Dangers in the Dark

To Forgive or not to Forgive 20.2

Holly POV

Wayne Manor

Pulling my hair up into a ponytail, I sighed deeply and let my eyes flicker over the large stacks of paper and unread files that surrounded us. Bruce and I had been researching and researching for the last several hours, trying to find anything about that guy Bunderslaw Reggie had confessed before ... well, before he had failed to exist, in the physical world at least. Saying the D word made this all too real and I hated the feeling of guilt that lingered. We had only done what we needed to in order to protect ourselves; surely people would understand that. And by people, I mean my dad when he eventually (because he was probably gonna find out at some point) learned of my extracurricular activities.

"Found anything yet?" Bruce asked, breaking me from my internal panic.

"Not much that will be useful to us," I replied, showing him my small stack of Bunderslaw information. "It's mainly just about how he came to be who he is today. How much of it is true, I don't honestly know but it's all I've got. You got much?"

"A little," Bruce answered, showing me the notes that he had been jotting down.

After my little episode last night in the woods, I had the constant feeling that I was being watched. That was what made me get to my feet and head over to the windows where, even in the brightness of the sun, the woods still seemed terrifying. I could still hear the heavy footsteps of the person behind me and even last night I had had nightmares of a dark figure breathing down my neck, choking me and slowly killing me until I was lost in the dark, never to be found again. And no one would know I was gone because they had all forgotten me. I was isolated and alone and this figure, this man, whoever he was, was the bringer of doom and of death and he would—

"Holly?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when a hand rested on my shoulder, forcing me to turn suddenly and step away from the hand. Only then did I notice Bruce looking at me in concern as he took a step back, giving me my space. "Are you okay? You looked like you were spaced out; you've been like this ever since last night."

"Can you blame me?" I responded, as I took a deep, calming breath. "Bruce, we know what happened to Reggie and when the police figure out that he was a mate of Alfred's they'll have to tell him and he'll ... he'll be destroyed."

"I know," Bruce nodded. "But something else happened, didn't it? Was it when you went back to the building to see if the cops were there? Something's spooked you and not just because of him."

Still feeling the gaze of the mystery figure burning into the side of my head directly from the woods, I turned back to face the miles of greenery, my eyes scanning the trees but from here I couldn't see anything or anyone. Bruce moved forward so that he was also staring out the window and he appeared to be waiting for me to speak again and just like that I wanted to talk to someone about what had happened last night.

After I had finished telling Bruce what had happened last night, his face had become a shade paler than before as he glanced between me and the woods.

"I can have Alfred take a sweep around the woods. Make sure that no one else is there," Bruce offered.

"It'd be pointless," I shook my head. "He's still out there now, I can feel him watching us, but he'll be gone the second Alfred takes a step outside. I think he only meant to scare me. Plus, Alfred should be resting. He's still recovering."

"It's irrelevant whether he wanted to scare you, hurt you or just say 'hello', this is private property, and I won't have him scaring you, whatever his intention was," Bruce said fiercely, as he glared out of the door. "He shouldn't be near you."

That much I could agree with and even though I didn't want to, I knew that I was going to have to face my growing fears and leave the manor soon to return to the precinct where dad was. I needed to make sure he was doing okay with his new case. It sounded brutal.