Forgotten Tales

Rain fell heavily that night, I was only 10 years old when my parents were taken from me. My parents went to get some last-minute groceries for my birthday cake. They never came back. I fell asleep waiting for them and was woken up by the sound of knocking on the door. A police officer asked if I had any family nearby, due to my grandparents dying the past year I had no one. I was sent off to an orphanage and transferred to many foster homes until I was 18. It wasn’t until years later that I finally found out what happened to my parents. They were shot outside the grocery store while getting mugged, my mother died screaming while my father tried to give them what they wanted, but they wanted more than what my family had to offer.

After that, I was kicked out onto the street, barely making a living for myself. That’s when I realized people should pay for the crimes they commit. It was obvious that the police won’t do anything, they couldn’t even find the people who killed my parents, what makes you think they will help anyone else.

That’s it.

I had to be the hero that people need, someone who can save them, people no longer have to worry about being in danger when I am here to save them. I will right the wrongs of everyone. Later that night, I finally put action to my thoughts, heading downtown dressed in all black I waited for someone to commit one of their many crimes, but as the night grew darker and quieter my mind falls into doubt. Who am I to fix the world, why must I be the one? Giving up for the night, I headed back to my small apartment complex and called it a night.

The air grew colder by every step, pulling my hood up to attempt to stay warmer as a young girl around my age staggers out of a bar heading towards me. Keeping my head down I try to pass by her without her noticing me, she comes closer and grabs onto me while giving me a flirtatious look. She peers up to me, smirking slightly while popping out her cleavage a bit more to make it noticeable for me. Slowly moving her hand up my arm, she stares deeply in my eyes and whispers, “Hey there hot stuff”, causing a whiff of alcohol to be blown into my face.

“Excuse me miss, but I think you should head on home, don’t want you to get yourself into any trouble while being out alone at this time of night”, slowly peeling her off of me I take a step back trying to add some distance between the two of us.

“Come on, let’s have some fun tonight”, practically tripping over herself, she latches back onto me while trying to kiss my neck.

“I said no, I would prefer if you would leave me alone”, pushing her off of me she falls to the ground and stays there for a bit before attempting to crawl towards me. As she gets closer she reaches for my pants. “The way you are acting is extremely unladylike, maybe I should teach you how to act properly” grabbing her roughly I pull her into a nearby alley. “The world would be a better place without people like you who are corrupting this world.” The girl begins to realize what’s happening and tries to move away from me, but I grab her quickly preventing her from getting away. “Where do you think you’re going, you must pay for your crimes”, wrapping my hand around her throat I begin to squeeze tightly causing her to thrash around. I almost didn’t see it but at the very last moment, before it hits me, I grab her wrist that tried to smash a bottle on my head, forcing her to drop it I put more pressure on her throat. Her eyes flutter closed as her breathing becomes less and less by each second. With her last breath, I lean down by her ear and whispered, “everyone who commits a crime must be punished, and I will be the hand of justice”.

Her body falls limp, releasing her throat I back away. My mind feels at ease as the thought of one less evil in the world. People can live in peace and harmony, everyone is safe now because of me. They should be thanking me, no, praising me, if they only knew what could have happened if this slutty girl kept going around and acting like that. She could corrupt anyone.

But not anymore, they are safe. Safe forever, because of me. Yes, because of me.

I am a hero.

The following few days, there is barely anyone out at night. The news caught wind of my heroic deed, they have been broadcasting it all over the television. People should feel safe, yet no one dares to go out late at night. I refuse to let them sit alone at night not feeling safe, there must be a cause to what is making them so scared to leave their homes. I plan on finding out what the reason is.

However, in the meantime, I’ve been working on my suit, my armor, my heroic cap. Something people can see and feel hope that all the bad people in the world are going to be gone soon. After my job during the day, a busboy at a local restaurant, I brought different items to help create my emblem. So far I’ve created a black jacket with a bright red justice hammer on the front. It will be a beacon of hope to those around. I am the hero they want. I am the hero they need. Adding the finishing touches to my super suit, I shut everything off for the night and head to bed. Tomorrow will be the day I get to the bottom of why people are afraid to go out at night.

The next day during work, I’m cleaning up after customers, as usual, but while cleaning voices can be heard from the kitchen. Heading towards the back, peering in I get a glance at the owner Mark yelling at one of the waitresses, who happened to be his current girlfriend, cursing at her he walks off and leaves through the back. Following him outside, I see him throwing glass bottles and kicking the old furniture in the alley. One of the other waitresses comes outside to throw away some of the garbage from inside. He glances at the girl and lets his eyes wander to all of her thicker areas, smirking he takes a few strides up to her and begins to flirt with her. I’m about to step in to stop this sorry excuse of a human but I was being called to come help in the kitchen. Not wanting to go back in, I follow after the voice calling for me, just you wait, I have some interesting plans for you Mark.

Finishing up the final tables that were left, I place the rest of my work attire inside my cubby and head back to my apartment. Heading inside I change out of my dirty clothes, grabbing my jacket I head out into the night for a little stroll to relax after an extremely busy day.

Heading down one of the streets, I pass by a higher class apartment, gazing into the front window I see a familiar face inside. They head into their living room, spreading out various things along with the table, they duck down and it looks like they are moving their face along the rim of the table. Putting on my jacket, I ring the bell and take a step to the side out of the view of the door. Their head shot up and they came and opened the door, “hello? Is anyone out there?” Sticking their head out a bit through the door, I throw myself at them causing us to tumble into the opening of the apartment. Shutting and locking the door, I stand over Mark with a joyous smile.

“Hey man, I have a question for you if you have a moment” All he does is scoot backward with a look of fear in his eyes. “No need to be scared, I’m here to help you fix what has gotten corrupted”. Taking a step closer I pull gloves out of my pocket, putting them on I smile down at him.

“What do you want? Do you want money? You can have it, my wallet is on the table, take it, just don’t do anything please” Putting his hands up in surrender, he keeps moving back until his back is against the wall.

“I don’t want money, I just want the world to be safe, safe from people like you. I saw what you did to your girlfriend, you cheated on her with that other girl by the dumpster, lust is a very bad trait to have”, I grabbed a knife from my pocket and began to crouch down to him. At that moment, I saw his eyes dilate, the drugs he took right before I came in began to kick in. He got quiet and started to smile and ramble off about how he was the greatest boyfriend she could have. How could he not see the monster he is? How could he not see that he wasn’t pure? He is tainted, and tainted people must be saved.

Taking the knife, I slash through his throat causing him to lash out, he screams trying to hold his throat but it was too late, the amount of blood that came gushing out will seal his death. He was tainted, evil, corrupt, and I had to be a hero and save everyone from him and his actions. He sealed his contract with the devil the moment he glanced at the other girl during work. It’s up to the devil himself to choose what to do to this damned soul.

Before leaving his apartment, I left my symbol with my heroic name on it, resting it on his body, the world must know who is removing the evil. As I step into the night, the cold air brushes against my face cooling my head, my thoughts feel like a cool summer water spring, no ripples in the water, no disturbance to the now perfect world. Heading back to my apartment, the sound of sirens filled the air, it’s too late, the police always take too long to correct corrupted people, but it’s okay because they have me now.

A hero.

After making it home I remove my bloodied clothes and hop into the shower, the warm water surrounds me and I feel truly at peace now. The warm water flows down my body baptizing me like I am being reborn into the savior of people. Everyone who walks the path of evil shall be charged for their crimes, and I will be the one to do it. Stepping out of the shower, I dress and head to sleep, waiting for the next opportunity to fix this corrupted world.

The following days, people begin whispering about something that has been on the news lately, I usually try to stay away from television but I’m starting to get curious about what the commotion is about. I’m just about to ask one of the girls I work with, but my cell phone begins to ring, glancing down my best friend’s name pops up on the screen. Excusing myself I take my call outside. “Hey man, I haven’t heard from you in a while. I’m glad you called me.” I answered while thinking back to the last time he was in town.

“Yeah man, it’s been way too long, I was wondering if you were busy tonight? I wanna do some catching up while I’m back for a while” his static voice comes from the other side of the call.

“That’s perfect, I’ll see you tonight man. We can order in some food and chill at my place” with him agreeing, we hang up. As I head back into the restaurant, people begin to mention the news again.

The whisper becomes louder and I could hear what they are saying, “They say that the person branded themselves as The Hammer of Justice”, their voices become quieter, but all I can do is smile. They noticed my little note, just like I wanted them to. Everyone can now have hope because their hero is finally here. The rest of the day went by quickly, the pep in my step caused me to think about how much I’ve made all these people safe. Closing up the restaurant, I head home and wait for my friend Jace to arrive.

Several minutes later, my doorbell rings, opening the door I see Jace standing there with Chinese food in his hands. “Dude you totally read my mind, I’ve been craving that all day”, giving him a hand we take a seat in the kitchen and catch up about everything in our lives. He glances over at my closet and looks puzzling at one of my jackets hanging on the door.

“Hey, doesn’t that symbol look familiar? I swear I saw it recently, is it apart of some recent fashion company?” he gestures towards it.

“Nah, I came up with it on my own recently. Not sure where you could have seen it”, shrugging I shovel more beef and broccoli into my mouth. Not taking his eyes off the jacket he grabs an eggroll, eventually just shrugging it off and finishing his meal. After cleaning up dinner we sit down, turning the TV on for a movie, “Hey want anything to drink?” he nods, and I head into the kitchen to grab us some drinks. The sound of the TV comes through, and the recent news is playing. As I step back into the room, an image of the note I left the other night pops onto the screen, while the newscast talks about what the cops found. Jace hesitantly looks over to my jacket and sees the same symbol from the screen. Doing a double-take, he shot up and turned quickly towards me.

“You, you’re the one that they’ve been calling The Hammer of Justice. You’re the one who killed those two people!” he steps back confused, his eyes begin to dart around as if he is looking for a way out.

“Woah, hold on. I didn’t murder them I saved them. They were tainted and I cured them”, Jace just stares at me dumbfounded, he backs away quickly making as much distance as he could.

“How could you kill those two innocent people, they did nothing wrong. Why did you do it?”

“There’s evil in this world and I will be the one to fix it, corruption fills this area to the brim and we need someone to do something, the police are no help, they couldn’t stop those two of their crimes, hell they couldn’t even save my parents! I am a hero, Jace. Don’t you believe me?” I take a step closer and he stills as if by making the wrong move he would be the next person on the list who became corrupted.

“Of course I believe you, but how about we talk about this? I don’t think anyone else has to be, uh, saved, okay?” He takes a careful step towards me with his hands up. Smiling, I move closer, I knew he would believe me, he must have the same morals as I do. He must agree about the corruption in this world. “Hey, let’s sit down okay? Let’s watch that movie”, he pulls out his phone and tries to dial a number, but I quickly grab the phone from his hand and see that he was about to call the cops. Looking at him in disbelief, I begin to realize he’s just as corrupted.

“You are a liar, and liars must be punished. You were going to call those damn pigs, they can’t help anyone!” Taking a step closer, he begins to freeze up.

“No, no that’s not why. I think you should talk to them about you being the hero! Let them aid you as you help save the world, the police can help you get better” giving me a small smile he keeps his hands up in a non-threatening way. But I can see through his lies, he thinks I should be punished for saving people. I refuse his aiding hand and quickly grab the nearest object, which was my old baseball bat I keep in my living room. His eyes widen as I swing towards his head, smashing it. He falls to the ground groaning in pain.

“You are corrupted, you must be punished. I will rid the world of people like you,“ I swing again aiming for his head.

I am The Hammer of Justice.

I am a hero.