The sharp winds slapped her face as they whirled all around her. It was cold even for Jersey standards. The buildings looked grim and grey, making her current situation seem impossibly hopeless. Bruno had disappeared and Kamala spent every waking moment of the last few days searching for him. The usual hideout, the junk yard, she searched everywhere she could think of, and the frustration built as every single lead went nowhere. Kamal sighed and fell down on the floor feeling hopeless. Her red and blue suit didn’t make her feel as powerful as usual. As she racked her brains for where he could be, she began to feel disheartened and the world around her grew larger.
“Where could he be? There’s gotta be a clue somewhere,” Kamala said under her breathe.
“If he’s in danger I have to find him fast, think Kamala think!”
Just then, a thought ignited her brain and she immediately remembered what might be a key clue to finding Bruno. Two months ago she was stopping a bank robbery she remembered a certain man who was different than the other robbers. It didn’t seem as if he was getting captured, but more allowing her to take him in. His face was covered in a black mask and he wore a dark green trench coach. Kamala remembered gripping him tightly with her right hand and he spoke to her.
“You remind me of someone I know, You seem so interesting. So pure, like an empty canvas,” his voice was like gravel on the sidewalk. It sent a chill down her spine and a tingly sensation raced around her body. He was captured but Kamal felt like she wasn’t in control. Something felt different with this criminal.
“I assume your new to this crime fighting thing. I’m guessing you think you have it all figured out?” the mysterious stranger asked.
“It’s none of your business,” Kamal replied. Her voice quivered as she answered.
“Oh but it is. I’ve been so… bored. All these heros are so uninteresting. They have no limits. They dont wrestle with themselves. Who are they to decide what they should and should not do?” the man talked in a confusing way, but strangely it drew Kamal’s attention.
He continued his monologue. “But you, you’re different. You fight with yourself every day. You believe you’re in control, but you’re not. When faced with an impossible decision, I wonder how you’ll react. It makes me feel alive thinking about it.”
“Yeah you can think about it jail,” Kamal said with a grin.
“Thats not going to happen,” The man replied.
“Oh yeah? well y..” Kamala was interrupted by an explosion.
The ceiling crumbled and fell on her making her lose the grip on the man. As he walked away she could hear him speak.
“You’ll be hearing from me soon, my pet project. You can call me the Butcher,” He walked away laughing.
“It cant be.. right?” Kamal whispered.
Kamala returned home, in a daze, thinking about if the Butcher was really behind this. What could she do? Should she call the police? As she walked into her room, she noticed something was off. She felt a certain chill in the room. The curtains on her windows danced with the wind.
“Thats odd, I dont remember leaving my windows open.”
Just then she noticed a note on her desk. She lunged for it and scanned it rapidly. In the note was a short message. “Come to the abandoned warehouse by the river, alone. Heed the instructions, or Bruno suffers.” On the bottom it was signed “The Butcher.”
Kamala’s knees turned to jelly as she was met with a surge of different emotions. She was happy to find Bruno, but she was scared on what the Butcher had in store for her. It didn’t matter what she was feeling however, she needed to save Bruno no matter what. Kamala rushed towards the abandoned warehouse. The building was broken down after years of being left all alone. Kamala’s stomach churned as she turned the knob on the entrance door slowly. Every fiber of her body told her to turn back, but she knew she couldn’t. As she entered, all she could see was darkness. Suddenly, lights flashed on, illuminating the entire warehouse. However the only thing that came into vision was one person. He was dressed in a green trench coach, and the same alluring black mask. It was him, it was the Butcher.
“I’m glad you could make it,” his voice was the same as always. But this time it was different. His voice calmed Kamala down, as if he wasn’t here to hurt her.
“Where’s Bruno??!” Kamal yelled.
“Dont worry, we’ll get to him soon enough. After all he’s the most important piece of today’s lesson,” the butcher was calm as he spoke. As if he was talking to a student.
“You see, my hobby is to show people who believe that they can do good that nothing matters in the end. When faced with difficult choices, the people who are so sure of justice are the one’s who falter. When the actions one must take are grey, the people who live by a code of black and white are the one’s fail everyone around them,” as he talked, it seemed as though he was speaking of something familiar to himself.
“I have no time for this, show me Bruno right now, or I’ll crush you,” Kamala demanded. Her voice seemed angry, yet it had a hint of desperation. She just couldn’t see where the Butcher was going, and she was afraid to find out.
“Ah but you will make time, if you want to save Bruno that is,” the butcher replied.
“What do you want from me?” Why are you doing this?” Kamala asked.
“You see, I’ve been examining your work for awhile and I could see it in your eyes. Your sense of pure justice. You believe that the right thing is so easy. That all you need to do is make the right choice. You’re just like someone I know, someone I hate. But what if the decision you make isn’t the right choice? What if there is no right choice? Will you falter in front of an impossible decision?” the man explained, but as he spoke, Kamala only became more confused.
“You’re insane, just show me Bruno right now!.” Kamala yelled, getting more and more enraged.
“Relax, I’m going to explain everything.” As he talked, he moved over to a wall with different colored buttons and switches. He pressed the red button, and Kamala began to hear a mechanical buzzing all around her. The wall behind the Butcher began to rise and Kamala made out what seemed to be a chair and a transparent wall leading to a closed off room. She made out what looked to be a person behind the walls. The person seemed drained, unable to move.
“It’s Bruno!” Kamala thought.
“Let Bruno go right now!” Kamala demanded, as her fists grew to the size of a small car.
“Ah you see, whether he gets out or not, that will be up to you. Bruno only has enough air to live for about 5 more minutes, and the wall is reinforced with vibranium making it impossible to destroy,” the Butchers voice seemed to have a hint of excitement like a child describing the rules to his favorite game.
The Butcher walked across to the chair and sat down. He strapped himself in and looked towards Kamala.
“What do you want from me? Please just let him go,” Kamala begged. Brute force wasn’t going to save Bruno. All thoughts left Kamala’s brain, and she stood trembling uncontrollably.
“Let me tell you a little story. Once there was a little boy who lived with his mom and dad. He loved his mom very much. He was also the biggest fan of super heros. He loved, them and wanted to be just like them. He wanted to get rid of all the evil in the world,” the Butchers tone changed, his voice became hoarse.
“But his dad would yell at his mom and beat her, the little boy would always worry for his mom’s safety. One day his dad came home really drunk, and started beating his mom again. The little boy finally had enough and reached for a knife. All the little boy had to do was go after his dad and his mom and him would be safe forever.”
“But the little boy couldn’t go through with it, he was too afraid to make the decision,” the Butchers voice changed again, this time his voiced seemed more apathetic.
“The next day the boy returned from school to find police cars all over his house. His dad had killed his mom and was arrested,” Kamala could feel a little tremble in the voice of the Butcher. ”
“You see, the little boy could have saved his mom but he faltered in the face of an impossible decision. He chose not to take action and it would haunt him forever.” Now I’m going to see what you’ll do in with the same problem.” “No, I will show you that your sense of justice will not save you. It will make you falter. Just like me.”
“On your right you’ll find a lever, that lever will open the wall to Bruno freeing him. However that same lever will inject a poison from this chair and it will kill me,” the Butcher seemed to be almost laughing as he explained. “The choice when you think of it in terms of good and evil seems so easy.”
“But in reality, it’s an impossible decision, it is one that changes you, tests you in a way that takes you to the very peak of what kind of hero you want to be. What will you do?” the Butcher became silent, and he sat and waited.
“You’re INSANE!! Stop all of this!” Kamala roared at the top of her lungs.
The Butcher just sat in silence. Bruno didn’t have much time left, she had to act. Kamala ran over to the lever, and she put her hands on it. It was cold, lifeless, unlike her body which was burning, both with anger and a sense of desperation. Kamala could not bring herself to pull the lever, her body stopped in its tracks. Her mind raced inside of her, bringing of thoughts of her dad, her mom, and anyone else as she thought of advice for what she should do. However she could not focus on any of them, as the situation was making it impossible for her to focus on anything.
“What should I do?” Kamala thought. “What would Captain America do?”
With each passing second, Kamala felt her mind rushing, her heart felt as if she was moving at the speed of light. She turned to look at the Butcher. Even through his mask she could see a calmness on his face. Kamala knew she needed to act. Being a hero was important to her, but nothing was more important than the people she loved.
Kamala emerged from the warehouse with Bruno In her arms. He was sleeping, tired from the ordeal he went through. His body felt light, and that made Kamala’s heart sink. The sun was rising as a ray of light blinded her, and seemed to blanket the cold river. Kamala’s mind was still blank, not a single though was going through her head. She continued to walk in a daze, until one thought came to her. In the last few seconds she heard the Butcher whisper something to himself.
“I see.. I was wrong,” the Butcher said under his breathe, and as he said that, Kamala could almost feel as if he was smiling.
Artist Statement
- My inspiration for this fanfiction was all of the last few classes. Our lessons focused on literary expression through more creative means and that made me want to challenge myself with this last project.
- My audience for this project is anyone who enjoys a good superhero story. They should be aware that this is a fan made piece and that there are some creative liberties that were taken. The audience should also be aware who Kamala and her lore is as basic information to understand the story to the fullest.
- I want them to learn that creating a piece of literature can come in many forms. It is also important for me to get across that anyone can do it. Expressing one’s ideas is challenging and fun.
- I believe that they will learn that. Even if they do not enjoy the piece that I have written, they can still express their own ideas through the mediums that they enjoy.
- My emotional impact was going for a dynamic between the two main characters. I wanted them to have a sort of a juxtoposition between them. The antagonist had to have a good motive, and similar traits to Kamala, making himself a bit more relateable to Kamala. My emotional impact that I was going for was both a villain and hero that people felt empathy for.
- The specific panels that I focused on were the panels where Kamala wrestled with herself. Whether they be from self confidence, her parents or just dealing with her emotions. It was important to see how Kamala made her choices, and what kind of hero she was, not only when she put on the costume but when she’s just by herself.
- I learned that a strength that I have in writing is coming up with ideas and characters. My weakness is implementing those ideas in satisfactory way. Those weaknesses are further impacted by my inexperience in writing. With less literary techniques under my belt, it was difficult to fully flesh my ideas out on paper.
- The unique perspective that I bring is one where Kamala goes through an experience that she had not gone through yet. When tested in a way that she has never been before, how will she act? That was a question that I wanted to explore. Kamala is a unique superhero in that her background is very modern and very ordinary. There are no toxic serums, radioactive waste, dead parents any of that. I wanted to see how a superhero who’s just like us acts when tested. This is why I also created a villain who’s background is the complete opposite yet with similar ideals. The villain was created as a parody of comic evil with qualities that make him relatable to Kamala. I believe this perspective is unique to my story and the value it brings is in the fact that it shows what kind of hero Kamala is.
- I learned through this project how much I enjoy writing, fiction especially. I also learned about the difficult process on researching about the heros and lore so that you dont do a disservice to the original author. How Kamala talks, acts, the way she interacts with people, it was all crucial to get correct.
- There wasn’t much I didn’t learn.
- I would love to learn more about the lore of the world. Also about creating characters and the stories. There’s also just techniques of writing and basic grammar points.
- The biggest discussion that impacted my choice to write this piece was when the comic artist came. Her way of explaining drawing, and keeping it simple and step by step definitely made literary art less daunting.
- With another week for this project I would like to flesh out the interaction between the two characters more. Maybe make them meet each other multiple times, add different trials maybe henchmen. There would also be action scenes that I would add that due to time constraints I was not able to get correct. I would love to explore this story deeper with more time.
- From this project I take a fresh new perspective on literature. Specifically on what I can create. It was an amazing experience to create something so different than what I have done before.
- The last thing I want to tell the audience is that I hope they relax and enjoy this piece. It is my last project of a class I loved. I truly enjoyed every second of making this piece. It was a great year where I learn so much about myself as a writer and as a person.
- I just wanted to thank Professor Polish for a great year and for everything I am taking with me from this class. Thank you
Expectation
http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/wp-admin/post.php?post=1067&action=edit
Pre Draft
http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/wp-admin/post.php?post=1120&action=edit
Rough Draft
http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/wp-admin/post.php?post=1197&action=edit
Peer Review
Nawal and Diego