James's Surprise

I wrote for the writing class I go to at Eden Court for homework under the theme Self Portrait and expanding on topic we discussed, character trees.  The idea of character tree is similar to a family tree, expect a character tree shows the relationship between the characters.  This scene is inspired from a scene from Doctor Who.

In this piece, James is a young man who witnessed a war in an area called the Wetlands and he has returned to find that what he hoped to return to isn't when he hoped for.  Eventually, he and some of his friends get kidnapped to a place run by a man called Farquhar, who calls himself a collector, and James and Doris are about to find out what one of Farquhar's collections is.

James and Doris entered the dark room.
     "Hello there."  Doris greeted the darkness.  Silence.  "We're here to help you."  Still silence.  "Perhaps we should introduce ourselves.  My name is Doris."
     "And mine is James."  James finished the introductions.
     "James?" The darkness spoke.
     Doris loked at James, his face had gone deadly white, his jaw dropped, as if a spring holding it shut had snapped, and his eyes were as big as golf balls.
     "It can't be."  He rasped.
     "James Pike?" The darkness demanded.
     A light flashed on, flooding the room with the scene of a scarred man in a hospital bed.  His eyes fixed on James's eyes.
     "It can't be."  James's rasped voice repeated.
     "You know him?" Doris asked.
     "Of course we know each other."  The man sat up, revealing an iron ring round his right wrist.  "We first met during the latest Wetlands War."
     "But you were dead," James shook his head.  He sounded stronger seeing the man chained to hie bed.  "I saw you fall into the water when your ship exploded."
     "I swam."
     "You are just like your Order's self portrait, willing to kill to conquer, but a coward at heart, equally willing to abandon your loyal followers to their deaths while you flee."
     "Spoken like a warrior."  The man spoke.
     "You said that you were a bystander."  Doris spoke.
     "Did he?" The man asked, "now who has a false self portrait, lieutenant?"
     "Lieutenant?"
     "Of course my dear lady.  He was an officer of those inferno blockade runners."
     "And a good thing too."  James's voice was very changed.  There was no hint of fear, but the sense of reserved strength bursting from a breached dam.  It caught Doris by surprise.  "You Imperialists were stopping trade routes and much needed supplies to keep the islands alive.  I admit it, I was a blockade runner officer, and I'm glad of it.  I was there when I saw your whole order sink in that final battle and I was glad to see the end of it.  Now, I am going to finish it!"
     And with that sentence off his chest, James lunged his hands onto the scarred man's throat and pressed hard.  Doris watched on in horror as the man's legs kicked air under the blankets, hi left hand-less arm struck James's side and as James beard gritted teeth, his eyes burning red and his hands' grip pressed tighter and tighter.

I've hope that you've enjoyed this piece and that I will expand on it, revealing more of James's role in the Wetlands War, more of the mentioned blockade runners, and what the affects the war has left behind.