FOLLOWING

Well to start off, let me say it to you I was just a poor little creature. I was nobody. I was the last guy you could ever expect to succeed. To say about myself, I am a writer, or to be precise I was a writer and to be more specific I wanted to be a writer.


But my luck as always screwed me. I started suffering from a writer's block even before becoming a writer. I was running out of ideas, I was falling short of characters. Honestly I was fucked up. Life had screwed me hard that’s when I got an idea.

I started to think of using the world around me for inspiration. Thus I began following people. I started to follow people randomly, watching how they walked, where they went or what they did. I was hoping to get some inspiration or ideas by following them.

I made up some rules for myself before following people so that my process of inspiration does not gets screwed up. I decided never to follow a same person twice, never to follow a woman in dark alleys during late hours, never to make any contacts with the targets, etc. But you know the human nature, the fucking human nature. I broke some of my rules, some knowingly and others unknowingly.

Like there was a day, when I was following a man, dressed in decent black suit carrying a bag. Now I started to follow that man, with my eyes fixed on that bag. The day that man approached me changed my life forever. He came to me and introduced himself as Cobb, we had a chat where he asked me why was I was following him. He told me straight that he was a burglar. But believe me, he didn't look like one.

Cobb asked me whether I would like to accompany him to his burglaries, to which I replied positively. Yeah, I wanted to go with him. I wanted to understand how does this decent looking, well dressed man does it. As we broke into a house, he started looking around, I thought he would take some valuables or money but he wasn't interested in that. All he wanted to do was to go in through people's stuff and look around. He just enjoyed playing with their belongings, rather you can say their priceless belongings like photographs, letters, CDs and other such things. He always said "You take it away, and show them what they had." 


 

Things were going fine until we both broke into a woman's house. Cobb started doing his work, and I was just fooling around. The owner of that house, that woman was so beautiful that I could just not stop looking at her pictures. Then I broke one more rule, I started to follow that woman. It was not long until I got a chance to talk with her at a club. Things sparked out between us and we started going out. She told me how she was being blackmailed by a goon, actually the owner of that same club where we had met because he had her photographs in an indecent way. Actually she was in relationship with that man earlier so she didn't suspect him to turn out such an ass.

As planned, I broke into that club for stealing those photographs and stole it along with the money. When I came back to her, I was shocked to find her with Cobb, they made fun of me. They had fooled me into all of these. They said Cobb had some other crime in which he could be caught, be taken care of and they made me commit this in the same way so as to frame me and not Cobb for it. So that I could not only be arrested for my current crime but also for Cobb's earlier one. I along with my stupid obsession of following, fitted perfectly in their requirements.

I turned myself in to the police later but no one believed my story. I tried to tell them the details about the burglaries and Cobb but somehow Cobb had cleverly pointed all the evidences towards me all the time while breaking into those houses. And to make matters worse I was even charged with the murder of Cobb's girlfriend. Cobb had killed her too, after I left and had placed all the evidence in such a way that everything pointed towards me.

This is the truth of my life. I wish I had died before going through all these things. At during those times when I was following those people for inspiration, I never realized I was following my own destruction.

Following is a 1998 British neo-noir film directed by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a young man who follows strangers around the streets of London and is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance. The film was shot on a considerable low budget. The movie is one of its kind and marked the begining of Nolan's successful career.

darkman

“I am everyone – and no one. Everywhere – nowhere. Call me Darkman.”

I had a life before, I had a face, I was someone, I was loved by someone. But on a cursed night it all ended. I lost everything that I had. I lost my love, I lost my life and I lost my work.

I had been working on developing a new type of synthetic skin to aid the burn victims...but who knew that one day I would have to use it for myself.

They burnt down my laboratory. They burnt me down with it. I was left for dead. But here I am with a new life. Doctors said I was a wonder now. My body was completely burned and the nerves of my spinothalamic tract had been cut down that night. This made me devoid of any sensory input. Now I was no longer a subject to pain. I received enhanced strength but also some mental instability due to this.

I still remember the night when I ran away from that hospital. I longed to see my love. I wanted to see her. I wanted to meet her. I wanted to hold her in my arms. I saw her across the road. I tried to call her, meet her. She didn’t recognize me, she got scared. She got scared of me. I had turned into a monster.

 

I started to work back again. I tried to make the artificial skin again. I was successful in reconstructing my face, my skin. I got my life back but here my ill fate crossed again. I could get back everything but only for ninety nine minutes.

I started to meet my love again with an artificial face of mine, things got back normal but one day the truth was out. She said she loved me the same even after knowing what had happened but I could not take her back as I was no more the Peyton Westlake she loved, I am the dreaded Darkman now.

I killed my enemies, the ones who gave me this kind of life. I could easily infiltrate their gangs by making their faces. I would mask their faces to confuse them, destroy them and kill them.

Durant returned again, when I thought he was dead but that was not going to kill me. I am the Darkman. I killed him back again.

I killed the bad elements. I robbed them in order to meet the expenses for my research and work. In this way I had found a foe in Peter Rooker, a mafia don. But I killed him too.

At last I found I could live again. I had successfully made the synthetic skin to last permanently. I had broken the ninety minutes barrier.

But my happiness was short lived when the face of Rooker’s girl was burnt in the fight. The only sample of synthetic skin I had, I used it to reconstruct her face. For me now living with burns was a life so I didn’t want anyone to live that life again, especially this little girl.

This is my life, the way I live, the way I was burnt and the way I was killed and the way I have killed.

“They destroyed everything I had,

Everything I was,

Now, crime has a new enemy,

And justice has a new face...“

DARKMAN is 1990 superhero action film. The film was directed by Sam Raimi. It tells the story of Dr. Peyton Westlake who takes up the identity of Darkman.  Liam Neeson starred as Dr. Peyton Westlake / Darkman. Two direct to video sequels DARKMAN II : THE RETURN OF DURANT and DARKMAN III : DIE, DARKMAN, DIE were released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. The role of Dr. Peyton Westlake / Darkman in the sequels was played by Arnold Vosloo.