*10 Years Later*

    The darkness of the night began to creep across the cityscape of Teny, and at the top of the highest building stands a form of a woman buffeted by the wind. “Doctor, the Rameir family has overstepped the terms of our agreement.” James waited with baited breath as she straightened.

    Her black hair swept into a braid over her right shoulder. She wore a white lab coat over her black and purple pinstripe suit. She turned and pinned James with the cold stare of her dark blue eyes that peered from the half mask that covered the top half of her face. “Oh really? I have been looking for a reason to crush them before my New Years party.” A cold smirk crawled across her bright red lips.

    James shivered at the feeling of cold that radiated from her. “T-they killed s-someone innocent. Then they didn’t make their monthly donation. Then when Roman went to inquire about these matters they ambushed him and tried to kill him.” He stuttered.

Going rigid she snapped her body around to look at him. “THEY DID WHAT?” Her face contorted and her body trembled with the force of her scream. But just as fast as the rage had come it was gone, and this is what terrified James the most. How could anyone hold so much rage bottled up and not become a raving lunatic?

“So they killed an innocent, didn’t pay, tried to kill one of my men, and they expect no consequences?” Her voice dripped with fake sweetness that could make your teeth rot. James quickly nodded his head in utter terror.

“James, I think it’s time I go and remind them I’m not called Doctor Dread for nothing.” She said with a predatory smile. James bowed and ran to prepare her personal car for departure. “They have forgotten just who I am.” A sadistic glint entered eyes as she reached for favorite GLOCK 22, and a few extra clips.

***

Down by the docks a black SUV crunched on the gravel as it pulled to a stop in front of a waterfront bar, The Sea Shack. The grimey windows of the grungy establishment lightened and darkened as in the hustle and bustle people walked in front of the window. The paint was scratched and peeling. It looked so run down that it should have been condemned.

The SUV slowed to a stop in the crowded parking lot. The driver hurried out of the front seat and ran to open the backdoor. “We have arrived, Doctor. What shall I do?” He bowed his head out of respect and fear for the woman who held his life in her hands.

Her lab coat and hair fluttered in the salty sea breeze that ran it’s cold fingers across her pale skin. Her business suit had been replaced with a grey t-shirt, black jeans, and brown leather boots. Her long raven locks pulled into a high ponytail. “Keep the car running. I won’t be too long. If someone tries to take the car, eliminate them.” She looked passed her driver to the building. “Come on James. We have some business to attend to. It’s time to have a chat with one Mr. Royce Rameir.” A savage smile played across her plump red lips. ‘There will be blood tonight!’ A gleam crossed her eye

***

Royce Rameir feverishly paced his immaculately decorated office. His black bald head glistened with nervous perspiration. His purple-button up shirt was rumpled, as was his white suit. The golden rings in his ears and on his fingers flashed as his handcrafted leather shoes wore a path in the lush carpet.

His body jerked around as the door slammed open, and his secretary rushed in with his personal bodyguards. “Sir! You need to leave now!” She gasped for breath as she motioned the guards to lock and bolt the door. 

“Well I can’t if the door is locked! Where else am I supposed to get out from Josie?” He was practically shaking with adrenaline. His hands shook and his breathing raced and his chest heaved.

“Sir, you might have forgotten, but we do have an emergency exit. But before that we need to get all the most important documents. We wouldn’t want the Doctor to find them now would we sir?” Josie looked at him as if his mind had left him behind as she rushed around the office packing all of the important and incriminating documents.

“Yes of course.” He ran to the safe in the wall behind the painting, he put the code in, and swung the door open. He then reached for a duffle bag and swept all the contents of the vault in the duffle. But to the surprise of everyone in the room, he opened the secondary safe in the actual picture frame, and from it pulled a file with the words printed in dark bold letters, “MORGAN M. MARTIN” and below that the name, “MAYGEN S. MARTIN.”

“Alright now we can go.” Royce turned only to find all the ‘bodyguards’ pointing their weapons at him. “What are you doing?” He asked while looking at them dumbly. “We need to go! So put your guns down and that darn door open NOW!” He was practically screaming at the end of his sentence.

Just then there was a slight knocking on the door. Josie rushed to unlock the door, and opened it with a bow, and to Royce’s great horror, in walked Doctor Dread. 

“Very well done Josie. Your diligence and long suffering shall be rewarded.” She gently patted Josie's head in a motherly manner. The moment her head was patted Josie’s whole demeanor changed, it almost seemed that she was a little puppy getting praised by its mother.

“Mother! I did as you asked!” She looked at her mother with upturned eyes. “I even convinced this buffoon to put his office in the one room in the building that didn’t have a secret escape tunnel.” When she looked at Royce her eyes darkened and her face hardened. In fact, she looked ready to spit at him. She was so disgusted by his quivering form, he kind of resembled a bowl of jello.

“May I end him mother?” She once again looked at the Doctor.

“If you must then I will…” Dr. Dread stopped mid sentence, as her eyes landed on the manilla file that was clutched to Royce’s heaving chest. Her face contorted, her lips curled into a terrifying sneer and her eyes blazed. “Josie, I think I need to take care of this one tonight. Why don’t you and the others go wait with James and the diver? I might be a little while.” Her voice was taught and vibrated darkly. 

Everyone felt a shiver run down their spins, and they all quickly rushed from the room.

“Now. How about you and I get more acquainted? Hmm? And while we’re at it, why don’t you tell me who that file is for, alright?” She prowled towards him just like a predator as it stalks its prey.

“A-and w-why would I tell you?” Royce stuttered as his whole body vibrated with tension.

“Well if that’s the way you want to play, then I suppose there is no other way.” She started to laugh, it sounded sweet and gentle, but to Royce it sounded like the laugh of the devil himself.

***

    Back at the car, James, Josie and the driver all heard the terrified and animalistic screams of a man that was faced with the full and unadulterated rage that could explosively burst in the most chaotic and violent of outbursts. In fact any that could incur such wrath, it would be in their favor to pray for their souls.  They all flinched as another scream rend the air and they all pitied the poor soul who had incurred such wrath from the sadistic woman.

    “What do you think set her off? I mean she was angry, but in no way was she deranged.” James looked at the rundown bar. Worry and fear flashed across his dull brown eyes. He remembered the look in her eyes and as she had looked at Royce and he shivered. He started pacing back and forth across the gravel as he racked his hand through his short light brown hair, and flinched every time a new wave of screams crashed into his ear drums.

    Josie stared at the building a contemplative look rested on her face. For she was the only one to notice that it wasn’t until she had seen the folder that everything had hit the fan. ‘What was it about that folder that made her so enraged? Who is Morgan M. Martin and Maygen S. Martin?’ Her mind raced. “Whatever it was I don’t think that it’s something that she wants anyone to know.” She glanced at them with a cold light that held the promise of death and pain. “So why don’t we forget that there was anything that set her off. Hmm?” Josie’s voice rippled across the two men with a powerful, and underlying authority.

    “KABOOOOOM!!!”

    Just as they were about to turn to look at the bar again, a giant explosion knocked them off their feet, and shattered the glass of the windows on the cars in a two block radius. They skidded across the gravel as it tore their clothes and dug into their tender flesh. They rolled to a stop just in front of the windowless black SUV, they slowly got onto their smarting hands and knees, their ears ringing and their eyes blurring.

    The bar had gone up in a giant ball of angry orange flames. Their hungry yellow, orange, and red flames ate at the building, and it leapt to the derelict warehouses adjacent to the former bar. Soon the entire docks were ablaze with their hungry light, as they provided a terrible and chilling backdrop for the form of Doctor Dread as she walked towards her subordinates.

    She looked down upon them with her dead eyes as soot rained from the sky in a macabre ballet. “It’s time to leave.” Her voice provided an eerie calm amidst the roar of the insaciable flames.

    She looked down upon her two minions and her daughter as they quaked under her piercing gaze. Their dazed faces held fear, awe, and respect for this woman who terrorized those in the underbelly of this city. Her face was cast in shadows with the fire as her backlight, her hair and lab coat had a fine dusting of soot and ash, and that night those few that had stayed behind and had watched from the shadows, were truly reminded how beautiful devil’s could truly be, for the first devil was once an angel himself.