A BAT AND ARROW

And so, I wait for my dad to come home.

It's a Saturday night and I'm in the living room of our new house which has sparse furniture. Despite the fact that we have more rooms, there are less people living here (just my dad and me), and it feels… empty. Dead inside. Like a cold shell. I take a sip of my water and continue to read my Kindle. Glancing up, I finally see his headlights approaching.

The door opens and my dad stands in the doorway drenched in rain. He wipes the rain off his brow.

"Hey," he smiles. "I got you something."

He holds up a soggy fast food bag.

We sit at the counter island and eat quietly. Finally, he looks up and for the first time in months we make eye contact. "I'm sorry," he says. "I've been a shitty dad."

I close my eyes and rest my head on my hand. "I haven't been the best son, either."

Another moment passes and he asks if I'll forgive him.

I look at him. "Tell me about Gretel."

His eyes widen in surprise before softening in understanding. "Right," he sighs. Then he goes on to tell me exactly what I know. He was involved. He had seen the tape recorder in Gretel's bag and proceeded to rat her out to Ford. After that, they tortured her mercilessly and threw her out the window. "It was wrong," he says slowly and I fix my eyes on the window over his shoulder. It's raining outside and the sky is dark blue. "But it's what we have to do in this city to survive."

"Why are you working with Whittaker?" I shake my head. "Dad, I never knew that you were involved in all this…"

"To give your mom and you a good home." He sits a little straight and sticks up his chin. "To provide for my family."

"Why didn't you just be a normal accountant?" I scoff. "Without all the… the extra stuff you did? The laundering? Taking bribes?"

"Did it ever occur to you that they would hurt us if I didn't cooperate?" he asks, his voice growing angrier. "I didn't have a choice." He stands up, pushing his chair back and begins to walk away. Then he stops and looks over his shoulder. "If I could, I would do it all over again."

I clench my teeth as he starts to walk away again.

"You killed mom."

The statement comes out, steely, cold and clear. He turns to look at me. "Yes…" he finally says. "I did. And I'm sorry."

He goes upstairs.

After he disappears, I run into my room where I throw open my closet. There's a secret door which I open and pull out a blue hoodie. I zip it up, slip on my rugged jeans, throw on a pair of sneakers and head out with my gym bag. As I walk out from my warm house and into the cold, shattering rain, I slam the door behind me.

It's time to fight crime.

As I patrol the streets, scaling from building to building, I spot some men vandalizing a store. I head down the ladder, my bow and arrow in hand. It's a candy store and they're demolishing everything in sight. One of them has a bat and he smashes open a display of gumballs which litter to the floor in thousands. I stretch my arm back and position my arrow right at his arm.

"Ack!"

The vagrant's clutching his arm now and bleeding profusely and the others all start scrambling around. I chuckle, pulling out arrow after arrow. Then I pull out one of my special ones which is charged with electricity. "Ready or not…" I aim the arrow and am ready to shoot when suddenly, there's a sharp pain in my jaw.

In a few seconds, I'm on the floor and my bow scatters to the distance. I look up and come face to face with dark eyes. It's Batman.

"Who are you?" he asks, his voice dark and low.

Before replying, I throw back my elbow and try to land a hit to his face. He dodges and I keep throwing punch after punch. Finally, one of my punches meets and that's when he grabs my arm and twists it behind me. "Ow!"

"You're just a kid." He says. It comes out as more of a question than a statement. By the time he lets me go, the candy store is empty. I'm breathing heavily.

"Go home." He tells me.

"No."

His eyes narrow.

"We need people to protect this city." I say. "I'm tired of seeing people get killed. Tired of the corruption. It's time we do something."

"You can't help."

"Yes," I raise my chin defiantly. "I can. I have."

He looks at me for a long time.

"Fine. But don't expect anyone to save you if you get into trouble."

Before I can say anything, he's gone.