The Monster of St. Mark's

A Hunchback lives today in Seattle. This is his true story: From the Salem Witch Hunt to the killer “Mick the Bricker” in Seattle’s Victorian age, to the tunnels beneath Capitol Hill’s St. Mark’s Cathedral; from coast to coast, from the 18th century all the way up to the 21st century, rivals and their descendants take revenge on each other. This is a tale of eternal vengeance over four centuries. Revenge is sweet, a dish best served warm as fresh blood. Cold blooded murder is like revenge served hot. When Constance Proctor was born, she knew everything about witchcraft. She was born into a world of irony and omens, twists and witchcraft, mystery and surprise. It was the dawn of America. In the 18th Century, Puritan's were building a home, a civilization, on the fringe of the wild woods where the Devil was believed to hold dominion. The Indian savages were believed to be Satan's red faced spawn. Constance was determined to wreak havoc and exact revenge on everyone involved with the death and hanging of her Grandfather, John. The tale moves on as descendants of rivals who seek revenge on each other pass their hatred on to their heirs, across the centuries to the dark, seething Victorian age in America. In the smoke filled sky of Seattle, “Mick the Bricker,” a new kind of killer, is born. Other descendants are embroiled in the wars of Revolutionary and Civil unrest, followed by the 20th Century filled with World Wars. This is not a tale of a Damsel in Distress who needs to be saved by a Hero, a Knight in shining armor. This is a tale of an Embattled Beau who needs to be saved by a Reluctant Heroine. Upon closer inspection, who is really saving who? Or is anyone really saved? Women are fighting for their rights all over the globe and are leading the Laundry Girls’ strike in Seattle. Witches and avenging ghosts still roam the world. Real monsters are truly walking in the light of day here in the 21st century. Bones are found in the ruins of old buildings, a labyrinth is discovered and a murdering monster stalks the night in the city of Seattle. While great cathedrals, castles and ships are built and the world changes with each new invention, still humans remain the same, full of greed, hate, envy, revenge and lust. But good still exists in the world, in people, and this is a struggle between those who are victimized and the ones who victimize them. From this eternal struggle emerges a homeless hunchback, a monster, deformed in many ways. Murders of young boys occur in the neighborhood where he wanders, and he is immediately blamed for the killings. But he meets a young woman, an art student, who befriends him and learns much about him that has been hidden for many years. Is this monster simply a result of poor DNA, or was he crafted by the slow decay of society and its treatment of those who are different? Was he misshapen by his dysfunctional and cruel parents and foster care, driven to desperation by a lack of love and constant pain and suffering? Is this monster simply a product of his environment, or is there something deeper that drives the evil inside that can never be named or purged? Enter an author, writing a book, and the strange things that happen to him, as if other people's writings were left about for him to find, self-fulfilling a destiny. Was he stealing ideas or just following the path set before him? Why does his path cross with that of the monster? What will happen now that the two have become known to each other? Who is really the monster or is there more than one monster? Who are the ghosts that he sees? Can hate and revenge be replaced with love and forgiveness, or is this world too cruel? Will the descendants continue to fight and seek revenge out of hate and violence, or will their heirs finally find peace and love to dwell together in harmony? This harrowing tale concludes in an epiphany of true identity, relations and bonds of blood.

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