The pickings are slim these days.

I have my subjects in mind, the men who need to be punished, but they have become so wary of walking the streets. They fear becoming the next, as they should. They refuse to face me and I know I must find new targets, new scum that need to be removed.

Lady luck is on my side there. London is full of people who need dealing with. It's a city full of ruffians, thugs, and scumbags worthy of removal. All I have to do is find the right one, find the one worthy of removal and strike early. Strike quickly.

My victim found me.

Mr Gregory Jacobs worked at one of the many Inns in the city, a place of high standards to anyone looking from the outside in. To those who knew the seedy underbelly of the Inn, it was a place of ill repute, a place where the vagabonds of the city would go to scratch the itches. No one would know what they were doing.

By night, the Inn would operate as a brothel. The women and girls would work as servers during the day and then serve the clientele at night. They were mistreated. The money earned would be taken by Mr Jacobs once the work had been done. For them, there would be no escape from the hand that grasped them.

Not until me.

I would be their hero. I would be their saving grace from this man, the protector they had asked for. Their futures rested on my actions and I would not let them down. They deserved more than they had been given, and I could give it to them.

Mr Jacobs would step out of his Inn at the end of each night to say goodbye to his last client, the two of them exchanging handshakes and money. I waited in the nearest alleyway, clinging to the shadows with the hammer in my hand. He had already bribed the officers to keep away, so the ghost was clear.

The two men stood talking on the doorstep for what felt like an eternity. The darkness inched away with every word, slipping past as my time ran out. Even with the officers crawling the streets, the city would wake with the sun. My time was running out and I couldn't allow that to happen.

Not again.

After a little while, they moved away from the doorstep, and Mr Jacobs waved goodbye to his last client of the day. He stood in the centre of the street for a little too long. Long enough for me to strike.

I crept out of the darkness, sneaking from the shadows with the hammer raised high above my head. Mr Jacobs was a tall man, a luxury I did not possess. Before he could turn and head back towards the Inn, I brought the hammer crashing down onto his head. His skull broke upon impact, sending him crashing to the ground.

Like Mr Thorn, I hit him again just to be on the safe side. No one was going to get away from again. I couldn't risk it.

I tucked the hammer back into my waistband, a smile stretching across my face at the sight of Mr Jacob's bleeding body. I turned back to the alleyway, ready to head home and crawl back into bed before I am woken up in a few hours.

Through the door, one of Mr Jacob's employees stared at me with wide-eyes. Her eyes flickered to the sight of Mr Jacob's body on the ground at my feet. I expected her to scream, to react, but she said nothing. Instead, her face cracked into a smile and she nodded her head towards me in encouragement.

I smiled and slipped back into the shadows, disappearing from view.

I knew people were happy with me.

~~~

First Published - February 13th, 2023