Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Forty-Eight

"What is your New Year's resolution? I've seen them all over social media, loads of people are not eating chocolate and stopping negative habits. Perhaps I will stop drinking Oreo milkshakes- but I like them A LOT!"

Damian wished Donna would just shut up.
Not to be intentionally caustic or anything, but her voice was drilling through his ears and his brain felt like it was being rubbed against a cheese grater. The grinding of his jaw barely sounded beneath the shrieking of tyres and general cacophony of Gotham's nightlife.

Tightening his jaw to Bute back a shiver, Damian futilely attempted to ease his vexation though gripping his katana, with enough force to turn his knuckles white, and by praying to whichever deity would deign to listen to the mocking prayers of a part-demon.

Half-an-hour in to patrol and Damian already had considered the benefits of meeting the pavement below with a decided SPLAT. Then again, he could just take a trip to Northern Europe, though for Dignitas, he was fairly sure you had to have a terminal illness. That settled it, he would have to leap from the building to escape the torture of Donna's attempt at conversation.

"Have you not thought of anything?", she prompted, sticking her head out to stare at him, lengthy locks flapping like a blackbird's wings.

Forcing himself to dignify her question with a half-hearted glare, Damian considered other options of releasing himself from this social nightmare. He could fake a heart attack!-No, too dramatic. Faint?- to humiliating.

Tt. I sound ridiculous. Was the thought crossing his mind as he searched for escape routes. Is this insanity?-I should ask Todd. But does that imply that I've always been sane? Fuck, why is she still going on?! I can't kill her, so there must be some other way to shut her up!

Then it clicked. The simple answer to his problem.

"Wondergirl,", Damian butted in, "Could you shut up. For.Five.Minutes."

The Amazon blinked.

An odd look passed over her face, somewhere between hurt and confusion, "Uh, okay, alright...I will stop talking. Yes, yes I will-"

Damian clicked his tongue, "Donna. Shush."

Dutifully, she resigned herself to counting the red cars passing below, ducking her head so as not to catch his irritated stare.
Fifteen..Sixteen...Seventeen...

"DONNA! Can you not be quiet for ONE MINUTE!"

Wondergirl looked up, "I said nothing!"

Fighting the bubbling urge to kill something, Damian's fingers curled, "You were counting out loud."

As Robin's fingers inclined towards her throat, a beeping issues from his earpiece. Activating the earpiece, Damian stood to attention, brow furrowed as he sorted the information passing through his ears.

Reports of gunshots.
Police wounded.
Toxic gas.

It appeared the gods had taken mercy on him tonight.

***

Curling around their legs like the tails of poisonous felines, flaxen gas streamed over the floor. A sliver of the hallucinogenic smoke drifted before Damian's nose, daring him to inhale. And inhale he did...in to a gas mask.

Wading through the yellow fumes like fish through polluted waters, Robin and Wondergirl paddled through metal double-doors, the older of the two indicating that they should keep stealth on their side with a gesture of silence. Swimming through the tarnished hallway's air, Damian and Donna stalked past bedrooms- their doors laying the room's contents for all to see.