Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wayne manor is big and vast. Even the lively galas Mr. Wayne frequently hosts never seem to make it to your corner of the manor.

It’s nice. Lonely, but nice.

There were times, a few years ago, where a little boy would spot you and run off screaming, only to come back with Young Master Bruce. But you are very good at hiding from him.

“Young Master Bruce” is what Alfred called him, but now he’s just “Master Bruce” so it’s not exactly clear if it’s the same guy. He looks the same.

Alfred is your best friend in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! He’s so polite and respectful, even though you’re dead, hasn’t even tried to exorcise you once— which all your old homes did. A lot.— and Alfred hasn’t even called this “Constantine” guy you’ve heard Master Bruce mention.

He sounds scary.

But now you’re left alone. None of Master Bruce’s other children seemed to believe in you, thank goodness.

It gets boring, though. So sometimes, at night, when everyone is away, you head to the library. The books are all very entertaining, even the ones you don’t understand.

So that’s what you’re doing tonight, going through all these books. It’s nice and peaceful. And dark. The dark is nice. Your eyes are so sensitive to the light…

What you don’t expect is to hear the library door open. You hastily shove the book you’re holding back in place before finding a spot to hide.

It’s the big one— Master Jason? Jay? Jason? Little Wing? Todd? Seriously, who is this guy??? — you thought he was supposed to be on patrol

ANYWAY. He’s in the library. During YOUR maybe-not-scheduled-but-still-very-sacred time in it.

You cautiously float over, taking a glance at this Jason guy. His eyes and nose are red, he’s got a wad of tissue in his hand, and he’s trudging toward a loveseat with a side table.

He grabs a book off it and groans.

“My bookmark…”

…You hadn’t meant to drop it. You were just curious about what the book was doing out, so you looked through it! That paper didn’t even belong in there!

You come a little closer as he flicks through the pages, then lean over the back of the seat.

Jason pulls the tissue up to his nose and blows, before putting it on the table next to him.

You vaguely remember doing that once. The memory is… less than pleasant.

All at once, your body starts to ache, your head feels foggy, dizzy… you open your mouth and a bit of blood drips to the floor.

You shake your head quickly, wincing as the feeling goes away.

Unfortunately that got the attention of Todd.

“….What the fuck.”

You panic, stepping back.

He steps up.

You scream, and book it.

“No, hey! Come back!!!”

The next morning, all the lights are off in the manor. You like it, it’s nice!

You have to be a little stealthy today become of last night, so you’re putting extra energy into being invisible.

There’s this weird conversation coming from one of the rooms.

“Drake, stop moving it!”

“Stop giggling like that, Dickface!”

“If anyone here’s a ghost it’s Jason.”

“Which is why I know what I saw! I SHOWED you the tissue with the blood!”

Tissue with the blood? Was somebody bleeding?

You want to see, so you phase into the room. There’s candles strewn about, and four boys in a circle.

This looks like a fun game!

You hurry over, staring at it.

Boo. It’s just some stupid board with letters.

Ooh, but it looks like you’re supposed to move this triangle thingy. Thats what the other boy is doing.

It’s so cozy in here, it’s nice and dark, but it seems like the boys can see okay, so it’s a win all around!

You scoot the planchette.

“Holy-“

“What?”

“Shut up- look.”

You scoot it again, a bit of laughter escaping you

“I knew it! I TOLD Bruce this place was haunted!”

“Dick! Shut up!”

All eyes are on this weird triangle as you move it around, you are GOOD at this game!

So good that you accidentally forget to remain invisible.

“Oh my god…”

You see your hands. Oh no. Then you glance at the circle of boys, who are all now staring at you as you float above your game.

You can go up. You shut your eyes and let yourself move upwards

“WAIT—“

And you’re back in a dark lonely room.

Chapter Text

You’ve been invisible for two days. It’s starting to take a toll on you. Two days is a long time for you to be invisible, because you never really mastered most of your ghost powers you supposedly have.

But the boys have been looking for you nonstop. They even skipped patrol to do so.

Staying invisible made you more tired than you usually were. Any chance you got was used to take a break. It never lasted more than 10 minutes.

It was familiar. The breaks that only lasted a short while before you felt like you were going to collapse again. But you’re not sure what your soul was comparing it to.

Unfortunately, you were caught on day 3 during one of your breaks. You’d tried to take a longer one this time, only for the smallest to find you.

“They’re in!”

You whimper, trying to go up. And you hit your head. it doesn’t hurt. But it’s terrifying. Why can’t you leave? you try down. The same result.

“Damn, Dami… I didn’t know you could trap ghosts like that.”

“Tch. I’m Ra’s al Ghul’s grandson, Drake. Of course I can.”

You’re trapped?!

You try to go for the door, but it feels like you’ve hit a glass pane.

You really ARE trapped.

“Nice work, demon brat.”

You whimper, hearing that word. Demon? You vaguely remember hearing once that demons eat souls. And you don’t have a body to protect you anymore. So you hurry to the furthest corner and grab something off a shelf. You aren’t afraid to go full poltergeist if you need to!

“Woah… hey- we aren’t gonna hurt you.!” The original— Richard. You remember his name because you liked it.— steps in front of the rest of the group.

You still throw the candle you’d grabbed, which is quickly caught.

“Can we talk?”

You glare. They can talk all they want. And you’re sure you aren’t getting out of it.