Shadow & the Ultimate Sacrifice

 “Mom, why did you name me Shadow?” 

Shadow’s mom smiled. “Because your father loved his country so much that he put you through school serving it,” Shadow’s mom Lori replied.

“What does that have to do with my name?” Shadow asked while folding up the chair that he was sitting in.

It was the end of his birthday party and a girl that he was interested in kept making fun of his name so Shadow couldn’t help but probe his mother with questions while helping her clean up.

“Your father was great enough to be President. Your father was great enough to rule the world, but he stayed in the shadows. He never took a leadership position because he feared the dark forces. The higher you go up son, the more they will try to stop you. Your father was like a shadow god. He was so powerful that the shadow warriors haunted him until his death,” Lori explained.

Shadow soaked in every word his mother said, “So I’m cursed.”

“No, you’re powerful beyond measure, so powerful that the gods fear you,” Lori replied in certainty.

At that moment, Shadow began to understand why his mother stood by him through it all. Now a grown man at the sensitive age of eighteen, Shadow excelled quickly in life. Like his father, he served the country and it almost seemed like everything he touched turned to gold. Every move he made his mother’s humble message stuck in his mind, but his power unleashed a deep dark hatred that an unknown force was stirring.

“Shadow, our country needs a guy like you to run for president. We need a leader like you. Do what your father refused to do,” Shadow’s friend Isiah randomly said while they were working out at the gym.

“I will think about it,” he replied.

Watching his friend battle with uncertainty another man stepped in as Shadow watched him gracefully give a speech that Shadow wrote in college.

It was his old friend Ronald. 

“He stole my speech,” Shadow said to himself zooming in on Ronald’s new found spotlight. Slow to anger, Shadow felt something eating away at his psyche.

“Shadow, the dark lords are after you. You’ve awakened the shadow gods. They won’t stop until they consume you, but you can’t give up. Good people need you. Even if you don’t run, the Alpha Omega God will protect you, we’re with you Shadow,” Shadow’s friend Isiah said.

“Isiah, are you delusional? What are you talking about?”

“I’m speaking as though I were a fiction writer. We’re like family, so hear me out. Read between the lines. What or whoever killed your father was not for good, it’s because they hated him just like they hate you,” Isiah explained.

Shadow’s phone rang. Grabbing it off of the kitchen table he walked to the other room.

“What do you mean she’s not going to make it?” Shadow asked while Isiah sat listening in the other room.

“Come on, we have to go.”

Rushing to catch up with Shadow, Isiah turned off the television, “It’s your mom isn’t it?” He cautiously asked.

“Yes, now come on.”

He and his friend Isiah rushed to the hospital only to receive word that he was too late. Barging into his mother’s emergency room, Shadow got the news that his mom sadly died on the way to the hospital.

Falling down in disbelief, Shadow could hear his mother’s voice over and over again.

“Mama!” He screamed. 

“Why didn’t she tell me she was sick?” 

Shadow was livid. His mother was all that he had left besides his friend Isiah. After his father died in the war when he was a child his mother raised him with every dime from his dad’s survival benefits. 

Just like his father, he kept all of his family business secret, away from the outside world.

The ambient sounds of the hospital resonated in Shadow’s mind while looking at his mother’s lifeless body.

“Mama, why didn’t you tell me you were sick,” he said while rubbing her still hand.

Seeing the state of the country, support for Shadow poured in. 

Shadow’s family had grown bitter and divided over time so Shadow had a small funeral with just him and some friends and family members who were close.

He informed his family of the conversation that he’d had with his mother when he was eighteen, questioning her about his name. His punchline, while comically reciting her response was, “You’re not cursed, you’re unique.”

After losing his mother, Shadow took some time to reflect, but his new arch enemy, Ronald, would not stop.

As Shadow sat in a room with Isiah, Ronald took to the campaign trail, clowning the only man that he knew could beat him. In interviews, he refused to hold his tongue.

When asked why Shadow would not endorse him, Ronald had a cut throat response.

“He’s a coward. He’s just like his father. He gets off on being loved for his kindness, but deep inside he’s afraid to get dirty. If that makes me the bad guy, then love me for being honest. I want to bring the beast out of good men who sit at home with their families while I’m putting in hard work. They should learn to like a guy like me. I make the world better,” Ronald explained to the reporter with a straight face.

After this, things took a sharp turn. Ronald had now grabbed the world by the neck with his comments. He had a lot of support because of his stance on critical issues. This was now a bloodbath for the most powerful seat in the world and the only man that stood in the way of Ronald’s victory had just been called out. This was a race for the presidency.

Shadow, the country needs you. If that man becomes president, a lot of good people are going to suffer. 

Feeling the pressure, Shadow would have to leave everything behind that he had worked for just to even come close to winning. 

The words of his now dead mother played over and over again in his mind.

Ahh struck by his new found popularity, Shadow turned to Isiah for advice.

“What makes a good man good?” Shadow asked.

“I think it’s when he sacrifices everything for the greater good of the world,” Isiah replied.

Standing tall, Shadow threw in his hat to run for President.

The man gave up everything to win. His wife left him. His mother was in her grave, and like his friend Isiah said, he’d unleashed all forms of dark energy just by being alive, but Ronald stood his ground in heated debates about Shadow’s past. He was criticized for being a goodie two shoes and too weak on foreign policy. Too weak of a soul to be president and not presidential enough. Ronald even called him a pervert that felt on girls while they were asleep when he was a child. The hardest part for Shadow was facing an opponent who he grew up with. He was even criticized for his ethnicity, and laughed at while opposing supporters held black faces of his father at rallies. 

“Who are you to dare run against me? You’re a bum that sits in the shadows masturbating with the tax payer’s money. You’re a fake, who escaped poverty because of your rich father. Now go back to the ghetto where you belong,” Ronald said in a battle to the finish. This race was a bloodbath and Ronald was not backing down.

“Great citizens, today we look at a country that is a mess because of the people Shadow represents. I mean does he even speak proper English. He won’t even play basketball with me and I grew up on his lonely token street. The world needs a leader who will fight for the people who work. The people who don’t run to Uncle Sam to solve their problems. The world needs a leader who puts his country first. Not a man who sits in the shadows painting a false picture of hope,” Ronald said revving up the crowd at his rally.

Things had now gotten personal between Shadow and Ronald. If Ronald did one thing, he did bring the beast out of good people like Shadow, but his friend Isiah stood by his side.

With his back against the wall, Shadow knew he didn’t have much left. His campaign funds were dwindling and he needed the majority support. Ronald was on a tear. He belittled a part of the country that his opponents were afraid to debate on. His debate tactics were cunning, as he mocked the working class for not working hard enough. It was almost like the guy wanted to be hated. He criticized poor voters for not knowing enough to vote. The guy was livid, but this is what his supporters liked. They wanted someone to shoot first and ask questions last. Shadow was no longer in the Shadows. If he didn’t win, Ronald would take over the world. Seeing how wild this race had gotten, this was no longer a two party fight, this was something different, it was a bloodbath on the political stage and talking points had driven innocent people to commit suicide, but there stood Ronald, fueling the flames. It was like debating the devil, he was cunning, smart, brave, and didn’t care what he said until the microphone was in Shadow’s hands.

“Yes, I know my story, I know who I am, but I also know what I want. I want a country filled with three words, ‘Trust in God.’ Ronald is a man fueling the flames, but I am a man with nothing left but God’s grace. If you vote for Ronald, I promise you that you will live in a Godless nation and no man can win without God. I have a proven record of service to this country. Yes, I too have skeletons in my closet, but I know who I am. I’ve repented of my wrongs and I trust in God. So I want a country where we all trust in God. So, I, in my speech, knowing that even if I lose, God is with me. If this is a nation that trust in God, then who would vote for a proven atheist like Ronald? A proven dictator who holds a bible for votes. There is no ‘we’ in Ronald. In his world it’s just him. At this moment we need something supernatural fighting with the good men and women of this nation, we need someone devoted to pleasing God. Someone who turns to him for guidance and strength. Yes, my family has stood in the shadows, but great people, where there are shadows there is light. I am stepping into the light to bring this nation back into the shining sun because we have been sitting in the depths of evil. And if Ronald wins, we will remain in the darkness and be consumed by the beast of hell. So I say, not, I, nation, but In God ,we, Trust.”

After these sincere words, Shadow stood his ground throughout the entire race. He had little to work with and he and his friend Isiah fought to the end. The mention of God in his speech confused Ronald’s team. Running as a proud democrat whose message was far right didn’t make Ronald seem like an authentic candidate, but now Shadow had turned the tides. He sounded more real, more graceful, and gave the people a belief as if something more powerful had been watching over the country. This last speech had given Shadow mass support from other God fearing republicans and democrats. After Election Day, Shadow did what his mother spoke into him from day one, she told him to get the inheritance that his father and God had left for him and he did. He emerged from the shadows and went all the way to the underworld to fight with the forces that made him feel cursed. Shadow stepped into the light. He won, and he made the ultimate sacrifice to do it. Now all he had to do was lead.

The End.