C.A.R.M.A

12

Susie, beautiful, wonderful Susie.
She was three years older than Tyler when she died, which didn't stop Tyler from blaming himself.
I walked around the suite under the guise of scanning for clues, but my mind clanged back to what Tyler told me. No matter how much I tried to shut it down. Shut down the emotion clamoring its way up through my chest.
Tyler never told me why his cousin assumed the mantle of Red Wolfe with him, or why they had decided to establish ties in Seattle.
Maybe all of it boiled down to Susie, and what happened on an Autumn night, likely exactly like this one, ten years ago.

Susie dazzled everyone she met. She had her brother's beautiful hazel eyes and dark brown hair, or so Tyler told me through his tears. She was his best friend, biggest mentor and supporter. And Red Wolfe was her idea.
Bringing clean energy to those who needed it, bringing clean energy not to the masses or middle-class, but to the other 99%.
A dream Tyler inherited and cherished and fought to see come true.
A dream that started when Susie left her posh home in Hurley, England, when she walked away from a legacy spot at Oxford to attend the University of Washington. Right here, in Seattle.
Susie traded in the Thames for the Puget Sound, and recklessly pursued a degree in environmental engineering. Despite, much to their present horror, her parents refusing to pay for it.
But Susie was resourceful and hard working. She came out to Seattle early, forgoing her own high school graduation so she could begin working in a diner to pay for her degree. She made friends also attending the University in the fall and they all moved into a typical freshman suite.
She called her parents, who begged her to come home, but she refused. She was happy and thriving out in the Pacific Northwest. Susie had purpose and ambition pouring out of her and into her studies.
And she also had a holiday break she never had before. Thanksgiving.
Susie begged and begged her brother to come to visit. She missed him, she hadn't seen him since May. And her brother, Tyler, despite being fifteen and a full time student, went anyway.
Tyler's face flashed before my memory as he told me all about the wonderful week he had with Susie and her friends. Eating American Thanksgiving for the first time, exploring the city, and cherishing his own budding dream to come to the University of Washington, too.
His sister told him all about a company she would open when she graduated. A company that the future needed. A company she would want to run with her brilliant brother.
Until the night everything changed.
Until the night Susie and her friends were taking her little brother to a real American college party.
And then Susie got a call from the diner she worked at. The waitress on shift's son had come down with a horrible stomach flu and she needed to leave. Could Susie cover the two hours left until closing?
Just two hours, the waitress pressed. And Susie could take all of the tip money.
Just two hours.
She went to work, changing out of her party clothes and into the diner uniform.
And her little brother, who was so excited to go to that American party, went. Laughing and joking with Susie's friends.
Two hours came and went.
Then three.
Then four.
Tyler knew something was wrong, knew it in the soul deep sibling bond, as he left the party and raced to the diner.
The lights were off when he got outside the building, but the door was unlocked.
And he'll never forget what he saw from the dim streetlight glow that flooded in behind him.
A stranger. Stabbing his sister to death, with his pants still around his ankles.
Tyler couldn't tell me details from that point. Just that an unholy rage seized him and he fought the stranger. Tackling him to the ground and wrestling the knife until it was in Tyler's hands.
Until Tyler drove that knife deep into the stranger's throat.
He locked the doors and called one of Susie's friends at the party, panicking because he didn't understand why 999 wasn't working to call the police. Her friend explained that he needed to call 911 and swiftly left to come to their friend's side.
But Susie was dead.
And Tyler at fifteen was alone with two bodies and the hollow feeling savage revenge brings.
The police came, took a statement from Tyler and her friends brought him back to their suite. He stayed there until his parents came for him and Susie.
Susie was buried in her hometown, leaving behind Tyler to shoulder her dreams.
He never explained to anyone other than the police and his parents that he was the one who killed Susie's murder.
Never explained to anyone except me that he did not regret ending that life. But it didn't bring him peace or joy either.

I replayed Tyler's story over and over in my mind, even as I heard the shower turn off and the sounds of Tyler getting dressed again.
He was never going to hurt me tonight.
I want you to know who I am.
He wanted me to know why this celebration was so painful. Why he couldn't be bothered to hear pitches from investors tonight.
Because the person meant to be by his side was not.
I ached to tell Tyler that I understand. That I was also fifteen when I took a life. That I understood the stain it leaves on your hands. How warm blood could feel impossibly cold.
But I had a mission, a birth right to claim.
This night was evidence that Tyler is not the person CARMA is searching for.
But then, who is?
Tyler stepped back into the main room dressed and ready to head down to the party once more.
I stood, taking his hand. "Thank you."
He pressed his brow to mine. "Thank you."
We stayed like that for another heartbeat, and another.
He stepped back looking down at me. "Tell me what you're thinking."
I smiled, "this is not where you normally stay. Although this is your suite, you don't sleep here."
He smirked, "no. Would you like to see where I do?"