A Ghost Girl and a Zombie Boy A Red Hood re-telling.

Chapter 2 The night everything changes 2018

    Another failed audition.
She should have know this one sounded way to good to be true. Her temper flared as she gathered her things out of the locker room, tossing them haphazardly into her broken duffel bag, not even bother to change out of the soft blue leotard she was wearing. She slipped into her raggedy combat boots and stormed out the back door, hoping the nearly two mile walk back to her ally would clear her mind.

The walk was dull as ever, it was already dark out but the busted up street lights light up the side walk. Lyla spent the walk flipping open and closing her tiny flip phone, (she had to have it for audition call backs or she wouldn't bother) wondering how she was going to afford to put more minutes on it.

    She glanced over her shoulder like she did rhythmically every few minutes, but this time she could have sworn the saw something. She stopped in her tracks. She was still in the theater district and it was a Wednesday night, meaning there where no shows, and the streets where basically empty.
She turned all they way around but when she didn't see anything she turned and kept walking. Yet, for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling something wasn't right.
She wasn't alone.
Her eyes and ears told her it was relatively quiet night and she was the only one on the street, but the knots in her gut told her to walk faster.

She was turning into her ally, like she did every other night, when she realized it was a mistake.

        "Drop the bag" a scratchy voice said from behind her.        

Something cold and hard was pressed into her lower back. A gun.

        "oh no this can't be happening" she thought " like seriously today has had it out for me."

She dropped her bag and brought her hands up next to her head. Suddenly she was grateful that the neck of her leotard was high and hid her necklace. Another voice spoke up, another robber he hadn't noticed in her panic.

" There's nothin' worth anything in here." the unnoticed thug said, as he dug through her bag.

" You sure?" The other one spoke " boss'll have our heads if we come back empty handed 'gain." The second man groaned lightly.

" Maybe we could bring 'em her instead."

        " oh no no no no!" Lylas head screamed.

She had survived way to long to be someone's play thing now. She had to get out of this.
The men behind her where still discussing but the ringing in her ears had drown them out. She looked up to the top of the buildings.
Gotham was swimming with masked vigilantes and she could really use on right now.
But they weren't here, where they, why would they be?
Deducting that she was alone, knowing she couldn't fight them, Lyla was left with one choice. Run.
Maybe she would get away, maybe they wouldn't shoot her.
Perhaps freedom in death in better than life as someone else's slave.

    She took a half step forward, they didn't notice. So she went for it. She attempted to run around the one behind her, towards the open end of the ally, toward freedom.
Then there was a piercing pain in her left side, the ringing of the to close shot, and her own scream. The sounds seemed so drag a darkness over her vision even as she fought it with everything in her. Her eyes failed her more and more as each second passed. The ringing began to fade fast but her eyelids fought against her.
A new pain pulled her back toward consciousness as her arm was being stepped on.
Fear washed over her, like tide dragging her into the sea, and she realized she would die in this ally.
She would die alone with no one to mourn her. It took everything she had to bring her left had to the wound on her side, only to find the entirety of her abdomen covered in blood. The men stood above her, laughing, "cruel bastards" she thought.
Her vision fled from her again.
She would die here, with only these monsters as company, and god knows what they'd do with her after.

    As quickly has it had all started, the laughter had stoped.
Lyla wondered if she had died, but her ears had not failed her yet.
She heard a crunching sound, then yelling, heavy breathing and grunts.
Had someone come to help her? Maybe today wasn't her last after all.
She barely pried he eyes open to see a red blur fly across her line of sight.
Her eyes fell closed again, her eyelids seemed to weigh more than she did.
It seemed like an eternity later a soft voice met her ears, he seemed to be panicking.

        "Please don't be dead." he whispered.

    Lyla pulled her eyes open, finding a young masked face leaning over her stiff body.
Robin. Robin had saved her.
She'd seen the young mask vigilante in the newspapers and something about him had always made her curious.
How does a kid find himself in a life like this?

Seeing her open eyes he spoke again, to her this time.

        " You're going to be okay." he promised. "I'm going to take you the hospital."

        " no" Lyla answer weakly. " no hospital, I can't?"

    That was as much explaining she could manage. Hospitals aren't kind to homeless kids.
She had learned early on hospitals would plant you back in the system and that's a fate worse than death in Gotham.

        " But..." Robin started to argue.

That was all he got out before Lyla passed out again.