Page 17 of Sinful Justice

JUSTICE

Ididn’t intend to get involved.

I didn’t want to see the news, or the devastated face of a teen girl destroyed at a monster’s hands. I don’t want to be judge, jury, or executioneragain.

I swore Preston James would be my first… my only. But Carey Symes’ case is too high-profile for me to ignore, and her killer being so close is simply too serendipitous an opportunity to walk away from.

Carey wasn’t his first victim. But she’ll be his last.

Stepping out of the shadows on a corner occupied by a twenty-four-hour mart with a substandard security system, I smile for Justin Dowel and hate how his automatic grin in response makes my skin crawl.

He doesn’t know me, and before this moment, I’ve never seen him except for what’s splashed on the news.

However, his grin lasts only a moment, as his eyes search mine for the truth his instincts scream inside his mind. Then I strike out with my blade and puncture his throat.

I don’t cut the carotid, and my blade plugs the hole I make, meaning a mere few drops of blood sprinkle onto the glistening snow at our feet. It means my knife cuts off his air and slices his spine at the back of his neck, rendering his body useless.

It’s a fast death, painful for a moment, but silent and with no witnesses.

The perfect crime, really.

Pulling my knife out, I turn and walk away while a killer silently screams for help. His life flees while he lies in the snow in his own piss, in his own feces as his bowels evacuate.

Carey’s life, and that of the girls who came before her, have been avenged.

This was never a calling I wanted for myself, but with the system as flawed as it is, and hands being tied every time we turn around, there’s little choice left for people like me who care.

Most will call me a murderer.

But what I am, is a seeker of justice.

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