My Story of Vengeance

Chapter Fourteen

We sit in silence as we eat. I have one leg up on the chair. My hair is still wet from the rain, I put a hoodie on to help keep me warm. Bruce is sitting across from me, his hair slightly damp, but nearly dry now. As we eat our soup, we hear the front door close.
     "Master Wayne?" We hear Alfred call from down the hall.
     "In here." Bruce says, taking another bite of his soup. Alfred walks into the room and looks at us.
     "Well, I'm glad to see you know how to cook Master Wayne." He says with a smile.
     "It was from a can." I say. "Don't give him too much credit, it'll help his already massive ego." I say, joking back. Alfred lets out a small chuckle.
     "Indeed. Uh, everything has been taken care of." He tells Bruce.
     "Your bike is in the shop, it needed to be fixed." He says to me. I nod.
     "Thank you." I say, lifting my spoon up to take another bite. Alfred walks over to Bruce and leans down, whispering in his ear. I peer over at them, sipping on my soup. I hear something about what happened today.
     "You don't have to hide anything from me." They look over at me.
     "After everything that has happened, I think I can handle it." I say, taking another sip of my soup. They look back at each other and Bruce raises his eye brows as he takes another spoonful of soup. Alfred sighs and sits down next to us.
"When I showed up to the scene, the only thing I found was....your bike." He tells me. I put my bowl down.
     "What do you mean just my bike? There wasn't a man laying dead on the ground?" I ask him. Alfred shakes his head.
     "There was only your bike there. No car. No man." He says. I stare down at my bowl, panic setting in.
     "I thought you said everything was handled?" Bruce interrupts, slight irritation in his voice.
     "Well, I did." He says. "I made some calls to see if anyone knows who he is. Based off of the description you gave me, we know what company he works with from the car he drove." He tells Bruce. He glanced at me and then continues.
     "He, uh, works for Oswald Cobblepot." He says.
     "Why is that name familiar?" I ask him.
     "He's a major club owner." Bruce says, standing up.
     "So...you're saying that the man was gone, the car belongs to an infamous club owner, and we don't know whether that man is still alive? If someone else is behind this?" I ask, my anxiety growing.
     "Well, we have this information. We can figure this out." Alfred says. I stand up.
     "We need to take this to the police! We can't just wait for something to happen!" Anger raises through me.
     "We need to be careful with this." Bruce says, walking over to me.
     "Careful? What is there to be careful about? I'm not going to sit and wait like a duck staying in a pond during hunting season!" I start to get frustrated.
     'Why are they so calm? Why aren't they wanting to take this to the police right away?'
     "Wren." Bruce is me right in front of me, looking down at me.
     "You can't go to the police about this." He says. I get into his face.
     "Oh yeah? Watch me." I say before walking out of the room.
     "Wren, wait." Bruce calls after me. I head straight to the door and grab the handle. I open it and I feel someone grab my arm.
     "You can't go to them." Bruce tells me. I try to pull my arm away.
     "Let go!" I tell him. His grip tightens.
     "Wren, stop!" He says. I stop struggling, his voice sending a shiver through me.
     "Listen to me. Oswald has money. With his money comes power. Even if you go to the police with this, they won't care nor hear what you're telling them. Even if they arrest him, he'll be bailed out the next day. You need to let me and Alfred handle this." He tells me. I look away from him. I watch the rain fall from outside the door. The breeze from the rain comes in around me. I think about what he's telling me.
I let out a sigh and turn to him.
     "How are you guys going to take care of it?" I ask him.
     "You just need to trust me." He says.
     "Trust you? I don't even know you." I say to him. I rip my arm out of his hand and walk over to his parent's bedroom. I grab my bag and walk back to the door. I walk out of it and shut it behind me. I head over to my house and shut the door. I toss my bag over onto my couch and slide down my door, resting my arms on my knees. I put my head in my hands.
     "I don't know who to trust anymore." I say out-loud. I pull my head out of my hands and lay it against the door, my head swarming with thoughts.
     'Why can't I go to the police? What do they know that I don't?' I let out a sigh and lean back against the wall. I close my eyes and let my thoughts disappear.
     "I can't think of this anymore....I need a distraction." I say and stand up. I pull my phone out of my pocket as I walk to the kitchen. I search through my contacts and find Batman's number that I saved a bit ago. I click on it then click the cal button. I lean against the counter as I listen to it ring.
     "...hello?" I hear his voice and let out a sigh.
     "Hi...uh...I'm sorry to bother you but I just..." my face starts to feel hot as I realize how stupid this was.
     "What's wrong?" He asks me, his voice deep but soft. I let out a small chuckle and look out of the window above the sink. I click my tongue.
     "I wish I knew." I tell him. "I'm so tired of being confused all the time and feeling like I'm nothing. I don't know anything, and I don't know what's happening to me."
     "What do you mean?"
     "I...I was attacked today." I tell him. There's a long pause as I wait for a response. When I don't get one, I speak up.
     "I was driving home and got followed on my bike. I ended up crashing and hurt my ankle pretty bad. I'm okay though, I just....I don't understand why this is happening. And on top of it all, Bruce is telling me not to talk to the police about it. Like, shouldn't that be the first thing that I do? He just told me to trust me. How can I trust someone I don't know?" I move out to my patio, watching the rain fall.
     "Well, you trust me don't you?" He asks. I let out a long sigh. 'Do I trust him? I mean...I don't know him either.' I shake my head and lean against the railing.
     "Can we meet up tonight? I really don't want to be alone and I have no bike." I ask him. I hear him chuckle softly.
     "Maybe. I might have to deal with some criminals though." He says. This time it's my turn to chuckle.
     "Fair enough. Go ahead and come get me when you can, you know where I'll be." I say, walking back into my house.