Evil Never Dies

He was called Evil-Eyed Emil. When he looked at people with his infamous right eye, so the story went, bad things invariably happened. Townspeople cringed and covered their faces as Emil came near, not daring to look directly into his ominous orb.

And, as he was being driven out of Reaper Junction on Halloween night exactly 100 years ago, Emil vowed to return one day to wreak his vengeance on the mob and its progeny for the way he had been so rudely tossed out.

​That cryptic curse was all but forgotten by today's generation of Reapers who laughed at such nonsense. But, the laughter has stopped. For last night, shockingly and unexpectedly, a local resident staggered into the town square and announced that Emil had been sighted in the woods and, true to his century-old proclamation, someone had been the victim of Emil's anger.

The deceased was Grimsby Graves, the patriarch of a family whose ancestors had helped found Reaper Junction in 1770. ​The Graves' seemed to have had their fingers in every pie that was ever baked in Reaper Junction.  The history books say that it was, in fact, the Graves brothers who had led the torch-lit mob that oversaw Emil's abrupt exit into the stormy night.

So, how then can justice be done? How can someone who is already dead be brought to trial? And, can the court truly find a jury of his peers? Or, will the explanation be less scintillating and more sinister?