Broken (Jason Todd x OC)

1. My Terrible Life

=---Allison---=

I woke up shaking with sweat dripping off my body. I tried to calm my breathing as I remembered the nightmare I just had. Just thinking about it made me shake more, because I knew it wasn't just a nightmare. It was a memory. And that was what was scary.

"You worthless piece of dirt, I told you about the curfew!" The man above me roared while I cowered back in fear. 

I lay there in pain crying as I get beat to the point where it hurt to breathe. My throat is raw from crying and my eyes sting. When the man is done, he spits on my face and walks away. I can barely move without my body aching. Still with the pain, with my body screaming, I get up from the ground. I barely catch myself on the coffee table before making my way down the street. 

I fall down on a lawn and try to stay calm. "Look who decided to show up." A voice called making me look up and blink away the blurriness from my vision. I look up to see the only other person I am trying to avoid. My temporary guardian's brother.  He stood above me with a sickening smirk on his face.

He terrifies me. Just looking at him has me shaking and my eyes starting to water all over again. I start to sob and scream as he grabs my hair and pulls me up, dragging me to his house by foot. I watch a neighbor look out their window, then shut the blinds when they see this happening. 

I only sob harder, knowing there is no help.

There never will be.

That is one of the many nightmares I have at night. Sometimes I try not to sleep, but eventually, I always have to.

I stand up from the ground I was sleeping on and lean against the wall. I go up the nearest fire escape and watch Starling city pass beneath my feet. I sit on the railing and dangle my feet over the edge. I try to remember my good memories and push out the bad.

I remember when I was little and I would practice acts for hours on end, just to get a move right. I would perform aerial silk routines and sometimes practice with the bars and trapeze. I loved gymnastics so I could always to flips and such, sometimes I would run out of the room doing flips to make people laugh. 

Even though I started performing when I was 6 and left when I was 8, I remember performing like it was yesterday. It was always exhilarating. Especially when I would do trapeze, since I was the youngest they would have me do fun tricks for the crowd. Of course, my main love was for the aerial silk though.

I remember my older brother Richard Grayson.

I remember giving him my heard earned quarter so he could buy cotton candy. I had worked all day to buy myself a treat, but he was a quarter short. I always wanted to impress him, show him my worth, make him proud. So I wasted no time giving him my only quarter. 

I skip some memories, not wanting to relive any of them, and remember one of my better foster homes. There was a home I went to a while ago. He had seen my scars and taught me to fight. His daughter had been killed and was looking for a temporary replacement. He taught me how to defend myself and kept me for a couple months. His name was Derek, I still memorized his number, and address in Central City.

I tried to forget about this house. The parents were never home. I knew they sold drugs, probably did them too, but they haven't laid a hand on me yet, so I like them. I will probably run away again soon or cause some trouble of some sort.

I can't help but hope that one of these times I will meet my brother again. It has been five years. Sometimes I see him in newspapers next to Bruce Wayne. I remember when he told me he was going without me. I was 8 at the time, too young to know what trouble waited. My brother was 10 almost 11, and I can still remember him as clear as day.