Here is Deceit of the Phantom, presented in one giant post. It has been fully updated, edited, and altered to allow for a smoother read. One day, I will completely overhaul it, I think. As I re-read this and some of it was really really rough, IMO. But, this is what I was willing to do for the time being. Final word count: 4,353

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Part 7: Road of Blood

The street lamps passed overhead one by one as the police car sped across the bridge. The young yet to be sheriff looked out from his window to the river below. The water glistened in the night and flowed steadily into the distance. The driver to his left was too busy maneuvering through traffic too stubborn to pull over for a police car using it’s siren. The driver was an overweight middle aged man in blue who had obviously seen his fair share of bad things. The heavy bags under his eyes and the large scar under his right ear showed this best. His hair was thin and currently worn in a sweaty comb over style. A poor attempt at dealing with his balding. Despite these things however, his eyes were a bright blue and filled with confidence and kindness.

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That notebook…updated.

Part 6: Strike Two

The morning was grey, cold, foggy, and windy. The sound of the river competed against the early morning traffic on the bridge above. A sad round faced brunette girl stared at her reflection in the water as she sat on the bank of the river under the bridge. The reflection stared back. Her dark green jacket flapped about in the unusually strong breeze as it was a little too big for her. This kicked up the scent inherent to the jacket. His scent. Tim’s scent. The aroma reminded her of what she was trying to forget. Her reflection slowly changed into his face. His mouth hung open in surprise before twisting into pain. Water around the reflection ran red as he began to cough up the blood. His straw like blonde hair stained with crimson. Monica turned from the reflection. Another moment of looking at that would be too much.

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Part 5: Broken Home

As Sarah closed the door behind her, she let out a sigh of relief. The familiar sound of the morning news greeted her arrival. Which could only mean her father passed out in the living room again. Making her way past the stairs and down the hall, she muttered under her breath. Almost hoping he would hear the curses and insults in whatever drug induced coma had him this time.

The house was dusty and dirty. Neither Sarah or her father bothered to housekeep. Sarah, because she was rarely there. Her father, because he didn’t care. The lights were off and she intended to keep them that way. There was no need to reveal her presence. Her skin glistened in the glow of the television pouring out of the living room entrance as she walked past it down the hall.

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So I came over a gross oversight on my part while writing part 5 of Year of Falling Stars. Warning, spoilers ahead! If you haven’t read either Year of Falling Stars or Deceit of the Phantom.

I put Jerry’s age from Deceit of the Phantom at 40 in the writing. This is hugely inconsistent with what I’ve written in Year of Falling Stars so far and in that story itself. So my options are, change the new story, or the old story. I’m going with changing the number in the old story, as it’s both easier and will make more sense.

The Current Timeline:

Jerry is 40 during DotP, and dies at 45 at the end of the story. According to the tale he began his days as Tek at 30, as he had done it for 10 years prior. Unfortunately, this also means he would have had to be 12 years old when Sarah was born, as she died when she was 18 according to the tombstone. It’s kind of absurd to have a 12 year old be a father, so here’s the new timeline..

New Timeline:

Jerry Brown Born 1980

Sarah Brown Born 2000

Sarah Brown Deceased 2018

Enter Tek Phantom 2019

Final Nightmare Battle 2029

Jerry Brown Deceased 2034

This put’s Jerry’s age at 49 during his unmasking in Deceit of the Phantom. And his death at 54.

The Crimson Hacker

Now here’s a character you probably haven’t put two and two together on. Primarily because the clues I’ve given have been none to minimal.

In Deceit of the Phantom, Tek has a brief moment where he thinks about an old side kick he had that went rogue. His name was the Crimson Hacker.

In Year of Falling Stars, you’ve already met this guy. If you read through, you can probably put it together.

I wanted him to be very different from the stereotypical nerd you’re used to hearing about. In fact, with all the characters, I’m trying hard to steer them away from common archetypes, but at the same time, I want them to feel familiar.

The fun part? I’ve been sitting on the idea of the Crimson Hacker for over two years now. I just couldn’t sit on it anymore. I had to tell someone. xD Also, yes, it’s been two years between the time I wrote Deceit of the Phantom and the time I began writing Year of Falling Stars. I blame writers block. Which I still technically have. I blame stress, I guess. :/

Nightmare

The bane of our hero’s existence. The villain who appears from nowhere. Well, nowhere, as far as the story is concerned. In the beginning he was almost a Joker like character. But as time progressed, I came up with little details about him that filled in his past. What are those details? I can’t reveal that here, as that will come in the future.

But, what I can tell you is that for Deceit of the Phantom, Nightmare is a character fueled by hatred and disgust for the city and everyone in it. His past isn’t what I would call troubled, but it is lively.

In Deceit of the Phantom, as far as I’m concerned, he is the final villain of the ten year arc and he ultimately wins the fight against Phantom. At least, superficially. The moral victory goes to the citizens. What is Phantom’s victory? His victory is one of final rest.

Nightmare’s name was given to him by the media, but on my end, it’s more of a play on the whole of Phantom’s life. He is the commentary on the fractured existence that he leads. One thing after another happens to our hero, and this man appears at the end to bring him to his long nightmare’s end.

I wish I could say more about this character, but hopefully knowing what you know now, you’ll be enticed to read stories I eventually get around to writing. Sometimes, I wish there was a machine that would just read my mind and put all the thoughts and tales down on paper for me. Having to do the manual labor behind this sucks. lmfao

So, before I talk about anything in particular in the story, I mostly just want to talk about the basics of the whole thing.

The original inspiration for Deceit of the Phantom came from a blend of Marvel comic heroes and their flawed characters, but the dark gritty feeling of movies like The Dark Knight.

Ultimately, the story is supposed to be about a broken hero who can change a city. I wanted to paint this picture of a city that’s finally reached it’s breaking point. And ultimately, the entire tale of the Phantom starts at it’s ending. As time goes on, I’m going to flesh out his history with other stories, such as I’m doing with Year of Falling Stars, which is where it all truly begins.

I hope the “ending” to the story is compelling enough to make you want to dig into the history I am presenting with the prequels. It’s not always easy to move backwards in a story, but I think this one is in some ways unique enough to merit the effort.

Tomorrow, I will talk a little about a specific character. I’ll pick one at random, or I’ll talk about a character requested by a follower (if anyone cares to make a request).

Here ya go Tumblr. I got a haircut. And yes, I’m still using my horrible camera phone. Now, hopefully, I won’t feel the need to update this blog with a new picture of myself for a while and I can get back to what it was made for, besides, not big on pictures of myself.