Steve Linde

Age: 32

Occupation: CFO

Residence: New Jersey

Most people say they have a guardian angel, and some do. Few would say that about Steve, his lack of luck shows that easily. In fact, if there was a name for it, you could say Steve had a guardian devil.

Steven Linde, married to Gwen Stopolis for 22 years, worked as the CFO for a major company that denies his existence. He had it well off. He lived in an upper-middle class area, had a beautiful wife, a great job, and anything he wanted. Unfortunately, paradise was a short-lived experience for Steve.

He came home late one night after helping close a merger with a fellow major corporation. Turning into the driveway, like he always does, he almost hit a car parked there. The car was shiny, like new, and a bright red. Their 23rd anniversary was coming up, so he thought it was an early present. He went into the house very quietly, trying to surprise his presumed sleeping wife. Upon arriving in the living room he found a jacket, too large to be his wife's and it wasn't his either.

He began to worry, perhaps there was a burglar in the house. He grabbed a poker from the fireplace, slowly approached the bedroom, and entered. There he found his wife, sound asleep. He was relieved, but only for a moment due to the unexpected movement next to her, and the sudden sight of another man. Steve looked at his sleeping wife, then at the man that just removed himself from the bed, then at the poker in his hands.

With a fire in his eyes he screamed a battle cry and assailed his wife's lover. He only had to stab him once, in the lower abdomen, missing the stomach, but hitting the spleen. His wife heard the cry, the man's last gasp of breath, and saw her husband, still holding the poker that caused the death of her former lover.

She looked to her husband with apology in her eyes, but still wept over the recent murder. Steve, still not fully realized what he had done, decided on one last thing before he killed his wife, "She wasn't worth it."

He had to escape, so he went to his office at work, sat in a corner, and thought of the possibilities. He could escape somewhere, being on the run isn't easy though. He could kill himself, but he thought suicide was the wimp's way out. So he decided that it was a possibility he would get time off for turning himself in. He didn't mean to kill them so brutally, they just bled to death. He was going to the police station to turn himself in, when his guardian devil must have decided to shake things up, one last time.

Very nervous, Steve turned the corner just a tad too fast, and due the recent flood, he spun out hitting three other cars in the process. That's what he saw at least, himself turning the tight corner, hitting three cars and ending up near death. But how was he seeing himself doing this, was he already dead? He moved towards the scene of the accident, and saw himself in his own car beneath the three others. He hoped it was all one bad dream, and he would wake up soon. And he did, three days later in a hospital bed. He feigned amnesia, in order to not get caught for his murders. So, shortly after his recovery, which actually was only a day's stay at the hospital, he was contacted by Orpheus.

Orpheus noticed his wife and lover's murders in the papers, and his disappearance. The papers knew that it was a passionate crime, but his friends thought he was kidnapped by the people who killed his wife and her lover. The reason why Steve reacted so murderously was because the man whom his wife had the affair with, was his best friend and a fellow co-worker.