I don't own Batman or any other DC character.
Inspired by the Manga/ Anime Tokyo Ghoul.
Gotham Ghoul
Prologue
A tRaGeDy
"Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy." –F. Scott Fitzgerald
It had been just one week since Tim Drake returned from his trip to Japan on matters of both businesses to the Wayne Foundation and Batman Corp. for the mysterious disappearances of people in Tokyo. He took up the cape and cowl of Red Robin and fought his way to solve the mysterious but instead of solving them and determining who was causing them, he had become one that caused them.
Tim sat at his desk in his apartment, his lights on and bloodshot eyes stared at the papers crumbled around him. He gnawed at the end of his pencil and pain rumbled throughout his body, his stomach grumbling for food to be delivered. He took a deep breath and rubbed his face, his body starting to quake for something to chew on.
He hadn't been hungry for a week but now he suddenly was.
He glanced down to his stomach and grabbed the bottom of his shirt to see the stitches on his body slowly beginning to fade away. His stomach grumbled again and he got up to his mini fridge, pulling out a sandwich and wrapped the BLT, one of his favorites. He brought it to his mouth and took a large chunk of it, chewing it fast before his taste buds started kicking in.
It was like chewing a pig's intestines wrapped in sewage.
He gagged out the sandwich, his blue eyes wide in horror and stared at it.
Maybe it was old because he hadn't been home for a while.
He looked back to the fridge and pulled out a chocolate bar that he got from his friendly elderly neighbor, he unwrapped it and snapped a piece off.
It tasted of rubbish from a foul rotten fish.
He chocked it back up and fell to his knees, confusion and terror overriding him.
What the hell is going on?
Then he began his raid of trying every food he could find in his refrigerator and the apartment.
"Hey, Tim, everyone's begging to see you again you hermit! Even Stephanie-and that's saying something! Stop sticking your head in the books and come outside to see the sun once in a while! So once you get this message call me back kay!" Dick Grayson's voice echoed the household and Tim lay out on the floor, different food and drinks surrounding him with barely any bite or sip from the food or drinks. He placed a hand over his face and began to think of what may have caused the strange phenomenon.
Ah, he realized and pulled himself up, grabbing the bottom of his shirt and glanced at the switches.
It's because of his organs are inside me, isn't it? Yes, it had to be it.
He quickly got up and rushed to the kitchen, looking for a large kitchen knife. He eyed the large blade and pulled his shirt up, gripping it with his teeth and his breath started to rush along with planning to aim correctly, so he could go call one of his brothers or the police themselves, and not hit any important organs but only the ones he desperately wanted to remove from his body.
His hands shook but he gripped the blade more tightly and he let out a small scream before plunging the blade towards his body.
He waited for pain to come but the only thing now on his mind was that the knife's blade had snapped right off of the handle from coming in contact with his skin. He dropped the blade and released his shirt, falling against his chest. Tears rose up in his eyes and he scowled before another gurgle of hunger erupted from his stomach. He looked down to it before standing up and slowly walked to the door, a now distance look appeared in his eyes. He looked back to his apartment before closing the door behind him and unknown to him his stomach would draw out the horrors of his visit to Japan.
He stood in front of Wayne Enterprise and looked at the security guards before sighing and started walking away. Tim's path slowed down as he entered a cross walk, multiple people passing him by and not even noticing that he stopped in the middle of it. His stomach growled and he sniffed the air, looking at current groups of people.
People…People…
A couple smiling at each other (People…People).
A child holding her mother's hand in her own tiny one with small pig tails up (Children…).
He looked around him again and (People…People…) noticing some women (Flesh…) chatting with each other. Then two children, one boy and the other a girl (Flesh…) with backpacks strapped tightly to their figure. A pair of high school boys (Flesh…) chatted with each other discussion what he assumed was homework. A family (Flesh…) passed by with a little girl (Flesh…) on the husband's (Flesh…) shoulders and smiles greeted their faces, happy to be together. A baby (Flesh…) waved passed him along with a middle aged man (FLESH…) checking his watch with a briefcase hand in (FLESH…) and an early twenty year old woman (FLESH…) talked on the phone, a little bit her thigh (FLESH…) from her short skirt. He glanced back at the couple (FLESH…) and the children (FLESH…) and the pair of boys (FLESH…).
Then he started looking at them with the same thought rolling in his head over and over again that would soon make him insane: FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…!
The little girl paused and looked up at Tim. He snapped out of it with his eyes wide in terror and a small dribble of salvia gliding down his chin. People continued to pass him by and he slowly started to shake. The couple stopped and looked to him with the woman saying, "Is he ok?" The man scowled and pulled her aside, whispering, "Don't get involved, babe." They pulled away and continued on.
Tim bite harshly on his finger with tons of salvia dropping from his mouth, his hood covering his eyes and possibly a few tears along with it. He groaned and then quickly dashed away, ignoring the blaring headlights aimed at him and just wanted to get away from people.
He panted against the side of the garbage can and hugged his legs close to his chest, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. He slowly turned to face the reflective trash can before his eyes went even larger at the image casting back at him.
His left eye had its sclera black and his iris a deep crimson red with small veins of red coming out from his eye and covered tiny parts of his face.
He placed a hand towards it and said out loud, "What is this?"
Then he caught sight of man, probably just around Bruce's age, with long red hair and deep violet eyes grin at the side of his transformed eye.
He screamed and punched the trash can and sent it flying down the empty alleyway, scaring away rats and any possible homeless people from him. He panted and slowly got back up, his legs quivering and started moving down the alleyway.
"Kill a person…" he muttered, not even knowing what words spilled from his mouth, "And takes their FLESH!"
He gasped and snapped out of it, shocked and said, "What? It's almost like…"
He paused his train of thought and sniffed the air, his vision changing over to a different direction of the alleyway. He licked his lips and slowly started walking down that direction a small smile on his face, he slowly moved faster as it drew closer.
Even though it was the first he ever smelled it, it seemed very familiar…He started dashing now and moved faster, his smile growing even larger, It was like his mother's cooking, the few times she was there spending her time with him but her cooking was delicious. Her smiling face cast down at him and he watched as she prepared the meal with some of his aid.
There was something in that direction that he could eat!
He moved faster than what he had previously been able to do and salvia grew down his face, glancing around to find where the scent was coming from.
Where was it?
Where was it?!
WHERE WAS IT?!
Not knowing where he was going, he ran into a bunch of barrels of trash and he fell over with not much pain in his body. He quickly got up with his hood now down and smiled again, whispering to himself, "It's close…"
He slowly moved to the next corner, the smell filling him with euphoria and looked around the corner with the delight now replaced with horror.
A man stood over the body of a woman with a knife in hand and piece of the woman, fingers, toes, arm and leg, placed neatly aside to him with blood coating the man and he continued to dig into the woman's dead body before noticing Tim. The man's eyes grew large and exclaimed, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
Tim moved back a little before gulping at the sight of the dead body.
He had been drawn there by a dead body.
And the smell was killing him.
He gulped and licked his lips before looking back at the man, knowing he should do something to stop the man and put him jail.
But he had dinner there just waiting to be eaten.
He scowled and decided to ignore his stomach (for the meantime) and charged at the man, his training kicking in and snarled at the man. The man flashed the knife at him, trying to swipe him with the blood. He smirked at this, now knowing that no blade could hurt him and he quickly lunged at the man.
"Don't eat me!" he screamed at Tim who only smiled even more at this, the smell of fear making Tim more eager to defeat the man. Tim grabbed the knife from the man and plunged it into his leg, causing the thug to fall to his knees in pain and scream. Tim stood over him with a smile still gracing his face and bent down to the man, grabbing the thug's arm and gripped it so tight he could the man's bones.
"Now are you going to go silently or do I have to tear your arm right off and stuff it down your throat?" Tim hissed at the guy then before the thug had anything to spew out a gun shot echoed the alleyway and blood sprayed across his face. He blinked at this then he scowled at this (even though he wanted to devour the dinner someone let him have) and snapped around to beat the crap out of whoever shot the criminal since he would hand the guy over to the police for them to deal with.
"Whoa, Baby Bird, what's going on with your eye?"
Tim's jaw went slack at the sight of Jason Todd, standing currently in his Red Hood outfit and reloading his guns. He tilted his head to the side before Tim quickly placed a hand over his mutated eye and mumbled, "None of your business."
Jason scoffed at this and pointed his gun towards the young man, replying back, "Are you sure? Maybe I can finally put a bullet between your eyes and move on with my life."
Tim gave a sad smile and hissed back, "Try it then."
They both stood still before Jason quickly moved the gun to aim at Tim's leg and fired a round, wanting for it to make the teen bleed but Tim didn't even flinch at the attack nor any blood erupted to where the wound should have been.
"What the fuck?" Jason hissed and Tim sighed before his stomach rumbled again. His eyes grew wide again and the smell of death rolled off Jason strongly into Tim's nose. He looked down to his stomach and then the dead criminal behind him, salvia dribbled down his mouth and his mile went large.
"He's just garbage so I can eat him, right?" Tim said and chuckled at this while Jason tried firing another shot at Tim but reflect off of him.
"What the hell is with you kid?!" Jason yelled at him and Tim's eyes widen and screamed, "NO! I'm HUMAN! I won't eat it!"
Jason took a step back before Tim smiled again and went to grab the thug but Jason fired two shots at the teen, hitting the back of his head yet Tim stopped. He bent his head down towards Jason with a smile coating his face and said, "You're willingly going to become my dessert. What a treat."
Jason pulled his other gun out and replied back, "You're going to beg for mercy once you're through with me."
"I like meat with a little fight in them." Tim said and chuckled then he froze again, "No, I don't. I don't!" He placed his hands to his head and tears started to gather in his eyes.
"Stop playing with my hand! I'm HUMAN! Not a GHOUL! I DO N'T EAT HUMANS!" he screamed and Jason lowered his gun down a little before scowling.
"So you're hungry." He simply stated, his tone and stance quickly changing to ease and walked past Tim to the disregarded body parts the criminal took off of the victim, "If you're hungry then eat. I won't judge."
Tim looked up to Jason in confusion before he noticed Jason holding the couple of fingers in his hand before Tim. He gulped and shook his head wildly, ignoring the fresh meat waiting to be devoured.
"No! I'm human! I will not eat something of my own kind!" he yelled and Jason paused before removing his helmet so Tim could see Jason's frowning face.
"Listen, Tim," Jason said and placed the piece of flesh directly in front of Tim, "Just eat or you'll lose control of yourself and won't care anymore of who to eat."
Tim glanced at Jason before he licked his lips and he shook his head again. Jason scowled then grabbed Tim's hair, yanking him towards the flesh and shoved it into his mouth. Tim tried to ignore the piece of flesh in his jaw but he finally felt tears move down his face and finally accepted the food, taking a large chunk of it between his teeth and chewed.