I woke up at nine AM the next day, thankful that my alarm clock woke me up instead of my bitchy cat. It was the day I started my job as an intern. As I was trying to decide on what to wear, I wondered if I was going to get paid. I certainly didn't need to and we all know why I am doing this job. It seemed kinda unprofessional of Bruce to not even tell me if I was getting paid. Whatever, it didn't really matter to me. What mattered is the mission. I got ready and put a little makeup on, making sure Galaxy had her food and water for the day, and head out.
It was a busy day for traffic in Gotham. I mean, yeah, it's usually fucking terrible but I really noticed it today. Honestly, I was trying to get my mind off my anxiety. I was nervous about this internship and for some reason, I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Bruce. I thought back to my interview yesterday and I definitely embarrassed myself already. It took me almost twenty minutes to get to Wayne Enterprises, and when I did, I was a little annoyed by how long it took me to get here.
I walked up to the receptionist, who was a ginger with super bright green eyes and glasses. She glanced at me and had a wide smile on her face. "May I help you?" she asked in a sweet tone. I almost fucking forgot what I was doing here because I was kinda in a daze from her smile. It was like, so bright. Unbelievably bright. It was like staring at the sun. I felt like I should put sunglasses on or something.
"Uh, yeah," I started. "Um... my name is Raven Black, and I start my internship today and I guess to say the least, I don't know what I'm doing."
She giggled a little. "Oh, you're Raven! Ah, yes. Just head into Mr. Wayne's office and he'll assist you from there."
"Thanks," I said, and headed to his office. The wooden door was shut and I wasn't sure if I should just go in or not. What if I barged in and he's polishing a gun or something to kill someone? Then I realized that was ridiculous and just knocked quietly. I heard a "come in!" and then opened the door to see Bruce sitting at his office. He looked up at me and smiled, and then looked at his watch.
"Raven, just in time," he said. "You can sit there and we'll get started." I sat in the chair in front of his desk. He turned his computer screen off and turned to me, looking me directly into my eyes, piercing my soul. Ugh, I wish he wasn't handsome or this would be easier. Or so... nice. "First of all, do you have any questions?" he asked.
"Uh... yeah. I was just wondering if... um... if I was going to get paid? It's totally fine if I don't," I said.
"Oh, yes, of course. You'll be getting paid what any regular employee would make. Thirteen an hour. Is that alright?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah, that's fine." Truth is, I didn't really know if that was a good wage or not.
He smiled. "You say 'um' a lot. It's odd to me because you seem confident, but yet, not in your words."
Oh my God what the fuck? Why did he notice that? I guess I did say it a lot. He makes me nervous. That should be obvious. I was kinda taken aback. "You make me nervous," I stated.
He had a surprised look on his face. "Wow," he said. "I just... You don't seem like the type of person who gets nervous."
"Well, I am a human, so... and you're my boss," I said. He laughed.
"Sometimes it's easy to forget," he commented. He was really fucking with my brain, man. I'm just here to figure out if he's actually building weapons of mass destruction or not. I'm not here for him to spiritually speak to my soul. Bruce Wayne is not the man I expected him to be. It seemed more like he was studying me more than I was studying him. What did he even mean by that? He forgets I'm human? I've met him once before. With all these girls that he meets, I'd expect him to forget me, but he didn't. And yet here is saying he forgets I'm human. I didn't know whether to brush it off or say something. Before I could even say anything, he moved on.
"I didn't hire you to do regular intern work. You're mostly going to work with me and help me. Almost as if you're my assistant, but not that title. I might have regular intern jobs for you, and I might have odd ones. Since we're going to be working with each other so much, I might as well be honest with you. I simply cannot handle all the work I do. I lead a busy life; and that is why I hired you. To simply help. Is that okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm just here for the experience." It seemed odd that at night, I was flying around Gotham killing people and during the day I'm fetching Starbucks for Bruce Wayne. I don't know if that's what I'm going to be doing but you get the idea. This wasn't exactly what I wanted either. If I'm constantly with Bruce, how will I ever find out if he's actually building weapons or not? How long am I going to have to wait to figure it out? I have other work to do. Bruce is not my only target right now.
"Now you're not saying 'um' anymore." He smirked.
Son of a bitch! I didn't want to disrespect my new boss, but shit. He needs to stop doing this to me. I've never had heat flashes but now I am. I have to remind myself that yes, I hate Bruce Wayne and that my mission is to kill him. I wish I could just get over this and kill him already but a part of me needs the truth. And another part of me also wants to know what goes on in his head. It's odd to me that he said I seemed confident and it's easy to forget I'm human. Why? How could I possibly seem confident to him? If anything, I look like I clearly don't know what I'm doing.
"I really don't understand how I come off as confident to you," I stated. It's true.
"It's not you, Raven, that comes off as confident to me. It's -" he sighed. "Never mind. Just forget I said it." I wish he would make eye contact with me so I could read him. Maybe him looking down could say a lot more than his eyes. My mind is whirling. I have never met someone so mysterious, and I want to know what's in his head. I think I'm more curious as to what he's thinking about me than weapons. If I killed him, I could know. I can access his memories and learn. I felt a weird heavy feeling in my heart when I thought of that.
"Why did you hire me?" I asked.
He looked in my eyes again. "I told you already."
"Not the truth," I commented, and his eyes widened. Then they narrowed again. He opened a drawer in his desk and took out some paperwork.
"You can fill these out and be done for the day." He had a cold undertone to his voice. There was a knock at the door and a man with grey hair and a black suit came in. He looked at me and then back at Bruce.
He coughed before he started talking. "Is this a bad time Mr. Wayne?" he asked.
"Kinda, Lucius," Bruce said.
"Can I talk to you out in the hallway?" Lucius asked. Bruce didn't even respond, he just got up and walked out of his office, leaving me in there alone. This would be a perfect opportunity to go through his computer but my instincts told me not to. It was a good thing because he was barely gone for an entire minute. I had already signed some of my papers, and I didn't know what to do for the taxes one. Bruce sat down and I think he could sense I needed help with it.
"Do you have any questions on that?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah..." I pushed the sheet to him.
"Oh! Just put all zero's," he said, and I did exactly as he said. I gave him all of the paperwork back but then I thought about how I just trusted him on his word right there. I shouldn't have. That was a bad move. Look at what this man is fucking doing to me already.
"So what time do you want me here tomorrow?" I asked.
He thought for a moment. "Same time. Tomorrow you can just walk right into my office. You don't have to go to Beth."
I nodded, and then I left. I could feel his eyes burning on me as I walked out. Something was so off about him, and I just had this weird feeling that he's not what he seems. I mean, obviously, or else I wouldn't be here. But the look on his face when I said he wasn't telling the truth... I think I was the one being hunted. The rational part of my brain also says that all of this could be perfectly explainable. Maybe I seem confident to him because of when we danced together, and maybe he just got mad that I said he wasn't telling the truth when he was. Oh, fuck it, we all know something is weird about him and I'm going to get to the bottom of it.
For right now, I'm going to forget about Bruce Wayne and his mysterious nature and focus on my targets right now. When I got in my car, I got a call from a blocked number. "Hello?"
"Raven, tonight is the deadline to dispose of Adam. Are you going to do it or not?" a man asked. It took me a couple of seconds to remember who he was. It was Steven Anderson, a mob boss. He wanted me to kill Adam Bolte, another mob boss who ripped him off. My pay would be five million.
"Yes," was all I said, and then we hung up. We have to be careful with our conversations. One day they might send the FBI after me and go through my phone, and then I'll probably be sentenced to death from electric chair. Before I was going to kill anyone, I needed to go and talk to Tiffany, so I drove to her bar. When I got there, nobody else was there except for her and she was just cleaning.
"Hey, how was your first day of work?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said. I sat on a bar stool, and sighed.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Raven, you're not acting like yourself."
"It's fucking Bruce Wayne! Tiffany, you don't understand. He's so... confusing. I need to get inside his head without killing him but I fucking can't because he's good at hiding. It sounds weird but I can barely read his emotions. He's so well composed. Like a killer, but something tells me that he's not. I just don't fucking get it, dude!"
"Wow. I've never seen you get so into a target like this," she commented.
"He's different. This whole situation is fucked. I mean, I should've just killed him when I had the chance, and I've had several. But I can't. I need to know the truth and for me, the only way of knowing the truth is to kill him. I'm not good at human interaction." As I said that, my mind raced back to when he said it was easy to forget I'm human. God dammit, what does he mean by that?!
"I know." She laughed and it made me smile. "You really have to play the part for this one, Raven. Just calm down and think it out. Remember, just because he's the richest person in Gotham doesn't mean he's powerful. He could be, and maybe he's purposefully fucking with your head to make you lose your A-game."
"Holy shit, you're probably right. I need to focus."
"Exactly. Don't let him play mind games with you. You're Raven Black, the most dangerous Assassin in Gotham. There is no one who isn't slightly scared of you. Don't let a target throw you off," Tiffany said.
I took a deep breath. She was absolutely right. I am not going to let Bruce Wayne get into my head like this. Just because he owns a company doesn't mean he can throw me off my game. I wish I didn't have this mission because I'm already sick and tired of it. I should just kill him tomorrow. No, wait, I can't. Fuck. You know what, I'm going to forget about him for just the night because I really do need to focus my attention on killing Adam Bolte. I thanked Tiffany for talking some sense to me, and then I drove home. I needed to go and take a nap so I was alert for the night and eat.
When I got home, I decided to make something healthy so I don't shit my pants while I'm trying to sneak around tonight. I had chicken salad, and then I went layed down. I set an alarm for six PM, and it was two right now, so that would give me four hours of bliss. After having probably the worst sleep of my life because all I could think about was Bruce, I got up and stretched. I was alert but I was still kinda tired. I put my Assassin outfit on, filled Galaxy's food and water, then left.
I flew up to the top of a skyscraper so I could figure out a plan. Adam was going to be in his own warehouse, surrounded by his guards. Those guards were loaded with guns. Ugh, I hate guns. That's probably the only thing Batman and I agree about. I don't use guns because I don't need them to be dangerous. You can hand a gun to a toddler and all of a sudden, that toddler is really fucking dangerous. You hand a knife to a toddler, they could hurt you but the toddler would have to really try. With a gun, any dumb fuck can pull the trigger and boom, someone's dead. It's a coward's weapon, if you ask me. But since guns were so lethal; I had to be careful. The best route to take on this is to be stealthy all the way up to Adam. I don't like getting shot. It hurts a lot.
I flew to a building directly by Adam's warehouse, and searched for ways to get in. There was an open roof window, but I'm not stupid. That window was monitored and it's there to fool any other dumbass. They want you to go through that, where they have machine guns aimed towards that window. You'll drop in and die before you even have the chance to realize you fucked up.
There was guards by the front door. It was a dangerous route but it was the only other way. From where I stood, I threw a knife at one of the guards throats, and then ducked. The other guard ran to his side, and then frantically looked around. What surprised me the most is that he dropped his gun and ran away. That was the best decision he could've possibly made. I carefully leapt down the building and went to the dead guard's side. I took his card, and then swiped it on the scanner beside the door. It opened, and it lead into an unguarded hallway. I could hear the murmur of voices. This warehouse was like an abandoned factory. It had walls, but the walls didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. And from here, I could see Adam's office since it was above everything else. I claw-shotted to the highest beam there was, and where it was dark.
I could see the guards and also Adam's employees. They were distributing guns. I'm surprised Batman didn't make it here before I did. There was three guards outside Adam's door, and there was ten of them on the floor, patrolling. I might have to do all my killing from high up. I started calculating my options. If I used a poison dart on a guard on the floor, he would go crazy and get in a fight with everyone. That would lure the guard's by Adam's door to go see what was going on. But the poisoned guard wouldn't live for long and they would realize something was up. I wasn't going to do that one right now, so I came up with another option.
There was an open area where two guards were standing pretty close to each other, so I dropped down quickly, driving my hidden blade into one guard, and snapping the other ones neck, then I claw shotted back up to a beam. Nobody was focused on those guards so nobody noticed what just happened, but they would in at least a minute. So I waited. I saw another guard look over to the dead ones, and gasp, and that's when I threw my smoke bomb, smoking the place out. I dropped down and swiftly killed him, and through the screaming and coughing, was able to kill two more. I went back up to the beam. That was five guards down. Eight more to go. Everyone on the floor was freaking out and as the smoke cleared up, I sent my poison dart flying to a guard on the floor. Almost immediately, he started shooting the employees and guards. He killed four guards, and probably seven employees. Another guard shot him in the head before he could do any more damage. Three more guards to go.
All of the employees were freaking out because this all happened in less than three minutes, and they couldn't find me. The three guards by Adam's door had their guns aimed at nothing, but at least they were trying. I threw a knife at one guard's throat, and he went down. That distracted the other two and I successfully dropped down and did the same move on them as I did with the other guards. I stabbed one, and broke the others neck. I was directly by Adam's office now, and I could see him through the windows. I broke the glass by kicking it and jumped in, but before I was able to kill him, Adam started talking to me.
"You've finally got me," he said. "Well then, kill me." He handed me a small pistol-like gun. "I bet you don't have the fucking balls to do it." I wasn't going to sit here and play mind games with him, so I took a bullet from a bag on my waist and loaded the gun. I knew what game he was trying to play. He either expected me to drop the gun and give up like a pansy, or try to shoot him and realize the gun wasn't loaded so he could ambush me. So, naturally, I loaded the gun myself. "Wait-" Adam tried to say as he realized what I was doing, but I had already aimed the gun at his head and fired.
When I kill a target, I'm able to access their memories and briefly talk to them before they pass. Adam's memories flashed in front of me. I could hear children laughing, and I could see a campsite-like scene. I saw a man grilling, and children playing. The man looked in my direction and smiled. "Go on, son. Play with the others," he said. Then the memories changed to Adam running while others screamed. Then it changed to him kneeling beside the same man who was grilling, except he wasn't moving, and Adam had bloods on his hands. "I will kill whoever did this to you," Adam whispered. The memories changed to Adam walking up to Carmine Falcone, the most legendary mob boss in Gotham, and demanding a job. Then it changed to Adam standing over another dead body, with blood on his hands again, and laughing. Then they ended, and I was in the white room. The white room is where I can talk to my target before they die. Adam was laying down in the white room, blood all over his face, and I was kneeling next to him.
"You don't use guns," he whispered, almost barely audible.
"I don't. I'm a criminal, Adam. I don't follow the rules," I said.
"Do you think I'm going to go to Hell?" he asked.
"I don't know," I murmured. "If there is one, we'll all be there with you. Unless God has mercy on you."
"You don't believe in God, do you?"
"No," I said.
"If he's real, I'd gladly burn in Hell," Adam said. "Where the fuck has he been? People are starving and dying, and where is he? Where was he when my Dad died?"
I sighed. This was the hard part of killing criminals. You find out who they really are underneath, and you understand them. This is why being an Assassin is hard. We have this gift. We can access their memories and learn who they are. Adam was just a lost soul; like the most of us. I have killed people who are just fucked up naturally. But killing people like Adam haunts me. Because he's exactly like me. "I'll see you in the next life, Adam," I coo'd to him. I heard him let go of his last breath, and then I closed his eyes with my fingers. The white room spiraled around me, and then I was back in reality.
I was standing next to Adam's dead body in his office, and I heard sirens. This was an easy escape because Adam had a backdoor in his office, and I just left. I jumped off the ledge and flew to the top of a skyscraper, while I watched as people ran out of Adam's warehouse. The police were swarming that area. I bet that guard who ran away called the cops. The thought made me laugh. That guy knew it was over, and I bet he snitched so he'd have less time in prison.
I was utterly exhausted, and I felt like shit. I didn't want to stick around for more than I had to. I didn't even want to go to Tiff's Bar. I just wanted to go home and lay down forever. I flew home, and when I got there, I collapsed on my bed.