The Beauty and the Bat
Prologue
Once upon a time in a faraway land a young boy lived in a beautiful castle. He had jet black hair, bright blue eyes and pale skin. He lived with his two beloved parents and butler and was unlike the other boys in his position. He was kind, compassionate, happy, and was a little spoiled, for what rich only child wasn't? He didn't have any other friends besides his father, mother and butler since he was and thought to always be an outcast.
Then one day the boy and his parents went to a play in a village near by. When they were making their way to their horses, they crossed through an alleyway. They were near the other side of the alley when they were met by a man with a bow. He threatened to shot if they didn't give his all of their money. The boy's father and mother gave the man the money that was in their pockets but it wasn't enough.
The man didn't want witnesses or to get caught so he released the string and shot the boy's father square in the chest. As he fell the boy's mother screamed and the man took out another arrow and stabbed her in the heart with. As she fell the killer left with his money and bow leaving the boy alone. He screamed once he knew they were dead and that he was truly alone.
Then a woman came up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was and saw a pale faced woman dressed in a black hoopy dress, with raven hair, black eyes, and a dark gold crown on her head. She stepped back as the boy stood up in her direction.
"Why are you here?" the child asked.
"I am here to give you something," the woman said.
"What?" the boy asked without joy and through tears.
"To give to something you would have given yourself," the woman began. She then turned her wrist and once she did shadows began to move. The shadows began to come onto the boy and crawl up his legs. The child noticed it and tried to move to escape it but to no avail. The shadows began to devour him and began to attach to his body, his clothes and his skin. The boy screamed in pain as it bounded itself to him and as it, literally, injected itself into his heart and his mind.
"What are you doing to me?" he asked through screaming.
"I'm giving you as the host to my parasite monster," the woman said with evil intend. The boy continued to scream. "You should have known better than to go through the Alley of Darkness. Where I, the queen of it, lie!" The shadows then covered the boy and a vampire bat flew down. The bat had fangs laced with black poison, black wings and body, black pointy ears, sharp claws, and red eyes. The vampire bat turned toward the queen of darkness in mid-flight. "There is your host," the queen said as she pointed toward the hunch of shadows that covered the boy. The bat flew into the shadow and bit the boy on his head and on his heart. The bat flew into the boy's body and all was silent.
The shadows then began to peel away and the boy's old form was gone. The bat had gone and made itself at home and changed the boy's physical form to better suit himself. Once the queen of darkness saw what was left of the boy she was pleased with herself and with her parasite. The boy was no longer a child, physical, but an adult. He had dark black armored skin that covered his whole body, small fangs, clawed hands, his arms and legs had muscle to them, a black leathered cape, and black ears that sat on top of his head, they had small slits so he could hear. He also there wasn't anything left of his former human self besides his now large feet and his blue eyes. He first at his reflection and was terrified of himself. He then looked at the woman.
"What have you done to me?!" he exclaimed angrily. He then covered his mouth. His voice was gravely, deep and terrified him. He then looked at his hands.
"I've done nothing," the queen told him with a sneer. "The bat is the one who did this to you. He turned you into something you would have become due to grief anyway. A monster."
"No," he whispered to himself.
"Now," the woman said. "You are one." He looked up at her.
"Change me back!" he shouted.
"I can not," the woman said with a smile. "For I can't reverse what someone else has done. You're stuck with my parasite now. " He sighed and then looked at his reflection. She then snapped her fingers and where she was once stood was smoke. He got up and began to walk out of the alley but didn't get far before his head began to hurt. The bat then took over his mind and with the bat in the driver's seat they terrorized the village till all fear the bat monster. He had used his screeching to destroy houses and building and brutally killed others with his claws filling the bat's lust for blood. The screams and cries of the remaining filled the night air as light would fill a dark room.
Once the bat was satisfied he let the boy take control again but by then it was too late and blood of hundreds was on his head. The boy had become horrified at himself for what he had done and was capable of. With his leather cape, which really was a set of wings put closely together, he flew back toward his castle as dawn began. He flew into his master bedroom through his balcony door and then something happened to the castle. The once light filled room began to get darker once he touched the ground. The walls changed from beige to dark blue black as did everything else the floor was no longer a carpet but a black, cold marble floor. The darkness then spread outside of the window and the once cheerful sky turned tearful and gloomy. The castle on the outside had changed; the color of it was now darker and the structure was more gothic.
The curse of bat was now affecting his home as well. He was shocked and panicked as the castle had begun to change as well as how the sky was changing as well. He went over to his large window and saw that the sky had turned gray and that the wind was blowing his now ripped gray curtains about. He steeped onto the small little stone terrace outside his room and saw the horrifying lightning filled sky.
"What have I done?" he asked himself. Then a lightning bolt struck down onto the terrace. He turned to see that where the bolt had hit there was a small, white hand mirror and a red rose. He picked the items up and went inside his room and placed the items on his bedside table. He then sat on his bed and thought over what had happened and what the items meant.
The bat told him that the hand mirror was a gateway that could show you what was going on the outside world. It could be used so you would see, let's just say, where your butler was. Then once the bat told him this the family butler, with bow and arrow at hand and raised, opened the door and saw the monster and was startled.
"Who are you?" the butler asked in an instructive tone ready to shot at any moment.
"Alfred, it's me," the monster said without even looking up. "It's Bruce."
"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked.
"Yes, Alfred. It's me," Bruce told him.
"How do I know that it's you?" Alfred asked.
"Your name is Alfred Pennyworth," Bruce began. "You were born in England. And I'm Bruce Wayne, the only child of Dr. Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne. I have no friends outside of family and you." Alfred, realizing it was Master Bruce, lowered his bow and went over to the bed and sat across from the creature.
"What happened to you?" Alfred asked. "And where are your parents? I came up because I thought I heard an animal up here." Bruce, with mental stability of a child, told him what had happened with an emotion breakdown happening shortly after. Alfred too was shedding tears. "O, Master Bruce. I'm dreadfully sorry, for all of this. I can't ever replace them but I promise I won't ever leave your side." He then gave him a hug and a shoulder for the boy to cry on.
Now, the rest of his childhood only went downhill. You see the bat was mainly in the driver's seat during this time, since he couldn't put up much of a fight. The bat was mainly the one in control and he was a destroyer. If I had not been for Alfred cooling him down and feeding him raw meat with dripping blood, the bat would have destroyed the whole house as well as what was left of the poor boy. The bat had destroyed his bedroom and turned it into a pig sty and not to mention a lot of paintings and vases destroyed by his claws. Rarely the bat would even threaten Alfred before he would pipe him down and give him some more raw meat. Now the rare times when Bruce was in control, might I remind you mental and age wise he's still a kid, it was much more pleasant for Alfred and Bruce. Alfred had gotten a chance to help Bruce calm down and help keep him mental sane, for the most part. Those where the times when he got to be a kid again.
Now once he became an adult, mental and age wise, meaning eighteen, he finally was in control almost the whole time. He got to be more human and be more of himself. He and Alfred also had finally gotten him to establish some etiquette and they had an actually relationship again. Finally, Bruce had somewhat of a human life again.
But not fully was he free from the bat. For every 13th of a month the bat would take back over. The 13th because that was the day his parents died and, especially on the month as well as the day they died, the bat took over. When it did it was very painful. His fangs grew longer, his wing cape, that he could never take off, stuck to his arms and forged together, and he grew stronger and more blood thirsty. So near the time of the transformation on the 12th he would chain himself in a dungeon cell in such a strong chain that not even the bat could break them, and the bat could break cars in two. And so every 13th of a month from the beginning of the day till the end of it he transformed and the mind of the bat took over. But once the day was over he returned to his "normal" stage and his right mind.
Now the rose he had found on his balcony was an enchanted rose which would bloom until his 24th year. Now if he a woman could learn to love him for who he really was and not for appearances and he could accept and return that love before the last petal fell the curse would be broken. If not then he would be doomed to remain bond him for all eternity. As years pasts he lost all hope and went into despair for he believed that he was too dangerous to be released from the castle and who could ever learn to love a monster.