I woke up the next morning in Wayne Manor and was quite surprised to find where exactly I had been sleeping. My walls were still the same neutral color that they had always been, but my bookshelves were no longer filled with fairytales and hats, but with mystery novels and text books. Sitting up, my eyes found that my desk was also no longer my desk. The computer siting on it was a laptop and everything was neatly organized.
I kicked off the blankets before standing on the floor. My shirt hung off my shoulders and I could feel small bruises where the buttons on my shorts had smashed into me while I slept. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I walked to the hallway and down the stairs.
“Good morning Katrina.” Alfred’s voice floated in from the kitchen. He gave a small smile before walking up the stairs and knocking on Bruce’s door.
“Morning,” I mumbled. I looked around the table to see there was a bowl of cereal waiting for me. Sliding in the chair, I didn’t notice the nearly unconscious boy on my left. “Hello Tim,” I grinned.
“Why are you yelling?” His voice was muffled by the table as he refused to sit up straight.
“I’m sorry,” I smiled. “Would you like me to be a little quieter?” He nodded his head against the table. “Too bad!” I yelled.
“Katrina!” Tim slammed his hands over his ears while glaring at me. “Why would you do that?”
“Why would you need me to not do that?”
“You know perfectly well why not,” he groaned.
“Tim, were you drinking last night? Is that why you seem so sensitive to sound?”
“I thought you were smart. Go away.”
“Fine, you’ll just miss out on my big adventure today.” I turned to leave and heard the legs of his chair scape against the floor.
“What adventure?”
“I don’t know yet,” I smiled over my shoulder. He was standing up, giving me one of the most worrisome looks he could muster; I smiled. “Sit back down and get better, I won’t do anything overly dangerous today.”
--
“I’m so bored,” I muttered. Sitting on the bed that used to be mine was apparently the only thing Bruce and Alfred were going to let me do today since Tim was in no shape to go around town with me.
This is stupid.
I stood up and walked over to the window before opening it up to stand on the balcony. The air gently blew my hair around me, reminding me that summer had finally set in for the next few months. My hands gripped the cool cement barrier that kept me from tumbling down two stories. I needed to do something before I went insane.
“Good morning, Katrina.” I spun to see a man with black ninja-like clothes perched to my left. “The Demon has requested your presence.”
“Now? I don’t…” I stuttered. “I don’t even know what I could even…”
“He has instructed that you wear clothes that allow easy movement and make it harder for any civilian to recognize you anymore than they already can.”
“What?”
“Now.” He glared slightly, giving me incentive to hurry up.
I ran back inside and closed the door that led into the hallway, locking it as quickly as I could. What in the world was I even supposed to do? After talking to Bruce, it had been decided that full cooperation was needed with this, but I couldn’t very well tell him anything without the assassin doing anything to me. I opened Tim’s closet and started rummaging around on the top shelf hoping that Alf would’ve left a few of my clothes behind; and he did. I pulled down a pair of grey tights and a fitted, misty blue v-neck. Sighing at my bad luck, I quickly changed and grabbed a hair tie on my way back out. The ninja looked at me once before shaking his head disapprovingly.
“Not those shoes,” he nodded at my converse. Deciding that it wasn’t worth the argument, I slid them off without a word. “Good, follow me.”
He held out a hand as I climbed onto the barrier and steadied myself. In the briefest of moments, we exchanged eye contact before the two of us jumped, in unison, to the ground. Our hands never separated as we ran across the grounds and along the outer edges of the city. We ran until we came across an older parking garage on the western part of the city. The assassin led me to the top of the building before finally allowing me to stop.
“You did surprisingly well Miss Boudreaux.”
“Thank you, Ra’s.” I glanced over my shoulder to see the Demon standing near the edge; mere feet from falling over the side. “I wish you’d have mentioned beforehand that I’d need to invest in running shoes.” Picking up my feet, I could see the blood and feel the sting as the evening wind blew against the tears in my souls.
“Come here child.” Ra’s motioned me forward and I gingerly made my way over to him. He pulled many black strips of cloth from his pocket, bending down to wrap my feet with them. “They’re coated with a salve that will keep infection away. I do not need you impaired in any way while you are still in my debt.”
“And what is it that you have in mind for me tonight?”
“A very simple task.”
That was the end of the conversation.
--
“No way.”
“I don’t think you fully understand that I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.” Ra’s smile was more than unsettling in the moonlight.
We were standing before a fairly large and expensive looking house in one of the more spacious parts of town. The walls were two stories high and white as paper, brown roofing making it look like something out of a fairytale. The lawn was well taken care of and there were little solar powered lights everywhere; not the cheap kind, the kind that actually work.
“You want me to kidnap a little girl from this family? What is this supposed to prove?” I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt and rocked on my feet, numbing out the little bits of pain. “I’m not entirely inconspicuous tonight. It’s not like they held on to my clothes, let alone black clothes.”
“It is what you’ve chosen for tonight, so you will make do.” Ra’s did not sound like he was in any other mood than business; it was frightening. “This family needs to be punished. Either you do it, or they do it.” Ra’s motioned to the four other ninjas standing around us.
“Fine, fine,” I grumbled.
Taking a couple test steps on the lawn I looked around for security devises only to spot a few cameras. With a snap of my fingers the cameras fried and I sprinted across the yard, leaping to a second story balcony rail. My fingers wrapped around the iron bars before I could get a foothold stable enough to push off of, putting me on the balcony. Glancing through the glass doors I could see a little girl sleeping in a pink room with unicorns strewn about. A mess of blonde curls were spread out on a pillowcase with the name ‘Amy’ written across it.
Kat, what the hell are you doing?
I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be doing any of this. Looking back, I could see Ra’s eyes shining up at me. He gave a terrifying smile and I turned back to the little girl. What’s the worst he could do if I just ran?
Oh I don’t know. Kill Tim? Jason? Jonathan? Bruce? Alfred?
Sighing, I tried my luck with the handle and was surprised to find the doors unlocked. They swung open silently, a light breeze barely billowing the curtains behind them. With slow and quiet steps I made my way over to the small child. An electronic noise caught my attention before I dropped to the floor. A tiny camera in the far corner of the room slowly turned toward the bed. I zapped it before it got near us, now aware that the rest of the house was surely being monitored; who were these people anyway?
I slipped my arms under the sleeping child and lifted her from her bed. Amy turned in my arms but never once woke up. After a moment of standing there, debating what I should do, I settled for checking her house for a phone and trying my luck for help. Her bedroom door squeaked the slightest bit as I nudged it open, but other than that the house was silent.
The stairs were easy since they were metal; no creaking there. I had made it to the kitchen before I heard another door open and a pair of feed pad down the upstairs hallway. Looking around the kitchen I could only see the huge granite countertop and stainless steel appliances with no phone in sight. The room was open and facing the stairs so there was no hiding when the lights flashed on and the sound of a gun clicked behind me.
“Put my daughter down. Now.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I hissed under my breath. The voice was hers. I was in the house of the bitch that tried to get me to hit her. “I swear I’ll kill you Ra’s.”
“I said, put her down.” I could hear her climb down the stairs with the gun shaking in her hands.
“It’s not what you think, I need your help.”
“What?” I could tell by the tone of her voice she knew exactly who I was.
She grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me around to face her. Her hair was sticking up in odd places and a huge orange bathrobe was tied around her. The gun began to shake even more now that she was glaring at the person she hated most in the world. Amy just stretched the slightest bit before seemingly falling deeper into sleep.
“Look, I need your help,” I hissed, looking around for windows or other cameras. “There are bad people here and they want your daughter.”
“You’re telling me,” she growled, leaning forward.
I instinctively took a step back and looked down at Amy. I guess I hadn’t been paying attention before or it had been too dark for me to notice, but her arms were lined with bruises and her lower lip had a small cut in it. I looked up at the wild woman and started piecing a few things together; things I did not like at all. Something in my head snapped and I became increasingly angry with this she-devil.
“What happened to Amy?”
“What?” She froze the slightest bit before regaining her composure. “Don’t try to distract me!” She raised the gun higher. “I’m calling the police!” She pulled a cellphone out of a pocket in the bathrobe and started to dial the number.
“Yes, you do that and tell them to send Gordon. Tell him that there are assassins outside your house and an abusive mother inside it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Her fingers were hovering over the dial button and her eyes flashed their uncertainty in my direction. My eyes became slits as I took a step forward.
“How did your child get all these bruises? Little girls with unicorns in their room don’t tend to rough house with other children. So I’ll ask again,” I took another step forward. “What happened to Amy?”
“It is none of your concern with what goes on in my house, which I caught you breaking in to while kidnapping my child! I’d like to see Bruce protect you now!”
“I’m not the one that needs protecting,” I growled. Before she could respond, two assassins entered from behind each of us. They woman’s eyes grew in fear and she dropped her phone as she backed into a wall.
“What… what are you doing?” Her voice was ragged.
“You have not contributed to the plan.” Ra’s al Ghul stepped out from the shadows and glared at the woman. “A cruel mother has no place in our world.”
“But… but the money! The support! We had an agreement!” She stuttered and her eyes were the size of dinner plates. My hatred for this woman grew even more since she’d obviously worked with Ra’s. The Demon walked over to me and took Amy from my arms, holding her just as delicately as he’d hold a porcelain doll.
“They were very welcome and helpful to our cause, but it seems that you never truly belonged there. Disciplining your children is one thing, but abuse is a separate matter entirely and it turns out that one of my newest recruits has a soft spot for children in a dangerous environment.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Celia, let’s not make this any harder than it has to be. After all, you’ve called the police already and we have other people to visit.” Ra’s looked at me before stepping out of the way and handing me a sword in the process.
“I… I can’t kill her.” My anger had disappeared in an instant at the thought of taking a life.
“She does not belong in the world, Katrina. I thought you would have understood that, or would you prefer to leave the child in a violent and dangerous home?”
“No, I don’t want that. But killing? I’m not a killer.” I looked back at Celia, the she-witch that would love for nothing more than to prove that I am the monster she accused me of being.
“Oh, but you are Katrina,” he grinned wickedly. “You just need the right incentive.”
“I will not kill for you Ra’s al Ghul!” I shouted and the lights flickered all around us.
“Amy’s dinner tonight was laced with a poison that has been effectively killing her since she went to sleep approximately an hour ago. She has less than ten minutes left before an antidote will do her no good and she will die. Unless, you take this sword and run it through her mother’s chest.” Ra’s approached me with the sword and placed it in my hands. “You only have thirty seconds to decide.” I closed my eyes to calm myself down.
One.
No, you can’t do this Kat, you promised Bruce.
Four.
There’s got to be another way out of this, there has to be!
Ten.
I couldn’t orphan a child at such a young age, I knew what hell that was.
Sixteen.
“What are you waiting for?” Celia cried. “Just run him through! You have a sword for god’s sakes!”
Twenty.
“You can’t let me die for his stupid vision of a world that will never be!”
Twenty-five.
“Save me!”
Twenty-nine.
Schkk.
I opened my eyes to see Celia’s blood soak onto the blade before dropping to the floor. She gazed up at me with a bewildered expression only to be met with mine of pure hatred.
“How can a mother risk her child’s life to save her own? You do not deserve to be a part of any world.” I pulled the sword out of her chest and left her on the ground with her blood pooling up under her.
“Very good, Katrina. I couldn’t have asked for better results,” Ra’s mused. “You can go home now, I’ll send for you soon enough.”
Anger still coursed through my veins the entire time I ran back home with the assassins surrounding me, escorting me back to Wayne Manor. The lights were all on and voices could easily be heard inside. I jumped onto my balcony with the help of the assassins and stood there for a moment as I watched them run back to where their master was.
“Katrina?” I turned to see Tim sitting at his desk, the doors to the balcony were still open. “What on earth happened?” Tim hurried over to me and grabbed my hands. I looked down and saw dried blood all over them and suddenly everything came crashing down on me. I fell to the ground sobbing while Tim just tried his best to calm me down and hold me up. “What happened?”
“Tim,” I gazed into his eyes completely terrified. “I didn’t mean to. I don’t know what happened. I just…” My head started to hurt when I tried to think on what I had felt. All that anger was poisonous, and Ra’s knew that; he used it against me.
“Kat I can’t understand a word you’re saying, what happened? Whose blood is this?”
“Celia’s,” I whispered, looking at the ground. “Tim, I killed Celia.”
~Hey guys! Sorry it's shorter today and if it seems kind of rushed sorry about that too! I felt so bad about not updating in forever i wrote this up really quick. Thank you guys for not loosing faith in me or in Kat and her adventures =) I hope you all Enjoy your day! -SNE~