ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

chapter 24

24. rose

•—✽—✽—✽—•

an hour later

DICK GRAYSON WAS ONCE AGAIN PROVIDING proof that he tended to make idiotic decisions without consulting anyone on the team first—he didn't want to be told his plans were idiotic. But, however hard he may have tried to prevent it, the outcome was inevitable.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Paige said when he told them what he had done. "And I've listened to Jason talk so..."

"Hey," the boy said before she nudged him with her elbow. He chuckled before nudging her back.

"She could be useful. We just need to train her." Dick had gone off earlier and 'rescued' the girl that they had seen on the news before. Now, he was justifying his actions.

"I'm pretty sure that's like borderline kidnapping," Gar said.

"Not borderline, that's actual kidnapping," Paige mentioned.

"I'm not keeping her hostage, she can leave if she wants."

"How? If every lock in this place is activated with a fingerprint that, I'm one hundred percent sure, isn't in the database."

About an hour later, Paige's theory was proven correct. The girl's fingerprint wasn't in the database, so when she woke up and immediately tried to escape using the elevator, she was denied access.

"Going somewhere?" Rachel asked. The girl turned around to be faced with the three youngest members of the newly formed Titans before Dick and Paige made their presence known as well.

✄ ✄ ✄

"You can't keep me here against my will. It's kidnapping," the girl, unknown to everyone else as Rose, said. Paige looked at Dick with a raised eyebrow.

"I told you," she whispered to him.

"Call it a precaution," he said, ignoring the woman beside him. "I saw what you could do out there on the street, and it looked like you might need some help. Better safe than sorry."

"So you brought me here unconscious?" Rose retorted.

"You can leave whenever you want." The girl went to leave before he spoke up again. "They're still out there. And if I can find you, so can they. It's pretty clear you're running from someone. Do you wanna tell me who?"

She paused in her tracks before turning back to him as she shook her head in annoyance. "No."

"Okay. Let's start with who you are. You got a name?"

"Like you haven't gone through my stuff."

"I haven't. Look, there are a lot of ways I could find out who you are. But I'd rather you just tell me."

"The less you people know, the better," Rose retorted.

"You don't need to worry about us. We can take care of ourselves."

"Yeah, what the hell is this place anyway?" she asked, looking around the very open space. In one corner there was a modern-styled kitchen with a counter in the middle and a dining table off to the side. In the other corner, there was a large couch and TV that made up the living room. In the very center of the room, there was a large fireplace.