It's Getting Hard To Breathe - A Damian Wayne Story

Chapter 10

Damian was starting to get bored. And he had a feeling that his family was hiding something from him, something important. So Damian decided to confront them about it one day while they were eating lunch in his hospital room, about a week after he woke up from the crash. Damian, not feeling very hungry, pushed his plate away, still full of food. He looked at his father, determined to get answers.

"Father, is there something you need to tell me? Anything at all? You seem very preoccupied lately."

Bruce looked at him in surprise. "Preoccupied, Damian? How so?"

"You keep staring at nothing with a sad look on your face, there are dark circles under your eyes and you haven't changed your clothes in two days. Something is upsetting you, and I want to know what it is." Damian crossed his arms and glared at them all. "And I won't stop asking until you tell me what's wrong."

Bruce looked at him, astonished at his observations. Although he knew he shouldn't be; since, after all, he was his son, and also Thalia's, who, of course, trained him. To be an assassin. But that was years ago, in the past, where it was staying. Forever. Never to be brought up again.

Bruce didn't want to tell Damian about his cancer; he wasn't sure how he would react to the news. He looked at his son and saw how ghostly his complexion was compared to its usual brown color. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked tired. But his eyes were full of determination and bright with life. There wasn't a flicker of fear in them. And Bruce was about to ruin it with his news. He sighed.

"Damian," he said, wondering how he was going to say this, "the day after the accident-"

The door opened suddenly, interrupting Bruce and stopping him in his tracks. Leslie came in, looking frantic, almost slamming the door behind her in her panic. Dick stood up, concerned at her appearance. "Leslie, what's-"

Leslie turned to him and held a finger to her lips, gesturing for him to be quiet. She turned back to the door and made sure it was locked before looking at them again, leaning against the door. "Someone came into the hospital with a gun and shot two of the nurses in the lobby, shouting about something that I couldn't hear." She whispered to them, her words almost too quiet for them to hear. "I had just come out of a patient's room when I heard screams. I ran to the lobby to see what had happened and I saw a man holding a gun, a revolver I think, and he was standing over the bodies of two nurses." Leslie shuddered at the memory, hugging herself. "It was horrible. I got away before he could see me and ran, hoping to find help. Then I remembered you were here, and I ran here."

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard someone--a man--screaming a few hallways away from their room. But it wasn't the scream of a frightened victim; it was the scream of a deranged man, gunshots following right after the horrid scream.

Damian had never heard such a frightening sound before in his life; not even the Joker produced such a horrendous sound. It was like nothing he'd ever heard before, a cry so filled with madness that he wanted the man to stay as far away from him as possible, hoping that he would never have to see the man in person. He was frightened of what he would see. He looked at his brothers, who looked just as frozen as he was, then to his father. Bruce was staring at the door with a fierce, protective look on his face, as if daring the door to open. Leslie was still standing, her face pale and her limbs visibly shaking from fear.

The scream came again, and Damian heard banging sounds on the walls close to his hospital room. The voice continued to screech angrily, as if cursing the world for whatever it had done to him. The banging sounds were so loud it felt like they were right outside the door. Then the banging and screaming stopped suddenly, like a pause in a movie.