Chapter 1 - Arrival
It was a cold and quiet night. Only a small gust of wind could be heard. You would perfectly understand the kind of atmosphere I am describing if you were standing on the front doorstep of Wayne Manor. Awaiting for the arrival of your Master's new foster child.
The foster home had told you and your Master many things about the child. How she would always runaway from wherever they sent her. Luckily, the cops could hunt her down. May I point out that they had to get the cops to catch her. And the only reason they would catch her, was because they always had her way outnumbered. In a way, the foster child reminded you of your Master, when he was young, of course. When his parents died, he wanted to run away, far away. But you, in your oh-so wise words, told him he could not runaway from his past. From what the foster home had told you, you believed the child was going though the same thing. They told you she blamed the death of her parents on herself, just as your Master did...
"This is going to be like raising another Bruce." Alfred muttered to himself.
About a minute later, a sleek black limo pulled up to Wayne Manor. Alfred quickly walked down to it. He opened the back door of the limo. A young, tenuous girl stepped out. She was wearing light blue, pleated skirt and knee high white socks with light blue sneakers. Her top consisted of a white button-down with a light blue collar. And her only accessory was a burgundy tie hanging around her neck. Lastly, she wore a lite jean jacket to keep her arms warm.
"Good evening, Miss." he greeted her. Then shut the door behind her and walked over to the driver, whom rolled down his window to chat, man-to-man.
She smiled and nodded at the old man before he walked away, then quickly turned her attention to the mansion. The girl had her shoulder length, black hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was thin for her age. But maybe that was just because she hadn't had a decent meal in ages. Well, at least what seemed like ages. She never trusted anyone at the foster home. And didn't eat much of the food they offered her.
She let her baby blue eyes study the mansion. It was the biggest house she had ever seen.
After Alfred had finished thanking the limo driver, he picked up the girl's only suitcase and walked towards the door. She followed.
"Master Bruce gives you his apologies for not being able to attend your arrival, Miss ...?"
The girl hesitated to answer.
"You do have a name, don't you?" Alfred asked. "There's no need to be shy."
"Grayson, Ryelle Grayson." she managed to say. Her voice was sweet, but extremely shaky.
"Ah. Well, Miss Grayson, I will show you to your room." He said as they walked though the door. "By the way, I'm Alfred."
The girl's eyes grew wide in amazement. The house looked even bigger from the inside. The main room was huge and extremely beautiful. She looked up at the large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Then gave her attention to the two long sets of stairs that were running up each side of the room. Alfred started walking up the left set. The girl was quick to follow, but hung back to let her big, blue eyes explore.
Alfred finally stopped in front of a door, after passing around seven already. He opened the door and led the girl in.
"This is were you'll be stayin', Miss Grayson. Master Bruce will be home in about an hour. You may come down stairs once you've unpacked. I'll give you the full tour of the house." Alfred set down her bag, then walked to the door "Can you find your way back down?" He asked. "It's a very large house. Easy to get lost in." he finished with a smile. She nodded and with that, he left.
She sighed and sat down on the edge of her new bed. Then scanned the room. It was a lot better than that crappy foster home. Although, this guy was a millionaire, so she did expect it to be a lot nicer.
She decided she wouldn't unpack right at that moment. She wasn't sure whether or not she was going to run away from this place yet. She quietly rose up off the bed and walked out into the hall. She let the door shut discreetly behind her, then tip-toed her way down the hall. When she reached the top of the stairs, she heard the front door open.
"Master Bruce, your back early." came Alfred's voice.
"Yeah." Bruce agreed.
At this, Ryelle peeked her head around the corner of the wall. Indeed, Master Bruce was home. He was a tall, muscular man. His black hair was slicked back with gel. Well, at least from Ryelle's perspective it looked as if it were wet with gel, water, ... or sweat? ... He was wearing a black suit with a blue and red striped tie.
"Alfred, can I have a towel for this?" he asked, motioning to a small, red slit on his chin.
"Yes, of course." Alfred said. Then quickly walked out of the room.
Bruce walked over to a red cushioned chair sitting beside the right set of stairs. He sat down and sighed in relief. In seeing this, Ryelle became very curious. She wanted a closer look, so quietly crawled to the top of the stairs. Then moved behind the stair's railing so she could not be seen.
Alfred walked back into the room and over to Master Bruce. "Here you are, Sir."
"Thank you." Bruce said taking the towel he was offered. He slowly dabbed his wound. "Is she here?" he asked, obviously referring to Ryelle.
"Yes." Alfred replied. "She is up in her room and will down to meet you soon."
Bruce sighed and removed the towel from his chin. "How does it look?"
"Well, she is definitely going to notice it, Master Bruce." Alfred confessed. "What are you going to tell her if she asks?"
Bruce paused in thought.
At that very moment, Ryelle's legs started to cramp. She slowly and carefully changed her position. Unfortunately, she was not careful enough. There was a small table with a vase of flowers on it setting right beside her. Her leg had bumped the leg of the table that was closest to her. In seeing what she had done, she pulled herself away from the table. The vase started rocking back and forth. Ryelle prayed that it was going to regain its balance. But it suddenly fell towards her. She reached out her hands and caught it about an inch away from the floor. She sighed in relief. Then in fear that Bruce and Alfred might have heard her, she looked in their direction.
Yepp, they were looking right at her. She froze in fear. She hadn't even been there for a half an hour and she was already causing trouble. She had a strong feeling that they were going to send her back to the foster home. The last thing a millionaire needs is a kid menace running around his mansion.
Bruce and Alfred did not know how to react to this. They merely glanced at each other then back at Ryelle.
She rose up from her crouched position and very carefully, and cautiously, set the vase back where it belonged. She slowly walked down the steps and approached Alfred and Bruce. She put her hands behind her back and looked at her feet.
"I'm sorry." she apologized. They men hesitated to respond. "Oh, please don't send me back." she pleaded, looking straight into Bruce's eyes.
Bruce chuckled. "We're not going to send you back."
Ryelle sighed in relief. "You're not?"
"No, of course not. You just got here." he and Alfred smiled at the girl.
Her face lit up. She ran over to Bruce and hugged him around the waist. "Thanks, Mr. Wayne."
He placed his hands on her shoulders as she released the hug. He knelt down on his knees, so their faces met. "You can call me Bruce," he said reaching out his hand for her to shake.
Her confused face quickly went back to smiling and she placed her hand in his. "I'm Ryelle."
(Ryelle's new room)
Ryelle lay in her new bed, staring at the ceiling.
She sighed in thought. This may actually work out. Bruce was kind like the other families she tried to be a part of, but in a way, he was much differentShe trusted him. It's like he knew what she was going though. She was an orphan and not many people understand what its like to move from home to home. The people think they can replace her parents. No one can ever replace them. But, Bruce, he ... he was different. He seemed like the guy that would help her through this. Her parents were dead, she had to move on ...
Nine year old Ryelle Grayson was running through the huge circus tent, running past all the dressing rooms for the people in the show. She skidded to a stop as she saw the show owner and announcer making his exit from the arena.
"Hey, Ryelle." The man said approaching her. "Go get your parents. You're on in five."
She nodded. He walked into the dressing room behind her. She stepped up to the curtain that was used as an entrance and exit to the arena. She opened it no more than an inch and peeked out. The second to last act was going on, 'Maya the Lion Tamer.' Ryelle wanted to watch longer, but she had seen the act many times before. She let the curtain fall back into place and ...
"Where's my money, Jim?"
Ryelle stopped in her tracks. Jim was name of the circus owner. And that deep voice was not his.
"Anthony? ... It's uh—I uh—don't have it." Now that, she knew, was Jim's voice.
"Well then, I suggest you say good-bye to your little finale act." The deep voice came again.
"Wah—what are you going to do to them?" Jim asked nervously.
Then it was silent. Ryelle heard some small rustling in the back of the room. Then there was crash of something falling to the floor. She stepped away from the dressing room curtain. All of the sudden, Jim bursted out of the room, panting heavily. Ryelle jumped back, her eyes wide in surprise. Jim glanced at her, his eyes wide with fear, then he turned and ran away from her. It was if he was running for his life and he was never coming back.
"We'll get him next time, Mr. Zucco." A new voice said from behind the dressing room curtain.
"Oh, we will." The deep voice answered. "Oh, yes, we will."
Just then Maya and her pet lion, Max, came through the arena curtain. "Hey, Ryelle, you're up. You better get out there." Ryelle gasped. "Good luck." Maya yelled after her as she darted off towards the arena.
Ryelle stopped a few feet away from where she had entered. She looked all around the arena for her parents. Just then, one of the circus clowns, Charlie, entered the center of the arena. The spotlight moved to him.
"And for our final act," he said. "The Flying Graysons!" he motioned his right hand to Ryelle and his left to the high wire. Ryelle looked up. So, that's where her parents were. The spotlight split and one shown on her, one on her father, and the third one on her mother. Charlie darted out of the arena as the crowd cheered and applauded for the Graysons.
The music for their act started and Ryelle knew that was her cue. All the spotlights were on her. Cartwheel, one-handed cartwheel, flip, two steps, cartwheel, flip, Ryelle said in her head as she did so. She stopped in the middle of the arena. Then took a breath of relief. She smiled and threw her left hand up towards the high wire. The spotlight on her went out and lit up on each of her parents.
Ryelle let her hands drop to her sides. She normally was up on the high wire with her parents, but she wasn't up there in time for their act. And as they say, 'the show must go on.' She simply smiled and watched her parents step onto the wire.
Her eyes suddenly shot open. It was all coming together now. That man! The one that Jim was running away from. That man said he was going to do something to the finale act. And this was the finale act! Ryelle shot glances in every way, looking for the man. But she had no idea what he looked like. She was starting to panic. She looked back up at the high wire, making sure everything was okay.
She signed in relief. Her parents were each about halfway from the center of the wire. Their act was going great.
Her parents were just about to reach each other. Then out of the corner of her eye, Ryelle noticed that a few strands of the wire had snapped. Her parents neared it, getting closer and closer with each second. Ryelle was in a complete stage of panic and didn't know what to do. If her parents got any closer ... snap!
"Nooo!" Ryelle screamed. The audience gasped.
The sound of her parent's bodies impacting the ground, was the worst thing she had ever heard. And it was the last thing she had heard before she fell to her knees, putting her hands over her face and crying her eyes out.
The next thing she knew, she was running. Running away from the sirens of the emergency vehicles. The shouts of people looking for the Grayson's only daughter. Running away from the life she had loved. For it was over now.
Ryelle gasped and sat up in her bed. She was heavily panting and a drop of sweat ran down her cheek. Or was it a tear? She glanced over at the small clock setting on a night stand by her bed. "Six o'clock." she whispered, then quietly got up and made her bed.
Just then, Alfred happened to be walking by her door.
Tap tap tap
"Miss Grayson?" came his voice.
She walked over to the door and opened it. "Yes?"
"Please get dressed. Master Bruce would like to take you out."
"Out? Out where?"
"Just around the city." he answered, then continued walking down the hall.
Ryelle watched him disappear around a corner, then closed the door. She walked over to her suitcase and opened it. Inside was an extra outfit the foster home had given her. It was a pleated black skirt, white button-down shirt, and a pair of knee high white socks. She quickly changed into the outfit, slipped on her shoes, tied her burgundy tie around her neck. Lastly, she gave a small sigh and headed downstairs.
A/N: Well ... that's the first chapter. Hope you liked it. Please review!