Shadow Author

A booming round of applause shook the building. The cheers of hundreds of people filled the dark room. Everyone stood up from their seats as they waited for the guest of honor.

Entering the stage was James, the author of the world-famous novel series Eminence.

Everyone in the crowd was a huge fan of the novel that took the world by storm. The four-book series that was released connected with millions of readers.

It was a fantasy story of a boy who went through each year of high school facing adversities while growing stronger. Along the way, he made countless friends, discovered who he was, upheld a sense of justice, changed the world, and fell in love.

The action-packed story of the main character and his development through each year caused the readers to deeply connect with him.

Young kids loved the adventure's the main characters when on. Adolescent girls squealed and gushed over the romance. Grown adults understood the intense character development and hidden meanings. The novel was beloved by all.

With the high of the novel's release and its popularity, today marked the day that the author, James, would be making his first public appearance.

A building was rented out and news outlets were swarming around.

The crowd was patiently waiting for the time of the reveal when the lights in the room went dark and the live broadcasting system turned on.

Immediately everyone rose from their chairs as clapping and whistles deafened the room.

A spotlight suddenly turned on and pointed to the right corner of the stage. Then from behind a curtain, the author James walked out.

Waving his hand back and forth at the crowd, they went even wilder as he made his way toward the podium which was stationed in the middle of the stage.

When the people saw him walk out the sound was magnified multiple times over and the people watching from home began to cheer themselves.

The world was fixated and everyone held their breath when James arrived at the podium.

The spotlight was magnificently highlighting James's handsome face. He stood out like an angel and everyone worshiped him.

Clearing his throat James began, "Hello everyone, I'd first like to thank you all for showing your unending support for Eminence. Without each and every single one of you, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"Now I am proud to announce that we've officially hit one billion sales!"

At that, the crowd went wild once again. People were chanting James's name, girls and boys alike were obsessed with his looks, and the news captured everything.

The first of Eminence's press conferences went without a hitch and love for the series grew even more with the reveal of James.

However, there was one person who wasn't matching the energy of the crowd. Back behind the stage where James had previously come from was a young boy who looked to be around 16 years old.

There was nothing particularly special about him. He had average looks, messy but lavish hair, slight muscles, and tan skin.

In his hands was a hard copy of the first Eminence book in the series, A New Beginning.

Another eruption of cheers broke out from the stage and the boy let out a sigh.

He put the book he was holding down on the ground and brought his arm up to his face to look at his smartwatch while standing up to leave.

He opened the app he was all too familiar with and tapped the record button, "Eminence; The Last Stand. Chapter one…" As he spoke the words he said were copied and printed onto a blank digital paper.

After an hour or so the press conference came to an end. James went ahead and answered all the press's questions which room him an additional two hours.

After everything was said and done his security escorted him to the limousine that was parked in front of the building.

James quickly got in and told the driver to speed off.

Thirty minutes later he arrived in front of an apartment complex.

When he got out of the limo four security guards came up to him and guided him to the lobby of the building.

The place was completely rented out and not a single resident was living there except for the workers and security of course.

Once James got inside he went up to the receptionist, Alisa, and asked, "Is he here?"

She smiled and replied, "Top floor."

James understood and didn't enquire anymore and instead moved towards the elevator.

The security guards broke away from him and went to their stations while James walked in and tapped the button for the hundredth floor.

The elevator quickly climbed the building and stopped once it reached its destination.

A beep rang out and the doors opened revealing a large suite.

Within the luxuriously decorated and insanely expensive room was a young boy who had his smartwatch held up to his mouth. The boy was looking out the window, seemingly staring off into space while he talked to himself.

If anyone else saw him they would have thought the boy was schizophrenic but James knew differently.

"I'm back, when did you leave?"

The boy didn't respond but instead continued to talk into his watch.

"The meeting went better than expected, by the end of the year it's estimated we will make 20 billion dollars."

The boy didn't react to James and continued with what he was doing.

"…"

"Didn't you hear me, we will be billionaires?!"

Finally, the boy dropped his arm and quit speaking. After a moment he turned his eyes from looking outside of the glass window to meet James's.

"We?"

It was a cold and short reply.

However, James didn't seem to notice and answered, "Of course we! It was you and I both who wrote it."

Silence filled the suite and when the boy didn't respond James began to get angry.

"It was the both of us, you can't be the one to take all the credit!"

The boy had a deadpan expression on his face and didn't reply.

"Okay sure, it was your idea and you wrote it but we agreed that we were a team."

Digging deep into his pockets James pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"You haven't forgotten, have you?"

On the tiny, wrinkly, notebook paper was a single sentence: I agree to make James the co-author of Eminence and in return, James will buy me lunch.

Below it was the signature of the boy written in red Crayon.

"…"

"This is a legally binding contract!"

The boy let out a sigh, "that was something I signed in middle school. Plus it is written in Crayon." The boy got up from the window edge that he was sitting on. "Eminence was something I wrote, it's mine. You contributed absolutely nothing yet tried to take my fame. I've already contacted a lawyer. Tomorrow you should get the letter. That paper won't hold up in court."

James was dumbfounded. His best friend since elementary school was going to sue him?

"W-what do you mean?"

"It's as I said, this has gone on long enough and today was the last straw. It should have been me up there on stage, not you."

"Ah, if you were jealous about that, you can hold the next one. There is no need to be rash."

"James, it's too late. It should have never gotten this far in the first place. I was too scared to go against you. I was scared that this would ruin our friendship. But now I see you didn't view me as your friend but rather as a load of cash. I'm sorry but this is the end."

The boy turned his back to James and looked out the window once again.

James wanted to retort but suddenly the elevator door opened up from behind him and two security guards came out.

"What's the m-meaning of this? H-hey? Hey, you aren't s-serious, right? Right?!"

"Goodbye James."

"No, no, you can't do this! Hey, get your hands off me! Hey! Stop!"

Trying to get the bodyguards off of him James struggled to get free.

'It can't end like this, it isn't fair!'

Shrugging a guard off his shoulder James managed to break free. Seeing who he thought was his friend next to the window filled him with rage.

Unable to control himself James ran at the boy. The guards were unable to reach him in time and James lowered his body before slamming into the boy.

The sound of the glass shattering filled James's ears as he stood above the window watching his ex-friend fall.