Young Writers Society

Jeff Jonsin

Jeff tried not to giggle as he had a pretty strong feeling as to who that superhero might be. It had seemed like the cafe was fairly crowded when he and The Actor had been by. He was just glad that Wren's family benefited from an actual superhero showing up at this place.

"I figure you all didn't expect to get a superhero walking through those doors, huh?" He bit his tongue to keep himself from complimenting the food from the day before. Man, doing this superhero work was exhausting sometimes, when he had to keep up regular appearances.

Wren Carter

Her mom glanced down at her.

"We certainly didn't," she said, giving her daughter a smile. Wren's blush deepened even more. She knew Jeff couldn't guess the truth from the look and smile; no one ever would be able to. But being praised in any kind of way always made Wren feel really awkward. That was why she hated things like the part of here birthday where everyone sang "happy birthday" to her. She never knew what to do with herself.

"Well," Wren's mother said, "I better get the two of you some food. Be back in a few with some treats and drinks!"

Wren only looked up from the spot she was staring at on the table to see her mother retreating into the kitchen.

Jeff Jonsin

Jeff raised his eyebrows for a second. This was a surreal conversation, but then again, he was having a surreal week.

He didn’t really know why Wren’s mom gave her a pointed look, but he didn’t spend too much time on it. If it was a secret, then it wasn’t his to know unless he was told upfront about it.

“Your mom seems nice,” he said, giving Wren a smile.

"She is," Wren quietly agreed, her face so red that she was sure she looked like a tomato to him right now. She refused to look up from the table again. She was too mortified to.

But then she realized she probably couldn't wait until her mom returned with food to start talking to Jeff about their project. She tried - and failed - to push past her embarrassment and get a word out.

She took a tiny breath.

"Do you...do you have any idea what play we should see?" she asked.

Jeff scratched at his neck, taking one glance around the face before answering.

"Well, my first thought was actually Hamilton, but that's 'cause I didn't think the school would be that, ya know? But, I haven't watched too many plays, more so than just reading the scripts and stuff. Is there anything you're interested in?"

He shrugged. "I usually stick to regular TV shows and movies."

Wren didn't know, but she nodded like she did. Hamilton was a good option, but it was expensive. She wasn't sure she felt comfortable she felt comfortable asking her parents for the money to go see it - or if they'd even be able to get the tickets in the first place.

"I, um, really like plays," she admitted. "I always get nervous acting in them, but it's different watching them..."

She thought for a moment. What plays did she really like? There had been a couple she had wanted to see for awhile, but she wasn't sure which one Jeff would like to.

...But seeing that they were talking about superheroes earlier...

"Have you ever heard of Holy Musical B@man?" she asked. "There's a local group doing it soon, and my family is actually friends with the one of the actors - so we could get free tickets!"

He tried not to let his mouth fall open. Wow, they could get free tickets?

Jeff had heard about the musical on Tumblr, as pretty much all of the people he followed liked some kind of comic books, so there were definitely stirrings of it all over the place.

Even before Wren finished speaking, he was already nodding along to her idea. Yeah, the Hamilton idea had been pretty dumb, but he didn’t want to seem like he had no clue as to what they were supposed to be doing.

“That sounds like a really great plan. Batman has always been fun to read or watch about, and the musical always looked fun.” He grinned. “Do you know when the performances start?”

"Next week," Wren said. She had been keeping track of when all the different performances she wanted to see were. She usually wasn't able to see them, but she always hoped that she would somehow save up enough money from working in her parents' cafe to go to at least one.

And at the moment, her mom brought over some breakfast.


That night, Wren found herself in the park.

It wasn't too late, but the sky was already dark up above. Most people avoided the park at night - it was the kind of place where someone could easily be ambushed. That was part of the reason why Wren found herself patrolling the park - first as Adrian Black, then as The Actor - that night.

But the other part was more selfish. There was just something nice about getting away from the bustling life of the city. She could still see the towering skyscrapers in the distance if she looked above the tree tops, but it wasn't hard to imagine that she was one of the forests she remembered walking through with her parents as a kid.

She let out a quiet breath and took a slightly bigger one in, letting the cool, night air fill her lungs.

Jeff started running the moment he stepped outside. When his powers first appeared, his parents agreed to an extended bedtime, but only an hour longer, and he needed to call police if there was a scary villain.

He hoped there wouldn't be any scary villains tonight -- the day was winding down, yet there was still this strange kind of energy lingering on all the roofs of the neighborhood homes.

Well, here went nothing. Jeff didn't truly have a destination in mind, but there had been a park his mom talked about that was a little further into the city.

Maybe he'll find it.

There was movement from nearby.

Wren wasn't sure if she actually thought she would find other people in the park, but it was disturbing to hear someone else moving around when she assumed - and partially hoped - that she would be alone for a bit.

She stared into the darkness.

If she was lucky, it was just a squirrel darting from one tree to the next.

Jeff slowed to an easy walk once he neared the park, or at least that was what he thought was up ahead. No need to startle any animals by running through faster than an Olympic sprinter.

He whistled a tune under his breath, some string of notes he heard on the radio. Jeff then grunted when he tripped over some rocks.

Ugh, why did he have to trip twice in as many days? He could cry.

At least he was alone, right?

Well, anyway, after that slightly morbid thought, he was right by the park, so that was good. And, according to some sign, this one was called Glade Park. He wasn't sure why, but who was he to argue with the park gods?

Ah, silence.

Which lasted for about a minute because he swore that he just caught a glimpse of somebody in the dark.

Oh no.

The animals were eerily silent. That had to mean something - and Wren wasn't sure she wanted to know what. She wished she had given into temptation and had brought a flashlight. She had been debating it for months now, but she thought it would look stupid if The Actor was wielding a cheap flashlight her parents had gotten at Walmart.

She took a quiet, almost silent breath.

It was silly to use up her energy on something like this, but she hadn't run into any trouble all night. She felt like this was at least a little okay.

Her body changed so it looked like it made of shadows. She couldn't get rid of her eyes - she needed those, as well as her mouth and nose - but mostly everything was covered. Closing her eyes and her mouth for the briefest of seconds, she silently approached the source of the noise.

Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea.

But this wave of nerves came a little too late, as he had already stepped inside the park. Everyone was dark, the wasn’t much light at all, which only made this morning scary.

Yikes. Jeff debated calling out to get whoever was here to say something, but he didn’t want to startle anyone.

He stepped forward a few feet, trying to squint through the darkness. He couldn’t see much at all, though.

Ah — wait, what was that? Jeff turned his head back to an odd angle, and what looked like an odd shadow.

Was that a demon?

He couldn’t help a scream.

Hearing a scream with no warning made Wren want to scream, too, but she somehow fought against the urge. It was one of the first things she had learned from reading comic books - superheroes never screamed.

She took a step back, stumbled into the tree behind her, and almost fell flat on her butt - but somehow managed to avoid actually falling. It was only after the scream had fully registered that she realized she recognized its owner.

"...Jewel!?" she whispered in disbelief.

Okay, okay, well, maybe his imagination was just getting to him too much. He was fine, he was fine, he was — fine.

Jeff took a deep breath.

“Okay, I imagine that there is no demon, or at least, I hope not and maybe that was just someone’s power. I wouldn’t want that power, but it’s okay, I’m okay.”

A small noise startled him out of his monologue. Hey, maybe he could use that for the project — monologue for about possible shadow demons.

Good gosh.

“I come in peace?” He offered in a weak voice, to the darkness.