Yes, I know Star City is the home city of DC's Green Arrow, but I've never been much of a Green Arrow fan, so I didn't know. I'm already happy with it, too, so it's not gonna change any time soon. I assure you, though, that my Star City will have plenty of differences from DC's.
Welcome to Star City
Star City/Cromwell Apartment, Eastern Borough/23 July/4:56A.M.
With a click, the TV turned on. Nothing but the news. And it wasn't even interesting.
Something about a couple of mob bosses turning up dead.
Rita Cromwell didn't understand why anyone would care about a few dead mobsters, but she left it on anyway. Maybe they'd have pictures.
She walked into the unlit kitchen of the apartment she shared with her mother. It wasn't very big. Just a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Nothing impressive.
As she poured herself some orange juice, Rita looked out the window, noticing it was still dark.
She sighed.
She hadn't been able to sleep well for the last two months, after her father had shot himself in the head. Simply put, Mr. Cromwell had been an abusive, alcoholic asshole who apparently got off on beating the crap out of his wife and daughter.
The only part that Rita was really 'traumatized' by was the beatings. She didn't even flinch when the man shot himself in the head.
If anything, she liked it.
The blood and brain matter from her father's head had sparkled dully in the sunlight that came in from the window that afternoon.
Half-listening to the news reporter say how 'police believe the dead mobsters might be related to the recent rash of vigilante justice', Rita moved over to the window beside the T.V. and looked out across the series of twisting, narrow streets and buildings of various shapes and sizes that made up the Eastern Borough of Star City. Except for the occasional mugging or rape, the east end of the city was almost crime-free.
Almost, because there were still people out there who either had to mug someone because they had no other way of getting by or just plain wanted to hurt people.
Suddenly, the floorboards creaked.
"You're up early," said a woman's voice behind her. "Dressed and everything. What's the occasion?"
"Couldn't sleep," Rita said, as she turned around to see her mother.
Everybody had always said Rita looked exactly like her mother. Same sharp features, unruly black hair, and lanky frame. Her eyes were unmistakably his father's, though. Narrow, cold, and calculating, like a snake's.
Edna Cromwell's eyes directed themselves towards the T.V., where the report on vigilante justice and dead mobsters was still going.
"All this talk about vigilantes," she scoffed. "It's ridiculous."
Rita stared into his orange juice.
"Yeah," she mumbled.
"Anyway," Edna said, picking up the remote and changing the channel. "All this talk about gangs and crazies who think they're above the law is gonna rot your brain."
Glancing at the T.V., Rita sipped her orange juice.
"And Family Guy isn't?"
Edna smirked as Stuie fired a crossbow bolt into the forehead of his kindergarten teacher.
"Don't be a smart-ass," she said.
"So," Edna began, as she pulled a box of cereal out of the refrigerator, "you're a sophomore in high school this year?"
YOU ARE READING
The Watch
Mystery / ThrillerSuperheroes. At heart, we all wish they were real, we all want to be one. So imagine what it would be like if someone took that first step.
