Past Ghosts

Prologue

Emma had taken to jogging around town regularly, Duke, her dog, always accompanying her. Usually, her route would take her through downtown Brantford, and many times, she would veer off the sidewalks and hit the trails, especially the ones running along the Grand River. She’d also taken to hanging out at various parks in the central part of the city. Some of the incidents she witnessed were appalling.

With each unsavoury incident Emma witnessed, the rage inside her escalated. The need to do something about it became more urgent. Within the past two weeks, Emma had observed four abusive situations where a guy was pushing his girlfriend around aggressively or screaming verbal abuse at them. Red lights flashed before Emma’s eyes each time until her wrath was so deep-seated that she knew she had to do something to stop the onslaught of abuses.

Life wasn’t the same without her brother, Camden, who was serving a life sentence for murdering several people. At times, Emma felt life was better, though. She could be herself. She didn’t have to act the fragile female—well, not within the confines of her four walls, that is. To the outside world, to her friends, Jack and Toby, she still needed to keep up the façade of the weak female.

There was nothing weak about Emma. She’d been training for a long time, building her strength and her fighting skills. Even Camden hadn’t known the extent of what she was doing. After he was incarcerated, Emma purchased a punching bag and set it up in the basement, escalating her training. She felt ready now—as prepared as she was ever going to be.

Emma began researching online drugs she could procure to help with the mission she was about to embark on. Not medications for herself, but ones to administrate to the vile creatures that deemed it their privilege to abuse women.

Emma came across the drug, Rohypnol. It was a tranquillizer said to be ten times more potent than valium and said to impair the memory. Reading on, she discovered it caused loss of muscle control, confusion, and made a person drowsy. Emma smiled when she read the line about Rohypnol’s street name being roofie and that it was used as a date rape drug. So perfect for her upcoming mission.

Emma read several accounts of female victims having been sexually assaulted at parties after having had a drink. Many of them described their inability to move and stop what was being done to them, and later, when the drug wore off, their memories were impaired and they could not recall what had happened to them.

“This sounds like just what I need to teach abusive men a lesson,” Emma mumbled as she searched Google how to obtain the drug. “I know you’re illegal in Canada and the United States, but guys must be getting it from somewhere…”

Several sources showed up in the feed. “Well, well…” The grin on her face was broad as she sat forward and clicked the link to a source in Mexico.

“Expensive,” Emma grumbled as she got up and went to her dresser to get a credit card from her wallet. “But going to be oh so worth it! Using this stuff, I’ll be able to teach these guys a lesson, let them go, and they won’t remember what happened to them—or who did it to them!”

Emma turned her computer off and walked downstairs for some breakfast. Duke stood to attention when she entered the kitchen, his tail wagging a greeting.

“Need to go out for a few minutes, boy?” Emma pushed the sliding door to the three-season room across and proceeded to the outer door, Duke close on her heels. “There you go, Duke,” she said, letting him out into the yard.

As Emma prepared a protein drink for her breakfast, she felt the blood palpitating through her veins, the heat of it flushing her usually pale skin. Emma sipped her drink, thinking what her next move was to be. Before she did anything concrete, she’d have to wait for the Rohypnol to arrive.

Finishing her drink, Emma rinsed her cup and left it in the sink. She gazed out to the yard; Duke was laying in the shade under a big maple. She smiled, comforted by the sight of her faithful companion.

“Time for a workout,” Emma said, checking her watch. “Then, Duke and I will go hunting.”