Monster Justice

In a large house owned by a prominent man, two men stand in the dining room, looking at the owner, who is dead, as by the fact that he has the end of a horn coming out of his mouth, and his blood is pooling on the floor.

"Why did you do that?" the one asks, as he turns to the other.

"Because," the second man, a werewolf, said. "He killed someone that I cared for."

The first man, a human, looks back at the corpse, a dragon, who was the judge/executioner in the area.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked. "There is no way that you will be allowed to live."

"I know," the werewolf said, as he sat down at a table, which had an empty plate and a revolver on it, and took out a pen and paper, and started writing. "Now, I suggest that you get out of here before the police show up and you get arrested for another murder that you didn't do."

With that, the human started running.

As he ran, the human thought about what had happened earlier.

****

Earlier that day, James had walked into the local bar. He had sat at the counter and told the barkeeper that he was going to buy the entire house a round, as he had just gotten engaged to a lovely woman.

When one of the patrons, a werewolf, asked who the lucky woman was, he told him.

However, instead of congratulating him, the man said, "She's dead buddy. The judge's son ate her a few hours ago."

At this, James walked out and went to his house, and got out his handgun. That night, he went to the man's house, so that he could kill him for what he did. However, there was a strange set of footprints that seemed to have been leaving the house. As James opened the door, he saw the body of a kitsune, the judge's stepson, lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

As James left the house, he saw a police car, so he fired a shot, to try to flag him down.

However, the officer saw the body and the gun and asked, "Why'd you do it human?"

With that, the man punched him, knocking him out.

When James woke up, he was naked and on a platter, with the Judge looking at him.

"You'll pay for the murder of my son," the dragon had said.

"It wasn't me," James had said.

"Liar," the man said, as smoke came out of his nostrils. "You killed him, all because he ate your fiancée."

However, just before he could chop James to pieces with a cleaver that he'd had in his hands, the body of the police officer who had arrested James, a gargoyle, came flying through the door and smashed to pieces against the wall behind the judge.

"I suggest you let the man go Judge," said a voice that James had heard earlier that day.

"And why would I want to let my supper go?" The judge asked.

"Because, he didn't kill your son," the owner of the voice said. "I did it. And here is the gun that I shot him with."

At this, a large revolver landed on the table next to James, causing him to look behind him.

To his surprise, the person who had entered the place was the werewolf who had told him that his girlfriend had been eaten by the Judge's son.

"In that case, why did you do it?" the judge asked, as he sat up.

However, all the werewolf did was pull out a picture, one from his wallet, and toss it on a table. In the picture was James's fiancée.

"I killed him because he ate my sister," the man said, causing James's eyes to widen.

"You're her brother?" he asked.

"That's right," the werewolf said. "She was my sister by the virtue that her mother married my father, but that's good enough for my instincts to include her as a member of my pack, and under my protection."

"Why didn't she tell me?" James asked.

"She told you that she had a brother right?" the werewolf asked.

"Yah, but she never said that you were a werewolf," James said.

"That's because she saw me as a person," the werewolf said, as he looked at the judge. "And not a monster, like you and your son."

"So what," the judge said, as he looked at the werewolf. "Both of you will die, you for killing my son, and him because it is suppertime."

At this, the Judge leaped for the werewolf's face. However, the werewolf took out a nightstick, and swung at the dragon's chest, causing him to land on his collection of heads of those he had executed over the years, including a minotaur, with rather large horns.

***

As James looked back at the house he had just run out of, he saw, through the window, the werewolf stand up, walk over to the window, and close the shutters. Then, he heard something click, followed by the sound of a revolver going off, and something falling with a thud.

"Why did you kill the judge?" James asked out loud. "He didn't eat your sister. His son did. So why did you do it?"

However, instead of sticking around, he kept on running, like the man told him to.

***

The next day, when the police pulled up at the Judge's house, they saw the body of the judge and the remains of the officer. They also found the body of a werewolf, with half of his head blown off. On the table was a letter that said,

"To whom it concerns,

         I, Jacob Redfangs, killed Gordan Firetail, the stepson of Judge Abrems Flamemouth, not James Johnson, who is just an innocent man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for the officer, his death was an accident on my part. The Judge though, I killed him for my own personal reasons.

Signed,
Jacob Redfangs"

As the officers picked up his body, a picture fell from the werewolf's grasp. On it was an image of a human woman, a woman who was not James's fiancée.

(WC 1069)

*Please note. If this story sounds reminiscent of Tanya Tucker's "The Night the Lights went out in Georgia" the song inspired me a bit.*