Burn Zone - A Psion Case File

APD Detective Justice Monroe stood in the middle of a squadron of firemen and police. They were all about twenty feet away from a fire that was rapidly consuming one of Ashebrook’s oldest apartment buildings. Justice’s best friend and partner, Austin Hawke, stood next to him. As usual, his friend was wearing his tattered and faded bomber’s jacket that looked like it should’ve been thrown away ten years ago.

Justice continued to watch the blaze consume the building, but his eyes weren’t focused on the fire itself anymore. Instead, he focused on a literal army of horribly disfigured, semi-translucent shapes flitting in front of almost every window. They were the dead. All of them were victims of the fire that still chewed through the building and every last one was burned into a twisted, no-longer-human-looking creature. They looked like they just crawled out of a nightmare. If Justice wasn’t already used to ghosts, he might’ve run away while screaming his head off in terror. Instead, he just felt the familiar pangs of sadness and grief. He knew, rationally, that he couldn’t do anything to save them, but that never stopped the guilt from coming.
He sighed and looked away. It was too much. There must’ve been a dozen figures in those burning windows and several of them were children.

“They there?” Austin asked, his voice stern.

“Yeah. More than a dozen of them,” Justice answered. He had a deep, rich voice that usually intimidated the hell out of suspects he came across. Right now, it seemed small to him. It was always like that when he saw the dead.

“Can they tell you anything?”

“They can’t leave the building and it’s on fire, so no, they can’t. At least not right now,” Justice answered, slightly irritated. He’d been over that bit of info with Austin several times, but his friend always seemed to forget. The rules when dealing with the dead were pretty solid and often unbreakable (at least as far as he’d ever seen). One of the biggest rules was that the dead were restricted to the place where they died. They couldn’t leave...not until they left whatever burdens were keeping them anchored to the earthly world. More often than not, in Justice’s experience as a homicide detective, the unfinished business ghosts most commonly had was finding out or getting revenge on the person (or persons) who brutally murdered them.

Justice sighed with frustration. Ever since he was a little kid, he’d been able to see ghosts. He remembered one day, when he was about ten, his father came right out and asked him if he could see them. When he told him that he could, his father just nodded with a look of sadness filling his eyes. He tried to explain things to his son, that whatever it was they had, it was in their blood. It was traced back a century or more through their line. Generation after generation had been cursed with it.

His father wasn’t sure what it was about them that made them so special. His best guess was that they were just born with something special in their brains, some kind of overdeveloped region that let them perceive things other people couldn’t. At the time he had that talk with his dad, all Justice could remember thinking that he didn’t care. He just wished his gift would go away.

It never did.

He’d come across a lot of the dead during his life. There were some that left him alone and didn’t bother him. These seemed almost as afraid of him as he was of them. There were others that went out of their way to torment and terrify him. They used to scare him so badly that he’d have nightmares for weeks afterward. Then there were the ones that asked for his help. They were the reason he became a cop. They were the reason he went searching for people’s killers, because he just couldn’t stand by and do nothing. It was as simple as that.

Not everyone was the same. He understood that. But other people didn’t have to see the pain. Other people didn’t have to look into the eyes of the dead and see the torment they suffered with.

“Let’s go,” Austin said, turning away from the building and heading toward the car. “There’s nothing more we can do here.”

Justice didn’t respond, he just turned away from the building with his face a mask of familiar, bitter anger. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his leather coat and hunched his shoulders up. His mind ran through all the facts he’d been able to piece together so far. It was a bizarre case. There had already been three other fires, with all three suffering fatalities, across town. The strange thing, however, was that after CSI and fire investigators picked through the rubble, none of them had been able to find conclusive evidence of arson. Or a cause of the fire for that matter.

“It’s like it just started itself. Without an accelerator or trigger or anything,” one of the fire investigators, a man named Shawn Newsome, told him. “The other fires were the same way. No obvious cause.”

Somebody was starting fires all over the city, but no one, not even trained professionals, could figure out how he or she was doing it. The dead he’d already talked to weren’t much help either. Once he was able to get past their moans for help, all he’d gotten was a description of a shadow man outside the previous three buildings. None of them had been able to provide accurate details.

He pulled his thoughts back into the present and opened the door to the car. As he did, he took one final look at the blazing building and saw all the dead again. He was already too late to prevent their deaths, but there was no way in hell it was going to happen again.

He sat down in the passenger seat and closed the door behind him. Austin was already inside, but wouldn’t start the car. Justice waited for him and gave his partner an inquisitive look.

“I’m not starting the car until you buckle up,” Austin declared matter-of-factly.

“Really?” Justice asked. “I told you I hate it when you do that.”

“It’s the law, and you’re a cop. Try setting a good example,” Austin replied with a smile. It crinkled up the corners of his vibrantly blue eyes.
Justice grumbled but eventually gave in. As soon as the seatbelt clicked, Austin started the car.

“Did you get anything? I saw you scanning the crowd.” He watched Austin’s face to gauge a reaction. There might’ve been a slight irritation to his eyes, but that was it.

“Yeah, I was. I thought maybe he, or she, would be there to enjoy their handiwork. But no. I got nothing.”

Austin had a gift too that wasn’t exactly normal either. He couldn’t see ghosts, but when he looked anybody in the eyes, he stripped away all their lies (even the lies they told themselves). The only thing left was the absolute truth. Pure and simple. He had a fairly good range on his ability and could even scan several people in as little as five minutes. It wasn’t exactly mind reading but it was pretty close. Needless to say, it was a super handy ability when dealing with suspects.

“I guess we do this the old-fashioned way,” Justice muttered.

Austin was forced to agree.

They drove through the city’s confusing network of one-way streets to the Ashebrook Police Department’s main, five-story building. Austin drove the car into the underground parking lot under the station. He drove around for ten minutes trying to find a good spot until Justice snapped at him to just pick one. Austin grumbled something under his breath and swerved into a spot that wasn’t quite located in a different zip code.

Austin turned the car off and they got out. They walked for a bit until they got to a simple metal door. Austin held his badge up to a scanner, then there was a loud buzz and the door unlocked. They opened it and walked inside the building.

About two years ago, the place was looking pretty bad. Not rundown exactly. Just old. Then city officials approved a renovation and now everything was clean and ultra-modern. The front reception desk now had a faux marble counter and APD’s gold seal was plastered to the front and back-lit artfully. There was a wall right behind the main counter, but off to either side of it were two hallways that opened out onto a large, round pit. Brand new desks and computers were all clustered in that pit while offices and conference rooms surrounded it.

Thankfully, Justice and Austin happened to be senior detectives which meant they were lucky enough to get an office. They had to share it, but it was better than being crammed into the pit. They walked to their office and went inside.

Justice immediately sat down in his large, padded chair. Austin, however, couldn’t sit. He was restless. He paced around the room with a frustrated look on his face.

“Okay,” he said, talking to himself. “The building set on fire today makes four total arsons. Four buildings and no leads. What else do we know?”

“That someone is getting a lot of pleasure from torching buildings and burning the people still inside,” Justice answered with a heavily sarcastic tone.

“Thanks, smart ass. I already knew that.” Austin sat down and let out an irritated sigh.

Justice couldn’t blame him. The whole case was frustrating. No obvious suspects, no credible witnesses, no evidence. It was a dead-end case. But they’d been through dead end cases before and always managed to get to the bottom of things, so Justice wasn’t overly worried about it.

“Quit complaining. There’s something there. There always is,” Justice told him. “We have to assume this guy has an agenda, which means he has motive. If we can figure that out, we might be able to find him.”

“Fine,” Austin agreed. “Where do we start looking?”

“Those buildings were targeted for a reason. We need to find out why them. Why that apartment building? Why that floral shop? Why that house? You get what I’m saying?” Justice asked.

“Yeah. So how do we find that out? We have nothing to go on remember? We’re dead in the water as far as this investigation goes,” Austin responded, letting his temper slip. He looked like he wanted to put his fist through a wall.

“Three buildings have been burned. A floral shop was the first. George Randolph, twenty-five and the only employee working at the time, was found burned inside. A residential house on Walker street was hit next. Lyla Johnson, eighteen, was killed in that fire. Five people were killed at 3, the night club in the Warehouse District. Then there’s the apartment building. We’re still waiting on the numbers of dead from the investigators and IDs on those bodies. Which will take forever.”

“They all seem random. How does that help us?” Austin asked, with zero confidence in either of them being able to piece together any kind of clues from the facts they had. There just wasn’t enough information. Not enough of anything.

“Who owned the floral shop?” Justice asked.

“A guy named Dale Holstein. He’s already been interviewed. He had no idea who would want to burn his shop down. The dead kid wasn’t much of a go either. We concluded that it was probably a case of wrong time, wrong place. The arsonist wasn’t gunning for him.” Austin said.

“Right. He wasn’t scheduled to work that night. He took over someone else’s shift,” Justice said. “What about the person who’s shift he took over?”

“Alive and well and not burnt crispy as of an hour ago,” Austin replied. “There’s a protective detail attached to him and that was their last report. I’m sure if he was a target the arsonist would’ve made his move already.”

“What about the home then? Who owns that?” Justice continued without pause.

“A woman named Leanne Johnson. Lyla was her daughter. She was too distraught to answer any questions,” Austin said without thinking. He had been over the files so much that most of the facts were burned into his memory.

“Any other pertinent information on her?” Justice asked.

“She also has a son named Lenny. Twenty-three-year-old male. Hasn’t seen him in a year,” Austin answered.

“Have you gone over the list of residents from the apartment building yet?” Justice asked.

“No. Haven’t gotten it yet,” Austin replied.

“We need that list. We need to see if there’s a link to the other-”

He was interrupted when someone knocked on their door frame.

A friend of theirs named Rick Gutierrez was standing there. He was a uniformed cop with black hair he always slicked back with some kind of hair product. He had super tan skin and strong Latin features.

“Hey. There’s another alleged arson in progress,” he told them. “On Cypress Boulevard. It’s at the hospital.”

Austin and Justice both jumped up before Gutierrez was finished talking. They headed for the door and accidentally pushed him to the floor on their way out.

“Sorry,” Austin shouted over his shoulder.

Gutierrez just raised a hand and got back up. He ran his hands over the wrinkles in his crisp, blue uniform. He let out an exasperated breath, looked around to make sure no one saw him fall, fixed his hair, and then went about his business.

Justice and Austin practically flew out of the stairwell and into the parking lot. They rushed to their car and when both were inside (and buckled), Austin flipped on its sirens and lights and they raced off, heading for the newest fire.

They burst out into the fading light of day and watched as cars cleared the way so they could pass without trouble. About fifteen minutes later, they made it to the site of the fire and parked. Fire trucks were already there as well as two squad cars. The rapidly growing darkness made all the red and blue flashing lights seem brighter than they normally were.

They looked around and found that most of the wide street was taped off and restless onlookers were being held at bay by four uniformed APD officers. Several firemen were directing traffic, motioning with a hand for cars to either go on their way or stop to let the other side go.

They got out of the car and walked toward the yellow tape, pulling it up slightly so they could go under it. They came to stand next to one of the big red trucks and watched the fire burn. The building on fire was (or what used to be) Ingram Memorial Hospital, named after one of Ashebrook’s founding fathers, Alvin Ingram. It wasn’t the city’s biggest hospital, but it was plenty big enough to hold at least two hundred patients and keep a staff of about a hundred and fifty. Justice could only hope that everyone inside made it out.

Justice glanced around. He didn’t see any body bags. He swept his gaze around the hospital’s well-manicured lawns, trying to find any groups of people that looked like they’d come from inside. It didn’t take that long to find them. Their group was pretty large. At a guess, he’d say there were at least a hundred and twenty of them. They were off to the side, clustered around a giant maple tree. Patients, doctors, orderlies, and nurses.

Despite their own injuries, doctors were still racing to make sure all of Ingram’s patients were stabilized and in good condition. He saw one doctor working even though the fire had burned up her left arm. It looked painful. Other hospital employees were trying to get her to sit down so they could tend to it, but she shook them off. Several times.

Justice was going to head that way, but Austin saw an APD officer walking nearby and hailed him over. The uniform was clearly a rookie, but Austin never saw him before.

“How many are left inside?” Austin asked. “Any bodies?”

The came up to them. He looked awkward and uncomfortable but being a rookie, that was expected.

Justice watched the guy as he nervously flipped through his notepad. The uniform grew increasingly anxious the longer it took him to find the info he was looking for.

Austin was glaring at the poor guy with an impatient look on his face.

“Looks like everyone managed to escape. Only minor injuries and burns were reported,” the uniform finally said.

Justice felt a sudden wave of relief. Thank God for that much, he told himself.

He glanced once more at the group huddled by the big maple. His eyes were drawn to the doctor with the burned arm and he couldn’t help but feel a certain attraction to her. She clearly had abundant strength, both mental and physical. and even though they were pretty far away, Justice could still tell she was beautiful. Her long, glossy black hair fell down her back, creating a stark contrast between it and the white of her doctors’ coat. She was exotic and her intense desire to help her patients only made her more attractive to him. As he watched her, he saw her take a brief pause and gingerly grip her arm. He saw her wince in pain for a second before taking a deep breath and going back to work.

Justice made a decision. He started walking over to the woman, leaving Austin alone with the newbie cop. It was a somewhat long walk. Ingram Memorial’s front lawn was pretty big. Soon, however, he came to a stop directly behind the doctor and waited for her to notice him.

She didn’t.

He waited awkwardly as a few more minutes went past but she barely registered his presence.

“I’m Detective Justice Monroe. If you could please come with me, I’d like to ask you some questions,” he told her.

The woman stopped what she was doing and turned around to look at him. Her dark eyes were narrowed aggressively and her body language read that she had no intention of going with him and that he needed to leave her alone.

“I don’t really have time right now,” she said with a voice full of annoyance. And pain. “I have patients to attend to here.”

“Your team is taking care of the situation, Dr...?” he asked, waiting for her to supply her name.

“Ramirez. Caroline Ramirez,” she replied, exasperated. She handed a nurse a roll of gauze and pointed to the patient in need of it.
“This is important. It could help us catch the person who set the building on fire,” Justice explained, calmly waiting.

She looked at him for a long minute, her expression still one of complete annoyance. Then she let out a bitter sigh.

“Fine. But I can’t be gone for long. They need me,” she explained.

Justice gave her a nod and a small smile.

“Let’s head this way,” he said before he started walking off. “That way we won’t be in anyone’s way.”

Caroline allowed herself to be led away from her patients as she followed Justice. They didn’t stop walking until he arrived at the back an ambulance. It was one of three that had arrived only a minute or so ago.

“Sit,” he commanded. He gave an authoritative point to the back of the ambulance and the waiting paramedics and EMTs.

“But...” she complained as she looked back toward her own patients.

“Sit!” he commanded again, this time in a voice ringing with authority.

She promptly sat down in the back of the ambulance and let the medics take a look at the cooked flesh of her left arm. She gasped in pain several times before they were done with her.

“These burns are pretty bad. Second-degree mostly but you have some third-degree as well. I suppose I don’t have to tell you to get to the hospital,” the EMT said as he eyed the white coat she wore. He grabbed a roll of gauze and what looked like a topical antibiotic. He slathered the ointment all over her burned arm, ignoring her cringes and gasps of pain. Then he rolled a thick layer of gauze over the whole thing and looked up at her when he was finished. “If you don’t get it properly treated, it’ll get infected. Then there’s a good chance you’ll lose the arm.”

“I know, I know,” she responded.

Bruce rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the gurneys out of the back. In that time, another ambulance had arrived. Justice watched them unload their gurney as well, and then all four sets of medics rushed out to the survivors, trying to assess which patients were the most critical.

Justice turned his attention back to Dr. Ramirez.

“Did you see anything?” he asked her. He completely ignored her evident ire at being tricked.

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she tried folding her arms around her belly but ended up hissing in pain instead. She abandoned that position and finally settled on leaving them straight down at her sides.

“It could’ve waited you know. I was fine. Those people are under my care. They’re depending on me. You had no right,” she whispered, her voice more of a disgruntled mumble than anything else.

“I had every right,” Justice responded with no sympathy whatsoever. “That burn was serious, and you were too busy caring about other people to realize it. I stepped in. There’s been enough death lately. I didn’t want to see you added to the list.”

She thought about what he said and some of the annoyance on her face disappeared. Not all of it though. She was still irritated with him.
“Thank you.” she did finally say. “I’m sorry I got so angry with you.”

“It’s okay. You thought you were doing the right thing. I understand that,” he said. “This wasn’t just a trick to get a medic to take a look at that arm though. I really did need to ask you some questions.”

“I didn’t see anything, or anyone start the fire,” she told him before he could even say anything else. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what kinds of questions Justice would ask. “I don’t even know where it started. As soon as I saw it, I grabbed anyone I could and got them out.”
“That was brave,” he replied. He realized the more he talked to her, the more he liked her. Her intensity was incredibly sexy.

“I’m in the business of saving lives, detective, not leaving them there to burn,” she answered back with no trace of boasting, just honesty. “I managed to get a team together and we got everyone out.”

“Did you notice anyone strange hanging around the hospital before it went up?” he asked her. He had his notepad out and was writing down her answers. “Anything strange?”

She was about to tell him no. But then she paused.

“Yes. There was something.” She looked up at him. “When I was trying to get all those people out, the fire...it...it felt...alive. Somehow. I don’t know how else to describe it. It just seemed to try whatever it could to block us from getting outside. Am I losing my mind?”

“No,” Justice said, after a thoughtful pause. “I don’t think so. It might’ve been adrenaline mixed with fear. It messes with people’s heads. Was there anything else strange?”

“There was one other thing. When I went back to get my last patient, he was gone. I don’t know where he went or what happened to him.”
That definitely peaked Justice’s curiosity.

“Can you tell me anything about this person?” he asked.

“Male. That’s about it,” she responded. “His charts said someone had beaten him and his face had suffered the worst of it. It was bandaged pretty heavily.”

“Any distinguishing marks or characteristics you managed to notice?”

“No,” she said. Then she reconsidered. “Wait. There was one thing. On the inside of his right wrist, he had a tattoo. It was a small picture of a flame. That’s all I remember.”

“Was the tattoo in color or just black ink?” he asked.

“It was in color. Yellow fading to an orange red at the tip,” she answered. “Do you think that was the guy who started the fire?”

“I can’t tell you that for sure, but I’d be willing to bet it was.” He shut his notepad. “Thank you for your help.”

“You’re welcome.”

He held out a hand to her. Clasped in his thumb and forefinger was his business card. “If you think of anything else.”

They stood there for a moment, neither one talking. His attraction to her intensified and when he looked in her eyes he could feel it mirrored there.
“I-I have to go now,” she told him, a flush of heat filling her face. She brushed hair out of her eyes with a sweep of her hand and then took the card. She stuffed it into a pocket.

After she took it from him, he gave her a slight nod, smiled, and walked back toward Austin.

“Detective!” Caroline yelled. He turned around; one eyebrow raised. “Thank you again. For making me get my arm looked at. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I’m in the business of saving people, Dr. Ramirez, not letting them die from their own stubbornness.”

She smiled brightly at that and then started walking back toward her patients. The paramedics and EMTs had done a good job of making sure everyone was okay and had loaded up the ones that needed serious medical help.

Justice watched her take over the situation with effortless speed and control and then resumed his walk toward Austin.

His partner stood alone, watching the blaze with intense eyes.

“We need to catch this guy, Justice,” he said without bothering to check if it really was his partner coming up to him. Austin was creepy that way. He had a sort of intuition that went with his other gift. “The guy’s bad. Something about these fires just feels...I don’t know. Wrong, I guess. You know?”
“Yeah. I know.” Justice glanced around. “You scan this crowd yet?”

“I did it a while ago. Nada.” He hunched his shoulders against a sudden blast of cold wind. Justice did the same. “Did you find anything out when you were flirting with that hot doctor over there?”

“I was interviewing her,” Justice replied.

“Flirting,” Austin said, barely holding back a wide grin. “With a hot doctor.”

“Do I have to tell Kim you’re looking at other women?” Justice asked, smirking. He felt a satisfied thrill when Austin’s big, smug grin fell off his face.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said, a note of disbelief in his voice.

“You know I would.”

“Man, that’s all kinds of fucked up.”

“I’m messing with you,” he told him. “Besides, since when is interviewing witnesses classify as flirting?”

“Since when does interviewing a witness involve flirting?” Austin shot back.

“Just drop it,” Justice said, clapping Austin on the back. “Besides, I’ve got something to go on.”

“You got a lead?”

“Not much of one,” Justice grunted. “But more than we had before. Our guy was posing as a patient.”

“Do we know what he looks like?” Austin asked, an anxious, excited gleam to his eyes.

“No. His face was heavily bandaged, so we don’t have a description,” Justice replied. “I told you it wasn’t much of a lead.”

“Is that all? That’s not much to go on.”

“Also, he has a tattoo. Caroline told me he’s got one on the inside of his right wrist. It’s a pic of a flame if you can believe that. This guy’s not much for subtlety.” Justice started walking back to their car with Austin following behind him.

“Caroline?” Austin asked with a grin. Justice just glared at him and mouthed the word Kim. But Austin called his bluff this time and went on. “Did you do that thing with the business card and then feed her the line about calling if she thinks of anything else?”

Justice didn’t respond. He just got in the car.

“Oh man, you did didn’t you?” Austin lost it. He laughed for a good five minutes before he was finally able to quit. “That’s so cheesy.”

“Shut up,” Justice told him, shooting him a warning look.

Austin shook his head and then started the car, blasting the heat. It was late autumn now and the weather had turned cold real fast. He waited a moment for the windows to defog and then peeled out, plastering Justice to the seat.

Justice’s cell phone started ringing. He fished it out of the inside pocket of his coat and put it up to his ear.

“Monroe,” he said.

“Justice. It’s Gutierrez,” Gutierrez said. “I’ve got a preliminary list of dead from the fire earlier today. Some of the bodies are still being identified but the Coroner managed to get confirmations on eleven people. You want me to read it to you?”

“Go for it,” Justice replied. It couldn’t hurt to have the information. After the fourth name was read, however, Justice stopped him. “Give me that last one back.”

“Uh...Holstein, Dale.” Gutierrez replied. He was about to continue but Justice hung up on him.

Facts and bits of information he’d gotten since this case first began started to fit together now. He double checked his memory to make sure he was right before he said anything out loud. Three out of the five places hit were connected to each other. Fact one...The floral shop was owned by Dale Holstein. Fact two...his girlfriend was Leanne Johnson, victim number two’s mother. Fact three...now Dale turns up dead in the apartment fire. He wasn’t sure what the other two places had in common, but three out of five was good enough for him.

It gave them more to go on.

“It’s gotta be the son, Lenny Johnson. He’s either our perp or he’s gonna be next.” Justice said, absolutely sure of himself.
“How do you know that?” Austin asked.

“That was Gutierrez. One of the dead bodies from the apartment building was Dale Holstein’s. Dale is our connection. He owned the floral shop. He was dating Lyla Johnson’s mother. Lyla’s already dead, so it’s not her. The only ones left that are connected to him are the mother and the son and I don’t think the mother was the type to off her own kid. Do you?”

“No. I scanned her when we interviewed her. She had something buried pretty deep. Deeper than I could get to, but she wouldn’t do that to her daughter. I could tell she really loved her,” Austin said. He thought for a moment. “So the son targets Dale’s floral shop, his own family’s home, Dale’s apartment building, a random night club, and a victim rich environment? Why?”

“I don’t know yet, but my gut’s telling me I’m right. Lenny Johnson’s the arsonist. We just need to collect the evidence to put the bastard away,” Justice exclaimed.

Then sudden fear hit him in the stomach, and he looked over at Austin. If Lenny wasn’t the next victim, then Justice was pretty sure he knew who was.

“Where’s the mom now? Where’s Leanne Johnson?”

“The file said that she’s staying at a Comfort Inn just outside of town under protective detail in case the arsonist decided to attack her. It’s about ten minutes from here. Why?” Austin asked.

“I think he’s going after his own family and she’s the only one left,” Justice responded. “I’m willing to bet that the fire at the hospital was a distraction. He wanted to get everyone’s attention focused there so he can have a clear shot at her.”

Austin didn’t hesitate. He slammed even harder on the gas, threw on the sirens, and raced through the city to the hotel. It didn’t take long. Most of the evening rush hour traffic had died down already.

When they pulled up to the place, they found a squad car in one of the parking spaces out front. They parked next to that. Then they walked inside and found a twenty-something woman behind the front desk. She looked up at them with bleary-eyed boredom.

“What room is Leanne Johnson in?” Justice asked her. He pulled out his badge and showed it to her.

The woman, completely not intimidated by the badge, or Justice, pounded rapidly on a keyboard. After a second or two she looked back up at them.
“Room 215,” she replied in a lazy monotone. “Can’t miss it. One of your guys is already up there guarding her.”

Austin and Justice turned away from her and then headed up the stairs. They went to the left when they got to the second floor. Not long after that, they found the uniformed cop guarding Leanne. He was leaning against the wall with his head down. When he heard them walking toward him, he looked up and gave them both a nod.

“How is she?” Justice asked. He realized that the cop was the same rookie that had been at the hospital fire. He must’ve been ordered over here to relieve the prior detail “How long have you been here?”

“Me and my partner were pulled from the hospital and told to guard her not long after you guys showed up over there. We’ve been here maybe twenty minutes or so,” the guy responded, giving Justice a shrug.

“Where’s your partner?” Austin asked him.

“He went down to get us some coffee,” he replied.

“What’s she doing?” Justice asked, looking at the door. He caught a whiff of something in the air. He couldn’t identify it at first, which bugged the hell out of him.

He took a step toward room 215’s closed door.

Now that he was closer, he was able to identify the weird smells. They were the unmistakable scents of smoke and some kind of charred meat.
His heart immediately sped up and adrenaline was dumped into his system.

“Sleeping, last I checked,” the uniform said. He took a step closer to Justice and grabbed the bigger man’s arm. He was trying to physically force him back from the door. “She was crying when I got here, man. She only stopped about a minute ago so she’s probably sleeping. You should leave her be.”

“You’re gonna want to let go of me.” Justice shot him a look, but the uniform didn’t back down. Austin stepped closer to the confrontation. When he glanced in the uniform officer’s direction, the guy averted his gaze in a hurry.

“What’s the matter with you?” Austin asked him.

“She just lost her daughter. She finally managed to get some sleep. I don’t want you guys bothering her right now,” he said, still keeping his eyes firmly away from Austin.

“Why do you keep looking away from me?” Austin asked.

Justice grabbed the guy’s arms at the wrist and pushed hard. He was a big man, and way bigger than the guy he was struggling against. It wasn’t that hard to push him until his back was to the wall.

“Who are you?” Justice yelled.

The guy said nothing. He just glared at Justice with a cruel smile on his face.

“Come on, Justice,” he finally said, laughing. “You expect me to believe you’re that stupid. You know who I am.”

Justice grabbed the man’s right wrist and yanked down the sleeve. The tattooed flame was there, just like Caroline said.

“Why?” Justice asked. “Why kill all those people?”

When he didn’t get any answer, he looked at Austin and gave him a nod.

Austin stepped up.

The second he did, the psycho bucked in fear. He started thrashing against Justice to try and get away, but it was useless.

Austin shot Justice an inquisitive glance. He was getting the sense that the perp knew about his ability. The man was clearly keeping his eyes away from Austin on purpose.

But how would the creep know about me? And not only that, but about my ability?

The only people that know are Kim and Justice.

He turned away from his own thoughts and re-focused on what was going on. Then he looked over at Justice and gave him a nod.

Justice immediately grabbed Lenny’s head and held it still. When Lenny realized he couldn’t escape, he shut his eyes. Justice growled in anger. He took Lenny’s head and slammed it into the wall. He kept refusing to open his eyes, but Justice wouldn’t relent.

“Open ‘em!” he screamed. “Now!”

Lenny stubbornly shook his head but eventually the continued assault was too much and they popped open.

And then Austin scanned him.

Scanning people always felt the same. First, the person’s pupils would expand hugely. Then it felt like he was sinking into a black hole, only the black hole was the person’s soul. After that, it was a trippy mess of images, sounds, and all kinds of other weird shit until he came to again. That was the only way he knew how to describe the sensation.

He fell into the darkness and after what seemed like an eternity, objects and images coalesced around him. He saw a baby in a carriage guided by a loving mother’s hand. The baby was a boy. There were blurred, half-real images of the baby growing up into toddlerhood. Then another baby was in the picture. This one was a girl. The boy grew older and as he did, he developed an unusual talent. That talent made him feel special. But it also twisted him. He started to feel superior to ordinary people. As he grew older, those feelings intensified and turned him into the monster he currently was.

There were images of different things he’d burned down. Of different things he’d killed with his fire. The fire he controlled. Like a god!

Then They found him and put him on the righteous path. The only path.

To kill them all! The normal ones. The ones who were inferior.

The first people he was ordered to kill was his own family. He was supposed to wipe out the weakness in his own blood. And he did it without hesitation. He wanted them dead. Especially his mother. She was the one he really wanted to kill. To be born from a normal. Him? A god! It was blasphemous. Unnatural. But she hadn’t been inside when he torched her house to the ground. It made him furious that she escaped her fate. The fate HE laid out for her. But he got Lyla. He got his sister, yes he did! He roasted her and it felt so good watching her die under his flames. Eaten alive by them. Next, was Dale he decided. He knew his mother loved that sorry son of bitch. He’d wanted that old bastard to be next because he wanted her to suffer (and he just hated the boring, vanilla asshole anyway).

It was a good thing she wasn’t in the first fire, he decided. Now he could force her to lose everything she loved and make her end as painful as possible.

He missed roasting Dale the first time. He burned his shop down but Dale wasn’t there. Just some kid that worked there. But that was fine. The normals all had to die anyway. And it still felt good. It still felt good to watch them shrivel and turn black.

Next, he tracked Dale to a club in the Warehouse District. That was a couple days later. He didn’t even hesitate. He set that sucker on fire and stood back and watched the blaze burn. It was beautiful and he even ended up burning five of the normals. Still no Dale, though. That guy was a lucky S.O.B.

Then came the motherload. An absolute jackpot! It was a whole building full of normals and this time he knew for a fact Dale was in it. As it burned, he never saw him come out. He knew the bastard died in there, probably blubberin’ like a baby too.

With that mission done, he had just one more person left to kill. His mom. But she was too well protected. He needed a way to get to her so he could finish his initiation. That’s when he got the idea. Start a fire in a big, public place and get everyone over there. Killing all the normals from his other fires had given him an appetite for more anyway. So, he picked the hospital. Lots of them there. Lots of them to kill. But the bitch doctor ruined his plans. She got almost everyone out by herself. She saved them. He wanted to torch her right then and there, but he couldn’t. He still had a plan. He still had another chore to do. So, he forced himself to be patient. To let it go for now. There were more important things he had to attend to, after all.
Then he could come back for her.

Austin ripped himself away, too disgusted by what he saw to even speak.

Lenny’s eyes remained wide open and staring for a second as he recovered from Austin’s scan. After that, the somewhat vacant look to his eyes disappeared. It was replaced by the mad gleam of a zealot.

Austin was still reeling from what he saw inside Lenny Johnson.

The guy was a killer. They knew that already. What they hadn’t known was that Lenny had the power to create and control fire. It was why no fire investigator could determine a cause of the arsons. It was why they kept saying it was like the fires started themselves.

Which meant Lenny was much more dangerous than either of them realized.

“Justice, watch out!” Austin yelled, trying to warn him.

The maniac let out a wild, insane laugh and then both of Justice’s arms burst into flame. He yelped in pain and staggered back, letting go of Lenny in the process.

Austin yanked out his gun and aimed. But before he could pull the trigger the gun starting glowing red hot. He could feel the metal burning into his skin. He dropped it to the floor and stared in shock as it simply melted into a molten puddle of metal.

Justice was still on fire. He managed to control it to where it was mostly put out, but the distraction gave Lenny plenty of time to escape. When he was out of sight, the fires died down completely.

Justice turned to Austin and eyed both sleeves of his leather coat. “Dammit. That asshole burned my coat,” he snapped. “What the hell just happened?”

“Hold on,” Austin replied. He turned to the door to Ms. Johnson’s hotel room and quietly opened it. A sickening wave of smell hit the instant the door opened. It was a very strong, smoky scent mixed with the smell of burnt human.

They both coughed harshly and put an arm up to their noses to block out the worst of the smell. They moved closer to the room. Inside, it was nothing but a black, smoky ruin. Scorch marks covered every wall and surface and the bed was just a lumpy pile of ash. Clearly seen was the body of what used to be Leanne Johnson. The only thing left of her was blackened flesh and burnt, cracked bones.

“Dammit,” Austin said, his voice quiet. He backed out of the room and shut the door again. Then he called the body in. They both waited there until the coroner and other units arrived.

There was time to kill so Justice turned to his friend.

“So...what the hell was that?” he asked again. He pulled off his ruined coat and held it under one arm. He’d been lucky, the leather coat blocked a lot of the fire. The skin underneath was mostly healthy, non-cooked flesh. There were a few red marks and singes but other than that, he was fine. “How did he make my arms burst into flames? And how did he do that to a gun?” He pointed to the melted lump of metal.

Austin shivered against the memories of Lenny’s scan.

“Short version? He’s like us,” Austin said, after a couple of seconds to compose himself. “He’s a pyrokinetic. I think that’s what they’re called in movies anyway. It means he can start fires with his mind and control them. That’s how he’s doing all this.”

“But why?” Justice asked.

“He thinks people like us are the dominant race now. He thinks that normals, that’s the term he uses for regular people, are weak. Which led him to the conclusion that they deserve to die so that the only ones left on Earth are the ones with abilities. That’s what this is all about. He’s on an all-out genocide rampage. And that’s not the worst of it though. He went after his family first to prove himself to some shady group. I couldn’t get any info on them, but they made him go after his mom and sister as a sort of induction process. He was more than happy to do it too.”

“We’re dealing with a group of maniacs not just a single perp. Great,” Justice replied. Then he looked at the room with Leanne’s corpse inside. “But he contained this fire to just one room. He could’ve let the thing go wild and kill all the other people in the building. Why didn’t he?” Justice asked.
“I don’t know. I think...” Austin paused as he tried to figure out how to frame his answer. “I think he wanted to meet us. He knew we’d figure out who he was, so he waited here. It’s a stupid move on his part, I know but I can tell you he’s definitely not all there. The guy’s crazier than anyone I’ve ever met. He knows who and what we are. I don’t know how, but I got that much very clearly. It’s how he knew to hide his eyes from me.”

“So how do we track this psycho down now?” Justice asked.

“I don’t know but we need to figure it out,” Austin replied, his voice urgent. He looked Justice in the eyes, his face turning very serious. “He’s not gonna stop until he burns all the regular people to death. I swear he won’t. The guy is completely crazy and there’s nothing stopping him from doing it either.”

“Yeah there is,” Justice responded. “Us.”

The different police crews started coming in to deal with the crime scene about fifteen minutes later.

Justice and Austin heard the sirens long before they’d seen the lights flashing in the large window at the end of the hall.

A few minutes later, four cops came trundling up the stairs and started taping off the crime scene. The CSIs and fire investigators showed up next and the coroner was last. Justice and Austin watched the black body bag with Leanne Johnson’s remains in it get rolled away.

Justice took one more glance into the hotel room to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Inside, he found Leanne’s ghost staring back at him. She looked horrible. Her faintly translucent skin had been blackened and cracked by the fire. Her flesh was blistered and swollen, and her face was a mask of ruin and misery. The only thing that wasn’t burned were her eyes and they stared at Justice with a terrible sadness. There was a look of grief in them but above all else, a look of complete failure. She didn’t say anything to Justice, and he said nothing back. He turned away from her haunting presence and walked back out to their car with Austin.

“Did you see her?” Austin asked. He’d noticed the intent look on Justice’s face when they were leaving. It was a look he’d grown accustomed to over the years.

“Yeah,” was all Justice would say.

When they were both in the car, however, he turned to Austin.

“Why did he start the other fires?” Justice asked, hoping there would be something there that would lead them to his next target.

“He went after his own family first. Because they were normals and someone told him to. Holstein was the mother’s boyfriend. He owned the floral shop that got burned down. Holstein was also in 3 when it got torched. Johnson tracked him there one night, but Holstein was lucky and escaped both times. Then he finally decided to set Holstein’s entire apartment building on fire...with him inside.”

“What about the hospital? Diversion?” Justice asked. “So he could get to his mom without anyone stopping him?”

“Exactly,” Austin told him. “Besides that, killing all those people gave him a rush. He picked the hospital because it was high-profile and would give him a high death count. Only that one didn’t go as planned, though. Your doctor friend managed to get everyone out before the blaze could really pick up speed.”

“Could you read anything at all of what he’s planning on doing next?” Justice asked.

“I don’t know. He’s a freaking mess, man. It was confusing in there and terrifying. His mind is literally twisted beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” Austin told him.

He tried to remember everything about the scan he’d done on Lenny Johnson. It all came back in a too vivid rush that made his head suddenly spin. He shook it roughly from side to side which only made the sensation worse.

The car swerved alarmingly, and Justice reached out to steady it.

“Careful!” Justice shouted.

“S’okay,” Austin replied. The dizzy feeling finally went away and his driving improved.

“Are you good? You’re not gonna get us both killed, right?” Justice asked again.

Austin ignored the question. His brain was overloaded and trying to process all the information he’d gotten from Johnson. It was hard to do. There was so much of it. What he did know, however, was that in that jumbled mess, one thing stuck out clearly.

“The doctor,” Austin whispered. He looked up at Justice with wide eyes. “He’ll go after the doctor next.”

“Caroline?” Justice asked, confused. “Why?”

“She stopped him,” Austin explained. “I could feel that hatred inside him. It was buried under everything else, but it was there. He hates that a normal was able to stop him. Not only that, but he saw you with her.”

“So?”

“Think about it man. The guy is convinced that people like us are the next evolutionary leap for mankind. He believes that we’re all going to be the ones to take control of the world. He hates normal people. He thinks they’re weak. Even thinking about the possibility of a normal having a relationship with one of us infuriates him. I mean infuriate too. That burning hatred he has is so strong it’s a wonder the guy can even think straight,” Austin explained.

“All right.” Justice said. “Let’s go get her. We can put her under police protection until we find this guy.”

Austin didn’t answer, he just turned the ignition and roared off toward Ingram Memorial. When they got there, the fire had finally burned itself out and the only people around were the various investigators. They were sifting through the rubble searching for clues. All of them looked freezing and miserable too. Night brought an intense cold front with it that made Justice and Austin shiver several seconds after they got out of the car. Caroline, the nurses and orderlies, and all the patients from the hospital were gone.

Justice ran and casually ducked under the police tape that surrounded the site. He left Austin behind and found a uniformed cop to ask questions to. His guard was up now, though, in case it was Johnson posing again, but he recognized this cop. His name was Frank Berto. He was a longtime veteran on the force and Justice liked him a lot. When the guy got drunk, he always told the best stories from his Air Force days.

“Where’s Dr. Ramirez, Frank?” Justice asked. A cloud of white vapor escaped his mouth and drifted lazily toward the sky.

“The doctor that pulled everyone out?” Frank asked. “She went to Asheview Hospital on West Rone Street about an hour ago. Someone finally convinced her to get that arm looked at from what I heard.”

“Have any reports of a fire come in from that location?” Justice asked.

The officer stood there thinking for several minutes. He never said a word. He just kept thinking. Justice had to strangle his urge to reach out and physically shake the man.

“No,” Frank responded. “Not that I’ve heard of anyway.”

Justice felt a surge of relief hit him.

“She all right?” Austin asked as he came to a stop next to his partner. “Oh. Hey, Frank. Man, we gotta get together sometime. You need to finish telling me that story about Songtan Sally.”

“Sure thing, Hawke. You know she’s still there?”

“Seriously?” Austin asked.

“Shut the hell up you two. We have more important things going on right now!” Justice yelled.

“Uh...good point,” Austin replied. “Go ahead.”

“She’s at Asheview. No fires there so far so I think she’s ok," Justice replied. “I want to head over there anyways and make sure she stays that way.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Austin agreed.

They were heading back to the car when Justice’s phone suddenly rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.

“Monroe,” he said.

“Ah...good to hear your voice again,” someone whispered from the other end of the line. It was faint but Justice knew the voice belonged to Lenny Johnson. “Your pretty little friend here has got great smelling hair, Justice. And it was so considerate of you to give her your number. I didn’t have any trouble tracking you down. Not like the trouble you’ve had trying to find me these past few weeks.”

Justice stopped cold, his heart suddenly pounding with fear.

“What do you want?” Justice asked.

Austin stopped next to him as soon as he heard the rage pouring out of his partner’s voice.

“I want to talk to you and your partner. Just one civilized conversation without any heated arguments. That’s it. I think it’s time you hear the sales pitch. After I tell you what I need to, you might just want to waste this vanilla bitch yourself,” Lenny answered.

“Where?” Justice asked.

“The roof of Asheview. It’s.... comfortable up here,” Lenny said. “Oh, and Justice?”

“What?”

“Don’t keep me waiting. I might get cold and decide your little girlfriend here will make good fuel for one of my fires. I don’t think you’d like that, would you?” Lenny didn’t give Justice time to answer, he just hung up.

“Let’s go!” Justice roared at Austin. They ran to the car, got in, and drove off.

“Where to?” was all Austin asked. He knew what the situation was, even if he didn’t hear the whole conversation.

“Asheview. He’s got her on the roof.”

Austin sped through the night, racing off toward the center of town and the over four block complex that made up Asheview Hospital.

The traffic got bad again, but Austin was reckless in a way that made it clear he was crazy. He zipped through the traffic at ridiculous speeds, ran up onto the sidewalks several times, and even took turns at breakneck speeds.

Normally, Justice would’ve been complaining, but his mind wasn’t really in the moment. It was trying to figure out the best way to get Caroline back alive instead of as a smoking corpse. The only good thing he could think of was the fact that Lenny wanted to talk. Which meant they would have some time. If they showed up and Caroline was already dead, then the psycho wouldn’t have any leverage over them.

They got to the hospital less than fifteen minutes later. Austin slammed on the breaks in front of the hospital’s main doors. The tires squealed and a plume of white smoke flew out from all four tires.

Justice didn’t waste any time. He was out of the car before it even came to a complete stop. Austin shifted into park, turned the ignition off, and jumped out next. He sprinted hard so he could catch up to Justice.

Inside, they found the stairwell and hurried up the stairs, taking them two at a time until they reached the door that lead to the roof. It was a seven-story building and both of them were puffing slightly by the time they hit the landing at the top. They found a hole in the solid metal door where the doorknob used to be. The edges around it were still glowing a fiery, red orange.

Justice pulled out his gun, holding it in front of him as he edged up to the door. Austin, who hadn’t had time to get a replacement for the one Lenny melted, took cover behind his partner’s broad back.

Justice looked back at Austin and started silently counting to three on his fingers. When the third one went up, he slammed one big foot into the door. It swung open with a loud clang and both of them dashed out onto the roof.

They skidded to a halt a couple feet from the door. The loose gravel on top of the roof crunched under their feet.

A few yards away was Lenny. He was still wearing his stolen police uniform (which is probably how he kidnapped Caroline in the first place).
Lenny had her positioned in front of him with his hand cupped underneath her chin. The skin beneath it was starting to blister.

Caroline was crying. Justice saw her and her pain and fear pissed him off even more.

“We’re here,” Justice snarled. His finger edged toward the trigger on his gun.

Lenny just smirked and his hand started smoking. Caroline shrieked in agony. The skin of her face started to get redder, edging toward black. Her tears came faster and her breathing quickened.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Lenny said, laughing. “Do you two have any idea how fast I could melt her face off? The speed of thought. That’s it. Now toss the gun.”

Justice hesitated but another scream issued from Caroline, this one more piercing.

“Okay,” Justice told the lunatic. He tried to keep his voice calm but there was a raging undercurrent of hate and anger he couldn’t hide. “Here. Here’s my gun.” He held it out and exaggerated his movements like someone put him on slow-mo. When he held it out at arm’s length, he let it fall from his hand. “It’s gone.”

“Good boy,” Lenny said, acting as if he’d just taught his favorite dog a new trick. “I’m glad to see you can be reasoned with, Detective.”

“What do you want?” Austin asked.

“I want to talk, I thought I made myself clear before,” Lenny replied with a grin. “I thought you were the smart one, Austin. Was I wrong?”

“Get on with it then. What is it you want to talk about?” Justice asked. He tried to edge a little bit closer, but Lenny burned Caroline again and he backed off.

“To the point. Not as fun but I can respect that. Anyways, I’ll start by stating the obvious. I know what both of you can do. I know you can do things that aren’t normal. Just like me. That makes us the same and if you just see that, then you’ll know that everything I’ve done up till now I did to propel our species into the future. We’re the next step. We’re the next great leap forward in human evolution. We will inherit the Earth.” He jerked Caroline’s head harshly to the side. “Not these weak little creatures. They’re Neanderthals and we’re the Cro-Magnons. That’s how it is.”

Lenny finished his spiel but neither Justice nor Austin said anything.

“How did you find out about our abilities? We haven’t told anyone besides each other,” Austin asked.

Lenny looked annoyed with their lack of enthusiasm to his “sales pitch” but he answered the question anyway.

“Let’s just say I have powerful sources. The kind of power that will make you piss your pants if it decides to come for you,” Lenny replied, laughing again.

Justice was starting to really hate that laugh. It was full of arrogance and it really annoyed the hell out of him.

“What do you want with us?” Justice asked, his voice deep. Menacing.

“It’s simple. We want you guys to join us. A man who can find out the hidden truths of anyone and another that can uncover the mysteries of death are invaluable. It would be a damn shame if I were forced to kill you guys.”

Justice narrowed his eyes and Austin let out a mocking snort.

“I’ve been inside your head, Lenny. If this group of yours is anything like you then no thanks. You’re a demented little psycho,” Austin told him. “I think we’ll stick to protecting people, regardless of whether they have abilities or not.”

“I stand with him,” Justice remarked.

“So close minded. The both of you,” Lenny continued, shaking his head in mock shame. “I honestly didn’t think it would be this hard. I can’t believe you two are so thick-skulled. Think about it. Really think. We can do things these vermin.” A disgusted look came over his face as he glanced down at Caroline, “can only dream of. How could you even consider associating with them?”

Austin ignored the psycho’s ramblings. He was trying to think. They had no leverage. No weapons. No clear plan of getting out of the situation they found themselves in. He looked around, trying to find inspiration and accidentally met Caroline’s wide, pain-filled eyes. The scan happened immediately. Austin felt like he was wrenched into her, sucked inside her mind like a piece of dirt picked up by a vacuum.

Then he saw her. All of her.

He snapped back to himself a few seconds later, hissing in a breath through his teeth. No one noticed. He looked up at Caroline. She wasn’t struggling anymore, and he noticed right away the difference in her manner. She was tense, her body rigid. She was preparing herself and he’d seen what she was planning to do when he scanned her. He waited, holding himself lightly on his feet so he could time things perfectly. He didn’t have to wait long though.

Caroline suddenly jerked her leg up and brought it crashing down on Lenny’s foot, heel first and with every bit of power she could muster. Then she grinded it into the tender bones there hard enough to break a few of them. The pain surprised and stunned him, causing his grip to loosen on her face.

She dove forward.

Enraged, Lenny immediately let out a wash of flame from the palms of both hands. He wanted her dead so badly in that moment that he was practically blind to everything else.

Caroline rolled like a martial artist and continued her forward movement until she had placed a metal vent between herself and the flame. The minute Caroline was out of the way, Austin dived for Justice’s pistol, ignoring several cuts and scrapes he got. He snagged the weapon and aimed. He shot three times and all three bullets ripped into Lenny. One hit him in the shoulder, one in his chest just beneath his collarbone, and the last one caught him in his hip and was vicious enough to spin him to the ground. He tried to keep up the flame, but his concentration wavered and the fire died out.

Caroline tentatively stuck her head out.

Lenny was on the floor, crying out in pain and bleeding profusely.

“Get her out of here!” Justice yelled.

Austin looked at the bleeding murderer without a trace of pity. He handed Justice the gun and hurried over to Caroline. He grabbed her hand as gently as he could and started walking her toward the still open door. The fiery glow around what used to be the doorknob had faded and cooled.
Austin never looked back.

Soon after Austin and Caroline were gone, Justice walked over to Lenny.

The lunatic was on the ground and wailing. He held one hand over the wound in his shoulder and another over the one in his chest. The wound to his hip just continued to bleed out onto the ground.

When he saw Justice looming over him, he bit down on his cries of pain and just glared angrily.

“You’re a fool,” Lenny spat. “Don’t you see what we’re trying to do?"

“Who’s we, Lenny?” Justice asked but Lenny only laughed, the sound miserable and full of insanity.

Justice stepped closer to the man. He stood over the fallen arsonist for a minute with a cold, dispassionate face. Then he took his foot and grinded it into the gunshot wound in Lenny’s pelvis.

Lenny screamed again and writhed in agony.

“I won’t tell you,” he gasped. “I won’t tell.”

Justice pushed harder on the wound but was only rewarded with more cries and little else.

“Won’t tell. Can’t tell. Leave me alone,” Lenny shouted. “They won’t let me tell.”

“I see you can’t or won’t give me anything on the people pulling your strings, Lenny. Which is really too bad for you,” Justice said. “It means you aren’t useful anymore and with your powers, you’re too dangerous.”

Without another word, he aimed his gun at Lenny’s head. He watched the man twitch in fear.

Justice pulled the trigger.

There was no hesitation.

Lenny’s head jerked back and then he was still. The worst thing about killing him in cold blood was that he felt nothing. He felt nothing because he knew he’d done the right thing.

A monster like that couldn’t be allowed to live.

Still, he just ended him. Lenny would not wake up tomorrow. He will never see the sun rise again or the stars in the night sky anymore.

Justice thought killing him would feel bad to some degree but there was nothing. He even tried to force himself to feel bad or guilty or something but still...nothing.

That scared him.

A lot.

He took one more look at the fire-starter’s corpse and then turned and walked away. He caught up to Austin downstairs in the hospital. He was outside Caroline’s room door. Justice wanted to make sure she was okay but she was sleeping so he didn’t disturb her.

“Lenny?” Austin asked.

“Dead. Clean kill. He tried to fry me,” Justice remarked.

Austin didn’t say anything back. He just nodded.

******

Justice sat alone in the darkness of his apartment. There was a bottle of Jack in his hand that was already well toward empty. He glanced around with bleary, tired eyes, trying to focus on the thing in front of him. It was a man, or more accurately, another ghost. Only this one was far more familiar than the strangers that usually called out to him for help.

He was familiar because, unlike the other ghosts, this was one was his kill. His victim.

The man floated in front of him, his body riddled with three gunshot wounds that still oozed ghostly half-real blood. There was another hole in the middle of his forehead.

“You think you got away with it, don’t you?” the mocking ghost of Lenny Johnson accused. There was a sneer on his face that always followed Justice down into his dreams. “You think you won? You didn’t. You even gave up your precious morals to kill me and it was still for nothing. Let that sink in big boy.”

“Shut up,” Justice whispered, despite knowing Lenny wouldn’t.

It’s been two weeks since he murdered the pyrokinetic arsonist, Lenny Johnson and it’s been two weeks since he forfeited everything, he believed in to kill the psycho. Every night since then, his ghost showed up to torment him. He wasn’t sure how that was possible since ghosts were supposed to be restricted to their places of death, but that didn’t do a damn thing to make the guy quit popping up.

“Go away.” Justice’s words felt thick and slurred, which caused another riot of harsh laughter to come boiling out of Lenny’s dead mouth.
“You have no idea what’s in store for you, Justice,” the ghost threatened. “No idea.”

Justice heard the speech over a dozen times now and each time it still inspired a growing sense of dread in him. Mercifully, however, the alcohol was finally doing its job. He started to pass out, his vision going black. The horrible, bullet-riddled Lenny Johnson was the last thing he saw before that blackness enveloped him entirely.

The words “You have no idea what’s in store for you” also followed him down into his alcohol-induced semi-coma.