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It was afternoon in Gotham, one of the lucky days with sun and shine. A movie was playing in the living room - something one of your siblings had chosen but it became background noise to all the inhabitants.
Your eyes flickered back from the screen. Hazy. Blur.
Jason and Terry were laughing loudly - arms over each other's shoulders, standing and lagging against the wall - saying something that made
Dick raise an eyebrow and Tim to stop and look at them , then shake his head helplessly. “ I can't ,with you all…”
Damian sat at the other end of the sofa, Barbara giving him a lending ear as she worked over one of her police cases.
Your younger brother talked about his day, dabbling on and on about his school friends whom he called and you quote “acceptable standards of social beings”. While Cassandra, Stephanie and Duke were playing cards on the ground.
“ Dicky, it's your turn. Come back and play before I throw this over your face. ” Steph yelled. Dick came back sitting and put the card down. “ Uno.”
“ You little-” She jumped over him.
Cassandra and Duke shared a fond look as their eldest brother screamed for her to get off.Idiots.
You remained seated in the middle, your back facing the cushion, fingers clenched, lips pressed into what you hoped was a smile. Though you hardly doubted it.
Your phone screen lit up and a notification popped on it.
Your eyes trailed over the message.
You got up. And walked out without a word.
No one gave a second look.
The clock ticked over the wall, striking thirteen, the rays of light seeping in through the cracks of the window on the east corner.Scars, burns and tightly bound part of your skin throbbed in pain.
Footsteps made way through the corridor, quick and loud, you reached your room and shut the door with resounding force.
You fell over your feet.
Your body pressed near the door, and your head leaned near your knees. Your eyes picked the phone from the inside of your pocket. Shaking,waggling - you typed the number and shoved the phone near your face.
The dialed number rang.
Once
Twice
-Click-
The caller picked up - your trembling hands kept the phone near as the voice came from the other end, demeaning and conceding in ways which were familiar.
“You got some nerve.” the voice said, the tone unnervingly calm from usual, that made your heart beat even louder, the walls felt as if they were closing in, “Pet. Was yesterday's punishment not enough for you?”
Sounds of giggles and bottles cracking were heard over the line. Some laugh at your misery, others down right out of their mind. You knew what was going to welcome you
Your throat couldn't find words to produce through the larynx.
“Oi.” the caller added.
“ Y-yes-Ye–I-s..sorry…” you stumbled over your words and immediately regretted it. The voice at the other end hushed, minutes passed in what seems to be years for you before you heard a scoff, “ Useless.”
Your nails tightened their grip over the phone even further. You held in a breath, waiting for them to continue, knowing it was going to be anything but kind.
The blood in your body was going to your brain which was running 100 miles per hour at the moment, the devil at the other end said nothing more after it, but you felt your phone vibrate once more.
XXXX-XXXXXXX
Live location sent
" I sent you the place, get here in ten minutes.” The caller said before cutting the call. You started at the profile, your fingers trailing on the edge of the number as if it physically caused you pain to get closer.
Your agitated hand used the nearby table as support to get you to stand. The crow sitting on the tree near the window screamed ‘caw caw’ before it swallowed a whole piece of bloody meat.
You had to go.
___________________________________
Alfred Pennyworth was a man of many names and talents - a man whose complete past remained unknown even to his favourite dead employers. He had served under the secret army of the queen for the majority of his youth.
Bloodshed and misery came easy to him.
It was his favourite home.
He was in his late forties when the late Wayne Partiach sought to recruit him. Alfred had saved his life nights ago during a gala he attended under a friend's request.
And frankly he was starting to think he should've let the goon shot him.
“ Be my butler, Mr. Pennyworth.” the man said, extending his hand to him. His blue eyes glimmering in ways that made him hesitate.
Alfred looked at him, the man Thomas Wayne screamed of everything that he despised. He could hear the look of disappointment in his future self.
Alfred pushed the man's hand back with a stern push, “No, thank you.” He said in his British posh accent.
But that man was the most stubborn man he had the misfortune of ever meeting. He grabbed his wrist with strength that made Alfred question the strength of a rich man.
“ Let go, sir.”
“ Not before you say yes.” By Queen's will was this man an absolute pain.
Alfred didn't use much force since they were in public and from the sounds of whispers, it seemed they were already the centre of attention.
They were standing at the Ball's centre for heaven's sake.
It was getting harder to keep a neutral expression when he was being held like a caged animal.
Alfred compeltating his choices. And against all odds, “ Fine. Now let go.”
That man let go easily.
“ My apologies.” He said with a wiggling chuckle, raising his hands in good standing, but Alfred hadn't stayed alive and thrived when many others failed for nothing. He narrowed his gaze, the man's Blue eyes looked at him as if he were a prize.
“...” He couldn't say.
He heard echo of heels over the floor and before he knew it, the most sparkling golden hair that would put gold to shame appeared under his view.
Arms grabbed around the man that held him captive, blue eyes moving away from him to her, darkness lurking out then disappearing in but a second.
His smile stretched so wide that Alfred thought his jaw would break if he smiled a little wider. The woman turned her attention from him to him and Alfred had to say she was absolutely gorgeous.
She scanned him from top to bottom just like the man before she laughed. “ Thomas, introduce me to him.”
The man that Alfred then knew as Thomas gazed at him and put a hand around the woman. “ Our new butler and friend, honey. Isn't it right Alfred Pennyworth?”
Alfred couldn't believe the audacity.
But those eyes had something in them that drew that younger version of him in like no other. Alfred took the hand, wondering what life of a servant was different than before with less bloodshed.
It was ten times more.
Alfred was surprised like never before and as he watched the man with that sunny smile and his wife carry out an execution of Gotham's scum, he could feel his heart beat like never before.
__________________________________
“ This is an absolute abhorrent idea, Drake.”
Tim looked from over his laptop, eyes moving towards the speaker like a serpent, cold and irritated. His youngest brother gave him a pointed look while he sat next to their eldest sister and friend.
“ I know, Dami. ” He said smoothly, “ But we're here to make it all better later.”
Dick got up from the ground where the cards were laid, the two numbered next to a card turned upside down, his steps steady as he took place in the centre.
His hands moved through the air like a breeze and stirred all of his siblings' attention like moths. His bright blue eyes resembling his adopted grandfather's and father's in ways that were like blood over the ocean.
Ten pairs of eyes looked at him with sparkling intensity. He grinned. “ Timmy's right little wing. We're going to be here.”
Terry and Jason chuckled.
Stephanie let out a howling laughter.
Cassandra’s eyes sharpened in intensity.
Duke shook his head in amusement.
Barbara adjusted her glasses.
Damian, he let the thought stir in his mind before he became the picture perfect version of a noble prince he was raised to be. “ True.”
_________________________________
Steps arrived outside the warehouse, Figure arched, eyes barely open and trembling fingers pressed over the knob. You pushed it open and took a step in.
Nothing.
There was no one side.
You moved in further.
Your lips quivered in disgust as the most repulsive smell eroded your nose. You covered your face quickly, before your head turned left and right to find the source.
A splash was made by your feet.
You looked over to the ground, a drop of red paint sitting at the bottom.
A droplet fell from the top of the roof over your cheek.
Your finger wiped it from your face and looked at the smudged red on the tip. A deep shade of red.
Your neck extended upwards and you took a step back in recoil. A scream made its way to your lips but it remained stuck, trapped in a cage you called your pharynx.
Your body fell backwards.
A slump of meat falling over your knee.
You shrieked.
The camera hidden at the far corner watched without blinking. Satisfied. Cold. The watchers felt their heart beat quicken, excitement and joy twisted around the pity they felt. They could make it all better for you.
You, on the other hand, stayed on the ground unmoving after your initial scream. Blood smudged over the colour of your skin. Paralyzed and flooded with emotions.
Your body began to shake, your emotions invisible to the watchers who indulged in the joy they would cause you after your recovery.
You were pressed to your knees. Shaking and crying, “ N-No- No no nonononono-” You poor thing, they all thought.
You wailed, “ I-I hated you.. I despised you. I wish you all stopped- wished you'd all left me alone.” The hanging bloody bodies on the top used to laugh at you, now you were crying in pain for them.
“ I feel bad.” Duke whispered, even if the emotions he showed looking at the screen said the exact opposite. He looked delighted.
Jason who was looking at the screen with unblinking eyes crossed his arms even tighter. “ I know. But that's what makes it sweeter later.”
" The recordings and things we created worked in our favour." Damian said taking a stand next to Jason.
" Yeah. It was practically toddler work for us." Terry said hanging his hand around the youngest's neck.
" Unhand me, you Heather-"
" Shu." Dick said, quieting them in a hold. " We're going to miss things this way."
They directed their attention completely back to your figure.
Hidden from view, under the darkness of the closed and bloody mess of a warehouse - memories tied to suffering and pain - was your face.
“ No.” you grinned to no one but yourself.
Alfred watched from the roof, a hole at the edge that cameras couldn't catch easily, looking at the girl who was the exact replica of his former employer.
You had them do what you wanted without a word.
The card at the ground flipped back from the cold breeze that blew from the window at the Wayne mansion. It was a wild plus four.
The end.