Broken (Jason Todd x OC)

8. Guilt

=--Dick--=

In hindsight, I should have been more prepared for an emergency.

I mean, the whole reason we there the gala, was to get hopefully get the Red Hood out of hiding.

The so-called Red Hood has taken up Joker's old alias. So we made sure that Joker would crash this party, and hoped Red Hood would too.

But instead, all that happened, was some officers got killed, and civilians frightened.

It isn't fully my fault though. It had something to do with that Allison girl. She reminded me of someone who I haven't thought of in a while.

My sister.

And that girl keeps reminding me of my sister by the second. They have the same name, Allison. People would wonder how our parents would name someone Richard, then someone else Allison. They would reply the same way every time, "They both are different souls. They have different paths and different lives, so they have different names. But they have the same family, and blood, so they have the same last name." eventually Dad shortened it to something easier, but Mom would say the full thing every time.

Maybe it was the way she lied. When she was making up the dog excuse, she didn't miss a beat. She didn't just vaguely lie either, she went into detail. Even just that was enough to remind me of Allison.

"No sir, we were just looking around." A nine-year-old me says a rude person who yelled at us for bumping into him. 

"Why are you looking around the circus? You should stick with your parents." The man tells us rudely.

"Sorry, Sir. We just wanted to look at everything we could. This is our first time at the circus!" A seven-year-old Allison stands up and grins excitedly at the man. "We wanted to try and see everything exciting before the acts start. We were told to be back once the lights dim though." She starts to ramble looking at me only to huff at me. "We are sorry for bothering you. But we haven't seen anything this big or exciting before. Mom and Dad bought us front row seats to see it!" She says giving the man an excited look.

He huffs and walks away leaving me and Allison alone.

"Dick! You almost gut us caught! What's rule number 10?" She says with too much sass for a seven-year-old and crosses her arms.

"Rule number 10. If you lie don't be vague. Make sure you always have an escape plan for a lie and lie in detail. Don't lie, if you can't."  I recite with a sigh before grabbing her arm with a smile and running off again. 

Rule number 10.

She had a list of rules that nobody knew about. If she thought someone was important enough, or someone needed to know them, she would tell them. Never once did she recite the rules and tell someone to write them down. She never had a list. She just had 10 rules. Plain and simple. If you got to know them, she would mention them over time, and you would have to figure them out on yourself or ask someone else that knew.

Her rules had gotten me out of trouble before. In the circus, life, and as Robin.

But the way Allison lied at the party, reminded me so much of little Alli, it made me wonder if it actually was.

Alli would be around 17, probably almost 18, so still in the system. Of course, that is assuming she didn't get adopted.

She had the same hair. Same eyes. But she had a scar around her left eye, and a bruise on her cheek.