2019.

Danny didn’t look bad in his thin white tank-top and plaid pajama pants. Gracie surprised herself by how she noticed the muscles in his arm when he reached to take the maple syrup from the refrigerator for their toaster waffles. Apparently, he didn’t spend all his time behind a keyboard doing computer stuff. 

“We’ll do palm scans and voice ID for you later today,” said Danny as he sat down at the kitchen table and started scraping butter over his waffle. “Then you’ll be all set to creep around the Crypt whenever you feel like.”

The French press coffee had finished steeping, so Gracie pushed the plunger down and poured cups for them both. “I wasn’t creeping…” she said, adding sugar to her coffee. “I was invited, given the grand tour and everything.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a few more details we should probably go over for your tour. I’ve got projects on the workbenches I don’t want anybody putting hands-on until they are ready. And you don’t need to be tapping buttons and flipping switches just for funsies.”

“Geez, fine, I won’t touch your stuff.”

Danny took a big bite of his waffle and looked at Gracie. Hard. In a way she did not like at all.

“What?”

He shook his head, looked back to his plate, and carved off another bite.

“What?” Now Gracie was getting angry.

“You know this isn’t a game, right? This is for real. Maybe you saw some stuff on Saturday morning cartoons — Biff! Pow! Pop! — and all that. But whatever you think you know about this life, trust me — trust me — there is a whole other side to this.”

“Wow,” said Gracie. “I don’t know what your problem is, but Kevin seems to think I’m up for this. Last I checked, he was your boss and all — the actual Crimson Wraith. So why don’t you dial it back a bit, ok?”

“See?” said Danny, “This is the problem. You think you know what’s going on. Day one — hell, day zero — and you want to ‘tell it like it is’. After all, you were ‘born for this’, isn’t that what you said?”

Gracie was losing her appetite. “Look, he’s the one who reached out to me. If you doubt that, how about you take it up with him? I don’t really give a shit either way. You don’t think I know what’s up with the Crimson Wraith? How about you don’t know what’s up with me?”

Danny sucked a bit of waffle from his teeth and said, “You were born east of Titan, over the Brennert River in Greenhill, on a day six months after your parents Stanley and Desiree married. He worked off-and-on in construction, probably some under the table because the tax record is spotty.” 

“How the fuck did you get their tax records?”

But he continued without answering. “Your mom worked nights at a few different jobs — gas station attendant, truck stop waitress, pet groomer. Records show cops came to your house to break up domestic disturbances on three separate occasions before then, which means they probably missed a whole lot more.”

Gracie could feel her heartbeat in her chest. Her waffle sat untouched, coffee cooling.

“In middle school, you played softball for two years. That ended after a fight during a game got you kicked off the team. And you stopped attending high school after sophomore year. About that time, your parents’ water bill goes down sharply. So, that must have been when you bounced. A few years later, you show back up in Titan City, waiting tables at a chicken shack called Smiley’s. But you got yourself fired after you dumped a guy’s beer over his head…”

Gracie interrupted him. “He grabbed my ass. And fuck you.”

“A few more jobs went like that. The W-2s got sent to an address in Easttowne, even though your name has never appeared on a rental agreement. For the past seven years, that used bookstore is the only place you’ve been more than a few months altogether, on the record anyway.”

This time she said it louder. “Fuck. You.”

Danny stopped speaking. He kept his eyes locked on hers, staring her down, sipping at his coffee. Gracie noticed the coffee cup in her hand trembling as he fought the urge to throw it in his face.

“That’s what I do,” said Danny. “My job is to know things and use that knowledge to keep us safe — to keep him safe — so that he can do the things he needs to do — for us, for everybody, even for you.”

“And is it your job to be a dick?” she said, standing, “because you’re doing that just great.” 

Gracie could feel flames under her skin, dancing up and down her arms as she went back up to her room, not knowing what the hell to do with herself. Her hands wouldn’t unclench, fingernails cutting into her palms. 

She wanted to hit something, but the wallpaper was too nice and the pillows too soft. One punch to her mattress told her that wasn’t going to work either.  Gracie’s pulse hammered so hard it felt like her chest might explode.

She put on her clothes, headed outside, and started walking without any idea where. As if on their own, her boots brought her to the outer wall of the front lawn, which she kicked, and then she stomped along the perimeter.

When she rounded the manor building and made her way into the rear lawn, she saw a figure standing in the Finn family plot, and the sight took her out of herself. It was Stephen. He stood over the grave of Edward Finn, who Gracie now knew as the second Crimson Wraith, the first Wily Wisp, the adopted son of an adopted son, and Stephen’s partner. 

How many years had the two of them shared? How had their relationship begun? Stephen had said the Crimson Wraith had helped him once. Had rescue turned to romance? What must it have been like having the Scarlet Stranger come out to him?

Stephen held almost a dancer’s poise, and although no sobs shook his slender shoulders, she watched him wipe away a tear for his lost love. Gracie felt torn, wanting to comfort the older man but not to disturb what seemed like a private moment. With a softer step, she headed back inside. 

Back in her room, she fell asleep on top of her covers, still wearing her clothes, minus boots. Those stood by the door. 

Around 12:30 PM, a knock on the door woke her from a dream of punching out Tight T-Shirt Guy but seeing it all in night-vision green, like the video Kevin had shown her.

Gracie rolled out of bed and opened the door. On the other side, Kevin stood smiling in a dark blue jogging suit. 

“All right,” he said, “Let’s get started.”