I wish I was like him… you know… him…

I even saw him once, didn't look like a man, more like a… gargoyle, like a creature of myth, like something straight out of a gothic fiction book. Ghostly white eyes floating in his black cowl, not a single trace of emotion while he faced at least six guys… or was it seven? I don't know it was a long time ago, but I remember clearly how fast he was, it was almost as if he could foresee the future, as if he knew what they were going to do before they even knew it themselves. His cape, I'll never forget it, sometimes seemed just like a piece of cloth, a useless prop, and at other times it seemed as hard as metal, the sturdiest of all shields.

I had heard about all of his gadgets, the famed bat shaped boomerangs, and what not, but he didn't use any of those, there were no fancy stuff at all, he took the guys out in a heartbeat using nothing more than his fists, then he simply disappeared. I was too far to see if he used some kind of grappling hook or whatever, to me it just seemed that he simply took off and glided away.

I was just a kid back then, I don't know why that was all happening (but I honestly didn't care) I was just happy that I actually got to see Batman in action from the window of the decrepit apartment where I used to live, where my mother lived, until her last day.

I never forgot about it, even now for me he is the epitome of a hero, both terrifying and terrific, the "dark knight" they call him.

He tries to rid Gotham of all the demons that roam this town, big or small, from the low level crooks all the way up to the big fish. He is the one who inspired me to do what I do. I wish I was more like him, but I'm not.

The smell of gunpowder that crowds this rotten warehouse finds its way into my nostrils, and brings me back from my memories.

There are four dead bodies on the ground. I did a good job tonight. How does he do it without killing anyone? Well I wouldn't know, killing comes easy to me, really easy.

The rest of the night is filled with the (un)pleasant task of getting rid of the bodies. It's a nuisance, but there is also an undeniable beauty about it: once they were monsters, raping and killing little girls for fun, now they are just pieces of dead meat inside black heavy duty garbage bags. I can see some beauty in that transition. I put the bags in the trunk of my car; I have to drive these boys to their final destination. An abandoned factory quite far Gotham, the incinerator there still works just fine, I like to think of it as my own private crematorium. It's 20 km from any kind of civilization, built during the so called golden age, there were plans to build an entire industrial park in this area, but the great depression killed that dream. Lucky me, I like privacy.

As I dismember the bodies to make sure that they are completely incinerated I think of him again.

I wish I was more like him… you know…
But I'm not… and that's ok.