2019.

She returned to her quiet apartment after another long day at Sunset Gardens and slipped off her shoes at the door before returning her coat to its hook. “Honey, I’m home,” she said softly. 

Her cat came out to meet her, a fluffy little monster, responding less to her voice than the opening of the door.

“Have you been a good boy, Bobby?” she asked and held out her prosthetic left hand to him to sniff as she crouched down to greet him. He answered by pushing his face into the plastic fingers. “I bet you have.”

Dinner, she warmed up in the microwave — leftovers from the delivery she ordered last night — and washed it down with a can of Diet Kronos-Kola. It joined dozens of its brethren in her recycling bin. 

She watched one hour of sexy weeknight crime drama and then another before turning off the lights and undressing for her shower. As she slipped into her fluffy blue bathrobe, she felt the weight of the burner phone in its pocket and gripped it hard.

Pulling the bathroom door closed behind her, she made sure the window shades were drawn, and then started the water running. Its sound would have helped to muffle speech, but their adversary was too clever to trust that. Never did she say a word about their activities out loud. She would only text.

BB status update. No sign of CW. Confirm DO. 

Then she waited. He was never long in responding.

Confirmed BB. He will find you. Be patient.

Was he kidding? She had been patient for years! 

Being patient. Countermeasures in place. Site B at the ready.

Very good BB. We give our all for LOVE.

We give our all for LOVE. Over.

It had been so satisfying, watching the life drain from the old man’s face. He must have thought that his decades of little dress up adventures had prepared him for everything. She had shown him just how wrong he was.

But Edward Burton could not be the end of it, only the beginning. There were others in the Crimson Wraith lineage — whoever it was who wore the mask now, the one in the asylum, and the one in prison. That was her Crimson Wraith, the one who had taken everything from her. Hank Mills was to blame for the death of her parents and the loss of her arm. He had stolen any chance she ever had to live a normal life.

She looked back to the screen of the burner phone. We give our all for LOVE.

He would get his due. All of them would. Love would make sure of it.