Chapter 1: I Will Come For You
Karen was growing to hate the color red. She had once loved red roses. Once loved red lipstick; the color of a full glass of red wine, or the sign over Josie's bar. But now she only saw blood. The blood on her hands. The blood dripping down Matt's face. Frank lying in a pool of it…. Images she feared, that haunted her most nights when she closed her eyes and still followed her like a ghost as she tried to get through each day.
She stared at the lipstick in her hand for a while longer, vaguely remembering the confidence the vibrant color gave her, before tossing it in the trash under her vanity. She already saw too much red.
The city had been plagued with chaos and tragedy for so long, but things were calm now. It had been for a little while. The calm allowed people to lower their guard. Others let themselves relax back into a sense of normalcy. Karen remained on edge, unsure things would ever be normal again. She had seen the darkness this city had to offer and there was no going back for her. Though maybe it wasn't the city, if she was honest with herself. Darkness had shrouded Karen her whole life and fight as she might, she never seemed able to escape out from under it. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment as she forced herself to let out a breath.
"Come on, Karen." She muttered under her breath, pushing the strawberry blonde hair back from her face. "Stop getting in your brain so much." She continued forward with renewed purpose, focusing instead on going over the things she needed to get done today in agonizing detail. Finish the fluff pieces Ellison assigned her. Do more research on the story she really wanted to write, depending on if her source spoke to her again or not. After work she had made a promise to herself to check in on Doris, it had been too long since she had last seen the woman. Dinner with the Ellisons, a drink with Foggy. There was a full day ahead of her that she could think about instead.
Stepping into the Bulletin, Karen felt all her worries melt away. Work tended to do that for her. It didn't matter that she was digging deep into the darkness of the city, at least she could do something about it with her writing. Here, with a handful of paragraphs, she could fight back against the darkness. Her words brought the truth to light and that meant something.
"Page, you didn't hear a word I said, did you?" Karen's gaze moved from the rest of the office to the man standing near her, his arms crossed over a folder resting on his chest. Despite being her boss, Ellison didn't seem too angry that she hadn't been listening. In fact, he didn't even seem surprised.
"Um, I was- well… no. I didn't."
"I was telling you that Lily has planned to make lamb tonight, so you better be still on for tonight. She doesn't just make lamb on a whim." He waited for her confirming nod before holding out the folder to her. "Good. Then I hopefully won't regret handing you this." Karen took the folder and stared at Ellison for a moment before opening it. "You said your source has disappeared so I did some digging and came up with this. I'm not promising it has anything useful in it, but it might be a start."
"Ellison, how-" He held his hands up to stop her.
"I'm the editor, I don't have to give up my sources. I hate making you write those fluff pieces almost as much as you hate writing them." He started to walk away, but turned to her once more, putting his hands together in a pleading motion. "Dinner, Karen. Please."
"You got it, boss." The woman chuckled as she closed the folder on her way to her office. Karen closed the door behind her and dropped the files onto her desk. Peeling off her jacket, Karen moved around the desk to drape the coat over her chair. Without sitting, she began flipping through the folder her eyes scanning through the pages quickly, looking for anything that jumped out at her. There was nothing. The folder contained information she already knew about people who had gone missing, signs that there was a new group trying to take over the city. It wasn't until a few more pages in did she see something that caught her interest. "Holy shit." She muttered, taking a seat now and looking at the papers with more intensity.
Pete Castiglione was a name that meant something to her.
"Ellison, hey," Karen already had all of her things gathered when she knocked on the frame of Ellison's door. She leaned against it as she waited for him to turn to her.
"You found something, didn't you?" His voice already sounded defeated as he looked up at her.
"I did and I know I promised about dinner so I'll be as fast as I can and-" Karen's half-hearted assurance was cut off by Ellison speaking again.
"Karen, we both know that's not going to happen." He sighed and pushed his glasses up to the top of his head. "Don't worry about it. I'll tell Lily something came up and you had to take care of it."
"Thank you, Mitchell. If this wasn't urgent…" Rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand, he shooed her with the other.
"Go on, do what you need to do. I better get a damn good story out of this." Karen said a quick goodbye before rushing out of the office. When she reached her car was parked, she sat on the seat but kept her feet on the concrete. First, she peeled off her heels. Then she tossed them into the back before grabbing the flats she had stored in her glove compartment. Where she was going, sensible footwear was the best idea. The sensible thing to do, actually, would be to not go on her own, but she wasn't sure how much time she had. Besides, she couldn't exactly call Matt, could she?
Karen parked a block away where she could still keep an eye on the office building that was her target. "I guess all the old, abandoned warehouses were taken." She spoke under her breath as she checked her purse, making sure her handgun was still there. The folder had so much more than just Frank's alias hidden in it. According to Ellison's source, the disappearances didn't really start until this office building was rented out by none other than Anvil. That had been enough to raise her concern. If Anvil wanted Frank… it wasn't to help him.
She stepped out of the car, shading her eyes to get a better look at the office. It wasn't a surprise, after everything, that Anvil had to resort to using temporary offices. What was surprising was that they were even still in business. Even stranger, was how they connected with the story she had already been looking into; how everything lined up and how it pointed to Frank Castle being in danger. It was as though her and Frank's lives were destined to be entwined.
She kept her head down as she walked down the street, not wanting to draw any attention to herself. There was no plan outside of lying her way into the building and then maybe pretending to have to use the bathroom in order to look around. It was cliché, but it would work. Maybe. It needed to work. Frank Castle had looked after her so many times now, the least she could do was to look after him.
The building was a flurry of activity when Karen entered and suddenly she wasn't sure she was in the right place. If Frank was missing like she was afraid he was, then this didn't seem like the kind of place she would find him in. She could hopefully find some information here still. Approaching the front desk, Karen cleared her throat softly. "Hi… I was contacted about a temp position here?" The man behind the desk looked up, looking obviously annoyed.
"One of the secretary positions? Yeah, just go to the desk down the hall. She'll be able to help get you started; I'm busy here." The man returned to his work, not seeing the look of disdain she couldn't conceal. At least his sexism was something that helped her now. Karen started down the hall when she spotted the door to a stairwell. There was a makeshift sign taped to it warning that it was off limits and that made it seem like a good place to start. She took a quick look around, made sure there weren't any eyes on her, and slipped through it.
At the next landing, she peered out the door only to find more offices, just as busy as the floor below. She carefully closed the door and ran up one more flight. It was the top floor and her last hope. Karen opened the door to find an abandoned hallway. She took in a deep breath before moving out of the stairway in order to start looking around. The first room she opened looked just like an armory. Weapons of all shapes and sizes were lined up on racks and Karen's stomach tied into knots.
If Anvil had this kind of firepower, someone had to be backing the disgraced Billy Russo. If he was even still the man behind the curtain. She took a picture with her phone before closing the door and continuing down the hallway. She hadn't gotten very far when she heard voices. Karen slowed down and pressed her back to the wall. She glanced around the corner into a large room, with pillars spaced out across the empty space. Her heart nearly stopped at what she saw in the room. There were two armed men standing near a chair with a man sitting in it. She didn't have to see his face to know that the figure sitting slack in the chair was Frank Castle; tied down and covered in blood.
Karen pulled back around the corner and covered her mouth to hold back the gasp. He looked worse than the last time she had seen him, in an elevator with a dislocated shoulder and shrapnel sticking out of him just to name a few of the wounds he had managed to get that day. Fortunately, they seemed to be done with him for the moment and the two men seemed to only be guarding Frank. Unfortunately, that meant that whoever had done that to him would be returning at some point and she probably didn't have very long.
"Think, Karen, think." She steadied her breathing and rubbed her face roughly. She needed a distraction, something to draw the two men away from Frank so she could get him loose. Together they'd figure it out from there. Karen dug through her bag, searching for anything that could be of use. She pulled out the two phones she always kept with her and formulated a plan. It wasn't ideal, but it was all she had. She set the burner phone Frank had given her on the ground in the hallway before sliding into the room to hide behind one of the pillars.
She dialed the number, but didn't hit the call button yet. The chances of this working were slim to none and she needed to be ready for anything. She reached into the purse again and pulled out her gun. Karen glanced to see where the men were before moving further into the room, pressing close to another pillar. With one final deep breath, she hit the call button and dropped her phone back into her purse so she could hold the weapon with both hands. The muffled sound of the funky guitar soon caught the attention of the men in the room as Shining Star began ringing from the burner in the hallway. Karen watched as even Frank's head raised and tilted to the side. His hands, previously limp behind him, balled into fists. "Hey! this is section is off limits; who's there?" One of the guards asked, stepping forward.
"This is why we shouldn't fucking hire temps." The other grumbled as he moved forward as well. "Come out now. This area is for training exercises; we don't want you to get hurt." He called out, not even trying to hide the lie with his voice. Karen moved around the pillar, watching them carefully. As soon as they passed her, she rushed forward to the chair. Setting the gun down, she pulled at the tape that was holding Frank's hands together and let out a curse.
"God damn it, Karen. You need to get out of here." Frank looked over his shoulder, but didn't look at her. He only had eyes for the two men who were just now reaching the hallway. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"I'm sorry I'm trying to save your life." She grunted softly, still pulling at the tape.
"No, you need to-" Frank kicked his leg back towards her. Clearly she wasn't leaving so would have to do what he could to get her out of here alive. "In my boot. There's a knife. Start cutting, now." She pulled out the knife from where it was hidden and started to saw at the tape. She could hear the muffled cursing behind her, but made herself not look back. She had to keep cutting. "They're coming back, Karen. When I say, turn to your left and stab upwards. They won't expect it. Can you do that for me?"
"Frank-"
"Hey!" One of the men shouted as they noticed her now.
"You need to do this for me, I know you can." He still avoided her gaze, but Karen nodded anyway.
"Okay," She said softly. She could hear the footsteps rushing toward her and strengthened her grip on the knife. Her eyes stayed on Frank, waiting for his signal.
"Now." These were bad guys, she reminded herself before she did as he asked; turning quickly and thrusting the knife upwards with all the power she had. She made contact with the man's thigh, the knife pushing through the flesh far easier than she thought it would. The man let out a yell as he lowered his weapon. His friend's reaction was delayed, but still quick enough. He went to hit her with his rifle as she ducked to escape the attack. The gun connected with the side of her head, and hard, but it wasn't enough to knock her out. Karen breathed in sharply as her vision went blurry briefly. Pretending the hit hurt her worse than it did, Karen slumped forward and threw out her arm to catch herself. Her hand resting on the ground next to where her gun lay.
"Bitch." She heard the one man grumble, his hand on the hilt of the knife lodged in his leg, the blade not having gone as deep as she would have liked. "Just grab that gun and we can take her to the boss." Karen waited until she saw the man's shadow before grabbing the gun and turning quickly to fire at him. The first shot hit his chest, the armor protecting him from the bullet tearing into him. The next shot grazed his neck, an area not protected by armor and sent him reeling back further, his hand moving to his throat.
His friend pulled the knife out of his leg. Slashing upwards, he caught her arm as Karen raised it to defend herself. She cried out in pain, but managed to keep a hold of her gun. She was ready to turn it on him, but she no longer had the element of surprise. He stabbed at her again. This time it pierced her shoulder. The gun dropped out of her hand now as the man moved in closer to her. He twisted the blade deeper into her shoulder and she let out another cry. "You've got some fight, I'll give you that."
"She's not the only one." Frank had been able to tear the tape the rest of the way through, apparently, and picked up her gun from where it had fallen. The guards stared at him, afraid now that the Punisher stood in front of them, armed and angry. The man who Karen had shot raised his weapon, but it was too late as a bullet tore through his skull in the next second. Frank then aimed at the man with the knife now and with no hesitation, pulled the trigger, the man's blood splattering Karen's face. She was breathing hard as the man fell next to her. Her hand went to the knife, but Frank leaned down and took a hold of her hand. "Don't do that. Leave it in."
She nodded and shakily moved to her feet with his help. "It hurts less than I thought it would."
"It's the adrenaline. We need to move." Frank stumbled and Karen was quick to catch him. Her hand rested on his stomach as she helped him stay on his feet. Despite his own injuries, it was obvious he was being careful to not rest all of his weight on her.
"Yeah, the whole building is crawling with people." Karen looked up at his face and felt herself falter. "God, you look like shit…"
"It looks worse than it is." Even with the immediate danger over, Frank was still avoiding her eye, instead he was looking around the room. "There's another exit. They were using it to avoid the offices. Come on." He handed her gun back to her before reaching down to grab a gun off of the man. Without waiting another beat, he started across the room. Obviously now wasn't the time for words, but Karen couldn't help but think that he had done something wrong. She stared at the two bodies for a moment longer before dragging herself away to follow Frank.