Free Vicious by V. E. Schwab

and Victor set the empty glass on the table and flicked the cover back to reveal the rest of the face. It was the page from the copy of The National Mark he’d bought that morning.
    CIVILIAN HERO SAVES BANK
    Below ran the article on the young, precocious man who had been in the right place at the right time and had risked his life to stop an armed robber at a local branch.
Smith & Lauder Bank, a landmark in the northern financial sector of Merit, was the sight of a foiled robbery yesterday when a civilian hero put himself between a masked assailant and the money. The civilian, who wishes to remain nameless, told authorities that he noticed the man behaving suspiciously several blocks from the bank, and that a bad feeling was all that led him to follow. Before he reached the bank, the man pulled on a mask, and by the time the civilian caught up, the robber had already plunged inside. In a fearless display, the civilian went in after him. According to the customers and employees trapped inside, the robber at first appeared unarmed, but then proceeded to fire an undetermined weapon up at the stained-glass ceiling, shattering it and raining shards down on the captured populace. He then took aim at the bank vault, but was derailed by the arrival of the civilian. The bank manager reports that the robber took aim at the civilian when he tried to intercede, and then chaos erupted. Shots were fired, and in the mayhem the customers and employees managed to escape the building. By the time the police reached the scene, it was over. The robber, later identified as a troubled man named Barry Lynch, had been killed in the firefight, but the civilian was uninjured. It was a bad day with a happy ending, a remarkable display of courage by a citizen of Merit, and there is no doubt the city is thankful to have such a hero on her streets.
    Victor had blacked out most of the article in his usual fashion, and what was left, was this:
***** * ****** ***** a ******** ** *** ******** ********* ****** ** ****** *** *** sight ** * ****** ******* ********* **** a civilian hero *** ******* ******* ****** ********* *** *** ****** *** ********* *** ****** ** ****** nameless, **** *********** **** ** ******* *** *** ******** ************ ******* ****** **** *** ***** *** **** a bad feeling *** *** **** *** *** ** ******* ****** ** ******* *** ***** *** *** ****** ** * ***** *** ** *** **** *** ******** ****** *** *** ****** *** ******* ******* ******* ** * fearless ******** *** ******** **** ** ***** **** ********* ** *** ********* *** ********* ******* ******* *** ****** ** ***** ******** unarmed* *** **** ********* ** **** ** ************ ****** ** ** *** ******* ***** ******** ********** ** *** ******* ****** **** ** *** ******** ********* ** **** **** *** ** *** **** ****** *** *** ******** ** ******* ** *** ********* *** **** ******* ******* **** *** ****** **** *** ** *** ******** **** ** ***** ** ********** *** **** ***** ******** ***** **** ****** and in the mayhem *** ********* *** ********* ******* ** ****** *** ********* ** *** **** *** ****** ******* *** ****** ** *** ***** *** *** ******* ***** ********** ** * ******** ***** ***** ***** ****** *** **** ****** ** *** ********** *** *** ******** *** uninjured. It was * *** *** **** * ***** ******* a remarkable display ** ******* ** * ******* ** ****** *** ***** ** ** ******** *** **** ** ******** ** **** **** * **** ** *** ********
    It had calmed something in Victor, the blotting out of the words, but the revised state of the article didn’t change the fact that several things about it were clearly amiss. First, the robber himself. Barry Lynch. Victor had had Mitch go scrounging, and from what little they could dig up, Barry had several EO markers. Not only had he suffered an NDE, but he’d racked up a string of arrests in the months following, each for theft with an unidentified weapon. The cops never found it on his person, so he was let go; Victor had to wonder if Barry was the weapon.
    Even