickly left the scene. Now I know what you are all thinking, why didn’t I use these powers for selfish greed and wealth, well like I stated before I am a man of justice and using my powers for selfish reasons makes me no better than Dr. Lee. What you all must understand is that I am proud to have chosen to use my powers for the greater good and would not change it any other way. I formed a team when I realized that Dr. Lee experimented with other kids before he did with me and together we look out for citizens and help our neighborhood whenever we can. Now you all know my story, for “I am Cole the Lightning Thief and I will shock the world with my powers and villains to justice.”

Reflection

What I learned during the workshop process was how to grab the reader attention more. Just because I understand the story well that doesn’t mean that everyone else will. Also to make sure to always re-read my work so that it makes sense and that my grammatical errors don’t distract the reader from the story. Overall, it was great to get feedback from Me. Defeo and from my peers because everyone really helped me construct my story to become stronger and more in tune with the readers mind.