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"PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T GO." the small blonde girl begged, watching as the elder raven-haired teenager bustled around the room, throwing clothes into a suitcase located on her bed. Sitting beside the younger, a creature not of this world watched the exchange, a dragon. Remaining silent as it glared coldly at the older of the two, with orange eyes as bright as fire.
"Sorry, sis," the teen replied, just as coldly as the beast stared at her, "but mom's not getting out of prison anytime soon, and I refuse to live in this house with just dad."
The smaller child spoke with such anguish, such pain. "Dad and you and and me," she insisted, stroking the creature that rested on the bed beside her. "We have to keep this family from falling apart."
The older sister paused, looking over her shoulder at the younger girl who gently pet the dragon beside her.
For a long moment, the creature thought the elder sister was considering the words of the younger, until she put a hand to her head and turned around. "Toothbrush. Knew I was forgetting something."
Jaye, the dragon, bared its teeth as the elder sister moved toward the bathroom, then reemerged to add the last item to her duffel bag. The little blonde girl watched with such pain and sorrow. "Dad will come after you."
"Let him," the elder responded, looking over at them with no expression in her dark eyes, before turning and putting on a black cap. "I'll disappear. Like the Cheshire cat." Then, she slung the bag over her shoulder and headed toward the door.
The younger sister picked up the dragon and followed.
"You should get out too," the raven-haired woman glanced at them again, standing in the doorway now. "I'd let you come with me, but you'd slow me down." Her gaze rested on the dragon for a long moment, nothing but utter hostility in her gaze.
The child held Jaye close to her chest. "Someone has to be here when mom gets out."
"Haven't you learned anything?" The eyes of the elder narrowed. "In this family, it's every girl for herself."
And with that, she shut the door and disappeared, leaving the young girl and the dragon alone in the bedroom.
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Standing beside its best friend at the bus stop, arms crossed, waiting for the moment when everything would finally change, Jaye found it hard to draw in breath.
The sun was going down now, but the towering apartments of Gotham City seemed to glow even as the light faded away. The young creature leaned against the bus sign that beheld what they were waiting for — Gotham Transit. It would be any moment now.
"Should be any second," its best friend, the blonde teenager by the name of Artemis said, casting a sideways glance over at the elder.
This was their life . . . their life of waiting. Waiting for something to happen, to change.
Their life was a bus stop in a figurative sense.
Neither of them belonged, in this world or in the family they had no choice but to call their own. Artemis was too good for the life they led, and Jaye had learned long ago that it was not a creature of this world. It wasn't human. Perhaps now, it took the appearance of one, but it couldn't be further from flesh and bone that looked mortal. The League of Shadows had sent it to live here, among its best friend and that jerk of a father she had. He knew. The girl itself knew. No human could do the things it did. No human could also be a dragon, or, if specifics were involved, a wyvern.
The bus pulled around the corner, slowly rolling toward them until at last it came to a halt before them. The friends remained in silence as the doors opened up wide, and a ramp meant for the disabled passengers folded down. After a long, agonizing moment, a woman in a wheelchair rolled into view and exited the bus, halting a few paces away from the two.
As the bus rolled away with a lurch, the three exchanged long looks.
Then, the woman spoke.
"Artemis . . . is that you?"
The blonde put on a smile, one that wasn't completely forced, but still wasn't fully genuine. "Hi, mom."
The woman looked between them, eyebrows knitted together. "Your father?"
Artemis cast a glance at Jaye. "I reminded him it was today, but . . ."
"I understand," the disabled woman looked away as the blonde moved around to take the chair by the handles.
Jaye turned and began to lead the way back to the apartment that was currently its home, taking a deep breath of the smoky, dusty air it was so used to. The sun had almost fully set by the time they made the short stroll to their living quarters, both helping to get Artemis' mother inside before shutting the door behind them.
"I'll make dinner tonight," Artemis offered. "Dad said he was going to be late again."
Jaye nodded. "I'm going to change into something more comfortable." Without another word, it turned and headed down the hall to where it and its best friend shared a room, opening the door, then shutting it behind it.
Shedding its jean jacket and black tank top, the redhead pulled on a gray hoodie instead, then pulled off its khaki pants in favor of black sweatpants. It glanced over at the bedside table where a small case rested upon the furnished wood, then quietly took hold of it and pulled out the glasses within.
In its dragon form, Jaye was almost invincible. Perfect eyesight, predatory hearing, animalistic sense of smell. Everything about it in that sense was bred to be powerful, resilient. But as a human . . . as a human, it was less than such. It was so blind that everything faded after three feet, its hearing was off, and it might as well have been so clumsy it was a disability.
How could one person have two very different sides to it?
The creature sighed and placed the glasses on its face, pulling its hoodie up and shoving its ice-cold hands into the pockets. Then, it emerged to find Artemis serving spaghetti to her mother.
"Sorry, dinner's nothing special." The blonde was saying to the woman confined to the wheelchair.
Paula gave a sad smile. "Better than what I've had in the last six years." As she leaned down to eat, Artemis placed a plate where Jaye would normally sit and then sat down herself when she caught sight of her friend approaching.
The redhead sat down and sighed deeply, beginning to eat the meal as everyone sat in silence for a long while.
Eventually, Artemis' mother broke the tension. "You have homework?"
"Mom, it's summer," the blonde shot a quizzical look toward Paula as Jaye snorted.
Her mother blinked once, as though surprised, before she sighed. "Yes . . . right. Forgive me."
Jaye eyed her calmly. "You don't have to adjust right away. It's been a while. Take your time. We understand."
Paula still looked very sad as she gathered their plates. "I'll do the dishes, okay? You both head on to your room."
Artemis nodded and stood up silently, following her redhead friend down the hall before entering their bedchambers and shutting the door behind them. "I feel bad for her."
Jaye shrugged a shoulder, headed over to her side of the room to feed her seagull, Cracker. "I don't. Your mother made the choice to go to prison. She could have shown them the proof, pinned it partly on your dad, and gotten less time."
"Do you really think it would have been so easy?"
Cracker lifted his head and cracked his beak, waddling over to greet his owner. "It doesn't matter." Jaye replied. "Her choice tore your family apart. Jade left, your dad changed, you changed." A pause. "Maybe we should have left, too."
It would have been easier. It could have escaped the Shadows and the man who trained it to run wild again — as a dragon. A true dragon.
Artemis came to stand beside it, placing a hand on its shoulder. "You don't believe that. Someone needed to wait for today. For my mom to come home. I know you cared about her."
The redhead shrugged her hand off. "I barely knew her before she went off to prison." It grunted. "And now we have to readjust again, because your family can't keep itself together." It sighed, stroking the seagull once more before it moved away from its friend to look out the window, not saying anything even as it heard the blonde shuffle back to her own bed to begin work on her arrows.
Jaye would have joined her, but its arrows were different from Artemis'. Its arrows came from a crossbow and were fire resistant so the beast could set them ablaze when using them. It hardly ever fought in human form, but the crossbow was a backup. Just in case, as its mentor always said.
"Artemis, daddy's home!"
Speak of the devil.
As its sister got up from the bed and moved fluidly toward the door, Jaye left Cracker on the windowsill and followed, sniffing in disdain as it heard "Lawrence" head down the hall toward their room.
"Oh, yeah," something in his voice changed as the steps stopped abruptly. "Paula. I forgot you were coming home."
The redhead rolled its eyes at his tone, just as the disabled lady of the house replied in a cold tone, "Overjoyed to see you too, lover." The door slammed shut to the adults' room, and so without hesitation, the friends walked out and stood beside it, listening intently.
"I meant to visit," the voice of its mentor drifted through the air, though his defense was weak.
"Even a postcard would have been nice," Paula growled, sounding strangely aggressive, "Artemis wrote once a week. Even Jaye wrote, and its not even my child."
His voice was full of scorn, "They did? You're kiddin."
"Stop rolling your eyes," the disabled woman scoffed. "It's all that got me through . . ."
Lawrence took a deep breath, sounding annoyed. "Look, the way the game played out, it could have been either of us."
"But it wasn't." Paula insisted. "I took the fall. Both falls. I did the time, but I'm back now. And my daughter is my priority. Jaye is too. It may not be my family, but it has a place in this household." She paused in her words for a moment, her voice wavering. "I lost one daughter while I was gone. I won't lose the other . . . I need to set some ground rules, Lawrence."
Artemis' father gave a deep, bitter chuckle. "Six years away, and now you're takin over?" His voice dropped, enough for Jaye to wince slightly. "While you were gone, I raised her, trained her . . . toughened her up!" A long moment of silence. "Besides, Jaye is my protégé, not your daughter. It is my assignment from the Shadows."
There was another pause. "I'm giving up the life. You have to give it up too. That means Jaye."
"Or else what?" A threat laced his tone.
Paula's words were so certain. "Or else you're out of here."
Jaye widened its eyes at the woman's words. Was she being serious?
Lawrence didn't speak for a long time. "Then I guess I'm out." He finally growled out. "But you're kiddin yourself if you think you can save Artemis and Jyotsna from the life. Arty's our blood. One of us. And Jaye is so much more than anything you've ever dreamed of."
The redhead jumped as Artemis snapped the arrow she was holding in her hand, and the two of them exchanged a long look before both nodding and heading back to their shared room.
This was their life. It was time to stop waiting around.
Jaye jumped onto the bed and let the warmth flood its body like fire melting into its veins. When it opened its eyes, it was well aware that its human form was no more, and that the powerful creature it currently saw in the mirror was who it was truly.
A monster.
A whisper in the wind.
A dragon.
As soon as its friend changed into the outfit she was used to, Jaye allowed her to mount, before taking off through the window at exhilarating speed.
This was who it was. This was its life.
And there was no more time for waiting.