Epilogue
"Have you seen this?!"
Benjamin "Bird" Larson knew a few things. He had a headache from hell, his books were fucked, and he certainly hadn't seen whatever it was the old man was raving about. "No. And I'm about to, aren't I?" He grumbled, not even bothering to still his pen when he heard the paper smack against his desk.
Behind him, Talon hissed, and in his hesitation, he could see Delilah Wayne's face staring at him from the society pages. Scratch that, Delilah Devereux-Wayne. The daughter of the late socialite and PR Head of Wayne Enterprises, Paige Devereux. "Fuck."
"I have a granddaughter." The man tittered. Practically clicking his heels. "A very rich granddaughter. Boy, do you know what this means Benji?!" The man cried. "She'll be looking for her dear old granddaddy next." No sooner had the words came out did he pause and tilt his head. "I see Talon's back."
"Nothing gets by you, Dad." Bird muttered, ignoring the narrowing of the man's eyes, as he spun the paper around. "You're not going to bother that girl."
"Bother? Me? oh, no, no. Of course not!" He cried, clutching his chest as if it were some great insult. But then he was still again, so still, it forced Bird to look up from his receipts. "You knew." The man growled, swiping the paperwork to the floor. "You knew!"
"YEAH! SO WHAT IF I DID?!" Bird shouted, Talon fidgeting behind him when his chair flung back. "Paige didn't want you to know!"
"My baby? Not tell me? What a bunch of hogwash!"
"Yeah, your baby. The one you almost killed!" Bird roared, twisting away from him before he decided to throw a fist. Instead, he reached for the falcon. "Really, when you think about it. You did kill her." He said quietly, rolling his eyes at the sound of the man's choking.
"I most certainly did not-"
"It was your hired hands. The men that killed her? They came from your organization." He said, his jaw tightening when the man fisted his hands into his shirt.
"Stop this now!"
"If you hadn't put this shit together Paige would sill be alive. Your own daughter! My sister!" Spying the glint of a blade peeking out between his fingers, Bird grabbed his wrist, effectively putting it to his own throat. "Go ahead, Dad." He hissed through his teeth as the blood began to roll neck. "Why not go two for two?"
"Ack! I'm not going to dirty my hands with you!" He hissed shoving his own son back.
"And this girl?" Ben continued, watching the man rake his hands into his grayed hair. "You almost sold her. She was just a toddler. Thank god I knew who she was or I wouldn't have been able to guide that particular transaction. You indirectly killed your daughter and nearly sold off your grandchild. She doesn't need you poking around in her life. Leave that girl alone. You've done enough damage!"
The old man just ripped the paper out of his hand. "This! Do you know what this is? What this truly is?!" He cried holding it up. "This little girl is crying for her family. She's looking for them. It's time we collected her!"
"OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT! I can't deal with your bullshit right now! You're not going near her! Thankfully the old man had yanked open the door before he had to throw him out of his little hell hole of an office.
"You're getting a little big for your britches, Benji, my boy. If you don't watch out, that's going to come back to bite you."
"If you want to keep breathing, you'll leave her be."
The old man just clucked his teeth and shook his head. "You? Beat me? You never could, and you never will." He said, slipping out the door before Bird could retort.
"I didn't say it was going to be me. You taught me better than that, you old fucking goat." He muttered as he fished the brick phone out of his desk drawer. Two rings and it picked up. He didn't wait for a response. "He knows."
Jason shoved the air out of his lungs as he let the words sink in. "And he wants what?" He asked, cursing to himself as he watched a pair of kids land into the dirt. Their skin was raw and bloody. He practically needed a crowbar to separate them. Glancing up at the catwalk above his head, Jason let the breath hiss through his teeth.
"Sasha, can you see to these two?"
"To collect her." Bird uttered, his head sinking into his hand when someone pounded on his door. "Fuck this day, Old Man I'm not-" But the words faltered as the door swung open and a large shadow darkened his doorway. "I thought you should know." He said into the phone before he simply hung up and tossed it into the corner, breaking it into pieces. "Jesus, Bane. It's just you."
"Who did you think I was?" The man asked, his brows knitting together as he approached the desk.
"My nutcase Dad." He said, gesturing to the open chairs. Bane just shook his head.
"And that's bad?"
"It is today."
Bane pursed his lips, tilting his head as he spied the paper on Bird's desk. "Something to do with this one? A troublesome little thing, isn't she?"
"Cut from the same cloth as my sister."
"Ah, but your sister was also helpful too."
Bird's head reared up at that. "How do you figure-" But before the words could come out completely, Bane struck him, by the time he saw the needle it was too late he was already falling to the floor. He couldn't stop his muscles from quivering, or the screams from ripping out of him.
Bane just simply shut the door before letting his shadow lord over the man that was convulsing on the floor, his own flesh protruding popping the seams of his clothing. He was clawing at the floor so hard he'd torn off his nails. "She made my venom stronger." Bane said simply, tilting his head as Bird continued to choke on his own blood. "I thought the bleeding would've stopped by now." He added the desk creaking under his weight as he leaned against it. "Oh, well. I do have some news for you, Bird, my friend. We just might be…family."
These were the hours she loved most. The hours of darkness and not so subtle snores of her roommate. The hours when her mind wasn't focused on the aching of her feet or the tape around her toes. No, in this instance she was huddled with the heat of a desk lamp, a well-worn book and Max's old hoodie. Gotham Athletic Dept. That got some looks here in Metropolis. But what could she say? Oh, wait.
She was a Jersey girl; she didn't have to say a thing.
"How much longer are you going to have that light on?" With the soft mumbling bleeding from the bed above her head, Anabel gently taps on the bed frame. One. Two. Three.
"3 minutes...sure, you said that last night. And the night before that. And the one before that. But hey, I'm not the one who has Connolly first thing in the morning." The girl mutters, yawning as the soft glow gives to darkness.
But as Anabel lets her eyes adjust to the soft shade of gloom, the wood creaks above her, and a small round face with dark doughy eyes is peering at her from the top bunk. "You're reading that book again aren't you?" She asks, her knowing smile akin to something that might be found on a sprite. "You know," the girl says softly, disappearing back into her own bed. "Stealing a guy's book isn't how you tell him you like him."
She didn't steal it. He left it. Not on purpose either, it was Damian after all. Cracking open the spine, her fingers could find the indents of ink, sharp and twisted like the boy that'd left it there. No, he would never leave it on purpose.
Fitting the book into the pocket of her hoodie, Anabel settled for staring out the only window in the room. Here or home it all looked the same. The same bluish-black The same bright specks of dying stars. The only thing missing now was the feel of the roof's shingles under her feet and the sound of a cape twitching in the breeze. Maybe that was as close to home as she was ever going to get.
She could still smell that place- that damp dark space where only the rats scurried. No, she could smell him too. Rotten breath, blood, and alcohol. Just the idea of his hand on her mouth twisted her insides. But the worst was still to come. The brand glowed like a beacon in the darkness, it was the only light she'd seen in hours. A touch and all she could do was scream as the air filled with the smell of burning flesh. Her own flesh…
In an instant, the darkness had given her relief. She wasn't there. But the screaming? In an instant, the child realized what had caused the cry and why she couldn't breathe. There was a hand on her mouth. In a room she knew every crevice and shape of, stood a pair of shadows that didn't belong.
"It's not that one." A man hissed, his shadow blocking the window as he crouched closer to the bottom bunk. "It's this one."
Stretching her arm out, Anabel reached for the small lamp in the corner of her bunk, hitting the man with all her might. She rolled, hitting the floor as the man staggered back hissing and grumbling about the blood that was running down his face.
"Anabel!" A single cry and the girl hesitated, unable to reach the door before something sharp and hot shocked through her, dropping her to the floor. I can't move! Why can't I move?!
Fingers twitching on the hardwood floor, the child bit her lip when the sole of a boot pressed her hand into the floor, forcing the tears of reaction spring from her eyes the second that subtle cracking reached her ears.
"You'll learn your place." The man whispered, shadow spreading over her as he crouched. She didn't want to look at his face. She didn't want to stare at the creases she could make out in the moonlight, instead, the girl kept her eyes on the child in the top bunk, the wetness on her cheeks glistening almost white in comparison to the black stains. "You didn't think we forgot about you, did you?"
To be continued... (See sequel)
Authors Note: There it is. One monstrous rough (very rough) draft. If you've made it this far-thank you so much for taking the time to read it. I really hope you enjoyed it, despite the issues this story has. Even though the rough draft is complete, there's still work to do. I want to fine tune it, I want it to evolve into something better. It'll be a process, but it's one I decided to keep a log of on a blog. You're more than welcome to stop by. It's more than fixing typos and grammar mistakes. There are character arcs to adjust- action scenes to clean up. Fluff to take out.
I'd really like to know what parts of the story worked and what didn't. Editing will be a slow going. First I'll adjust the typos and grammar mistakes. (There's several that I've let slide - I don't know why and it's embarrassing as Hell.) And then I'll move on to chapter rewrites. Okay, I'm rambling. Sorry. Looking at it, I'm debating if I should knock it down to a T rating. I know ratings are a little inflated around here. I'm just not so certain.
I also want to give a special shout out to CosmicSun-whose suggestions have got me into the editing frame of mind. Thank you! And xenocanaan, thank you so much for your thought provoking questions. It really helped me delve into these characters and the world I was building around them! (And sparked an idea or two for more stories!)
Again, thank you so much for reading it, I really hope you liked it. It's been a very wild-and very long ride. (And it's not over!) There's a sequel and the first chapter has been posted. :)