Specter

Prologue, Part 5: Doctors Save Lives

This is Part 5 of the Prologue for "Specter". Last time, Moody, who has now grown into her mid 20's following her and her father Henry's disownment from Naomi—their grandmother on their mother's side—has taken up fighting and knife throwing as hobbies to pass her time in Mercury Heights, New York, while also juggling school and keeping her father's reignited criminal activities a secret. She has a sparring session with her instructor that morning, and wipes the floor with him in less than thirty seconds.....but instead of expressing pride, he expresses fear at Moody's rather violent temperament and warns her to keep herself in check, to which Moody agrees after a while. Later, when she leaves the fighting club, her father texts her saying she needs to walk home since he needed to "work" late, to which she obliges.

However, when Moody arrives at the auto repair shop that serves as the base of operations for Henry's gang, she bears witness to a chaotic scuffle going on inside; Commissioner Marvin, perhaps The Viper's most active ally, had discovered the hideout, and brought a group of police officers with him. A large amount of gang members are killed.....and much to Moody's heartbreak, Marvin himself kills her father Henry right in front of her before escaping. Despite Moody's pleas for her father not to die on her, he ultimately passes on and reunites with his wife on the other side, while the Commissioner meets with The Viper and consoles her for having missed the emergency. The chapter ended with the serpentine heroine swinging away and Commissioner Marvin beginning the process of cleaning up the scene.

This time, Moody flees the scene of the massacre, and runs into someone who would write her destiny for many months to come.....

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Moody ran away from Awesome Alberto's Auto Repair, sobbing profusely and having her tears more or less cloud her entire field of vision. She didn't even have time to take her father's body away or give him a proper burial; Commissioner Marvin's backup would arrive at the repair shop soon, and might arrest her thinking she was guilty by association.

This was just another misfortune in the long and harrowing tragedy that was Moody's life. To recap, following the car accident in which her mother Brigitte died, she and her father Henry had been disowned by her grandmother Naomi in San Diego, California when she was young, leading to her leaving behind her remaining family—and all of her friends at school as well—to start a new life in Mercury Heights, New York. Her father, who had initially put his criminal ways behind him, was forced to return to the job and reconnect with his gang after being cut off from the family finances.....which led to him being on the receiving end of Commissioner Marvin's barrel during a massive raid on their base.

Now, Moody had nothing to her name and no one to turn to, with her gym bag—with the boxing gloves in it—being the only item on her person.

Her mother was dead.

Her father was dead.

Most of her remaining family, especially her grandmother Naomi, wanted nothing to do with her.

She now lacked guidance or a way of making money legitimately, and it didn't look like there was any way out for her.

Overwhelmed with sorrow, she fled into a distant alleyway, leaned against one of the bricked side walls, slumped down, and sat against it.

She sniffled and pulled her knees up to her chest, and lowered her head against them.

And then she cried.

She cried and cried, to the point where she might as well have run out of tears.

Little did she know that she was about to run into the man who would change the course of her life.....for better or for worse.