Author's Note for readers: this contains a grisly prelude to revenge and has a great deal of controversial ideas. It is not meant to advocate anti-abortion sentiments, but rather to use the issue as the basis for a Gothic horror tale of vengeance and magic. It is intended for a theme befitting Halloween. Don't start anonymously flaming or trolling for what characters say and do, since they are purely fictitious.
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Gunderson Family Planning Clinic, Long Island, New York:
Dr. Martin Gunderson was an abortionist, and made no bones about that fact. That was his chosen profession. His clinic specialized in 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions, mostly for teenage girls who wished to graduate from high school, as well as career women whose birth control had failed or been forgotten. At first, he had been an OB/GYN exclusively, but he had crossed an ethical line at some point by performing a few abortions for desperate rape victims. When he realized that this could make him more money than live births, he left the hospital and opened a "family planning" clinic.
There were certainly drawbacks. Protesters blocked the entrances at times, people made death threats and called him a "baby-killer", and he was no longer welcome in his parents' house. His first wife had left him when he had an affair with a representative of a feminist group that had rallied behind him. The divorce cost him a bit, but his new activist friends included many judges and lawyers, so he pulled through without being taken to the cleaners.
Martin eventually ended his affair with the activist, since she was married herself and didn't wish to lose her wealthy husband. He had a number of flings with nurses, both before, during, and after his next marriage to a prominent state legislator. He ended up with 2 failed marriages, 2 failed relationships, and one broken engagement. After that, he shrugged it off and resorted to expensive call girls for the foreseeable future. The engagement was the last straw: he had broken it himself, when the woman turned abusive on him. Admittedly, he kept dating "society women", which was a major factor in his misery. They were too high maintenance and prone to drug abuse, as was the case with his ex-fiancée.
He had no idea that his situation, after years of improving, was about to turn for the worse. He had made an enemy that no one could stop, buy off, or intimidate. His luck failed him, because he lacked an essential understanding of the nature of the Cosmos and the afterlife. He didn't realize that those denied a life by unnatural means at an early age would be granted a new, indestructible body with superhuman powers and the right to live as long as they pleased. They generally opted for vengeance against those whom had murdered them, and this one was no different.
Unnamed Apartment Complex, Brooklyn, New York:
"Jonathan Nelson" looked perfectly human. He had a strong, virile, masculine body, but that just made him seem like a fitness freak. His features and complexion suggested that he was of mixed racial origin. Few people saw the golden eyes of a demon. Few realized that demons were nothing more than murdered souls seeking vengeance.
Everything had been told to him at once, which would have been more than enough to overload a mortal's brain. Since he wasn't mortal anymore, however, he could take the information. Someone had killed him too young, so he had been given back what this person had stolen from him. What made it better was that he could do things that most people could not, he didn't have to die again until he was ready, and he kept all of the knowledge that he chose to place in his now mature and adult brain. This was his karmic due, so his new status as a demon was sanctioned by the Gods.
He who had once been a mere fetus was now a grown man and appeared to be about 25. His new, manly form was equipped with unusually large genitals as well, for a variety of reasons. No one would realize that he now possessed powers that would enable him to exact revenge on the people responsible for his murder.
What particularly sickened him was that no one seemed to care that he was dead. There was no funeral for him, no burial, and no fate for his former body except a trip to the closest dumpster. He was treated as garbage, not a deceased relative. He had no friends in the world, no one who mourned his death, and no one who felt outrage regarding his untimely death. Well, if the world was going to be so callous about his fate, he would return the favor with pleasure.
Society made it legal for people to butcher him, so the only justice that would come would be by his own hand. This mortal saying of not taking the law into one's own hands was laughable in his case. He had no other choice but to take the law into his own hands. Besides, Cosmic laws were higher than those of mortals, and karma was chief among them.
Jonathan knew his purpose in life, far more than anyone else. These poor, naïve mortals were about to confront someone who would make a Gothic horror tale seem tame by comparison. He was not Freddy Krueger or Jason. He was a shade. He was a demon. He was real. The Gods favored his cause, and he would be the nemesis of his enemies.
Coldbury Heights, Long Island, New York:
Melanie Hatch was simply glad and relieved to be done with it. The abortion had been a little tense, but the last trace of her previous marriage was gone. She could date and find a more faithful guy now. Louis was just plain scum. She hadn't denied him sex any more than most women did, but he still fucked around on her and blamed her for it. There would be no custody issues, either, now.
She looked at her reflection in the vanity, confident that her date for the night seemed a good man whom she could control. Her primary rule in relationships was that a man had to do as she pleased. If he was willing to kiss her ass and do her bidding, everything was fine. If he objected to that deal, he would be cut off. This was normal and reasonable, right? She was not the sort of woman to tolerate any nonsense or independence on the part of a man. If she had the power of her sex, why not use it to get her way?
This was the sort of thing that her mother had done, and she always assumed that other men could accept it, if Daddy accepted it. She didn't know about his hypertension, his ulcer, or his drinking problem. She never realized that his fatal stroke had been caused by the stress of trying to keep from snapping at his wife or leaving her.
At 32, Melanie had a nice career as a travel agency manager, and she thought that she knew everything about life. She thought that she was on the verge of finding a great husband to placate her and make her friends green with envy. She had no concept of what awaited her in the near future. Her son, her only offspring in the years of her entire life, was about to smash her narcissistic plans. He was one man who would not bow to her.
Armand's Bistro, Long Island, New York, 7:30 PM:
