Bethany Anne Book 01 Short Story Part 2

May 4th, 2022From the laptop of Michael Anderle.Second email. Someone shouldn't allow Michael out at night with no supervision... just saying.

NOTE: I have not had this edited officially by the editing team. I decided to setup on Beehiiv as an experiment late one Wednesday night (this night, in fact, May 4th...And may the fourth with you, too!)

Anyway, I'm going to just drop in a short story none of the fans have access to, yet, and let's see where this leads us, huh?

A Little Stroll Down Memory Lane

Part 02 of 02

This short story takes place during DEATH BECOMES HER, Kurtherian Gambit Book 01 by Michael Anderle.

I hope you enjoy it!

--- CONTINUED ---

Keri wasn’t in their shared dorm when Bethany Anne got back. She tried her cell again but got the same automated out of service response she’d been getting since leaving Agent Sharpe at the bar.

Bethany Anne resisted the urge to throw her phone at the wall and dialed another number instead.

“Hello, St. Barnabas’ Home for Displaced Children. How can I help?”

Sister Mary’s soft Irish lilt calmed Bethany Anne a little. “It’s Bethany Anne. Is Keri still at the home?”

“Keri hasn’t been here tonight,” Sister Mary told her.

“Fucksticks.” Bethany Anne muttered, then remembered who she was speaking to. “Sorry, Sister. Didn’t mean to say that out loud. You’re sure you haven’t seen her?”

“Sure I’m sure,” Sister Mary insisted. “I’ve been on desk duty all evening. I’d have seen her coming or going. Is something wrong?”

“She’s not answering her cell,” Bethany Anne answered, her heart sinking. She said a quick goodbye and ran from the dorm, retracing her steps to the bar and then along the route Keri would have taken to get to the children’s home.

It took everything she had to hold back her spiral into rage and fear for Keri’s safety. What she couldn’t fight was the blame she felt for sending Keri to deliver the money alone at night. Why hadn’t she just waited until morning and done it herself?

The streets were mostly empty this this close to midnight. Bethany Anne ran into a few students’ intent on making their way back to campus before inebriation forced them to make their beds wherever they fell. She halted at the entrance to the park that was used by many as a shortcut between neighborhoods during the day. However, at night it was the territory of drug dealers and other less than upstanding members of society.

Keri knew that. They went to school with some of those losers.

“She wouldn’t have taken the risk,” Bethany Anne murmured eyeing the location. “Would she?”

She knew Keri, and she knew her friend could be reckless. Hell, the first time they’d met had been in a sketchy bar where Bethany Anne had been looking for a fight to burn off her frustration and Keri had provided the opportunity by needing to be rescued from the biker gang where she had got caught hustling at poker.

Sighing and hoping she was wrong, Bethany Anne headed into the park.

___

Bethany Anne fought Michael’s hold on her mind. I don’t want to remember what comes next. And you don’t need to see it.

Michael had no intention of opening old wounds. Very well. We’ll skip ahead to what came after. That is the important part, anyway.

___

Bethany Anne’s tears were washed away by the steady downpour. She held herself together—barely—as Keri’s coffin was lowered into the yawning, hungry earth.

The remainder of the service and the wake passed in a blur. Bethany Anne locked her emotions down, afraid to release the anger that had been building since Larry’s arrest. She walked through the following days wrapped in carefully constructed numbness that was impenetrable until Keri’s younger sister called.

“That murdering slimeball made bail!” Haley sobbed. “Mom is a mess. They just let him go free.”

Bethany Anne’s shell shattered. “They can’t do that. I made a statement. He’s supposed to stand trial.”

“They said his alibi held up,” Haley choked on the words. “They had to let him go until they can work up a case.”

Bethany Anne forced her jaw to unclench. She knew how this went. All that would be left of Keri would be their memories and a file that got shunted to cold case limbo. “Hell no. He’s not going to get away with what he did.”

“What are you saying?” Haley asked between sobs. “They can’t prove it was him.”

“But we know differently,” Bethany Anne ground out as she looked around. “One way or another, he is going to see Justice.”

Making sure Larry got what he was due without ending up behind bars herself became Bethany Anne’s obsession. Weeks passed while she familiarized herself with his routine, using grief as her excuse for dropping her extracurriculars to make time for refining her surveillance skills.

She got a call one night from the last person she expected to hear from.

“You’re walking where angels fear to tread, Bethany Anne,” Sister Mary told her.

“I’m no angel,” Bethany Anne retorted.

“That’s not for you or me to judge.” Sister Mary sighed. “I feel like you have faith, even if you keep it to yourself. You should know that angels are His instruments of righteousness. Not the fluffy, impotent things you see on greeting cards, but the burning retribution of God’s justice in physical form.”

Bethany Anne laughed without much humor. “Then I might just be an angel after all.”

“Be careful,” Sister Mary pleaded. “Many nights you came here with bloody hands and bruises on your face and I never once asked you where you got the money you gave us. I trusted you earned it fair and square. I’m going to trust you now. That you’ll make the right choice when the time comes.”

“You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?” Bethany Anne asked.

“No,” Sister Mary replied. “But I’m asking you not to throw away a bright future. If you are caught crossing that line, rejection from the academy will be the least of your worries.”

“Don’t get caught. Gotcha.” Bethany Anne ended the call and laid low for a few days while she reassessed her plan. Sister Mary was right about one thing. Taking the life of that despicable excuse for a human being wasn’t worth destroying the potential she had to do good with hers.

Finding Larry was the easy part. He’d gone straight back to living his life as if he had never been away. She cornered him one night outside the warehouse, cutting him off as he walked to his car in the otherwise empty parking lot.

Bethany Anne waited until he was feeling the safety of being close to his car and stepped out of the shadows, deliberately scuffing her boot on the gravel to get his attention.

Larry turned with his keys in his hand. His initial fear faded when she pulled down the scarf she had tied around her face. “It’s just you.”

Bethany Anne inclined her head, clenching her fists. “Is that what Keri said before you robbed, raped, and murdered her?”

Larry sneered. “There’s no proof it was me. Otherwise,” he raised an eyebrow, “why’d the cops let me go?”

“The cops weren’t there with her at the end,” Bethany Anne growled. “I was.”

Larry’s confidence wavered for a moment. “So what? What are you gonna do? There are cameras all over this lot.”

Bethany Anne nodded. “True. Also true is that Keri had a whole lot of friends, some who are into computers. None of those cameras happen to be working right now, Larry.” She took a small step forward. “Some system fault. Can you believe how easy it is to hack into that shit?” She stepped closer with every word. “Which means you are very vulnerable right now, Larry. I suggest you do exactly what I tell you to do if you want this to end quickly.”

“What do you mean, end quickly?” Larry blustered, but his eyes flicked towards a camera.

No red light was showing

“I mean,” Bethany Anne enunciated in a flat voice, “that while I can’t bring myself to make you suffer as badly as you made Keri suffer, you are not walking out of this parking lot. In fact, you won’t be walking anywhere, ever again. There is a special place in Hell for people like you, and I’m going to recreate a taste of it here on Earth before I send you there.”

Larry produced a gun and pointed it at Bethany Anne. “You fucking bitch. I’ll do to you what I did to your thieving friend.”

Bethany Anne ducked under the barrel of the gun and grabbed Larry’s wrist, hooking her right foot behind his. She twisted his wrist the same time she kicked his ankle out.

Down he went, his breath whoofed out his lungs.

“The thing about men who call women bitches,” Bethany Anne hissed at him as his head bounced off the gravel, “is that it is always because they feel threatened by that woman. Literally, in this case.”

She lifted her foot and stamped twice on his chest, hearing a satisfying crack from his ribs each time. “Like you felt threatened by the good thing me and Keri had going on. How does it feel to be the one who is powerless?”

Larry gasped for breath. The oxygen he needed was painfully entering and leaving his lungs.

“I wouldn’t breathe too hard,” Bethany Anne cocked her head and shrugged. “You might puncture a lung.” She kicked him in the head. “Keri was smart, capable, and a better negotiator than you could ever be. She had her whole life ahead of her. She wasn’t going to waste it as a two-bit hustler like you. Do you know how we met?”

She stepped back and folded her arms as he grabbed his head with one hand and pushed on the side of his chest with the other. Probably trying to make it less painful to breath.

Bethany Anne watched impassively as she continued her story. “We saved each other. I was picking dumbass fights in bars and calling it therapy before she turned me on to the underground circuit. She was only ever one bad hand away from not being able to finance her education. We were more than friends. We became family, and you took my sister away from me. I wasn’t able to protect her back in life, but I’m sure as shit going to have her back in death. Your death.”

Larry gurgled something unintelligible. Bethany Anne tilted her head. “What was that?”

“I said,” Larry wheezed, “Fuck you. Should’ve…” He coughed up a wad of thick blood. “Should’ve killed you too… Bitch.”

Bethany Anne snorted. “Yeah, no. You’re not in any shape to make threats.” She brought her boot down again, this time on his left knee. Then again on his stomach. She walked around him and kicked him in the face, shattering his teeth with the steel toe cap in her boot.

Larry’s screams were muffled by the blood welling in his mouth. Bethany Anne grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to his car, bending to scoop up his dropped keys. Larry struggled weakly as she opened the trunk and hauled him into it with some difficulty.

Righteous anger might have provided her with the adrenaline to get the job done, but it couldn’t make up for the physics. She was still five-foot-three, and he wasn’t light or small. Thankfully, he passed out from shock, pain, blood loss, or some combination of the three.

She didn’t care which.

Bethany Anne locked the trunk and got into the driver’s’ seat as she turned off the recording device. As she turned the key in the ignition, she heard an echo of Sister Mary’s voice.

This was the moment, and for Bethany Anne there was only one choice.

Well, that wasn’t strictly accurate. There were three junkyards she knew of where the guys working them didn’t care to check over the cars before they put them in the crusher.

___

“Ms. Reynolds?”

Bethany Anne snapped out of planning the verbal shit storm she was planning to unleash on Tim for fucking up a simple chain of evidence log when she got back to the office. She smiled apologetically at the white coated man sitting across from her. “I apologize, Mr. Hoffman. My thoughts got away with me for a moment.”

“It’s Doctor Hoffman, actually,” the red-faced man corrected gently.

Bethany Anne’s mouth curled up on one side. “Then it’s Special Agent Reynolds, Doctor, but I didn’t think we were standing on ceremony.” She folded her hands together in her lap. “Look, I didn’t come here expecting the same kind of dick swinging I get back at work, but I assure you if that's your game then I can swing with the best.”

The doctor lifted his hands. “That’s not my intention. I understand you may be feeling somewhat emotional—”

“Hold the fuck up.” Bethany Anne cut him off with a wave of her hand. “You are the third specialist I have seen in as many weeks. Hoping for a different answer, yes. Feeling emotional about my situation? No. Just tell me if there’s anything you can say that’s different to the last two specialists, I took time off work to see, or if just like them all you have is platitudes and apologies to go with that side of misogyny you seem intent on serving.”

The doctor sighed and shook his head. “There is no good news in this situation, I’m afraid.”

Bethany Anne took a deep breath. “Then I have a limited time available to bring closure to the families of the people in my caseload. I hope you don’t charge extra for the less than stellar bedside manner. I might be terminal, but you have all the time in the world to fix that shit before someone with less patience than me calls you on it.”

Before he had a chance to offer her access to counselling services intended for those with terminal diagnoses, he found himself lost for words as Bethany Anne Reynolds strode out of his office with a swing in her step and the red soles of her high heeled shoes flashing as she walked.

“She thinks there are people with less patience than her?” The doctor stared at the door for a long moment before he went to step out of the room. “I don’t think so.”

___

Bethany Anne opened her eyes and was back in the darkness of the vault. “What was the point of that?”

To show you that you were chosen for your character, Michael answered. I need someone who will do what is necessary, even if it is not perceived as the right thing by the majority. There are too many dishonorable people, both in the UnknownWorld and outside it. I chose you because you are singularly focused and incorruptible. You would die before betraying your morals. More importantly, you will go to whatever lengths are needed to enforce Justice.

“What does this have to do with me replacing a special forces operative?” Bethany Anne asked. He didn’t answer. “Okay, we’ll save that question for after I’m done with the procedure and you’re ready to give me full disclosure. Do I get to take a trip down your memory lane?”

I would not put you through the trials I have endured.

“Yet you had no problem with invading my most private thoughts and making me relive mine,” Bethany Anne snarked.

Do you accept? Michael asked.

Bethany Anne nodded. “I’ll accept your offer. Go through whatever it is I have to endure to be healed and made stronger. Then I’m going to kick your ass for taking fucking liberties. And from now on, you stay the fuck out of my head. Are we clear?”

The weariness that pervaded Michael’s entire being ebbed at the thought of testing himself against what he was about to create. It had been…too long…since anyone had been able to challenge him.

“You are welcome to try.” He snickered.

Bethany Anne knocked the chair over as his breath tickled her ear. She jumped to her feet with her fist cocked. “Motherfuc—”

Michael caught her wrist and turned them both to Myst, cutting her curse off. Bethany Anne’s mind didn’t collapse with fear as he’d half expected. Her rage was incandescent, a beautiful heat that burned over the metal connection he established to hold her to him as he transported them to his plane.

“—ker!” Bethany Anne finished when they rematerialized in the lounge, eliciting a small scream from Carl. She ignored him and brought her knee up sharply.

Michael released her wrist and Mysted a foot away before she could connect with his groin.

“A little bit of a warning would have been nice!” Bethany Anne ignored the red light in Michael’s eyes. She hadn’t quite believed the shit he’d told her about vampires until that moment.

Now, she was afraid, and that meant she was really fucking angry. She drew the gun she had tucked into the small of her back and aimed at Michael. “Don’t make a fucking move. I see so much as a flinch, and I’ll put six rounds between your admittedly pretty eyes.”

“That would be annoying to heal,” Michael told her. “If indeed you were fast enough to shoot me before I Myst, which until you have completed your transformation, you are no—”

She shot him in the stomach. “Fucking try me, Twilight.”

He looked down and eyed the hole in his shirt then back up to her. He raised an eyebrow.

She wasn’t going to lie to herself, he was getting on her nerves. Not the ones most guys flinched…Her other nerves.

“I’d say oops, but it’s not like you were unaware I have a temper.” Bethany Anne lowered her weapon. “Just ask next time before you decide to drag me along while you violate the laws of physics, and I’ll do my best not to lose my shit and shoot you again.”

“One.” Michael held up a single finger, wincing ever so slightly as his nanocytes healed the wound. “You get this one, and only this one because it would not be honorable to punish you for your reaction. Shoot me again and my offer will be voided because I’ll kill you myself.”

He glanced over at Carl. “Twilight?”

“Vampire movie, sir,” Carl managed. He swallowed his shock at Michael’s show of patience. People had died for less. Much less. “They, um, sparkle in the light.”

“She said you have pretty eyes, sir,” Carl murmured. “Can’t be all bad.”

Michael sighed as he flicked a hand in her direction. “Bethany Anne, please put your gun away and take a seat. Carl, prepare the plane for takeoff. Ms. Reynolds and I need to have a little chat.”

He reached down to take the bullet that eased out of his stomach and set it to the side of his chair with a clink. Perhaps a woman with an attitude wasn’t his brightest idea in the last century…or two.