Jugular, part 2
Two Years Ago
The Kings and Mary look around William’s basement. Newspapers litter the room with headlines like “Midnight Crusader defeats Atomic Man” and “Midnight Crusader saves bus”. In a glass case against the far wall is a cape, fedora, and black mask. Boxes are filled with guns and gadgets. Matt, who had a big belly and a bald head with two blue lightning bolts tatooed on it, looks at James.
“How come you never said your grandfather was the Midnight Crusader?”
James frowned.
“Who cares? He was just a guy who ran around in a cape and mask. Let’s go.”
Christopher, a large man with scarred hands, stopped James.
“Hey, why don’t we be the Midnight Crusaders? I like it much better than the Kings.
Robert, a small man with glasses, agreed.
” Yeah. And we can take are own hero names! I want to be Byte. Chris, you can be Mortar. Matt…the Blue Buddha.”
“And I want to be called by my middle name, Christine.”, said Mary, James’ girlfriend.
James looked at them.
“You’re all crazy.”
Now
James stares at Christine for what seemed like hours and then went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Ripping off his cast, he grabs Mary’s keys and goes down to the street, getting in her car. James then heads towards his grandfather’s house.
“I’m tellin’ ya, their little relationship is hurtin’ the band!” Mortar looked around at the assembled Midnight Crusaders. James had let them use his grandfather’s house as a home base for the Midnight Crusaders.
“There is nothing wrong with Christine, or Mary, or whatever name she has chosen for herself. The Blue Buddha looked humble and serene.
“Yeah. She’s nice. So, when do we play again?”, said Byte.
“We don’t have another gig. And you both know why. James is too distracted by Mary to sing very well. You can’t improvise in a cover band.”, said Mortar. James then walks into the house. He doesn’t say a word.
Mortar turns to James. “We were just talkin’ about ya.”
“Mary’s dead.”
James heads towards the bathroom and takes out a shaver. He shaves his head into a small mohawk. The Midnight Crusaders are too stunned to do anything. Finally, they followed James down into the basement. He took out the black mask from the glass case and a gun holster with two guns from a box. He turned to the Midnight Crusaders.
“Jugular killed Mary. And I am going to kill Jugular.”, James said.
Merin on 
Captain Z on 
Benton Sartore on 
