No...
Why... why don't they move?
They have to move.
They are too still.
It was all too confusing for seven-year-old Richard "Dick" John Grayson.
One moment he was flying along with his parents, entertaining the Gotham City audience that had come to see the show that only Haly's Circus could offer anywhere in the world, the next...
His parents fell.
Dick still couldn't explain it.
His parents never, ever fell, not even once.
It was an unthinkable thing that could happen to their family: they were the Flying Graysons dammit!
They were the best acrobats in the world!
They could not fall! The laws of gravity never worked for them! They were born to live and move through the air!
Dick thought of many other sensible explanations of how his parents should never have fallen, but in the end he had to accept the stark and violent reality.
His parents had fallen. And there was no net that could save them.
His parents fell. Right toward death. Right in front of him.
The seven-year-old boy was on his knees in front of his parents, unconcerned if blood stained his acrobat uniform.
There was too much blood. A huge pit of blood was beneath him. Richard could feel the warm liquid touching his knees.
Dick no longer knew what was happening.
The sound of trapeze strings snapping, the look of sheer terror in his parents' eyes, the frightened and horrified cries of the crowd.
The disgusting and sickening sound of broken bones still rang painfully in the poor child's ears.
Dick did not know exactly how long he had been kneeling in the pit of his parents' blood, staring at their bodies and their unnatural position.
He only knew that he felt... alone, abandoned, frightened, shocked, traumatized.
Broken.
His heart was ripped in half, and it was as if a huge irreparable hole was at its center.
Dick gasped violently when a strong hand rested on his shoulder and he lifted his vision blurred by the multitudes of tears streaming down his face. His eyes met a tall, slender figure, dressed in dark clothes and strange goggles that hid the color of his eyes.
Surely on another occasion he would have been frightened by such a man, but by now Dick could tell he felt nothing more.
How should he feel emotions again, especially joy and happiness, when he had just witnessed the worst moment of his life?
To the death of his parents in front of him?
"I am truly saddened by your loss, Richard."
Dick was surprised when the mysterious man spoke in Romani and not English. At least he could have the comfort of speaking and understanding very well with this strange person, since Dick knew only the basics of English.
"I know this may sound strange." the man continued, still speaking in Romani. "But I can assure you that I am your great-grandfather: William Cobb."
Dick stared at him very doubtfully and skeptically through the tears that blurred his vision.
Surely he was teasing him: this man was too young to actually be his great-grandfather!
On the other hand, however, it is also true that the surname Cobb rang a few bells in his head.
Perhaps his mother or father had mentioned a Cobb?
Thinking about his parents brought another violent pang to his heart and more tears fell quickly from his eyes.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, my great-grandson. Although the circumstances are certainly the worst." Cobb sighed sadly and Dick burst into more violent sobs. "But don't worry, I know who killed your parents."
Richard stared at the man -his great-grandfather? Dick still didn't know whether to believe him or not- without understanding. "W-what?" he stammered before a memory quickly came back to him.
William Cobb seemed to see some change in his expression because he nodded. "You also know it wasn't a simple accident. You also know that someone sabotaged the trapeze ropes."
"Tony Zucco." whispered Dick softly, remembering very well how Pop Haly quarreled with the man a few hours before the show began.
Suddenly he was struck by a wave of anger he had never felt before.
How dare Zucco take away his parents? How could he have killed them, depriving Dick of the possibility of living happily with them and instead condemning him to an existence marked by trauma that will never leave him?
Cobb nodded again. "That's right, it was Zucco who killed your parents. And, if you let me, I can give you all the tools you need to avenge the death of your parents."
Dick, despite being seven years old, was not stupid at all: he knew very well what William was referring to.
And, despite everything, the idea of avenging his parents by killing their murderer was not bad at all.
Zucco had taken his parents' lives, why couldn't Dick do the same by taking his life?
"You must be quick to make the decision, Richard: we don't have much time."
Cobb's voice distracted Dick from his thoughts, and his attention focused behind his perhaps great-grandfather. There were a few policemen -oh God, the Haly Circus was a crime scene!- and one of them was talking in a hushed voice to a man dressed too elegantly for a place like the circus.
The aforementioned elegantly dressed man would occasionally cast a glance in his direction and as soon as their eyes -of a strangely familiar shade despite the fact that the two are not related at all- met, Dick felt something shake his heart and soul in the deepest part of himself, as if the two somehow had a deep, unbreakable and unique connection in the whole universe.
As if the two had a connection impossible to explain with words.
Eventually the moment was broken and the elegantly dressed man went back to talking to the policeman in front of him.
Dick looked away and returned his gaze to Cobb's hand stretched forward. The little acrobat knew that if he accepted Cobb's offer, he could never go back.
The words of his parents who warned him in a serious and solemn voice never to leave with a stranger came back to his mind.
Logically, Dick knew that he should not accept Cobb's offer and that he could not trust the older man.
However, he had nothing left to lose.
He had just lost his parents.
Most likely he would not be given permission to stay at the Haly Circus and so he would have to say goodbye to Pop Haly and his extended family.
What could be worse for him?
With a determined and solemn look, or at least as solemn as it can be on a seven-year-old boy who has just witnessed the death of his parents, he shook Cobb's hand.
Dick could not help but shudder when he saw Cobb's shark-like smile but there was no turning back now.
Dick did not know that this would be the biggest mistake of his life.