Pure Heroine ↠ Matt Murdock [1]

00; prologue

00; PROLOGUE

"Because sometimes chance and circumstance can seem like the most appalling injustice, but we just have to adapt. That's all we can do."
—Gavin Extence

Anger is a powerful emotion.

It consumes and envelopes and burns like a fire. For some it burns like a slow ember, pulsing endlessly, a constant presence inside. Sometimes it builds until it roars in your ears and burns in your veins and you can feel it - you can feel it consuming you.

Tessa Nolan has felt that anger. She feels it every time someone she loved is hurt and no one does anything about it. She's felt it when her mother stands by silently as her boyfriend throws slurs and punches towards her children. She's felt it when her friend - her friend with the bright smile and infectious laugh – is raped and the police do nothing about it because why would they believe the word of a seventeen year old girl over a well-respected member of the community, old enough to be her father, who swears she came onto him.

She's felt every time someone has hurt one of her loved ones in her city and she swears to God, she's going to snap one day.

And then one day, she finally does.

--

It's a typical Tuesday morning. Tessa is running around the apartment in furious attempt to not be for work, since her alarm clock failed to wake her. Her twin brother, Camden, sits on top of the kitchen counter leisurely and Tessa glares at him. He's late too, but he doesn't give a shit about his job and they won't fire him because he's the best employee they have.

Dick.

Tessa's phone begins to vibrate at her side, as she pulls on her heels. She picks it up, the name Margo, her sister-in-law, displayed on the screen, and answers it. "Morning Margo, do you still need to babysit on Tuesday?" She asks, shoulder pressing her phone against her ear. The only answer she gets was a soft sob from the other end of the line. Tessa pauses, frowning in worry. "Margo? What's wrong?" She asks, glancing up at Camden who has appeared in the doorway.

'Something wrong?' Camden mouths.

Tessa shrugs. Margo hasn't answered properly yet, instead she sounds like she was trying to breathe deeply. Like she's trying to speak and not cry. "Margo?"

"It's Danny, Tessa." She finally says, before letting out a sob. "He's dead. Someone murdered him."

----

The atmosphere in Danny's house that day is vastly different from any other time she's been there. Usually, the kids would be running around playing with their toys or arguing with each other. Now it's just quiet.

Tessa hates it.

The kids have been shipped off to the house of Margo's sister, Jeanette, while the twins talk to the police and help Margo arrange the funeral. Tessa and Camden arrive shortly before the kids left, work being abandoned for the day. Tessa is dry-eyed while Camden's are bloodshot from crying. Margo had hung up after telling the twins to come to their house, as the detectives wanted to talk to them, so they hadn't heard what exactly happened.

(She refused to believe anything until she heard what happened from Margo because it can't be true, it couldn't be true.)

Tessa stands behind the couch, watching Camden as he tries to comfort Margo after the detectives told them what happened. He was always better at doing that. Tessa was never good at dealing with other people's grief, especially if she was dealing with her own.

Danny was their half-brother and despite the age gap, he was very close to his siblings. He had been the one to take the twins in after they ran away from their mother's home at fifteen. After hearing the news from the detective in front of them, it's like a freight train hit her in the chest. She hasn't cried, she hasn't spoken, she just stands and stares.

"We are very sorry for your loss, Mrs Fisher." One of the detectives says. "If it were possible, we would like to ask you a few questions about your husband." Margo nods, wiping her eyes. "Was your husband acting strangely in the last few days?"

Margo thinks for a moment. "N-no, not that I can think of." She says.

The detective glances over at Camden and Tessa. "Nothing out of the ordinary." Camden adds. Tessa nods in agreement.

"Where did your husband work?" He asks.

"Union Allied. A construction company. He worked in the legal department."

"Did he mention anything about his work lately?" He asks.

"He thought there was something strange going on, but he didn't mention anything else." Margo says.

"He definitely didn't say anything else?" He asks. Margo shakes her head. "That was all he said?"

"I'm sure of it." She replies.

"How is this relevant?" Tessa snaps, getting impatient with their questioning. They should be out there looking for the murderer, not sitting here questioning them over the tiniest details.

"We need to make sure we have every detail to help with the investigation, Miss Nolan." He replies. Tessa recoils and doesn't reply. "Now, Mrs Fisher, would there be a possibility that Daniel was having an affair?"

That gains a large reaction from the group. Margo gapes at him in horror, while Camden scowls at the insinuation. Tessa however, is far more vocal in her reaction. "No!" She exclaims. "Fuck no, Danny wasn't like that! Danny sure as hell wasn't like that!" She snarls, stepping closer towards the detectives, who stand up. Camden grabs her arm, pulling her back. She tugs it away, having finally snapped out of her shocked state.

"Miss Nolan, please calm down." One of the detectives says, sounding so condescending that Tessa feels like picking up the clock from the mantelpiece and throwing it at his head.

Tessa instead settles for scowling at his condescending tone. "No! I will not calm down, especially when you should be out there, doing your jobs, and finding my brother's killer but instead you're here asking stupid questions!" She snarls at him.

"Tessa!" Camden snaps, now on his feet with a hand around Tessa's arm. He gives her a look, telling her to shut up before she gets herself arrested.

"Actually, Miss Nolan, we do have someone in custody." The detective says, making Tessa freeze.

"What?"

"We already have a suspect in custody." He replies. "We are asking these questions to help with the investigation."

The roaring anger Tessa feels dims. Hope replaces it, the hope that her brother's killer has been found and he'll get justice.

And then twenty four hours later, the hope is gone and the anger is back and Tessa finally decides she's not going to sit on her ass and do nothing anymore.

(She looks back at this as the time where she finally snaps.)