Ch.11: (Don't) Look Back
POW! … POW!
Lily's eyes shot open and her breathing stopped cold as she listened to the faint thunderclaps die out. The girl's heart thrummed loudly against her chest, drowning out the last of the booming sound from outside. Lily's arms tightened around the teddy bear Mr. No-Knows (named after the fact that the bear didn't seem to know anything when Lily asked), pressing him closer to the young girl's chest in an attempt to ease the fright that had taken hold of her mind and spirit. For a few, painstakingly long moments, Lily could not bring herself to do anything. However, after looking down at the stitched smile of Mr. No-Knows, the child finally mustered up enough bravery to slowly sit up.
The girl's Winnie-the-Pooh nightlight beamed as moonlight shined in from the open window, illuminating the room with a cheerful glow. Looking around, Lily saw nothing out of the ordinary in her room, and no monsters had taken residency in the shadowy corners of her room. The cool breeze blew the pale pink curtains around gently, and Lily could make out her crayons scattered all around a small table near her closed closet. The child's stuffed animals smiled at her from the end of her bed, their smiles inviting her to play with them.
Setting Mr. No-Knows in her lap, Lily frowned. That loud noise had sounded a lot like thunder, which she was deathly afraid of, but there had been no lightning and there definitely wasn't any rain. However, Lily couldn't think of anything else that was capable of creating such a booming, cracking sound. So what had caused the noise?
Hesitantly, Lily turned in her bed, letting her feet dangle loosely over the side. Sliding off, the young girl landed on the carpeted floor with a small grunt, her violet nightgown falling all around her legs. Pulling Mr. No-Knows after her, Lily tiptoed to her bedroom door, stepping carefully over the toys that were left on the floor. When she finally reached her destination, Lily reached up and grabbed the edge of her door-handle. Moments later, the four-year-old peeked her head out into the hallway, looking all around for anything amiss.
However, just as it was with her room, there was nothing strange to be had in the corridor. The only difference was the atmosphere. While the hallway felt magical during the day, like a castle from one of her storybooks, it seemed dreary and deserted at night.
The abandoned feeling lingering over the hallway made Lily hesitant before she stepped out of her room, her small hand leaving the door-knob above her head. Hugging Mr. No-Knows to her chest, Lily began tiptoeing in the direction of her parents' bedroom, her feet padding against the crimson carpet.
She didn't mean to, but Lily glanced out all the tall windows as she passed them. It didn't matter how many of them she passed without incident; Lily expected horrendous and terrifying monsters to be outside every single one of them. She expected clowns with bloody smiles and figures with blank, emotionless masks to be staring at her from behind the clear panes. But there was nothing, and Lily hurried on without incident, her heart still booming against her chest.
It felt like an eternity before Lily managed to reach her mother and father's bedroom. It took some standing on her tiptoes, but the girl grabbed the doorknob and twisted, pushing it forward as she did. The door slowly creaked open, half revealing the small hallway that led further into the room. Lily slipped in, padding softly on the carpet. Relief filled her for a single moment, but it was gone in the next second, nothing more than a fleeting feeling lost to oblivion.
The girl's parents' room was darker than the hallway and much darker than Lily's room, but with the added illumination from the corridor behind her, the young girl could see that her mother and father's bedroom was not as it should be. They should have been lying peacefully in bed, but they half-hung off their respective sides limply. The sheets should have been white, but they were growing dark with each passing moment. It should've just been Lily, Mommy, and Daddy, but another figure stood at the foot of the king-sized bed, an intruder in the three's beloved home.
Lily froze at the end of the small corridor, the dim lighting silhouetting her small frame. She could tell by some sort of sixth sense that the intruder, he-she-it, was looking at her, eerily quiet and still. And that's all he did. The intruder looked at Lily, and Lily looked back at the intruder, her expression blank. There was no way to tell, but the young girl had a feeling that he-she-it was mirroring her expression.
The child's eyes fled to her parents' cooling bodies. Her hazel orbs filled with tears and though Lily looked back at the intruder, she still weakly called, "Mommy? Daddy?"
As her voice broke the still silence, the intruder began to stalk closer to the girl, he-she-its form imposing and closing in. Lily gasped as she dropped Mr. No-Knows to the ground and tried to run. She didn't make it far. The intruder was at her heels in an instant, grabbing her arm girl screamed at the sudden touch, kicking and scratching at the intruder. She expected the intruder to hurt her in some way, but all the intruder did was press a finger to her forehead.
In some ways, what happened after he-she-it touched her was much worse than physical pain.
Lily began freezing up in the intruder's grip as she watched him begin growing. He-she-it grew and grew, he-she-its waist shrinking and shrinking all the while, until the intruder stood wiry and taller than the basketball players Lily's father liked to watch on TV. Tatters of what used to be clothes desperately clung to the figure's frame in shreds. The big fingers wrapped around her forearm elongated, stretching out and the skin tightening around the bones. Blazing, red eyes stared down at Lily, and the intruder's enlarged mouth suddenly grinned. Rows upon rows of jagged teeth gleamed in the moonlight, all in the form of a psychotic grin. A forked tongue slithered out between the uneven rows of fangs, flickering and testing the open air.
Frozen and horrified, Lily stared, her mouth dangling open. She stuttered something incomprehensible, her fighting growing weaker under the crimson gaze. How could she have thought that this intruder was a man or a woman? Why hadn't she been able to see this thing for what it truly was, a hideous monster?
A soft whimper came from the girl's lips. The grin on the monster's face grew larger, its eye burning brighter. Lily heard a soft chuckle, and the monster began to bend down, its tongue flickering in her direction. Lily erupted into screams, ripping her arm away from the monster's grip in one harsh jerk. Surprisingly, the monster let her go, and Lily fell onto her backside, screaming as she scrambled back. She slammed into the wall just feet away and curled into a ball, hiding her face as she suddenly burst into a torrent of tears. Mr. No-Knows smiled at her from his spot on the floor, looking dead and empty.
From his spot, Danny huffed as he brushed his ebony hair from his eyes. It made no difference; his bangs fell right back in his line of sight a second later. Danny didn't seem to notice the intrusion, however. He looked down, slipping a silk bag into one of the pockets on his belt and clipping it shut. Unhearing to the young child's cry, Danny walked right past the little girl, walking out into the dimly lit hallway. In just a few minutes later, the teen was waltzing right out the front door, whistling absently. Danny hopped down the front steps and landed with a dull crunch onto the gravel pathway.
"Mission complete." Danny mumbled to himself, wandering down the gravel pathway to the paved driveway. Under his feet, the rocks crinch-crunched. The noise went in and out of one ear, just as Lily O'Keefe's sobbing and screaming did.
The young girl's crying grew fainter the farther Danny walked from the mansion. However, about a hundred feet from the front door, the teen boy jumped when the little girl suddenly shrieked for her parents, calling them again and again in a shrill voice. Danny mumbled a curse at the sudden scare, and despite feeling nothing at all just seconds before, the boy felt a sudden twinge of guilt eating at him.
Danny's steps wavered and then paused. He sighed as he looked into the distance, the road he would soon be driving on lost over the horizon. Despite having built walls around himself exactly for this reason, Danny still felt the remorse eating away at him for the first time in a good, long while. He had heard children sobbing before, but the young girl's wailing was absolutely heart-wrenching. Danny tried to tell himself that it was affecting him because of how the girl's feelings were just pouring out of her. However, the teen knew the real reason: he'd been in her place before. Danny knew what it was like to have one's parents suddenly vanish from their life.
Without meaning to, Danny began turning his head back in the mansion's direction. His frown was contemplative, and the boy debated with himself if he should go back or not. There was no fixing what he had done, Danny knew, but that didn't mean that he couldn't try to fix his mistakes. He could help soothe the poor girl's plight, help her until someone else came around and gave her some professional help. It was the least he could after what he had done.
Sighing again, Danny started turning around before he abruptly halted, his mind whispering, "We'll pick you up soon. I promise." What little bit of compassion had ignited in the boy extinguished within a second, his calm expression morphing into one of anger and disdain. The boy huffed, stalking back down the driveway without another thought. Under his breath, he mumbled, "Fuck it."
The rest of the walk went without incident or hesitation. Danny constantly faced forward, never looking back (but then, he never did that for anything). His expression was emotionless, and though he was all too aware of it earlier, Danny didn't seem to notice when the little girl's crying died off. Many would think that Danny should've felt some sort of relief, but there was nothing to indicate he cared in the slightest.
There was a point in the driveway that became surrounded by woods, and it was around this point that Danny started to pull off of the driveway. Instead, he headed for the trees, where a black, Yamaha 250cc sport-bike with green wheels was waiting. It was facing the driveway, waiting to be rocketed in the direction of the main road. Beside it, there was a rifle leaning against the log the teen had used as a post.
Danny padded across the grass. He grabbed the rifle first, lifting it off the ground with relative ease and slinging the firearm over his shoulder. He strapped it across his chest, and once again, Danny found it uncomfortable against his back. He preferred smaller guns, ones that were more easily concealed, which was why the rifle was borrowed in the first place. Next time, Danny decided, he was just going to use his own machinery. This 'borrowing' thing was going to stay a one-time deal.
As the teen prepared to hop on his bike and flee the scene, Danny's sixth sense kicked when he thought he heard a twig snap somewhere behind him. There was no hesitation as he quickly grabbed the pistol strapped to his thigh, spinning around and pointing it in the general direction of the sound. The boy didn't know whether to be surprised or not when he saw the Dark Knight, a dark glare etched into what little of his face that Danny could see. In fact, it was obvious the teen was conflicted when he raised an eyebrow and said, "Well, I guess I should've seen this coming at some point."
Batman didn't acknowledge the teen's comment. "What did you do?"
"I thought that was obvious." Danny replied, his expression morphing into amusement, his dark sense of humor apparent. "Take too many blows to the head tonight, now did you, Batsy?"
The Dark Knight's eyes narrowed. "Swear to me that you didn't kill the O'Keefe's."
"OOO, see, yeah, I can't do that. I don't like to lie… Most of the time." Danny said sarcastically, shrugging absently. The pistol in his hand limply fell to the side, but still, Batman did not move. While the teen's aim had been known to fail here and there, he was nearly at point-blank range. No point in taking chances. The boy continued, his grin growing, "If it's any consolation, though, I did the girl a favor."
Enraged, Batman snapped, "Just because your parents let you down doesn't mean-"
"-I should be taking others. Yeah, I know. 'Ends don't justify means.' I remember all that shit. I just don't give a damn." Danny interjected, his eyes flashing. His smile shrank but did not diminish. Without looking from the Dark Knight and keeping a firm grip on his gun threateningly, Danny reached out and grabbed the full-face helmet from the back of his motorcycle. In a few quick, familiar motions, the teen slipped it over his head, hiding his face from the Dark Knight. Danny's voice was muffled as he said, "Well, it was nice seeing you. Hopefully, we won't run into each other again. Ta-ta!"
The boy's words acted like a blank being fired at a starting line. Danny raced to get on his bike and speed away while Batman pulled out a bat-a-rang, throwing it as swiftly as he could. The older man's aim would've held true, and it would've efficiently popped the back tire, but in the few seconds it took to pull the blade out, the bike had roared to life. The bat-a-rang was out of the Dark Knight's hands for no more than a few seconds before Danny was speeding out of the way, swerving dangerously onto the driveway before straightening out, disappearing quickly into the distance.
It would've taken the Dark Knight a few minutes to get back to the Batmobile, but Batman could've caught up with Danny if he had wanted to. However, the teen had blatantly admitted to keeping the most vulnerable member of the O'Keefe family alive, something the Dark Knight felt was intentional. In the end, the simple and disgusting statement Danny had given served its purpose: instead of going after the teen, Batman sighed and ran to the O'Keefe mansion.
The little girl was walking down the front steps when Batman arrived, tears soaking her face and her parents' blood staining her nightgown. Lily went to the Dark Knight as he approached, not hesitating for a moment to attach herself to his leg, sniffling and crying. Batman sighed as he stroked her hair, a silent comfort in a terrifying storm. With her watery eyes, Lily looked up at the Dark Knight and between hiccups, she said, "B-Batman, the mu-monster took my parents."
Roughly two days after his job, the hum of the motorcycle reverberating under him came to an abrupt end, the bike falling silent as Danny took the key out of the ignition. The teen pulled his helmet off his head, setting it down on the seat in front of him. Danny linked his hands together and stretched, his palms reaching for the sky. A few, resounding pops sounded from his cramped back, and the dark-haired boy groaned, dropping his hands to his sides. Taking a deep breath to settle his frazzled nerves, Danny finally climbed off his bike and walked to the front door of his home, shaking out his limbs as he did. The gravel under his feet crinch-crunched, much like the gravel at the O'Keefe mansion had just some nights ago. (That job was the farthest thing from Danny's mind at the moment, though.)
As he came to a stop in front of his front door, Danny crouched down, brushing the gravel away. It took a few minutes, but the teen eventually came across the desired object he had hidden there (he should seriously move it, though; the boy was going to lose it one of these days, and he owned no spares). Danny grasped it, getting up from the ground and quickly unlocking the door. After a few minutes of slamming his body weight against the door, Danny finally stumbled in, slamming the door firmly shut behind him. Rolling his shoulder to ease the aching that now resided there, the blue-eyed teen walked past his bed and began sifting through the drawers of a small dresser set off to the side. Once he had found the clothes he wanted, the boy continued on to the garage portion of the complex.
His footsteps echoing eerily off the walls, Danny flipped on the lights and called, "I'm home, computer."
The numerous laptops sitting on the desk in the middle of the room instantly began to turn on, booting up at the sound of its master's voice. As Danny moved to the bathroom in the back corner of the garage, a static-filled voice answered, "Welcome home, Master. Would you like me to do anything?"
"Hm, yeah. Turn on one of my playlists and turn it up so loud the neighbors call the cops for a disturbance of peace."
"Which of your playlists should I turn on? And Master, if I turned the volume up that high, would it not damage your hearing?"
"I don't care which playlist, just one of them please! Today would be nice! And computer, it's called taking risks. Without risks, my life would be really boring!"
"I very much doubt that last point, Master."
The computer turned on the boy's music right after its last comment, and the volume was as loud as the teen requested. Danny made a nasty face at the computer, shaking his head and narrowing his eyes at his creation. "I should never have programmed sass into that piece of shit." The boy huffed before turning on his heels, throwing his clothes over his shoulder as he strode into the bathroom. Inside, his disgusted look exploded into a grin, a laugh resounding from the boy's mouth as he began stripping down.
About twenty minutes later, the boy came back out, refreshed and rejuvenated after his shower. In his hands, Danny carried the clothes he had been wearing before in his hands. He quickly dumped them in the laundry basket outside the bathroom door, and after much contemplation as to whether he should take it or not, Danny painfully left his beloved leather jacket hanging on a hook in the wall before looking at himself in the full-length mirror also on the wall, scrutinizing the way he looked. He was dressed very simply in a white, button-down shirt, black jeans, and combat boots. However, something about the simplicity seemed to make him look a few years older than he was. But then, it might not even be his clothes. It very well may be his attitude that gave that impression.
Either way, Danny nodded to himself with a grin and turned around, calling out, "Hey computer! You can shut off the music! I'm going out again!"
Five Finger Death Punch immediately stopped singing, and the computer system replied, "As you wish, Master."
Grinning wildly to himself, Danny began heading out the door again but not without backing up and grabbing the leather jacket he had left behind before.
After only being home for about a half hour, the black-haired teen was on his bike again, easing it out of the chain-link gate that kept the basic street thugs from invading his HQ. Once the gate was closed and locked, Danny hit the gas, quickly zooming down the street with a booming roar echoing behind him as he disappeared into the distance.
The drive was short but eventful, Danny thought. He passed a lot of cars on his way to his destination, and many of them honked at him for his breaking of the law. He also ran three red lights, nearly caused four crashes, possibly caused one (he'd have to check the news later to be sure; he had heard a lot of screeching but never a true impact), and scared a few dozen pedestrians with his reckless driving. All in a day's work, Danny supposed.
The teen's traveling lead to a brightly lit casino, simply named "The Wild Card Casino," on a road that branched off from the Las Vegas Strip. Danny pulled into the parking-lot smoothly, easing his way down the aisle to one of the parking spots near the front doors and beside a couple of other bikes. The teen wasted no time, quickly hopping off his vehicle and freeing himself from his helmet. Stuffing the keys in his pockets, Danny walked to the front door with a certain, confident swagger in his step. It caught the eyes of a few college girls that Danny opened the door for, and their interested eyes caught his for a few seconds as they passed him. The younger teen smirked after them, rolling his eyes and basking in the irony.
Entering the casino, Danny quickly glanced around, checking out the crowd lingering in the building and finding nothing more dangerous than a few drunken losers hitting on some uninterested females. After his quick analysis, Danny swiftly began weaving in and out of the rows of slot-machines and card tables taking up the majority of the casino's front room. The teen quickly found himself in the back of the building, where the bar and the small performance platform was. There was an ebony-haired female giving a live performance on the stage, singing a song that Danny didn't know. The young woman saw Danny as he approached and smiled at him in greeting. The teen boy winked back at Sam, and the boy's friend focused back on her small audience, flashing a teasing smile at them in an attempt to keep them interested.
Danny walked to the bar, sliding up behind the cocoa-skinned male sitting at the bar and clamping him suddenly on the shoulder. Tucker's drink sputtered from his lips as Danny laughed, and as the ebony-haired boy's friend set the drink carefully down and wiped his mouth, Tucker cast an irritated glare at Danny over his shoulder. In reply, the teen said, "Wow, Tuck. Careful when you're drinking. You don't want to waste a fine glass of beer." To the bartender, Danny shouted a drink order for himself. The bartender didn't bother to ask for an ID; he'd seen Danny's fake one plenty of times in the past to know the kid's alias was old enough to drink alcohol.
Tucker rolled his eyes at his friend's comment and mumbled, "Oh, I'll be careful…when I'm running you over with a train, you little bastard. Thinks he can get away with his snarky-ass attitude-"
"What's that, Tuck? Speak a little louder. They turn up Sam's microphone a little loud." Danny commented, leaning on Tucker's shoulder as he slid into the seat next to his friend.
"Oh, I was just talking to myself, my wonderful companion. Don't be concerned. It had nothing to do with you." Tucker replied, faking sincerity with ease as he batted his eye in a watery manner. Danny barked another laugh, and Tucker rolled his eyes, asking, "So how was Gotham, dumbass? Were you irritating as always?"
After waiting for the bartender to lay his glass down and leave, Danny then replied, "Of course. Though, if you asked Bats, I'm sure he would tell you that I was more than just irritating."
The cocoa-skinned boy had been going for his drink to steal another gulp, but as soon as Danny mentioned the Dark Knight's nickname, Tucker's attention honed in on the other boy as he smirked in amusement. Slowly, Tucker asked, "You ran into him?!"
"Yeah…" Danny drawled, grinning as he stared into the distance and remembered the event. "He was pissed."
"Oh-ho-ho, dude, you have to give me the details. You can't just leave me hanging here." Tucker said, bouncing in his seat as his smile grew larger. Rubbing his hands together impatiently, the teen pressured, "Come on, talk to Tucker. Tucker wants to hear what you have to say (for once)."
Flippantly, Danny waved the other boy off and said, "I'll tell you later. You forget: we're in a public place, and Sam would murder us both if she found out I divulged juicy details without her around."
Tucker groaned, and Danny laughed. When the former of the two tried to elicit just a few details from his friend, they fell into a bickering match that lasted until Sam, whose gig finally came to an end, sauntered up behind them and slapped them both upside the head. Both boys yelled, "OW," and then focused their eyes on the culprit of their misery. Sam grinned at the both of them and before either could get on her for her simply blasphemous actions, the girl directed her striking eyes at Danny and said, "Welcome back, dipshit. I hope you're feeling loved and welcomed."
Danny snorted and shook his head; however, a genuine smile played on the edges of his lips as he looked at his two teasing friends. "Oh, of course, Sam. I just love to hear you two call me names and physically abuse me. It's my absolute favorite." Sam and Tucker chuckled. Danny ignored them as he continued and asked, " Hey guys, how about we ditch this joint? I have so many things to tell you, but there are just so many witnesses..."
Sam and Tucker's laughter died away, only to be replaced by devious smiles. The two glanced at each other, and when they looked back, Tucker said, "I think that sounds like a good idea."
"Then let us be on our way. Shall we?"