#crimsonwraith

1988. Hank threw the Troubadour to the side, scooping up the pistol that had been dropped and readying it in one hand while keeping the crowbar in the other.  The Crimson Wraith didn’t use guns. Hank knew this. But also the Crimson Wraith didn’t usually fight tigers.  With one hand, he drove the crowbar into the boxcar door and wedged it open, then he swung his other hand forward, pistol at…

2019. Gracie and Kevin left the penthouse through a different elevator than they entered, a secret elevator hidden behind the refrigerator, which slid away from the wall with surprising ease.  “How did you sneak all this construction into the Sepulchre?” Gracie asked. “I had to get special permission from the owner of the building,” said Kevin, “which is me.”  The hidden elevator brought them…

1988. One fateful night an orphan had a change of heart and refused to help a gang of Titan City youths to mug a man in a movie theater alleyway. Over fifty years later on  a hot summer’s day, a convicted felon approached that same theater. Although separated by time, they shared a name, a mantle, and a mission — the Crimson Wraith. But Hank wasn’t there to fulfill a legacy. Jasmine — the first…

2019. When they got back to the Zephyr, Kevin placed a call to Danny on the Crimson Wraith’s frequency. The gleaming Art Deco luxury car pulled away from the grim edifice of the TCCF, and Danny’s voice came through the Zephyr’s speakers. “Line secure, Specter Prime. This is Crypt. What’s the word?” “Suspect identified,” said Kevin. He read out the code scribbled in the corner of Betsy’s picture…

2019. He reminded Gracie of the older male gorilla she’d seen at the Titan City Zoo as a kid. “Silverback,” they called him. Now there was a name for a superhero, maybe a middle-aged one.  But that was just how Hank looked. His head was shaved in a buzz cut, making a thin crown of gray around his head. His shoulders were rounded, as if tired from the years of carrying around all his bulk. He…

1988. It had been two days since Hank last saw Jasmine. She never came back from checking in on one of her friends who had said something about a client asking her to wear a white rabbit costume for an Alice in Wonderland fantasy.  Hank didn’t have that friend’s address or phone number, which left him to call every single one of Jasmine’s contacts that he knew of. So far, no one who answered…

1971. Seduced by the Mask spent more weeks on the Titan Gazette bestsellers list than any book before it. Its depictions of the Crimson Wraith being a closeted homosexual when not waging his unelected war against crime captured the general imagination. Citizens did not have to purchase a copy to hear about it. Newspapers, television programs, and radio shows brought awareness of its allegations…

2019. “Can we talk?” Kristen said quietly when they got to the register. She wasn’t holding eye contact with Gracie. “Yeah, sure,” said Gracie. She turned to Brianna, “You cool with that?” “Of course, go on. Go on.” They went out back to the back alley, and before Gracie could ask how Kristen was, she said, in a quaking voice, “He’s gone.” “Okay,” said Gracie. To her, that was a damn…