“I needed the Paragon job done so I could get the final payment, the big payment. Maybe that would get the board members off my back.”
“Maybe it was time for another agitator to disappear. I had no problem killing another one.”
He was home. He paid the driver and exited the cab.
Carson entered the double doors of his palatial manor. He sang out his traditional greeting to his family. "Your king has returned from the crusades.”
He noticed a stack of mail on the foyer table and leafed through it. He waited for his family's response, but it never came. At first he was disturbed by the silence, then he smiled as he remembered it was his birthday. He returned the mail and peeked around the corner. He expected to find his children waiting to ambush him with a surprise party, but there was no one.
“They must have hidden better this year. They were cleverer. Well, two could play at that game.” He thought.
He removed his shoes as quietly as possible, and then tiptoed into the spacious living room, still no one. Then he spied a toe, peeking out from behind a lavish sofa. He nodded knowingly and crept to the seat. When he was near enough he leapt into the air and pounced like a tiger and landed with a resounding, "Ah ha!"
It wasn't what he thought. One of his servants appeared to be dead. The smile dropped from Carson’s face. Panic stricken he called out for his wife. "Annabelle?"
There was no response.
He advanced to a liquor cabinet where he retrieved a sawed off shotgun from its hiding place. His mouth dried out and he crept through the room. Through the hallway he could see his youngest son seated at the dining room table. His neck was bent back and he stared motionless at the ceiling, like a dead thing. A dreadful pang stuck his gut, but he maintained his silence.
He continued and discovered the rest of his family at the table. His wife, sister, two sons, and two daughters were positioned similarly around a birthday cake. They all looked dead.
Emotions welled up inside him like he'd never felt. He never imagined he would experience this kind of loss. He never imagined he would outlive his children. Who could do such a thing? What type of monster was loose in the Citadel? Worse yet, was it still inside his home?
He leapt into the room with shotgun poised to kill.
Betty saw the muzzle first and surprised Carson by kicking the gun away from her. He fired simultaneously and blasted out a window. Betty disarmed him quickly and discarded the spent weapon.
Something haunted his house, but it wasn’t what he expected. Betty turned to confront Carson. He imagined a much larger, more threatening invader, not a little girl in a strange looking chauffeur's uniform with hood and goggles to hide her features.
He wanted to fight her.
Betty welcomed the opportunity to unleash more chaos into his home.
He began to swing at her wildly. Betty blocked each blow as it approached her. He was a lot slower than she remembered and she let out a haughty laugh. Her mockery infuriated Carson and he screamed like a madman.
"You killed them all, you devil woman!"
He grabbed and heaved a vase at her. She dodged it. It shattered against the wall. He grabbed up a chair to smash her, but she was too nimble. She tumbled out of the way as the chair broke on the floor. Then she delivered a sidekick that tossed Carson out of the room and into the wide hallway.
He hit the wooden floor hard. He laid dazed and saw stars, as Betty stalked toward him.
“Who are you?” He asked.
She said. “I'm the embodiment of all the working people of the Citadel. I represent the ones who can’t defend themselves against you!"
“What did I ever do to you?” He asked.
“You know exactly what you do. You deal in misery. You ruin lives. You do anything for money, no matter who your actions hurt, no matter who your actions kill! You might escape the courts but you'll never escape me.”
Tears shivered into Carson’s eyes. “You killed my family!”
She replied, “I would be more worried about your fate, if I was you.”
"I don’t even know you!" He snapped.
She said with an evil smile. “Think of me as Jewel’s avenging ghost.”
His eyes looked like saucers. He scrambled backwards on his hands and feet.
Betty stalked after him.
“What do you want?” He bellowed.
“I want you to pay for your crimes.” She said.
“I’ll pay you whatever you want, in cash!” He nervously barked.
“I don’t want your money. I want your blood.” She said.
Fueled by panic he lashed out at her again. Betty blocked his scrambled attack and sent him crashing back through the bars of the stair railing.
She said. “It’s not safe to have someone like you in our society. So I’m removing you from it."
He recovered and crawled up the stairs on all fours.
She continued, “You may know how to evade the reach of the law, but I promise you, you will not escape me.”