Lethal Justice

There was once a middle aged man named Logan Wayne, he was obsessed with comic books from an early age, especially super hero stories that depicted powerful people wearing multiple coloured spandex. As a child he always fantasized about having different superpowers; telekinesis, invisibility, super strength and x-ray vision were just some of the fantasies he had. The first comics he read were bright, colourful and whimsical. Stories of proud men and women, who fought intergalactic alien overlords or giant beasts from below the ocean such as giant sea monsters. There were stories of cruel tyrants and super villains, who needed to be arrested or punished for their crimes. As Logan grew into adolescence, he began to read more gritty comic book stories. Ones where the villains were sadistic and unforgivably monstrous. Stories where the heroes had no choice but to kill the bad guys, because they were too dangerous to be kept alive. Once he reached his late twenties, Logan began reading hard boiled detective novels too, alongside the mature crime themed comics he had been collecting. The heroes were much darker, becoming vigilantes who worked outside of the law, carrying out a sort of illegal justice. They wore black clothes to blend in with the dark, usually depicted as hardened men in their late thirties to early forties, the type of guys who served in the army, went through the police force and saw some really messed up stuff. They were cool, leather jacket wearing heroes, who spent their time drinking whiskey by the bar, hunting down the most despicable scumbags imaginable. These gritty crime stories really spoke to Logan, who had lived his whole life in the gutters of Detroit, seeing criminals and drug dealers run rampant around his home city. He knew many of these bad guys got away with their evil, as the law system was easily abused, meaning many got away from actual punishment. Logan knew the sad reality of this world his whole life, choosing to ignore it until one day, he returned home after a long day's work only to realise his house had been broken into. He gasped in terror, racing inside his home, as the front door had been smashed open as if by some powerful superhero from one of the old comics he read. What he found Inside still haunts him to this day, his wife had been murdered, trying to defend their only son. Her name was Debra and she had been stabbed multiple times into her stomach, blood still poured from the mouth of her dead face, with little baby Robin still crying in the cot behind her. Logan raced to his son and cradled him in his arms, hushing Robin back to sleep. Once the baby was asleep, Logan called the police and a murder investigation was soon conducted.

Several months passed and many men and women were suspected of the break in, each one of these thugs were repeat offenders. Gangsters of Detroit that were infamous for breaking and entering, those who weren't afraid to kill if it meant hiding evidence or eliminating witnesses. CCTV showed footage of the gang breaking into Logan's house, they were all masked and impossible to identify. Logan got incredibly desperate and snuck into the police building one night, to read the files of each possible suspect. He was caught and fined for this, although the police still understood his desperation. As time went by, the case was forgotten and brushed aside for more "important cases" as they had claimed.

Logan felt discarded, his wife had died for nothing and without her extra income, life had become unbearably expensive. Logan was suddenly working six days a week, twelve hours a day, just to make ends meet. Paying a baby sitter to raise his own son, this lasted a year or two until Logan finally had enough. If the police weren't going to do anything, he'd look into Debra's murder himself.

So he did just that, tracking down the first suspect, Will Foxx. This man had a horrible face, one full of scars and hideous tattoos. He was built like a body builder, a hulking beast that took steroids and other drugs; most of which were illegal. He was a drug dealing scumbag, one who had done a lot of crimes, including murder and house robberies. Logan didn't know if this bad guy was behind his wife's death, but he knew Will was still evil, just like the creep villains from the comics he had read. At this point Logan had gone beyond the point of wanting revenge, his mission was to end crime, by operating outside of the law. A lethal Justice. One where he'd kill the bad men, because in his eyes, these scumbags didn't deserve life. So one early morning when Will was jogging at the crack of dawn, Logan chose to follow him in his car, like some undercover detective. Eventually Will jogged into a dark forest, this was the perfect opportunity for Logan to attack. So he fled from his car, a huge shovel in his hand; he smacked it hard onto the back of Will's head, knocking him out cold. Nobody was around, so he quickly locked Will into his car boot, then drove somewhere even more remote and discreet. He pulled out the tied up drug dealer (who had woken up) out of his car, Will looked terrified, his eyes bulging with terror, mouth screaming behind the gag which was over it.

"You're a villain, Will Foxx. You killed my wife!" Logan whispered into his ear. Will shook his head violently. Logan stroked Will's neck with his pocket knife.

"Scream and you're dead. Understand?" Logan asked. Will nodded, then the gag was removed, Will gasped a deep breath of air.

"I- I- I- I don't know wh- wha- what you're ta- talking about!" Will stuttered in fright.

"Did you break into my house, kill my wife and leave my son alive? Does any of this sound familiar to you?!"

"N- n- no!" Will shook his head, "I- I've never done anything like that!"

"Maybe so..." Logan sighed, "but you're still a scumbag, Will Foxx... One that deserves... Lethal Justice!" He spoke in an epic voice, before cutting Will's throat open with the pocket knife. Will tried to scream, but coughed up blood instead, choking and gurgling until he could no longer breath and then he was dead. Logan felt satisfied, he had killed a real life villain. Perhaps the man had gone mad with grief, but he felt powerful, like a comic book vigilante from the stories that he loved.

Logan would continue his vendetta, hunting down every suspect who was lined up at the police station when Debra was first killed. Not one of them ever revealed that they were behind the break in, perhaps none of them ever were the ones behind it. Yet Logan still knew they were bad guys and that was enough, because he was the good guy. The dark vigilante of Lethal Justice.