Chapter 9
The night was spent rather peacefully. Rorschach was a little antsy from not going outside and breaking faces, but he had promised the little girl he'd stay in that night and he would. Of course the girl tried to get his mind off that by asking him questions, even if they were a little too invasive.
She kept asking him questions about Blair and why he chose to remember the day she died and he did his best to not give her any information. She didn't seem to be aware that it was a touchy subject and he was partly to blame for that because he didn't come out and tell her. Maybe it was because he figured if he told her that she would just ask even more questions.
Alice, to her credit, seemed to figure it out all on her own and eventually stopped pestering him about it. Instead she started to change the subject.
But just as she opened her mouth to do so there was a loud crash from the apartment next door. She gasped and jumped out of her seat, freaked out by the sudden sound.
Walter on the other hand wasn't the least big concerned about the noises as they were basically a normal occurrence. The only thing that surprised him was that it hadn't happened sooner.
He looked at her then at the wall before saying. "Don't be bothered, It's just the neighbors moving their furniture."
Which was basically true. The couple next door had loud fights with always ended with them throwing things at each other. When he'd first heard it he thought something worse had been going on, as in a husband abusing his wife but then he'd come to realize the two never once laid a finger on each other during their fights. It almost seemed like their arguments were what kept them together.
Romance was such a foreign concept to him.
Alice stared at the wall, eyes wide. "Are you sure?" she asked him.
"I'm sure." he responded.
The girl looked back at the wall as more sounds assaulted her ears. Whoever those people were they sounded like they were having a war. The girl moved to the farthest end of the sofa and sat down again, her eyes on the wall.
There was a pounding on the door just then. Alice looked at Walter who looked back at her. he hadn't been expecting any visitors. "Better go in the bedroom."
She did so as he got up and went to answer the door. The landlady was standing there glaring at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Whatever you're doing in there," the woman said, glaring at him. "I want you to stop."
He stared at her without any expression. "Not me," he told her, his face a blank. "The neighbors. Why would I be making that much noise? In the time I have lived here have I ever made a ruckus?"
She had nothing to say about that but he could tell by the look on her face she wasn't happy that he wasn't the one responsible. He knew she'd been looking for a reason to throw him out for a long time and so far she hadn't been able to come up with anything. Her life must be very miserable if she was so obsessed with getting rid of him.
Walter said nothing about that though he simply told her in a flat voice. "If you wish for the noise to end speak with the ones responsible." before closing the door in her face before she could say anything more.
Alice came back out after he'd closed the door and asked. "Who was that?"
"Landlady," he replied, heading back to the sofa. "Thought it was me making noises."
"Oh..."
"Hnngh." he sat down on the sofa without another word.
The girl left the bedroom and went to join him on the sofa. For a moment the two sat there quietly, each lost in their own thoughts until Alice looked at him and asked out of nowhere. "How old are you?"
Well, that was unexpected. "Why?" he asked, glancing down at her.
She stared at him, her eyes wide. "I wanna know. Mommy was thirty," she said. "and my Daddy was thirty two. I'm eight."
"That's nice." he didn't know how that had anything to do with him or his age.
When he didn't tell her his age she made a face and continued to pressed him on the matter. "How come you won't tell me your age? Don't you like your age?"
"I'm old enough." he stated, wishing she'd let it alone. What in the world had possessed her to ask him such an invasive question and at this very moment?! "Not your business."
"I know," she admitted which clued him in that she just didn't care if asking him such a thing was being nosy or not. "I'm just curious. Mommy says if a person refuses to admit their age it means they're at the time in their life when they don't want to feel old."
"Only women do that." he said.
"How do you know?" she asked him.
"I just do."
"Then why aren't you telling me your age if guys don't care about such things?"
She wasn't going to let up until he told her. He sighed, figuring telling her it wouldn't be a huge deal, it would make her stop pestering him about it anyway. "Thirty seven."
"Really?" she asked. when he nodded she said. "You don't look that old. You look younger."
She was giving him a compliment though he didn't feel flattered by it. "Thanks..." he said anyway.
There was another thump and the girl looked back toward the wall.
"Looks like the fat whore didn't bother telling them to stop," Walter remarked bitterly. "Seems she only cared about it when she thought I was responsible."
"I'm sorry," the girl said,looking at him.
"Not your fault," he informed her, getting up off the sofa. "Just doesn't like me very much, you know. Wants to get rid of me but can't find any good reason to yet. Will one day and will have no great glee in doing it."
"Why does she have to be like that to you?" she wanted to know. "What did you ever do to her?"
"Nothing," he told her. "Just doesn't like me is all. Never has. Her problem, not mine."
"Well she's not very nice," she responded. "I don't like her. She seems to be a very mean person."
"Doesn't matter," he said, looking out the window with a far away look on his face. "Not a big deal."
Alice didn't believe him but she said nothing. It was a good thing she didn't as she was only projecting her own feelings onto him. Walter honestly didn't care about his land lady or what she thought of him. She didn't know anything about him or the things he did. He was doing more for humanity than that fat whore could ever dream of and she was so selfish that the rest of the world meant absolutely nothing to her.
That was just how it was.
The girl got off the sofa and joined him by the window, still saying nothing. She stared out, her eyes on the wall of the apartment next door. She looked up at Walter then back at the wall, realizing that whatever he was seeing wasn't the wall but something else altogether.
Maybe he was seeing the world and all the horrible things about it, maybe he was even thinking about Blair, she didn't know but she was afraid to ask him. Instead she merely reached up and took his hand. When he squeezed it in response she felt a little better.
"She was about your age," he said suddenly.
Alice looked up at him. "who?"
"Blair," he replied.
"Oh..."
"Some scum bag kidnapped her believing her father was related to some rich family but it wasn't true. I went out to find her after promising her family I would bring her home safe..." his voice trailed off and the girl wondered if he would continue or leave it up to her to figure out what happened.
The answer to that was easy. "But you didn't, did you?" she asked. "That's why you mark it on your calender."
He nodded, saying nothing more.
Alice felt bad for him. It must really hurt to know that not matter what you did you couldn't always keep your promises.
"I'm sorry," she told him.
"Not your fault," he told her. "Nothing anyone could have done..." but his tone seemed to say otherwise, as if he were blaming himself for what happened. It hadn't been his fault either, he'd done the best he could. She knew that but she could tell he didn't think so. She didn't say it though as she didn't want to upset him. It was best if they just left it at that.
So they continued to stare at the window, no other words passing between them.
The rest of the night was uneventful and the two went to bed early. While the girl, curled up in a tiny ball on the bed, gripping the doll Walter had given her, fell asleep quickly the man could not get to sleep. His mind refused to settle down and he wound up laying on his back staring at the ceiling and thinking.
For awhile he relieved the events of the night everything had changed,from the moment he'd broken into the building, to when he'd seen those dogs eating the girl's remains to when he'd ensured the man would never do that to anyone else ever again.
The memories were unpleasant and he forced himself to push them to the back of his mind where they belonged and instead focused on a different little girl.
He couldn't save Blair but he could do all he could to ensure a similar thing did not happen to Alice Blake. There was so much he could do to ensure this child was able to grow up. He was already doing a decent job with it by keeping her in his care until he managed to take down the man responsible for the death of her parents.
Once that was all taken care of he could then take her to someone who would ensure she would find a good home. She'd mentioned she had some relatives living in Maine and surely by now they knew what had happened to her mother. Maybe they would take her in after this was all over. He couldn't risk contacting them now to get her as her enemies would surely find out about it and track the family down and murder them all.
He sat up and looked down at the sleeping child. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, her face angelic and innocent. "Don't worry," he said to her. "I will make sure nothing happens to you, I promise."
The next morning Alice woke up to find herself alone in he apartment. Startled, she got out of bed and rushed out into the living room discovering she was indeed by herself. She was about to panic but then noticed a note sitting on the coffee table addressed to her.
Alice, it began.
I will be out today. There are things I need to take care of involving the deaths of your parents. I will be back later when I get what i need. If you're hungry I left the cereal box on the table so you don't have to climb on anything to get it.
He'd signed the note with the Rorschach symbol he used instead of his name.
Reading the note helped the girl feel better and she sighed, setting it down on the table. She headed into the kitchen and spotted the box of cereal was exactly where he said it would be. She smiled to herself and walked over to the table to get her breakfast.
As she at down to eat she wondered if he would be able to find out anything else about what happened. He'd promised her he would make sure the bad people who hurt her parents would be punished for their crimes which made her feel better but she wondered how long that would take. If he didn't manage to do anything about them it wouldn't ever be safe for her to go out in the world and someone her age didn't like being cooped up inside all the time.
She kicked her feet up and down under the table as she chewed her cereal. If only she could do something to help him but what could she do? She was just a little kid and useless. She couldn't even give him anything helpful to speed up his investigation.
"I wish I could remember more," she said to herself, reaching for the glass of milk she'd poured for herself. "If I could it would make him happy."
However she had no way of doing that as she could remember nothing that would be helpful. She finished her breakfast and put her dishes into the sink, still wracking her brain for anything that would helpful. Nothing was coming to her except what she'd already told him before and she was getting frustrated with her own memory.
"There has to be something," she said to herself. "There just has to!"
The girl headed back into the living room and picked up the doll that she'd set on the sofa when she'd come into the room earlier. She stared at it's painted on face, feeling useless.
"I wish you could tell me what to do," she said to it, hugging it to herself and climbing onto the sofa. She sat there with a sigh, snuggling the toy to her chest. "I wish I wasn't so useless..."
Rorschach, as Walter Kovacs and his insane street preacher sign,wondered past the home of Giovanna Fiorina his target. The large building surrounding the by the high spiked chain link fence looked deserted as the owner still had not returned from his vacation. But the reason for him coming by wasn't to break in but to get a feel for the face, find out ways to get inside quickly and easily and without attracting any attention. As he had broken into many high security places before this shouldn't be too hard to do, all he needed to do was find one weak spot, one place that wasn't as severely guarded as any of the other places. Once he accomplished that getting inside would be a peace of cake.
He stood at the front gate, sign gripping tightly in his hand and stared, eyes probing every single inch of the place for future discretion. From where he stood he could spot a few areas that might be easy to breech but he needed future scrutiny to be sure so he moved on, studying the place from different angles.
Secure, but as he'd observed previously there were a few places he could get into if he was patient and very careful which was good for him but bad for his target.
The man continued walking, heading away from the building now. There was nothing more he could do that day.
Alice was sitting at the window when he came into his apartment. She'd pulled a chair from the kitchen into the living room and was sitting at it with her back to him as she stared outside. He closed the door and walked over to her, wondering what she was doing.
The girl must have heard him shut the door because she turned her head as he started toward her. The look on her face was that of utter relief when she saw who it was. She didn't say anything but did give him a little wave.
"What are you doing?" he asked her.
"Nothing." she said. "Just sitting here, thinking."
"What about?"
"How I can help you." she replied.
Oh.
"I want to help you catch the bad people who hurt my parents," she explained. "But I can't remember anything that would be useful." she looked like she was going to start crying.
Poor kid. "It's fine," he told her gently.
"It's not fine!" she exclaimed. "I am useless and I can't do anything right. I'm nothing but a burden on you!"
Walter said nothing, not because he agreed with her but because he didn't know what to say to make the child feel better. He was sure if he told her the opposite of what she believed she would say he was only saying that to make her feel better. Poor kid.
So he knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulder, looking her in the eye. "Alice, you have done the best you could," he told her. 'If you can't remember anything it's not your fault. You can't be expected to remember those things, you're only a child."
She rubbed her eyes. "But you need to know things," she protested. "I just want to help."
"You have," he said gently. "Thanks to you I have managed to discover some very important information. It won't be long before I can make sure the bad men responsible for what happened pay for what they did."
She sniffled. "Really?"
He nodded. 'Really and it's all thanks to you."
Her sniffles quieted down and she looked at him with utter appreciation.
"Thank you." she said, with a small smile.
"Nnngh."
She looked like she wanted to hug him but she didn't. Instead she turned back to the window and looked back outside. He joined her, peering out but seeing nothing of interest. What in th world was she looking at?
Maybe she wasn't seeing anything in reality. She might just be seeing things in her mind and looking out the window was just helping her to think. He'd done the same quite often so he didn't bother asking her what she was doing since it was obvious.
"Did you find out anything else about the bad people who hurt my parents?" she finally asked him.
He glanced down at her. "A little."
"What did you find?" she asked.
That it should be pretty easy to get into his house when he returns from Europe, he thought but didn't say. "Nothing that I use right now," he said instead.
"Oh..." she looked up at him."how soon do you think you can use it?"
"Pretty soon," he told her.
"I hope so."
Walter did too.
"What are you planning on doing?" she asked him.
"About the bad people?" he asked.
The girl nodded.
"I told you before," he reminded her, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a slight squeeze. "I'm going to make sure they don't ever do something like this to anyone ever again."
